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According to statements given to various media outlets, the IT problems were caused by a power surge on Saturday morning at around 9.30am. Cruz claimed the surge had a “catastrophic effect” on some communication hardware which affected messaging across the airline’s system. He said tens of millions of messages every day are shared across the BA network's 200 systems and all systems were affected.

The BA chief then said the airline was then “unable to restore and use some of those backup systems because they themselves could not trust the messaging that had to take place amongst them”.

He went on to say neither an outsourcing of jobs or a cyber-attack were the source of the problem and everyone working with this particular hardware were "locally hired". Mr Cruz has not said who he believes was responsible for the failure or whether BA employees were involved, however, some reported ‘experts’ have questioned the statement about the power surge with some electricity companies reporting to such issues on their networks.

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Related: "http://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/british-airways-boss-alex-cruz-explains-what-went-wrong-in-catastrophic-it-meltdown-a3552906.html

According to statements given to various media outlets, the IT problems were caused by a power surge on Saturday morning at around 9.30am. Cruz claimed the surge had a “catastrophic effect” on some communication hardware which affected messaging across the airline’s system. He said tens of millions of messages every day are shared across the BA network's 200 systems and all systems were affected.

The BA chief then said the airline was then “unable to restore and use some of those backup systems because they themselves could not trust the messaging that had to take place amongst them”.

He went on to say neither an outsourcing of jobs or a cyber-attack were the source of the problem and everyone working with this particular hardware were "locally hired". Mr Cruz has not said who he believes was responsible for the failure or whether BA employees were involved, however, some reported ‘experts’ have questioned the statement about the power surge with some electricity companies reporting to such issues on their networks.

For weekly news updates, subscribe to our email newsletter.

Related: "BA Boss explains what went wrong in catastrophic IT meltdown"

According to statements given to various media outlets, the IT problems were caused by a power surge on Saturday morning at around 9.30am. Cruz claimed the surge had a “catastrophic effect” on some communication hardware which affected messaging across the airline’s system. He said tens of millions of messages every day are shared across the BA network's 200 systems and all systems were affected.

The BA chief then said the airline was then “unable to restore and use some of those backup systems because they themselves could not trust the messaging that had to take place amongst them”.

He went on to say neither an outsourcing of jobs or a cyber-attack were the source of the problem and everyone working with this particular hardware were "locally hired". Mr Cruz has not said who he believes was responsible for the failure or whether BA employees were involved, however, some reported ‘experts’ have questioned the statement about the power surge with some electricity companies reporting to such issues on their networks.

For weekly news updates, subscribe to our email newsletter.

Related: British Airways boss Alex Cruz explains what went wrong in catastrophic IT meltdown

KPMG International has recently announced the acquisition of Matchi, a leading matchmaking platform that connects financial institutions with carefully vetted fintech companies worldwide.

The acquisition cements a two year relationship in anticipation of increased client demand for fintech alliances.

Warren Mead, Global co-lead fintech, KPMG said, “Through 2015 and 2016, a total of $71bn was invested in fintechs globally as traditional financial services companies increasingly recognised tech innovation as the best way to remain relevant, manage compliance and cut costs. As we enter the new world of open banking and PSD2, innovation will become even more relevant so we are investing today to make building partnerships as easy as possible for clients and stakeholders. Firms can’t possibly filter the thousands of fintechs on the market so KPMG’s Matchi platform will help them block out the noise and focus on what will work.”

Matchi includes more than 2,500 fintech companies offering innovative solutions to legacy problems or launching ventures into new markets. The platform allows financial institutions to search for a specific company or product, or to use the proprietary “Innovation Challenge” to present specific problems to the fintech community and receive recommendations on solutions. In this way, firms can access the brightest and best thinking to address their challenges.

David Milligan, Matchi CEO commented “Together, we are positioned to help clients find and deploy the fintech solutions that are most relevant to their business needs. We are fulfilling the promise of collaboration between financial institutions and fintech firms, which can ultimately benefit all consumers and businesses.”

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Related: KPMG acquires FinTech matching platform

Lyubomira Mihaylova of ScaleFocus UK talks to Sourcingfocus about the fundamentals of sourcing and adapting to the digital age.

How have buyers of sourcing services adapted to the underlying changes of the industry? Are they driving the change or is technology and innovation?

Very few companies have the true willpower and readiness to change. No matter the business imperatives, regulations, competition, threat of staying-in/going-out of business, etc., a broad range of industries and industry representatives are more talking about than acting upon, adopting and adapting to the impact of disruption. A typical situation is of a heavy organization where agility is a buzz word, though few truly care to move beyond the comfort zone leaving critical business decisions on the back burner. Furthermore, all are getting into the could of, would of, should of situation… when the “unexpected” difficulties could have been easily prevented a long time ago with timely decisions, vigorous actions and transparent responsibilities. So, there is still a long way to go when it comes to changes and committing to the digital, cloud and data analytics disruptions.

How important is it to have a universal standard for sourcing, such as the global sourcing standard in an increasingly globalised and disruptive industry?

As with everything in life – walking the walk is the one critical detail that makes all the difference. Same with applying knowledge – when not used, it is wasted.

Let us say a company is implementing a CRM system – unless data is uploaded correctly and strictly, and processes are followed, with the aim of ensuring traceability, transparency,an ability to make business decisions in real time, knowing the customers and caring in a personalized manner, etc., it is just a tool not an enabler and facilitator.

Back to sourcing – a universal standard is paramount for stable and complications-free engagements. How many companies can pride themselves with that?

It will always be the case of talking, rather than acting until standards are not just enforced in an organization but all employees understand them and apply them as something they stand for.

How would you describe the importance of having strong fundamentals in sourcing in an increasingly digital age?

No matter how much we talk about digitalization we will inevitably get back to talking about the basics. Before you can think of getting to the next level you should ensure you have everything that is needed to grow, innovate and thrive. Say a company has issues with redundant processes, data warehousing performance bottlenecks or any fundamental technology, infrastructure or business issue – would the digital journey be efficient if you skip addressing the fundamental flaws?

Another example – if 2 employees had to print, sign, scan and upload 2 documents for a process or part of a process and the company invests in replacing that with 2 simple clicks per employee – what will be the ROI of company’s investment if these employees care little to click and play the ‘I am busy’ game? Having a culture of true caring, process transparency and strong business fundamentals is what enables companies to fly when they embrace the digitalization accelerator.

How do you build a successful sourcing contract in the age of the digital economy?

The perfect contract is the one that eliminates excuses to procrastinate and gives clear responsibilities, sets standards, reaction times and communication channels. A contract where commitments, deliverables and outcomes are clear. It ensures that parties will not deviate from the ‘right track’ and interpret vague formulations. The perfect contract is when both parties are putting something in the game. Especially when the relationship is facilitated and accelerated by the digital economy. Sourcing contracts are becoming more transparent and demanding. Once basics like ‘paying your dues on time’, ‘chasing quality and deliveries’, ‘responding timely’ and ‘keeping your promises’ are no-brainers and just in place, precious time and energy is not wasted. Then and only then the relationship focuses on true innovation, R&D, experimenting with business models, joint go-to-market strategies and profit sharing, etc. etc.

Lyubomira will be speaking at the GSA Symposium this June, click here to learn more and book your place at the must attend event of the year for the sourcing industry.

Avinash Vashistha of Tholons has been talking to Sourcingfocus about the trends affecting the sourcing industry.

1. We went through the process of offshoring and near-shoring, is Automation bringing this to a close as efficiency is increased and costs reduced in domestic markets?

Automation is a game changer and brings with it, the threat of obsolescence for the traditional offshore and near-shore model. Increase in the use of smart and cognitive technologies and artificial intelligence will give competitive ability to do things domestically. Highly skilled and innovative smaller countries like Chile, Singapore, Canada and Israel stand to gain significantly. Automation and Artificial Intelligence is replacing repeatable processes and decision making. Significant work has been done in developing customer service robotic agents like Amelia, that probably will pass the Turing Test in couple of years and replace agents. Key is to deploy people with domain and process knowledge to learn how to configure and program these software bots.

2. Will the digital economy drastically change the structure and architecture of organisations and presage serious change in the way we work?

Digital economy is changing the way consumers consume products and services. The future will be defined by consumer experiences like travelling, living healthy, shopping, paying and producing. Enterprises are becoming smarter, liquid and intelligent. The future of work will be Co-work, the future of innovation is Co-innovate and the future of investment is Co-invest, where venture capitalist will invest alongside clients and technology partners.

3. Is the digital age rendering location a lesser priority?

Locations were important and measured by scale, quality and cost of talent. However, digital has changed the equation. Innovation is more important than scale. Design thinking is higher priority than quality. Outcome and experience is more important than cost. Even smaller countries can innovate, have the domain knowledge and bring about the value through collaboration and emerge as leaders. Boundaries of locations are crumbling. Tholons Top 50 “Digital Nations” ranking is already trending in that direction and we expect 2018 rankings to declare the emergence of digital enterprise nations without boundaries.

4. With Brexit and President Trump are we seeing a turn away from globalisation and therefore a more difficult environment for global sourcing?

Politicians and their decisions are made in support of their campaign promises. They are under pressure to demonstrate implementation of their agenda in the first year. Focus is short term instead of a longer-term approach and plan. Businesses are struggling to transform in this age of disruption by digital. This provides an opportunity and ability to even smaller countries to be a larger player in enterprise innovation and globalisation. Overall, we believe this will result in increased globalisation to a broader set of countries and companies, but not necessarily only to legacy countries like India, Philippine and China.

5. Are we looking at a new age of sourcing which requires a completely different set of rules for successful strategic sourcing?

Traditional sourcing has been in application development, support and maintenance; business process and infrastructure management. Platform based solutions and intelligent liquid applications has transformed Applications sourcing. Business process management has been significantly impregnated by cognitive computing, artificial intelligence and automation. Cloud has consumed traditional infrastructure management. Players and rules of sourcing have changed! Strategic sourcing needs to work within the digital innovation ecosystem where clients, network of start-ups, mentors, strategic partners / platform integrators and funding have to Co-work and Co-innovate.

Avinash will be speaking at the GSA Symposium this June, click here to learn more and book your place at the must attend event of the year for the sourcing industry.

Ukraine offers much for the IT sourcing sector, from a highly skilled workforce of young professionals, a busy community of foreign investors and firms and the support of the Ukrainian government. Ukraine is the fourth largest exporter of IT products and services in the world.

Ukraine can boast of it’s fantastic education system, with around 36,000 graduates a year in technical studies, perfect for the IT industry. This is supported by a strong professional sector, allowing businesses the full range of services required to set up and grow operations in Ukraine. It’s pool of skilled technical engineers allows Ukraine to stand out from the competition in the Central and Eastern European block. It’s Ukraine’s technology heavy history that has provided such a fantastic foundation for the growth of technology skills. The government in Ukraine continues to make steps forward to improve education further, creating a long-term future for the industry. NGO’s have stepped in to help the Ukrainian technology future, the BrainBasket Foundation aims to train 100,000 new IT professionals by 2020 and to turn the IT sector into the number one export industry of Ukraine.

Ukraine has a varied but vast labour force to support business in the country, salaries are competitive and it can be a challenge to retain highly skilled workers who look to emigrate into Western Europe. The demographics of the labour pool are in Ukraine’s favour with many of its engineers being below the age of 30.

English proficiency is good in Ukraine, especially in the commercial hubs which improves the ease of doing business. Living costs are very low, easily beating competition in the Central and Eastern European region. While there are cheaper outsourcing destinations – like India, the Philippines or China – Ukraine provides a superior price/quality ratio. Ukraine is ranked 80 out of 190 on the ‘Ease of Doing Business’ report from the World Bank gaining 20 positions since 2014. The World Economic Forum ranks Ukraine 68 out of 140 in its Global Competitiveness Index, with high score in education, business sophistication, health care and innovation. It’s competitive local market also distinguishes Ukraine from some of its geographical competition.

Ukraine has a favourable tax regime, especially for the IT sector to encourage the industry to grow. When coupled with its geographic location at the edge of Europe, the low costs make Ukraine the perfect base for IT or BPO projects. Data Management and Telecommunications are the strong sectors in Ukraine at the moment with Ukrainian developers often working on mobile, software, enterprise and web projects. Continued investment in infrastructure is allowing for improved technology services complementing the existing IT industry.

Many firms and organisations have noticed the potential on offer from Ukraine. Ukrainian firms have been behind the software used at major companies such as Ford, Boeing, Volvo and Scandinavian Airlines. Ciklum was a European service provider of the year finalist for the 2016 EOA Awards while SoftServe and OBH were recognized in the European IT Outsourcing Project of the year, category for the development of the Sense360 smartphone application.

Of course, complications exist. Ukraine has experienced significant political and economic challenges after the recent revolution and geopolitical crisis in the region. However, the military conflict was contained to only 3% of Ukrainian territory in the eastern part of the country and has left many commercial hubs untouched. The new government is working to better commerce and trade in the country by enacting business encouragement policies that are broadly supported by international bodies.

Ukraine has consistently featured in Gartner’s top 30 offshoring and outsourcing destinations for the past six years and is ranked as number one for outsourcing markets in Eastern Europe by Outsourcing Journal.

Ukraine has all the features of an attractive sourcing destination for IT operations and business process outsourcing. If you look behind the headlines, have a bit of patience and get into the facts, Ukraine is a worthwhile investment that will continue to grow.

The GSA are hosting a locations strategy panel at their annual Symposium on June the 27th focusing on global destinations for the sourcing industry. To learn more about the locations that offer the best business join the GSA this June!

The Egyptian ICT industry has remained resilient throughout the past five years, overcoming the political uncertainty that spread across the region in 2011 thanks in part to its infrastructure, pool of talented young workers and its proximity to the lucrative European market. The Egyptian government has realised the potential for continued growth in the sector with its Egypt ICT 2030 strategy supporting the industry and making clear to international markets the commitment that the Egyptian government can offer the sector.

ICT will continue to push the boundaries of every sector of business in the next decade as it has done in the last. Egypt has plans to stay at the forefront of the ICT sourcing and business processing market, aware of the opportunities that the industry brings to an increasingly digital world economy. Having won the GSA European Outsourcing Destination of the Year in 2016, Egypt is demonstrating to the global market the success it has enjoyed over the past few years. Already the home of many IT success stories, with firms such as HP, Vodafone, SAP, IBM and Huawei operating in the country, Egypt is proud of its positive reputation for hospitality and reliability in the sourcing of IT operations.

Why Egypt you may ask, especially when competition for ICT sourcing contracts is growing globally. In A. T. Kearney’s 2016 Global Services Location Index, Egypt ranked a very respectable 16th, the highest country in the Middle East and Africa region. Gartner, an information technology research and advisory company, places Egypt among the nine primary locations identified for outsourcing, shared services and captives in 2016.Egypt thrives thanks to a skilled and abundant workforce, with enrolment for all levels of education rising considerably over the past five years. Statistics from UNESCO in 2015 suggest that the gross enrolment ratio in tertiary education grew by 20% between 2009 and 2015. Skilled graduates are flooding the Egyptian employment market, keeping the supply of labour high and wages cheaper than many rival destinations. The multilingual skills that the Egyptian workforce also acts as a fantastic selling point for the lucrative global market.

Of course, one of Egypt’s key attractions for the sourcing industry is its competitive costs. Egypt is cheaper than many Eastern European countries that specialise in the IT sourcing industry. Egypt has low running costs thanks to its abundant supply of workers, reliable energy supply and cheap rental costs, significantly lower than Eastern Europe and other North African economies with office space in major cities, such as Cairo, competitively priced. Egypt is host to contact centres for Microsoft, Teleperformance and Sykes in part because of the strong international infrastructure the country offers. After floating the Egyptian Pound in November 2016, the current government appears keen to help global and local business with support and advice from the IMF. Egypt ranks highly in areas such as starting a business, electricity generation and reliability and getting credit in the World Bank, Ease of Doing Business Report 2017, well above other emerging markets. The World Economic Forum notes that Egypt’s “upward movement (in its rankings) reflects recent reforms, including reform of energy subsidies, tax laws, and a strengthened business environment, as well as greater political stability”

Egypt does have issues that will affect the IT sourcing industry. Security remains an issue that will harm short term growth, however The Economist Intelligence Unit still predicts GDP growth to average 5.2% annually for the next five years. The government is working to improve the business environment with new bankruptcy laws and changes to the investment law. The government has also launched the ‘Next Tech Leaders’ initiative, to train and certify 11,000 Egyptian youth in the ICT field in collaboration with learning institutions (Coursera, Udacity, and edx) and MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) platforms through online and interactive training. This should push Egypt higher on the World Economic Forum rankings by increasing its score in openness and trade and generate a more favourable environment. Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) and the International Finance Cooperation (IFC) have developed the National Competence Framework to further develop a sustainable approach to enhance the employability of Egyptian ICT talent pool.

Gartner notes in its ‘Evaluate Offshore/Nearshore Countries for Outsourcing, Shared Services and Captives in EMEA, 2016’ report “since the turmoil of the Arab Spring in 2011, (Egypt) has resumed strong economic growth, and its international credit ratings with Moody's & Fitch have stabilized”. Egypt’s strong potential and reliable record with the sourcing industry make it a great sourcing destination. It’s reputation and skilled workforce have allowed Egypt to evolve from low-value to high-value services offering a full support system to international organisations. Egypt’s commitment to innovation clusters and its strong digital and physical infrastructure indicate the possibility of long term success for IT sourcing.

Egypt acts as a hub between Europe, the Middle East and Africa, offering a truly global destination for the sourcing industry, enabling quick access to lucrative markets. The GSA’s recognition of Egypt as the European Outsourcing Destination of the Year 2016 praises Egypt’s commitment to global sourcing standards and its potential offering to the sourcing community.

The GSA are hosting a locations strategy panel at their annual Symposium on June the 27th focusing on global destinations for the sourcing industry. To learn more about the locations that offer the best business join the GSA this June!

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will introduce tougher rules on processing personal data, and place businesses under a raft of new duties, including obligations to carry out data protection impact assessments, maintain records of the steps they take towards compliance, and report major data breaches.

Fines for non-compliance, of potentially up to 4% of annual global turnover, are far more penal than under the current regime. So, with the GDPR set to apply in a year from today (25 May 2018), now is the time for businesses to ramp up their preparations for the reforms.

Given the volume of changes the GDPR is bringing, organisations should already have begun preparing for the GDPR. However, if they have not done so they do not need to panic. They can begin the process by carrying out a data protection audit.

The GSA will be hosting a legal panel at their annual Symposium on the 28th of June featuring in depth analysis of GDPR from industry experts. The panel will take delegates beyond the current periphery and share their views around the likely next-practice on everything from Brexit and Trump, to how digital is changing both the process and the construct of contracting in sourcing.

The Minister of Foreign Employment of Sri Lanka, Thalatha Atukorale, discussed cooperation in the employment sector in relation to Sri Lankan workers under the Employment Permit System (EPS) in the Republic of Korea during her meeting with the Korean Minister of Employment and Labour Lee Ki-kweon on Thursday 18 May 2017 in Seoul. Minister Atukorale expressed her deep appreciation to the Korean Government for the employment opportunities provided to Sri Lankan workers under the EPS and for the continued support extended therein. Minister Lee appreciated the mutually beneficial collaboration under EPS, acknowledging its importance to Sri Lanka – Korea bilateral relations. Reference was also made to the strengthening of employment relations when the two countries celebrate 40 years of diplomatic relations this year.

Related news: Sri Lanka Granted GSP Plus Status by European Commission