Industry news

Customer services dominated the UK outsourcing market in 2016 while the sector remained stable in the face of high economic and political volatility, according to the Arvato UK Outsourcing Index. The research, compiled by business process outsourcing (BPO) provider Arvato and industry analyst NelsonHall, revealed customer services contracts accounted for 17 per cent of UK outsourcing spend over the year, with a total value of £1.04 billion (2015: £449m), up from seven per cent in 2015.

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Five discretionary fund managers (DFM’s) have launched an alliance to educate advisers about risks and realities of outsourcing. The alliance said both the regulator and the industry knew the time was right to improve knowledge of DFMs. ‘What we are trying to do with the DFM Alliance is make our industry more accessible to the advice community' said a spokesman. To read more, click here.

Apple is to start making iPhones in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, the state's government has said. Ministers said Apple would start an initial manufacturing operation in the state, whose capital is the tech hub Bangalore, in April. Apple has yet to officially confirm the plan, saying only that it is keen to "invest significantly" in India. Click here to read more.

A North Somerset Council service which supports some of the district’s most vulnerable families is set to be outsourced. The council says the service’s projected overspend during the next financial year is likely to be about £76,000 – meaning outsourcing is ‘necessary’ to reduce this amount. The new outsourced contract is likely to be worth £300,000 for three years if it goes ahead, and interested organisations are now being asked to submit their bids directly to the council. Click here to read more.

New Zealand’s lenders say they will have to fork out as much as $870 million to meet the Reserve Bank’s new plans for what services can be outsourced. The new rules for outsourcing are integral to the RBNZ’s open bank resolution policy, designed to ensure an orderly management when a lender collapses because third-party arrangements could undermine the efficacy of the regime. The loss of third party services in certain areas of the financial industry will massively damage profitability and restrict the lending industry, not strengthen it. You can read more here.

SoFi, the biggest online lender in the US, has taken a big step in its attempt to build a retail banking empire by buying Zenbanx, another “fintech” challenger that offers bank accounts, money transfers and debit cards. Anthony Duffy, Director Retail Banking, Fujitsu comments “SoFi’s acquisition of Zenbanx is a further sign of the rapid change underway in the financial services industry. On-line lending, challenger banks and the potential of fintech have been topics of interest for some time now, as they offer the potential to bring new ideas, technologies and services to the industry. This is a good thing.” You can read more here.

Wipro Limited, a global information technology, consulting and business process services company, announced that it has joined the Industrial Internet Consortium, the global, member-supported organization that promotes the accelerated growth of the Industrial Internet of Things. Wipro is a recognized leader in the Internet of Things (IoT) space, leveraging connected assets for the transformation of enterprise business, services and processes. IoT is a key enabler of Wipro Digital’s transformation strategy for its customers. Click here to learn more.

President Donald Trump is scheduled to meet with executives from Harley-Davidson to discuss job creation. Harley-Davidson has shifted IT jobs to Infosys, a large offshore outsourcing firm based in India which could cause some friction with Trump’s America first rhetoric. In 2012, Harley-Davidson entered a long-term "partnership" with Infosys, which is a major user of H-1B visa workers. The president has been critical of the use of visa workers by offshore outsourcing firms. You can read more here.

Irish broadcaster, RTÉ, is still planning to outsource the making of youth programmes to the independent sector but may continue to produce presenter links between shows in-house. RTÉ told staff in the youth programming department in November about the plan to outsource the production of all its young people’s programming. The RTÉ move may benefit Irish independent production companies, if they win commissions because of it. You can read more here.

CTG, an information technology solutions and services company, announced that it has been named “2017 Best in KLAS” in the Partial IT Outsourcing category. KLAS Enterprises, a global research and insights firm, unveiled its “2017 Best in KLAS: Software and Services” report, which recognized CTG as a 2017 award winner. Over the last three decades, CTG Health Solutions has provided reliable IT services to more than 700 healthcare clients, including a comprehensive suite of Application Management Services (AMS) for which the Company was recognized as Best in KLAS. To read more, click here.