Industry news

Kingston upon Hull City Council has extended its strategic partnership with Civica, a leader in software applications, digital solutions and outsourcing, with a new BPO contract to take on contact centre services ahead of its year as UK City of Culture 2017. Civica will deliver contact centre services for Hull City Council, which receives an average of 70,000 calls each month, provide the underlying telephony infrastructure and support the authority in its strategic digital and communication transformation.

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In a move to simplify and consolidate its tax collection, the Indian government have set rates for the new Goods and Services Tax (GST) system. Indian businesses have been lobbying for the countrywide tax rates as the reform is expected to reduce costs, particularly for shipping goods across state borders. The change will unify the countries tax system and could encourage further growth in the country. The announcement marks a significant step in the right direction for India although many details of the plan must still be confirmed.

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Avanade (a provider of innovative digital and cloud services, business solutions and design-led experiences for its clients), announced this morning that it will help Aspect (a provider of multi-commodity trade, risk and operations management applications) to manage its IT platform. Aspect recently moved its outsourced operations from Russia to India. Working with Avanade’s Global Delivery Network and local delivery centres, Aspect established a new scalable workforce, within a matter of weeks. “Avanade is well placed to help us transform our business and create value over the coming years through new IT approaches” said Steve Hughes, CEO at Aspect.

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The Treasury Select Committee chair Andrew Tyrie, along with other influential MPs, have criticised the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) for its light touch approach to high street banking, days before the city regulator publishes a verdict on the sector. The report from the CMA, published during the summer, was attacked by challenger banks for failing to tackle fundamental barriers to competition such as capital buffers and a corporation tax surcharge which appears to punish new comers to the market.

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Related news: UK retail banking has been criticised as not going far enough

Outsourced customer contact centre Ventrica is continuing its impressive growth with the opening of its new contact centre. This expansion and a second site planned in 2017 will create 200 new jobs. The extension is due to an increased demand for its omni-channel customer services. Dino Forte, Managing Director and founder of Ventrica said, “We have attracted a number of new high profile B2C and B2B brands this year who are part of a wider trend of organisations that are looking to outsource non-core services.”

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The National Association of Information Technology Enabled Companies in Nigeria has suggested that the government should explore the possibility of outsourcing. Chairman of NAITEOC, David Onu, said that outsourcing can absorb five million youths from the unemployment market and earn the nation more than $5 billion in the next five years. The outsourcing industry currently generates about 1% of gross domestic product at present, employing over 10,000 people.

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The Indian BPO sector is looking to capitalise on the outbursts of Philippine President, Rodrigo Duturte against the US and Barack Obama. With over a million-people working in call centres in the Philippines increasing hesitancy from US buyers is opening the country to competition from India. Christopher Caldwell, CEO of BPO company Concentrix, said “We have seen some American companies become more hesitant about the Philippines. They have centres there and in other geographies but now they are coming back and looking at India for their investments.”

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The UK government is expected to announce that it is investing an extra £1.9 billion in cybersecurity. The plan will expand specialist police units to combat cybercrime while money will also go on training and educating cybersecurity experts. The £1.9bn to pay for the national strategy was allocated last year and will fund the programme until the end of 2020. The government also is boosting funding for security based start-ups via an innovation fund.

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UK Business Offered a Hand in Cyber Defence

A paper from IfG, the Institute for Government, suggests that by using digital technology more successfully the UK government could save between £1.3 - £2 billion. The report suggests that the government needs to focus attention upon IT and technology investments but is currently distracted by Brexit. "We have reached a tipping point. If the leadership does not emerge to drive the changes, there is a risk that digital teams will continue to be viewed as website designers, brought in only at the very end of policy design processes," the report said.

For more, click here.

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Tieto has joined the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Global Channel Reseller program, enabling the company to resell AWS services to both commercial and public sector customers. The program will further extend Tieto´s cloud capabilities, helping customers to be more productive, innovate rapidly and take advantage of new data-driven business opportunities in the Nordic region.

For more, visit the Tieto site.

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