Industry news

The Football Association (FA) is considering options to outsource the process of player discipline. The FA is considering removing its current panel who judge in cases of player/manager misconduct and outsource responsibility in the hope of gaining accountability with clubs after receiving complaints that it’s 99% conviction rate was harsh. With many high profile cases due to the constant coverage of UK football, if the considerations are followed through, it will be under scrutiny from football fans around the country.

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Next week will be the European Summit and Awards in Sofia, Bulgaria. It promises to be an exciting event for the sourcing community as the NOA announces some big changes. The celebration of the European sourcing community starts on the 5th of October with the first ever 24-hour Hackathon. On the 6th of October will be the Leadership Conference followed by the Awards ceremony and dinner. With a long list of world class speakers, including the President of Bulgaria, it’s not to be missed. Register now!

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Small business confidence is in negative territory for the first time in four years according to the most recent study by the Federation of Small Businesses. Their key indicator for small business confidence, the Small Business Index (SBI) fell to -2.9 in Q3 2016 from +21.4 in Q4 2015 which may be driven by key policy changes like the National Living wage and changes in the treatment of tax dividends affecting small business owners as over the past year the index has steadily declined. “Although it is clear that overall small business confidence has declined, the underlying picture in this survey is decidedly mixed” said Mike Cherry, FSB National Chairman.

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Lloyd’s of London are considering plans to set up a subsidiary in the EU as Brexit could damage the insurance market. Speaking to the BBC, chief executive Inga Beale, called Brexit “a major issue for us to deal with” and estimated that Lloyd’s may lose 4% of its revenue from the loss of passporting rights to trade in the EU. Setting up a EU wide subsidiary is a cheaper more efficient option for the firm than placing offices in every country. Any move could lead to a reorganisation of roles and positions at the firm. The news comes as Lloyd’s reported a rise in pre-tax profits for the past 6 months over the second half of 2015.

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The new Hinkley Point reactor has already led to over £450 million to suppliers so far, a great boost to the local economy. The commercial director of Hinkley Point, Ken Owen has confirmed that local firms are prioritised for contracts. The opportunity has led to consortiums being created to take on contracts such as HOST, a joint venture from local businesses has won a £150 million contract to manage temporary accommodation for workers. Somerset Larder, another consortium set up from scratch will provide catering and has gone on to win other tenders. Hinckley Point is a real success story of local outsourcing and Mr Owen hopes that the success will continue to create jobs.

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A system called t-police, developed by Capgemini as a platform to share back office support functions and service centres could save police forces 40% over what is currently spent on the system. The cloud based ERP system has been spreading across police forces having been rolled out in forces such as the Met Police and Manchester Police department. The service uses Oracle’s E-Business Suite which according to Nick James, senior vice president for public sector at Capgemini, was crucial for “providing underpinning technology across all layers of the stack”. "In terms of a business rationale, it's safe to say that [t-Police] is an integrated cloud platform built for police, with police. That's really important," says Mr James.

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Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC) have told employees that they will be outsourcing IT operations according to computerworld.com. Areas such as helpdesk support and incident resolution will be moved along with some roles in infrastructure product development and automation. HCSC said in a statement “We are adapting how we work to meet our members’ needs” which will mean speeding up and modernizing the IT systems. The Chicago based firm has reassured workers that the company has many new positions in its IT department to “bring in key skills and capabilities”.

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The first Smartsourcing+ Forum will be held in Zurich in November this year with more than 20 international outsourcing leaders confirmed to speak at the event. Many prominent companies from the sector will be there and many representatives from the European, German and Bulgarian Outsourcing associations. The Smartsourcing+ forum focuses on staying connected and maintaining quality with keynote speeches, thought panels and networking opportunities.

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High street retailer, John Lewis Partnership (JLP) will continue to invest despite a fall in profits. Profits for the first half of the year fell by almost 15% though revenue was slightly up. JLP will prioritise investment in IT and its distribution network as “Both are critical to improving service and convenience,” said the company. The results follow the opening of two national distribution centres in Milton Keynes as part of JLP’s “omnichannel strategy”. However, chairman Sir Charlie Mayfield was adamant the results were “not as a consequence of the EU referendum result, which has had little quantifiable impact on sales so far”.

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Over 40% of law firms are looking to merge with or buy another business in the next year to defend against competition according to information released yesterday. This is a striking increase from last year, brought on by increasing competition and firms wanting to increase their service offering to customers to distinguish themselves from competitors. “The right acquisition combined with an effective strategy can help firms to scale up and develop market presence” said Giles Murphey, head of professional practices at Smith & Weston. Noticeably, 93% of firms were confident about the year ahead suggesting Brexit is not damaging confidence in the legal profession as much as feared.

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