Industry news

Hot on the heels of being named the World’s Most Ethical Company, Indian firm Wipro has been awarded the HP PartnerOne Alliance Partner of the Year award in EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) at the 2015 HP Global Partner Conference in Las Vegas.

Commenting on the award, which recognises a relationship spanning two decades, Wipro’s Senior Vice President Ulrich Meister said: “Achieving this recognition demonstrates Wipro’s leadership position in the domains of Managed IT Services and Systems Integration in the region.

"Being awarded this HP PartnerOne award EMEA is a true reflection of our enterprise-level capabilities. We regard our partnership with HP as a key part of Wipro’s customer proposition in the region.”

The award winners were selected by a panel of HP Channel executives, and acknowledged those who have demonstrated exceptional business performance in partnership with HP.

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Read this next: Wipro Named World’s Most Ethical Company

Dorset Police has entered into a strategic alliance with Devon & Cornwall Police.

The two forces will now decide on what services they can benefit from either by shared services, outsourcing or collaborating internally.

According to a freedom of information (FOI) request submitted there are 27 business areas that will benefit from this partnership, including ICT & Information Management functions and back office administration. This alliance will save money, help improve efficiency and allow some re-investment.

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Read this next: Metropolitan Police Outsources 700 IT Roles to Save $800m

Employees of Action 4 Employment (A4e), a public service provider involved in the UK government’s Welfare to Work programme, are being sentenced for defrauding taxpayers of almost £300,000.

A4e is the second-largest supplier to Welfare for Work, a £5 billion operation that is intended to help tens of thousands of jobless UK citizens find sustainable employment.

Ten of the company’s staff have been found guilty of falsifying files, forging signatures and lying about successfully landing individuals jobs, all in order to hit targets and receive extra bonuses.

Four of the defendants have been convicted for fraud, while a further six pled guilty from the start of the case, 13 weeks ago. The 167 fraudulent claims cost the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) £288,595 between 2008 and 2011.

The Independent has reported that A4e has been ‘dogged by fraud allegations and scandals but still has scores of Government contracts.’

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Read this next: Document Direct Lands £400,000 in Funding

Denbighshire County Council has agreed a seven year deal with Civica which could produce a potential £200,000 in annual savings.

The historic deal will see 74 employees transferred to Civica, who will run a payment processing centre providing services for other public sector departments in Wales.

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Nashik Municipal Corporation, the governing body of the city of Nashik, in the Indian state of Maharashtra, is to temporarily bring in 1,500 sanitary worker roles for three months during the upcoming Kumbh mela.

Up to 10.5 million people are likely to undertake the mass Hindu pilgrimage to Nashik this year.

Speaking to the Times of India, health officer Sunil Bukane said “The civic body has 1,784 permanent sanitary workers, but we will require more sanitary workers as lakhs of sadhus and other pilgrims are expected to visit the city during the mela. The temporary workers will be outsourced to a private firm through the tender process.”

A tender is expected to be issued next week.

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According to a study conducted by real estate consultant Cushman & Wakefield, Vietnam is currently the best outsourcing location on the planet, when costs, risks and operating conditions are all taken into account.

The study, ‘Where in the World? Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) & Shared Service Location Index’, ranks the top 36 countries for offshoring in terms of foreign direct investment into the BPO sector and is conducted every year. Vietnam achieved fifth place in 2014; in 2013, it did not even make the list. Now the Southeast Asian country dominates, followed by the Philippines, Bulgaria and Romania.

The study cites the Vietnamese Government’s ability to provide a stable business environment as a key contributor to the nation’s BPO success. In terms of actual market size, India remains the world’s largest BPO destination.

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Read this next: Jamaica Strives to Become a BPO Contender

Business technology and services provider Xchanging plc has announced that it has achieved exceptional results with MM4, a year after acquiring the eSourcing business.

In 2014, the company saw revenue growth of 60 per cent, the addition of 40 new customers and expansion into new markets such as Australia, Russia and Latin America.

Chirag Shah, Executive Director at Xchanging Procurement, said: ‘I am thrilled to be able to report on the success of MM4 in the first full year since the acquisition by Xchanging. Our procurement teams and services are now fully integrated, which is driving major benefits to our customers and responding to their evolving business needs.’

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Read this next: Xchanging Shares Take a Hit after £45.8m Profit Decline

Liverpool-based Document Direct has received a £400,000 investment from the North West Fund for Venture Capital.

The company, which specialises in outsourced dictation, is among the UK’s leading suppliers of transcription and secretarial services, producing upwards of 20,000 documents per month from recordings sent over the internet. It will utilise the funding to pursue its expansionary aims.

Martyn Best, founder and managing director of the firm, commented on the windfall, saying "The growth of Document Direct until now has been funded by myself and some very supportive shareholders, and the addition of this investment will enable our service infrastructure to be enhanced, and our business development and client service team to be significantly strengthened.”

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Read this next: Local Government Association Awards Digital Fund to 27 Councils

Less than half of the employees who work for buyers of BPO believe that they have good career prospects at their current companies, Horses for Sources (HfS) research has revealed.

The study, which sampled 168 buy-side enterprises, also revealed that the number dropped to 12 per cent when only employees with 0-2 years of industry experience were taken into account, suggesting that buyers of outsourcing must do more to create opportunities for their newer employees.

These findings were revealed during the ‘Sourcing Savants 2015’ webinar, hosted by Horses for Sources and moderated by HfS Research CEO Phil Fersht. The intention of the online seminar was to help attendees make more sense of the as-a-service economy.

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Read this next: Serco to Sell Off BPO Portfolio

Accenture shareholders and executives will be rejoicing today, after the company officially announced that it will be raising its full-year revenue growth forecast for a second time.

The multinational management consulting and outsourcing company also reported a higher quarterly profit than it originally expected. Shares in Accenture Plc rose by 3 per cent in premarket trading shortly after the news was broken.

However, Accenture will still be cutting the top end of its full-year earnings forecast range, due to the strength of the dollar on the FOREX.

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