Industry news

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has agreed to lend $20 million to Trinidad & Tobago for them to build up and promote their IT-enabled global services. Trinidad & Tobago are trying to lower their dependence on the oil and energy sector by planning on generating thousands of jobs in the outsourcing industry. ZonaAmerica who helped boost Uruguay’s global services industry have agreed to support the Caribbean country to set up a technology park.

Desmond Tutu to lead protest against G4S

According to IT research firm Ovum, about 40% of IT outsourcing contracts in the Public, financial services and manufacturing sectors have extended beyond expiry dates during the April-June period. Normally, the figure would be 10-20% reported Jens Butler, principal IT analyst at Ovum.

In the economictimes.indiatimes.com article, Jens Butler went on to say reasons for these delays could include "changing scope, position of the buyer in terms of what they're looking for, ongoing negotiations and restructuring".

Providers will feel the effect of these delays and it has reportedly forced Nasdaq-listed Cognizant to cut its full-year revenue growth estimate by 2.5%.

Read the economictimes report here

Serco is moving forward with their decision to withdraw from the UK clinical service market by exiting their relationship with Braintree Community Hospital and an out of hours contract in Cornwall. However they will continue with their ‘loss making’ contract with Suffolk until the agreement ends in October 2015. This is part of a wider restructuring operation by Serco after posting a 59% fall in operating profit.

Serco profits fall after outsourcing scandal

Kent County Council has awarded joint venture company Daisy Updata Communications a six year contract to manage and support its expansion of its regional Public Service Network (PSN). The contract which is estimated to be worth £24m will see the council provided with an integrated suite of solutions including SDSL, ADSL and Ethernet. The current PSN contract is due to expire in February 2015.

Kent County Council exploring ways to outsource

In a bid to get more girls to think about having a career in IT, Network Rail has announced that it will be reprising its “Could IT be you?” competition.

The competition was initially launched in late 2012 and aims to encourage more girls to consider a job in IT. Susan Cooklin, CIO at Network Rail had previously raised concerns about the rapid slide in the number of women entering the UK's IT sector and wanted to do something about the issue.

The winner of the competition will have her first year’s university fees paid for by Network Rail and together with the runners up will get a two-week paid work placement with their IT department.

First contracts awarded for Network Rail traffic-management system

Capita has acquired Cork based outsourcing firm SouthWestern from Dublin private equity house Ion Equity for €35m. This will significantly enhance Capita’s presence in the Irish business process outsourcing market. With some integration and IT systems upgrades in 2015, Capita expect SouthWestern to increase their operating profit by 50% to €7m.

Capita posts 11 percent rise in first-half revenue

Thales has been awarded a new £3.8m contract from the Home Office for providing a fully managed Public key Infrastructure Shared Service (PKISS). The contract includes software application development, event and incident management, change and release management ad continual service improvement. This two year contract extends the work Thales has already done on PKISS since 2008, however this contract did go out to full competition.

Home Office removes barriers for SME IT suppliers

The Crown Commercial Service (CCS) are establishing an “innovation team” to review the total cost of ownership around common goods and services. The Director of Commercial Delivery at CCS Matt Denham said the team is being set up to look at the “big picture” and create larger savings. Denham went on to say it’s about “how do we do a better job of understanding the total life cycle cost?”. Denham said that he had identified skill gaps around market engagement which are a result of legacy frame-work based approach from predecessor Government Procurement Service.

For more information please click here.

Cabinet Office to replace current PHRF

Wakefield Council has cancelled their tender for a parking and environmental back office management system due to lack of response and poor quality of respondents. The procurement which was announced in May was for a contract estimated to be worth between £350,000 and £1.4m was to include hardware, support and maintenance. The four year contract with options to extend may be republished in the future.

Wakefield Council Looks to Slash Costs through Flexible Working

Transport for London (TfL) has awarded a ten year contract worth £660m to Cubic Transportation Systems. Cubic fought off competition from Sheidt & Bachmann and LG CNC to continue their work with TfL on the Electra contract. The contract will cover maintenance and availability of ticketing and fare collection including on 8,500 London buses and 1,900 ticket gates on the underground and over ground stations as well as data management and system integration. The new contract is due to start in August 2015.

Midlands places tender for £4.2 million smartcard system