Industry news

East Devon, Exeter and Teignbridge councils are due to decide by the end of July on whether they will jointly own ICT company Strata Service Solutions. If agreed each council will take an equal share of the company which will be staffed by existing ICT staff. Moving to this shared service strategy will allow the councils to retain existing knowledge and experience, reduce costs and reducing risks from running ICT systems that are proving too complex for individual local authorities.

Capita selected as preferred bidder for Wycombe Council

Wipro have won a 10 year deal worth USD 112 million per year from Canadian utilities company ATCO. Wipro will provide total outsourcing solutions to ATCO in Canada and Australia. As a result of the announcement Wipro was trading 2.5 per cent higher at Rs 551.55.

Wipro latest Indian IT provider to announced strong financial results

It’s been confirmed that Capita, the international business process outsourcing and professional services company headquartered in London, will take over the prisoner tagging contract previously held by G4S and Serco. The Ministry of Justice confirmed Capita will manage the six-year contract which is worth £228.8m in a bid to save £20m a year.

There are three other firms delivering on parts of the service; Steatite, Airbus and Telefonica. In a three-year deal worth £23.3m Steatite will develop and manufacture the equipment, Telefonica will supply the network (worth £3.2m) and Airbus will provide satellite-mapping (worth £10.4m).

Shares at capita closed up 0.09 per cent at 1,129p.

Capita selected as preferred bidder for Wycombe Council

DWP have signed a £10m interim contract with Atos only 6 months after buying itself out of the agreement. Atos will provide IT support for 12 months to give DWP enough time to tender for a new hardware provider. Atos was selected as they currently own the physical assets in the current system.

Atos awarded RTE outsourcing contract

IBM is starting to focus more heavily on software and services by exclusively partnering with Apple on selling iphones and ipads loaded with applications. IBM will release more than 100 apps aimed at industry specific issues in retail, healthcare, banking, travel and telco. They will also develop cloud services for iOS Apples mobile operating system. IBM hopes this partnership will contribute half of their total profit by 2015.

IBM wins six-year outsourcing contract

Cloud Industry Forum (CFI) research indicates a lack of in-house skills and experience in managing legacy systems and hardware increases dependence on IT Outsourcing. CIF research found that the skill gap in end user workforce was a deciding factor for 49% of cloud users. CFI research showed there had been a shift towards data information management from the traditional nuts and bolts of IT.

Skills gaps in outsourcing management

The UK Government is to invest £800m on intelligence and surveillance equipment including cyber defence technology, in the aim to equip themselves for the changing threats the armed forces face. ISTAR is in need of significant IT investment, therefore plenty of opportunities will be available to vendors for both platform and back office IT. Other projects include the provision of Terminal Air Traffic Management and data sharing for the Air Command and Control.

Government Commits £650m to Cyber Defence

IBM has recently signed a deal reportedly worth around $100 million with microfinance company Janalakshmi Financial Services Pvt. Ltd.

Although specific details have not been announced, IBM will manage back-office operations such as application development and maintenance and infrastructure management services. IBM will also be building a technology platform and provide mobile, cloud computing and analytics services for Janalakshmi, plus will be responsible for digitalising and automating their operations and processes.

IBM awarded 10 year contract with Banco Popular

In today’s Cabinet reshuffle, there are winners, losers and shifted roles. William Hague remains in the Cabinet, but moves from Foreign Secretary to Leader of the Commons. He will leave Parliament at the next election. Philip Hammond succeeds him as Foreign Secretary. Ken Clarke has left the Cabinet. Michael Fallon is the new Secretary of State for Defence. Liz Truss and Nicky Morgan have been appointed to the Cabinet, increasing the female representation. Nicky Morgan is moving from the Treasury to Education Secretary. Michael Gove is leaving education to become the Commons Chief Whip.

Cabinet Office to replace current PHRF

NHS England will go to open procurement to outsource its £100m primary care support functions, this decision has been made so they have more options to choose from. SSCL, a joint venture between the Cabinet Office and Steria made an unsuccessful bid at the end of 2013. The support functions to be outsourced include database maintenance, coordinating changes for prescriptions and supporting cancer screening programmes.

NHS to privatise cancer care