Industry news

The maritime unit of BAE Systems has signed a £60 – 70m contract with Capita for them to improve their IT services, which will be aligned with BAE Systems wider IT model. BAE Systems Maritime are currently building the Astute class of nuclear powered attack submarines for the Royal Navy, the hope it that with Capita on board it will reduce costs and increase performance. Capita IT Services has worked with BAE Systems for the past eight years on a number of projects.

Capita awarded contact centre contract by John Lewis

According to The Bookseller, the Conservative-run Kent County Council are considering outsourcing more than 90 libraries. They would still own the libraries but bodies such as trusts, arms-length companies and joint ventures would run them helping save on the £13m budget the council had for library and archive services this year.

The City of York implemented a similar scheme and their libraries are now run by a mutual benefit society (Explore York Libraries and Archives) supported by the council.

As it looks to make future savings, Kent County Council is currently undertaking a wholesale review of its services.

Cornwall Council leader Alec Robertson is to step down after a vote of no confidence

Global CEO of Aegis, Sandip Sen has commented on seeing a trend in more banks signing deals with Business process management companies. Just as the telecom industry expanded its BPO outsourcing in 2003-05 the banking sector is set to do the same overtaking the telecom sector as the largest buyers of BPO services. During 2003-05 India was adding six million customers a month with BPO and telecoms industries growing in line with each other. Today the banking sector has stepped into the spotlight as the biggest BPO growth industry.

India losing 70 per cent of voice and call centre business to competitors according to report

According to data compiled by research firm Porge and analysed by Local Government Chronicle (LGC), there is a tenfold different in the amount council spend per head of population on outsourced services.

After analysing figures from a database of councils’ 2012 – 2013 published receipts for expenditure over £500, it indicates a huge gulf spent by top-tier council with organisations in the private, public and voluntary sectors. According to their analysis, it shows councils spent £30.5bn with outside providers in 2012-13. The data took into account classic outsourcing expenditure such as waste contracts as well as capital schemes such as house building and payments to financial institutions.

£165 million worth of savings expected from Barnet’s “easyCouncil” outsourcing deals

Islington council is developing a new programme to cut down on their outsource spend. The plan is to recruit new graduates and pair them with skilled IT workers to learn from with the hope that they will eventually be able to take control of digital services. This comes after an executive review of the councils commissioning, procurement and contract management found that a number of outsourced agency staff at project management level were earning equal to the chief officers.

£165 million worth of savings expected from Barnet’s “easyCouncil” outsourcing deals

A National model for IT procurement has been announced for local government. The model has been adapted from the successful London ICT Project which has been run in 33 local authorities in London since 2012. The new strategy addresses issues brought forward from Heads of ICT, Procurement, House of Commons and Office of Fair Trading reports and acts to deliver savings and efficiencies to deliver an improved service.

The Local Government ICT plan is working with the National ICT Category Management Programme (NICTMP) to support local government to procure the technology systems and equipment cost effectively in order to deliver an improved value for money service.

Local authorities failing to collaborate on procurement

After just six months in the job, Eddie Aston has suddenly left. There is no comment from G4S as to why, but Peter Neden has been named as his interim replacement, from his role as Regional President of UK and Ireland. This is the third change at the top in two years for the struggling outsourcing giant.

Renewed call for G4S & Serco to be barred from bidding for future business

HCL Technologies, Indias fourth largest IT services provider, has landed a $500m IT outsourcing contract from PepsiCo. The seven year contract is for their infrastructure management services. TCS & Cognizant were reportedly named as the front runners for the contract which finally went to HCL.

From January to March HCL’s infrastructure services has grown by 5.1%, presumably because of the demand for renewals and rebids.

HCL posts rising quarter profits

The Department for Education (DFE) are working with councils on agreeing to outsource Children Services and Social Care functions. This comes as an attempt to remove unnecessary barriers from frustrated Councils in order to deliver an improved and innovative service. External organizations such as voluntary and community groups already help to deliver current services, using outsourcing to delegate the service seems to be the next step. Staffordshire and the London boroughs of Kingston and Richmond Councils are already keen to outsource some of their Social Care Services.

Councils receive shared service funding boost

Barnet Council dubbed “easyCouncil” after the announcement of the One Barnet programme in 2010, is looking forward to savings of £165 million over 10 years from two controversial outsourcing contracts.

The customer and support group contract with Capita that covers procurement, commercial services and various back office functions is reported to bring future savings of £126 million, with the other £39 million coming from the other contract with Capita covering development and regulatory services in a joint venture model.

After a Court of Appeal ruling in favour of the council following a legal challenge brought by campaigners against the One Barnet programme, the contracts with Capita were signed in August 2013.

Barnet Council Outsourcing: Judge confirms council should have consulted public more