Industry news

Emergency services organisations have been given the chance to bid for a total £195 million in funding over a three year period.

The available funding is for the development of services and the promotion of joint working and shared services.

The funding will include the Blue Light Innovation Fund, which will be available by 2014/15, and will provide as much as £50 million per year for the development of innovative approaches to improve efficiencies.

The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) will also provide funding of £75 million to develop and reform fire services.

South West Wales police drives savings through shared service centre

Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service Invests in Network to Handle Emergency Calls

West Midlands Public Services Network has signed a preferred-supplier contract with Virgin Media Business, to deliver a procurement network designed to create significant cost savings.

The network, which forms part of the government’s strategy do drive public services networks (PSN) across the UK, is predicted to deliver savings to members of more than £1.5 million per year, with expectations that this number could rise to as much as £5 million per year.

Partners currently included in the West Midlands programe include Warwickshire County Council, Birmingham City Council, Worcestershire County Council, West Midlands Police, Herefordshire County Council and the Black Country Local Authorities, with Solihull Council leading the procurement process.

The PSN projects allow multiple public sector organisations to share shared services across join infrastructure, improving collaboration and negotiating power.

UK police forces plan for digitalisation of services

Met police move to update IT infrastructure

Sitel UK have created 75 new positions at its contact centre in Watford.

The announcement comes after a recent period of expansion by the outsourcing customer care provider.

The creation of the new positions follows an earlier announcement by the company of 150 new jobs at its Stratford upon Avon site, with Sitel UK now employing 2100 people nationwide.

Joe Doyle, Marketing Director at Sitel UK, says; “We are delighted to announce more job opportunities. It has been a busy year and we are seeing significant demand from businesses across all sectors for outsourced solutions, particularly as brands are now recognising the power of adopting an omni-channel strategy.”

Sitel issues five step guide for customer service in preparation for Christmas surge

Sitel named as global leader in social media services market

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ), have turned down a repayment offer from G4S of £24.1 million, for the overcharging of tagging services.

The multimillion pound offer came after the security outsourcing services provider admitted that it had overcharged, but that this had not been due to “dishonesty or criminal conduct”, according to an internal review.

The overcharging related to the charging of tagging criminals that were found to be dead or in jail after a government audit.

The MoJ is expected to renegotiate a new payment with the security giant, with MP Keith Vaz, chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, saying that: “every G4S contract with the government needs to be reviewed immediately, and they should be banned from bidding for any more."

Serious Fraud Office to investigate Serco and G4S

G4S bids for Commonwealth Games security contract

The Post Office plans to invest around £10 million in data analytics services, as the postal service looks at harnessing customer data.

The contract notice, describes a service that could deliver analysis and insight into both structured and unstructured customer data. The contract notice details that the Post Office is looking for three ‘expert data analysis companies”, with the 9th of December given as the final deadline for companies to tender.

The contract is described as lasting 48 months, with details of the contract coming as the Post Office looks to employ a data broker for advisory and data collection services, in support of marketing and customer support services.

Post Office looks to partner with retail firms

The Post Office offers IT services contracts worth £360 million up for tender

Outsourcing giant Capita has seen its shares fall by nearly 2 percent following the departure of CEO Paul Pindar.

The fall in share value comes despite the company’s announcements of having won £2.9 billion worth of new contracts and a statement from the company saying that it was on course to deliver "strong growth" over this year and the next with a predicted 8 per cent growth over 2013.

New contracts include work with UK public sector departments including the Department of Energy and Climate Change, the Ministry of Justice and the Cabinet Office. The outsourcing firm has also secured contracts in the private sector, with Carphone Warehouse and Telefonica.

Mr Pindar’s position is being taken over by deputy chief executive Andy Parker.

Capita secures multimillion MoJ electronic tagging contract

Capita awarded nine-year IT contract with Croydon Council

South East England train operators have begun a roll-out of contactless payment technology.

The new technology will allow customers to use smart card technology to quick pay for journeys in the South East. The roll-out comes as part of a £10 million technology contract for ‘smart ticketing’.

The contract will be supplied with the support of the Rail Settlement Plan (RSP), a company that provides services to rail operators. The deadline for tender submissions is December 9th.

The contract is expected to deliver increased savings, with the Department of Transport identifying £3.5 billion worth of potential savings from the delivery of smart card technology throughout the UK.

Government places East Coast rail line up for bid

Police forces in the UK are looking at increasing the employment of technology in policing on the front line. The establishment of a digital pathfinders programme across 30 police forces has reportedly driven the use of digital services in reporting and responding to crime.

Policing minister Damian Green, identified the next stage of police reform as being: “about transforming how policing is delivered at the front line. At the heart of this is how officers use technology and the importance of the role it will play."

He described to the College of Policing, how the government planned to transform all police services to a digital model by 2016, in a bid to increase officer access to information on the beat and reduce paper work.

BT awarded police PSN contract

South West Wales police drives savings through shared service centre

Shell has undertaken a major SAP upgrade project, which ranks alongside the largest SAP projects in the world.

The SAP program, known as ‘Downstream One’, covers 35 countries and 29,000 users, and will provide improved functionality, speed of delivery and effectively.

Alongside increased efficiency and current service improvements, the SAP program will cater for future services and expansion into new areas.

The delivery of the SAP program is being implemented with the support of IBM and SAP.

Shell Completes Transition of HR and Payroll Application Management to Accenture

British gas’ parent company Centrica released a statement today, revealing that the company has moved to rollout a SAP billing scheme alongside a customer relationship manager.

The new billing system, which is being rolled out to 500,000 business customers, is designed to reduce costs for the energy giant, while at the same time improving customer services.

The new SAP based system is being delivered by Cognizant and the move to create future savings comes as the energy company is faced with reduced margins from the end of the auto-renewal of contracts, which it has now stopped in a move to display increased transparency.

British Gas customers will be migrated over onto the new billing system throughout the end of 2013 and through 2014, stated the company.

British Gas award £600 million contract to smart meter manufacturer

Centrica award £18.9 million contract to Capgemini