Industry news

Barnet council is set to move forward with its landmark outsourcing programme known as One Barnet, after the rejection of an appeal by residents.

Front and backline council services will now be operated by Capita over the 10 year programme, which represents the largest outsourcing programme carried out by a local authority.

The contract is valued at £350 million and will cover services over a wide spectrum, including: HR, IT services, procurement, finance and support services.

The 10 year programme is expected to deliver £165 million in savings. The programme is expected to be the first of many as local authorities look to make increasing savings in order to meet tight budgets.

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

An energy industry report has warned that the UK governments’ attempts to stimulate the UK’s fledgling fracking industry are unsustainable.

The report from energy consultants Oilandgaspeople.com revealed that the development of UK fracking is likely to be hindered by a shortage of rigs and specialised staff and equipment.

The report suggests that the government’s financial incentives are unlikely to succeed in developing the UK’s fracking industry. Shortages will also be compounded by a lack of resources in the energy sector, with businesses starched by a global oil and gas boom in multiple locations besides the UK.

Centrica enters into talks for UK fracking stake

New research published this week by SecureData, an independent IT security service provider entitled: Are you being served? How can Security as a Service serve you? highlights that 78% of IT managers in UK companies claim that a lack of trust in security is the biggest barrier to the adoption of cloud technologies. For managers in large businesses, (more than 3,000 employees) this figure rises to 82%.

Trust and security are understandably big considerations for any company moving their IT into the cloud. Outsourcing confidential data to a third party is big step particularly when it has always been managed in house and only accessible to employees.

However, cloud computing can be completely secure if businesses opt for a private and managed cloud computing service and are careful when choosing their provider. Here is my short guide on ensuring the cloud is sound.

So how can companies dispel security issues?

• Work with an accredited and trusted cloud computing service provider with a good reputation amongst its customers.

• Opt for a privately managed cloud computing service, such as a Desktop as a Service (DaaS), where all data is professionally managed and stored in a secure UK datacentre behind corporate grade firewalls. Popular cloud based services such as Gmail,

icloud and dropbox are free, but there are risks involved as people who use them won’t know where their data is held. If it is held for instance in the USA, the data may come may come under the jurisdiction of US authorities.

Earlier this year the Information Commissioner’s Office issued clear guidelines to businesses stating that they are responsible for their data wherever it is held. Organisations must know where their data is located and take responsibility for its security – consumer cloud services are therefore not suitable.

• Check your provider has relevant accreditations such as ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 and is happy to provide references that you can follow up with their clients. Accreditations are important as it shows the provider understands and can demonstrate the highest levels of security.

• Fully understand how cloud computing works and the value it could bring to your business so you can weigh up the benefits versus the costs. Some of the benefits could include reduced IT costs, eradicating the need for in-house servers and an IT department, and greater workforce flexibility – allowing employees to log onto office systems wherever they are.

Once a company has adopted cloud computing they are typically operating in an environment which is more secure than the previous local server set-up. It is the provider’s responsibility to ensure they have the latest security software and firewalls and they are much more likely to keep everything up to date than an internal IT department.

In the past year or so, the growing trend of employees bringing different gadgets into the workplace has made it more challenging for companies to manage how employees access company data and move between their personal and corporate devices without compromising data security. However, if a company adopts a hosted desktop service based on cloud computing these issues are solved as data isn’t stored on any devices so people can access corporate data from any device and even if their device is lost or stolen it wouldn’t matter as the data would be held securely in the cloud and not accessible to a stranger.

Businesses should remember too that security threats are not always external and make sure they have audit trails in place in case of employees’ breaching confidence.

Some offices are also at risk from physical threats such as burglary or flooding. With a reliable DaaS provider, the physical location will be in a resilient and top security environment with constant backups and a disaster recovery solution to ensure data is always protected and it can be business as usual at all times.

By following these guidelines and choosing the right provider, justified security fears should actually be a catalyst for joining the cloud.

By David Sturges, Chief Operating Officer, WorkPlaceLive www.workplacelive

Outsourcing security: don’t just leave it to the experts

CSC and AT&T have signed an agreement to create a global shared agreement.

The alliance will see the two groups share each other expertise in cloud, network and application services to target a global cloud consumer base.

As part of the agreement, CSC will provide application expertise to AT&T and its customers. Working with AT&T, CSC will enhance and migrate applications to enable AT&T’s customers to benefit from a secure cloud environment.

“This agreement advances our cloud market leadership position by layering our leading cloud platform on to AT&T’s worldwide network and infrastructure architecture, capitalizing on quickly evolving technology solutions and enabling AT&T and its clients to modernize their applications to take advantage of these solutions,” said CSC President and CEO Mike Lawrie. “Additionally, this agreement enhances our ability to compete globally with AT&T’s expertise and scale to better meet customer demands.”

Infochimps founded in 2009, will be merged into CSC’s bid data and analytics unit, and will provide real-time correlation and analytic services.

Infochimps will also continue to offer standalone service at the same time, with the backing of CSC resources and support, including the infrastructure of the multi-national outsourcer, marketing teams, sales teams and software developers.

The acquisition of Infochimps follows the purchase of 42Six Solutions, another provider of big data and analytics services in October of last year, as CSC seeks to compete against competitors who have sought to capitalise on the efficiency and costs savings available from analytics.

Banks move to enhance analytic capabilities

Thames Water moves to £4 million real-time analytics system

G4S has cancelled its bid for the renewal of a contract for the electronic tagging of criminals in England and Wales.

The move to pull out of the bidding process comes after controversy surrounding accusations of overcharging over multiple years by G4S and Serco, which resulted in losses in the many millions.

The controversy surrounding the accusations that the public sector had been repeatedly overcharged saw bidder Serco pull out of the tendering process, however G4S continued to pursue the contract renewal until this week.

G4S released a statement saying it was, “committed to resolving the contractual issues raised by the Ministry of Justice in connection with historical billing on the electronic monitoring contracts”.

The decision to pull out seems to have come after the outsourcing giant realised there was next to no chance of the bid succeeding, with Justice Secretary Chris Grayling demanding for their pull-out.

G4S probed for overcharging

Civil proceedings launched against G4S as government outsourcing questioned

In the latest report from Ofcom on fixed-line residential broadband, the average residential broadband speed in the UK was found to have increased by 22 per cent over six months to 14.7 mbps by May.

The report showed an overall increase of 309 per cent from since records began in 2008.

The increase in broadband speeds comes as the UK government provides investment of over £1 billion to the rural broadband project, which seeks to deliver superfast broadband of over 24 mbps as a minimum to 90 percent of premises by 2017.

Ofcom consumer group director, Claudio Pollack, said: “consumers are demanding more than ever from their broadband service-Internet providers have responded by upgrading customers to higher speed services and launching new superfast packages.”

Ofcom introduces broadband consumer safeguards

Broadband contracts keep rolling in for BT

The breakdown of talks between security staff working at the GCHQ complex in Cheltenham and G4S may result in strike action.

The threat of strike action comes over a long term dispute over pay. Workers belonging to the PCS union have received permission to conduct a ballot which may lead to a strike.

A strike by security staff would affect around 150 members of the staff at GCHQ who are represented by PCS.

GCHQ have revealed that security measures are in place to cover any potential walk out, while G4S have said that reserve staff can be deployed if necessary.

Former UK spy centre CIO joins CSC

Civil proceedings launched against G4S as government outsourcing questioned

Unilever owners of brands including Dove and Wall’s Ice Cream, has awarded BT a three year extension on its existing ITO contract.

The extension of the ITO contract, which includes the hosting of infrastructure network which provides video, data and voice services to 173,000 with a focus on mobile working, marks the third time that BT has had its services renewed since being awarded ITO contracts with Unilever in 2002.

The renewal of service will see a increasing focus on mobile and flexible working practices which is seen as a key to reducing overall costs.

The Vice President for Infrastructure Services at Unilever, Paulo De Sa, said: “We are becoming a more agile business and introducing more sustainable ways of working for our employees, customers and suppliers, as well as the two billion consumers who rely on our products every day.”

BT leaves competition behind in broadband project as final competitor exits

New measures designed to help consumers switch between broadband providers have been announced by communications regulator Ofcom.

Ofcom has said that existing providers hold to much control and are able to disrupt and inhibit broadband migration for customers.

New regulatory measures which have been revealed today, would create a simplified single switching process, allowing for increased competition and rapid switch over.

Claudio Pollack, Ofcom’s Consumer Group Director, said: “The move towards one clear and simple system led by the gaining provider will result in a switching process that works in consumers’ best interests. We will now be working on further measures to improve consumers’ experience of switching.”

The new regulatory measures are set to come into force by 2015.