Industry news

Over £100 million worth of contracts have been awarded to SMEs under the Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI).

The public sector program designed to increase SME participation in government projects has now seen 1,270 contracts awarded since the scheme’s establishment in 2009, passing a combined value of £100 million.

The government have moved to capitalise on the progress on the SBRI, raising a pledge to provide £40 million worth of contracts to small businesses over 2012-13, to £100 million in 2013-14 and £200 million through 2014-15.

The SBRI allows SMEs to enter the public sector procurement process with contracts awarded on the basis of innovation value.

Stephen Browning, Head of SBRI at the Technology Strategy Board, said: “presents a truly win-win scenario whereby government departments can find solutions to very real problems, whilst small businesses have an opportunity to present their ideas to organisations that may otherwise be unreachable."

SMEs forced to adapt to economic pressures

SMEs to spend $96 billion by 2015

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is to investigate RBS over IT failures from June and July 2012, which resulted in the disruption of service for customers and services.

Customers with RBS, Natwest, and Ulster Bank were all impacted by IT failures stemming from a poorly implemented software upgrade, with IT issues in some cases lasting a month before being fixed.

The total cost of the failures was calculated at as much as £175 million for charges and compensation payment to customers.

The IT malfunction led to a period of system replacements and overhaul of key services in a move to safeguard key systems in order to prevent future outages. Despite improvements to IT systems, RBS suffered further technical issues in March 2012.

In an announced the FCA said: “The FCA will reach its conclusions in due course and will decide whether or not enforcement action should follow that investigation.”

Hardware failure found to be responsible for NatWest outage

RBS plans to implement £80 million IT revamp

Outsourcing firms and the industry as a whole are at risk from missing out on the potential value of outsourcing according to new research.

The research from HfS Research and sponsored by Accenture revealed that users and suppliers need to focus on developing talent and skills, otherwise contracts will merely deliver basic cost reductions, aside from other benefits from the outsourcing process.

The research found that only one third of enterprise outsourcing customers viewed their current governance team as being capable of driving innovation within a contract, with only a half of outsourcing providers providing an established training program to develop relationship management or analytical skills.

Mike Salvino, group chief executive, Business Process Outsourcing, Accenture, said: “If outsourcing is to deliver on its full potential, buyers as well as providers need to invest in developing the skills and talent to capture the greater levels of value available from fourth and fifth generation BPO solutions.”

Mr Salvino added: “The bottom line is that outsourcing business or IT functions is never ’done’ and with proper investments in talent, the outsourcing governance team has continual opportunities to improve productivity, efficiency and access to critical data”.

Accenture see sales growth from increased outsourcing demand

Accenture led consortium wins national border control system contract

Development group Mott MacDonald has awarded a five year global communications deal to Tata Communications, in a deal which is valued at around £13 million.

Tata Communications will deliver telecommunication services to the development group as part of the contract, as part of a communications consolidation strategy being enacted by Mott MacDonald. The delivery of new communications services comes as multiple systems used by thousands of Mott MacDonald employees throughout the globe are brought together under one system.

The consolidation process will allow services to be migrated to ac loud based infrastructure in order to facilitate collaboration, even between groups that are separated internationally.

“With over 168 offices around the world and projects in 140 countries this contract will provide us with the ease of access needed to keep us at the top of our industry", said Darren Russell, Mott MacDonald’s global IT director.

Southern Water signs with TCS for systems transformation project

New delivery centre constructed by TCS in Liverpool to comply with regulation

Rail operators who fail to meet targets and consistently underperform should be removed from rail franchises through the implementation of new legislation.

Sir Richard Branson calls for rail franchises to kick out failing operators with Rail operators who fail to meet targets and consistently underperform should be removed from rail franchises through the implementation of new legislation.

Sir Richard Branson urged for the creation of new franchise at the launch of Virgin Atlantic domestic flights, while describing how Virgin Rail would be able to deliver far better value services for taxpayers from the East Coast rail franchise than the current state operators.

“We can absolutely do an awful lot better than the current management team on the east coast. The east coast has stagnated", he said.

Sir Richard Branson also commented on the failed West Coast procurement process, saying that: “"We have to be sure that the rules of engagement are different from last time."

The appeal by Virgin which led to the collapse of the West Coast procurement franchise revolved around the ability of the chosen operator to deliver on their promises. The addition of the ability to remove failing operators would lessen the impact of such an event should it occur.

Government places East Coast rail line up for bid

Virgin Rail receives west coast rail line extension

Chinese IT giant Huawei are looking to make strong gains over the coming years, capitalising on strong profits and results from 2012 published on Monday.

Posting revenues of over £23 billion , with a net profit increase of 32 percent from the previous year.

The company saw strong results in both its network division and its enterprise division.

The posting of strong results comes despite the difficulties the company has faced in its U.S. sectors, with the criticism of China’s suspected links to cyber-attacks having impacted Chinese business intrests in western countries.

Huawei succeeded in expanding in both Europe and the U.S. despite the associated controversies.

The company is looking to develop growth with expectations of achieving a compound growth rate of 10 percent within the next five years.

Guo Ping, acting CEO of Huawei said: "In 2012, Huawei met business performance expectations through improved operational efficiency".

US trade group send letter to congress criticising Chinese IT supplier ban

IBM has opened a new datacentre based in Germany, designed to drive enterprise level uptake of social business technology as businesses increasingly turn to cloud based infrastructure.

The new European Data Centre will provide users with email services, remote meeting capabilities and IM services.

The new data centre will provide services to users throughout Europe as well as international locations including Africa and the Middle East, adding to IBM's global output, with centres located in the Asian pacific and the North Americas.

IBM social business general manager Alistair Rennie described how the new centre is aimed at, “strengthening our ability to meet the needs for businesses seeking security-rich, flexible cloud environments that let them unleash innovation and drive a smart enterprise".

IBM to move cloud software to open source platforms

IBM looks to take on Amazon Web Services

Telefónica has received a loan totalling £170 million for the purchase of BlackBerry’s new range of goods and services.

The loan is being provided by Export Development Canada (EDC), which said that the investment would: "facilitate BlackBerry market share growth within Telefónica".

The loan comes as Telefónica struggles in a highly competitive marketplace which saw the Spanish telecoms giant post a loss of £425 million in 2012.

The new BlackBerry offering has been marketed at corporate users with the inclusion of a physical keyboard.

The move to stock the product carries risk, with BlackBerry having suffered heavily in past years from service disruption and a loss of visibility in the marketplace compared to Samsung and Apple.

Businesses move away from BlackBerry to Android and iPhone devices

Samsung is expected to post profits of more than £5 billion in the first quarter of 2013, a 53 percent increase on profits in the Q1 of 2012.

The electronics giant’s profit rise comes in part from the success of the companies mobile offerings including its smartphone products with its Galaxy range and its Notepad tablet series.

Samsung continues to maintain its dominant position as the number one mobile manufacturer.

The South Korean company is expected to release a detailed financial statement at the end of the month, with the prospects for the next quarter looking promising with the release of the new Samsung Galaxy S4 also scheduled for the end of April.

Samsung overtakes Apple as leading manufacturer of ‘smart devices’

BMI Healthcare has achieved annual savings of 70 percent in IT infrastructure costs, through the employment of a new IT management platform.

The independent healthcare company, which operates 69 hospitals and healthcare facilities throughout the UK, servicing 1.25 million patients a year, have seen improved IT security and increased efficiencies and overall viability throughout its infrastructure from the new upgrade.

The new management platform provided a centralised service which allowed the healthcare provider to carry out the vital task of monitoring hardware and software relating to equipment relied on by patients, allowing essential upgrades to be made when necessary.

The new management system also supported the uptake of mobile technology which is increasingly being employed by staff across many different BMI sites.

Mobilisation at the forefront of new modernisation plans by Kent NHS Trust

Remote health technology to see uptake by NHS