Industry news

<="" p="">

Jaguar Land Rover has announced investment plans totalling £165 million with the creation of 700 new jobs at its new engine factory near Wolverhampton.

The new factory, which is set to become operational in 2013, with the first engines for next generation Land Rover and Jaguar models being delivered in 2015, will now employ a workforce of 1,400.

In a statement the company said: “Jaguar Land Rover's new engine manufacturing centre in the UK is essential to support the company's long-term strategic growth plans and will be the home for a new generation of technologically advanced, lightweight 4-cylinder low emission diesel and petrol engines. "

The investment announcement comes as welcome news after the UK’s manufacturing sector contracted sharply in February after being impacted by bad weather and reduced demand from abroad and domestically.

Jaguar Land Rover creates 800 jobs in Solihull

IT services provider is to buy rival bankrupt firm 2e2 for €24 million, the deal will see Logicalis acquire the European operations of 2e2 in Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands and the Channel Islands, but excluding UK operations.

The acquisition is designed to boost the expansion of Logicalis within Europe with an eye to overseas opportunities by gaining contacts in new foreign markets.

The acquisition will see Logicalis add over 480 employees to its operations and an additional £100 million from new revenues.

O2 has also moved to aquire assets from the bankrupted company as it is separated and sold, with 2e2’s joint IT services venture O2 Unify being bought up by the telecommunication giant.

2e2’s datacentre customers saved by Daisy Group

Cloud infrastructure provider Savvis has opened a new UK data centre in order to meet increasing demand for cloud and managed hosting services from Europe.

The site based in Slough is an addition to existing facilities which now account for a total square footage of 100,000. The new Savvis site is the sixth data centre situated in Europe with over 50 centres located around the globe.

Jeff Von Deylen, president of Savvis, said of the new site: “We have nearly doubled capacity in Slough to meet growing demand and give businesses in the region the services they need to grow”.

Birmingham to receive £60 million data centre in 2013

IBM has announced that it will migrate cloud computing services to open source platform in a move to increase customer customisation and flexibility.

Enterprise level cloud computing software hosted on vendor free open source software will allow companies to build and structure their own cloud deployments while allowing developers to increase platform delivery times and condense cloud operations.

IBM senior vice president of software Robert LeBlanc, said: "Just as standards and open source revolutionized the Web and Linux, they will also have a tremendous impact on cloud computing. IBM has been at the forefront of championing standards and open source for years, and we are doing it again for cloud computing".

IBM looks to take on Amazon Web Services

A seven year contract to operate the government’s first Shared Service Centre has been secured by BPO firm arvato. The centre is the first public sector shared service unit to be operated by a private sector firm.

The centre itself is designed to provide BPO services to the Department for Transport and associated agencies. The centre is part of the Cabinet Office’s next generation of shared service facilities, which forms part of a new strategy designed to generate savings of as much as £600 per year.

Matthias Mierisch, CEO & Chairman of arvato UK, said: “Our solution provides a new operating model for back office functions, using industry best practice, economies of scale and standardised processes to deliver improved value for money and service quality”.

The centre represents the government’s response to criticism from the NAO regarding the public sectors employment of cross-sharing between parliaments and the promotion of unification. With a centralisation of services, an additional shared service centre will have its management privatised alongside arvato, with a view to driving efficiencies.

West Somerset council looks to shared services operation

The latest data from research giant Gartner has led to expectation of an 18 percent growth in the public cloud market in 2013, with an overall value of $131 billion compared to $111 billion in 2012.

Cloud spending is being predicted to reach a total of $677 billion within the next three years, with almost half being spend on cloud advertising.

Much of the growth in the coming years is expected to come from emerging cloud markets, including Eastern Europe, Latin America and Asias. While these new markets represent rapid growth for cloud uptake, Gartner predicts that Western Europe and the US will continue to count for high level spending, accounting for more than 80 percent of new market.

"Evidence of this growth is found in the increasing demand for cloud services from end-user organisations, met by an increased supply of cloud services from suppliers", said Ed Anderson, research director at Gartner.

JPMorgan Chase deploys giant cloud platform

The UK and Estonia have signed a memorandum of understanding on digital government in order to promote the uptake of digital public services.

The move will see the two governments share information, contacts and expert knowledge alongside joint events, in a bid to promote and develop digital public services.

Estonia is seen as an example of success in digital governance that has allowed for increased efficiencies and savings. The country is expected to act as a blueprint for other European countries, as to the ways in which public services can be updated through new technology.

Francis Maude, Minister for the Cabinet Office said: "I was hugely impressed when I visited Estonia last year by how much of government there is online, with e-voting, e-health, e-schools, and virtually all tax returns completed on line in minutes."

IT spending to break £75 billion barrier

The Government has moved to consult businesses regarding the creation of new cyber security standards. All industries will have until the 14th of October to supply evidence to the government supporting their preferred standard.

The consultation is being initiated by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills, in a bid to refine current standards from the 2011 Cyber Security Strategy, which has been criticised for being confusing and outdated.

The evidence submitted will be used by the government “to select and endorse a preferred organisational standard amongst the private sector.” Cyber security has become an increasing threat, with breaches costing many millions for businesses.

The outreach to the industry comes on the heels of the education department’s move to consult the IT industry in the creation of the new school curriculum to ensure that the focus is relevant to business requirements.

Government begins ICT industry consultation for syllabus revamp

Global BPO provider Firstsource Solutions has won the trophy for Best Outsourced Contact Centre in the Welsh Contact Centre Awards.

As well as winning one award, Firstsource also had finalists in two other award categories.

Having only recently come to Wales, opening its centre based at Cardiff Bay in June 2012, Firstsource has rapidly made an impact with 400 employees now based within their Cardiff facility.

Kathryn Chivers, General Manager Firstsource Cardiff, said: “As a newcomer to Wales, Firstsource is delighted to have won this award which is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our staff in our Discovery House Centre”.

The awards success comes on the back of the NOA awards where Firstsource won in three categories.

Outsourcing Yearbook Autumn Supplement featuring the NOA Awards has been released

BA’s merger with Spanish airline Iberia has contributed to the loss of all profits for the UK airline as the Spanish economy falls at a faster than expected rate.

BA has announced a pre-tax annual loss of €1 billion after the merger with Iberia. Spain has seen its economy continue to falter within the eurozone, with a further contraction of 0.8 percent in Q4 2012.

BA made a profit of €347 million in 2012 after losses made by bmi, however the merger with Iberia saw a loss of €351 million, with the faltering Spanish economy wiping out all loses for BA.

Willie Walsh, the chief executive of International Airlines Group (IAG) , the multinational airline holding company that counts Iberia and BA as its subsidiaries, said: “We didn't expect the uncertainty around the eurozone to be as bad as this", he added that, “we're in it for the long term. I don't regret the merger."

IAG has also suffered from increasing fuel costs with price rises of 20 percent alongside costs relating to the restructuring of Iberia.

Owners of BA, International Airlines Group to cut 4,500 jobs

BA integration with regional airline bmi threatens 1,200 jobs