Industry news

G4S took another body blow yesterday, as Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire police revealed they were shelving plans to outsource services such as HR and IT.

A joint statement said that the potential contract did not deliver what they needed. It is expected that they will explore shared services arrangements to make cost savings and simultaneously protect frontline services.

Despite the Olympic fiasco, G4 had continued to pick up public sector contracts at home and abroad, with rumours that it would be blacklisted from so far proving unfounded.

The government has launched a competition to find councils that are the ‘best to do business with’, from a supplier perspective.

Suppliers, who have traditionally been at the other end of service reviews and listings, will be able to view a classification of councils:

• Based on procurement opportunities for suppliers

• The councils recognition of the value of suppliers

• Visibility of supplier opportunities

• Favourable tending processes

The competition is designed to establish best practice within public sector procurement , including common criticisms by suppliers such as a complicated procurement application process and inhibiting bureaucratic systems.

The move is designed to increase SME confidence and competition while driving innovative practices and cost saving.

The deadline for nominations is Friday 22nd February, with winners selected by a selection of independent and public sector judges.

Best councils to do business with contest: application form

German based IT outsourcing specialists pliXos have been accepted by the UK Government Procurement Service to supply services to the public sector through the G-Cloud ii framework.

pliXos will deliver support services and application development with a focus on agile applications development. SaaS services will be delivered through pliXos’ data centre located in Germany.

Joerg Stimmer, Managing Director at pliXos, said: “We are delighted to be able to extend our proven SaaS based offerings and support to hard pressed CIOs and their teams in UK Government and the public sector. They will be able to access the same capabilities that their peers in the German Government and commercial sector have been using to deliver successfully agile based application development projects and sourcing strategies with greater functionality and cost-savings, under G-Cloud ii.”

The FinTech Innovation Lab programme, designed to promote technological innovations within the financial sector, has selected the final seven start-ups.

The selected seven, involved in services including security, cloud services and analytical tools will have access to workshops, networking opportunities and leadership coaching from financial industry executives.

The seven companies are BehavioSec, Calltrunk, Digital Shadows, Growth Intelligence, Kiboo, Open Bank Project and Waratek.

Shaygan Kheradpir, chief operating officer of Barclays Retail and Business banking, said: “Mobile technology and digital innovation are the future of financial services because that is what clients and consumers want, so it is so important that we continue to support entrepreneurs and start-ups that can really progress this further”.

Fife Council has awarded a contract to provide framework services to Capgemini, the service is intended to deliver cost savings and increased efficiencies by increasing delivery speeds.

The IT systems that will be affected are those situated with local services, with the framework service being rolled out with the delivery of a resource planning system. The new service will centralise services that had previously been tendered through a multi-sourced program.

Fife is also considered future ICT framework projects including the implementation of mobile services and mobile platform capability.

Verizon has agreed to sell its licence for its lower 700 MHz wireless spectrum to AT&T for $1.9 billion. In return Verizon will receive AT&T licences for 10 MHz spectrum in Los Angeles, Phoenix, Portland and Fresno.

The lower 700 MHz wireless spectrum currently covers 42 million customers across 18 US states.

The deal will have to meet approval from the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Department of Justice.

Verizon has also agreed to sell lower 700 MHz licenses in specific areas, to private-equity firm Grain Management for $189 million.

IT companies including HP, Telefonica, Nokia, Cisco, ARM and SAP have entered into a deal with the European Commission to fill IT 700,000 jobs within Europe.

The companies will offer free training and start-up funding in a bid to fill the vacancies. The scheme is designed to stimulate the European IT industry, a key element to stimulating EU growth.

"The digital skills gap is growing, like our unemployment queues. We need joint action between governments and companies to bridge that gap" said EC vice president Neelie Kroes.

A report from Oracle and Quocirca has shown that data is being increasingly being moved back in-house at enterprise level.

A survey of 952 organisations showed that internal data centre infrastructure were being increasingly invested in, with 65 percent in respondents to report by Index Cycle only using in-house data centres, up from 45 percent from a year ago.

Those with external and internal centres fell from 56 percent to 34 percent. The reversal of the trend to outsource data storage comes as enterprises increase IT infrastructure and seek to invest in internal development.

The construction of a high speed rail network between Manchester and Leeds has been welcomed by businesses for stimulating the creation of 100,000 jobs.

The £33 billion HS2 project which also includes a link between Euston and the West Midlands is designed to significant reduce transport times and the current oversubscription of train services.

The project, expected to be operational by 2033, has met opposition over the effect of the construction on greenbelt land and the destruction of houses to make way for the proposed route.

David Cameron, said: "Linking communities and businesses across the country and shrinking the distances between our greatest cities, high-speed rail is an engine for growth that will help to drive regional regeneration and invigorate our regional economies."

A research study by Horses for Sources and KPMG showed that, despite outsourcing’s vilification in 2012, its prospects for 2013 are still very good. “State of Outsourcing 2013” considered the views of 399 large buy side companies, re: their intentions for 2013. Just 5% are looking to reduce their outsourcing scope: the rest are looking to increase it.

More than half are looking to increase outsourcing of application services, 40% their finance and accounting, and a third their HR. The key drivers are the classics cost, standardization and global delivery.

More announcements are expected from what is billed as the biggest ever study of its kind, which considers the opinions of 1355 stakeholders of buyers, suppliers and consultants.