Industry news

Global law firm Ashurst LLP is launching a virtual experience programme for students, as part of an initiative to promote access to careers in the NewLaw division of the firm.  

The free-to-access programme offers students the chance to increase their commercial awareness through experiencing an alternative legal career path to encourage innovation in an ever-evolving legal market. 

Students will complete tasks that replicate the work of the Ashurst Advance team, allowing them to gain an understanding of how to shape and manage a NewLaw service delivery model for a client's lending project. 

Read more on LawCareers.net here.

Apple’s manufacturing partners will be made to participate in yearly audits to keep tabs on how their efforts to decarbonise their production lines are progressing, as part of the consumer electronics giant’s push to become carbon-neutral across its entire global supply chain.

The process will see the firm’s manufacturing partners put under greater pressure to curb the Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions generated by their Apple-related workloads, with the firm stating that it wants to work with organisations that are “working with urgency and making measurable progress towards decarbonisation”.

Read more on ComputerWeekly here.

Public sector-focused sovereign cloud provider UKCloud has been placed into liquidation more than a year after its accounts revealed that the firm was in need of a £30m funding injection to continue trading.

Winding-up orders for UKCloud and its parent company, Virtual Infrastructure Group, were issued on Tuesday 25 October 2022, and Gareth Jonathan Allen has been appointed official receiver by the court to oversee the liquidation of both parties.

According to sources who spoke to Computer Weekly on condition of anonymity, the Cabinet Office is understood to have started briefing the firm’s customers at the start of this month to begin transitioning to new suppliers in anticipation of the company collapsing within three weeks.

Read more on ComputerWeekly here.

Robotic process automation (RPA) software is used to coordinate the use of one or multiple robots along a specific process or set of processes. This now includes highly skilled functions such as product assembly, welding, and finishing. Additionally, RPA software is the glue that brings together business processes with organizational workflows and the actions of intelligent automation. RPA software also encompasses bots used for such things as chat and many office productivity functions. 

Read more on eweek here.

Transformation is going nowhere in a hurry; it’s still the number one business critical project among major enterprises around the world. But succeeding with your transformation project is easier said than done. Adrian Odds, Marketing & Innovation Director at the agency CDS, believes a simple focus on a few core areas could make all the difference…

Digital transformation is difficult. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. And a lack of C-suite leadership may be the single biggest risk factor in whether your ‘transformation’ will succeed or fail. But the second biggest consideration is most likely to be a failure to design your change – and the new services that sit around it – with the human needs of your internal and external customers at the centre.

Read more on CEO.Digital here.

Global Supply Chains have been under increasing pressure over the last few years triggered by the pandemic and subsequently made worse by raw material and skills shortages, the war in Ukraine, an energy crisis and ratcheting inflation. Supply Chains that were optimised for cost and quality of service are having to increasingly accommodate the need for resilience and the necessity of sustainability. Such a challenging environment is however, presenting opportunities for Software and IT Services (SITS) providers where technology will have a significant role to play in offering solutions to the plethora of threats and risks.

Read more on TechMarketView here.

• Supply chain shortages are causing widespread manufacturing disruptions.

• Procurement from suppliers should not rest solely on cost savings, but also on revenue impact.

• Business leaders must develop incentives that recognize protecting continuity of supply chains.

Read more on World Economic Forum here.

Considering a supply chain transformation? Many companies are, as the supply chain impacts their top and bottom lines. In fact, the effects are not only on revenues and costs but also on cash flows.

Being critical for the company's profitable growth, supply chain transformations can become a vehicle for greater earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization; improved cash flows; and higher customer satisfaction.

Read more on Forbes here.

Starting with just one client and a workforce of 100 people across two floors of Webhelp’s Umhlanga Ridgeside office in October last year, this global consultancy and customer experience organisation has quickly shown the demand for Durban as a business hub.

“BPO (business process outsourcing) is one of the fastest-growing sectors in South Africa with significant year-on-year growth. We’ve had significant government and stakeholder support leaning into the incredible job opportunities this sector creates for young, unemployed individuals with little or no work experience,” commented Tammy Chetty, managing director of Webhelp South Africa.

Read more here.

• The latest findings from KPMG reveal that sustainability reporting has grown steadily, with 79 percent of leading companies providing sustainability reports
• There has been marked improvement in companies reporting carbon reduction targets, but action remains too slow in key related areas, with less than half of companies currently recognizing biodiversity loss as a risk
  
• Among the thousands of reports analysed, less than half of the world’s largest companies are providing reporting on ‘social’ and ‘governance’ components of ESG
• KPMG outlines a series of recommendations, including companies shifting from a narrative-driven approach and making better use of data to drive change and provide evidence of action
• From recent local data and discussions with our community, Maltese companies appear to be lagging the global trend presented in this survey, although there are promising developments, including reporting by 17 companies under the Malta ESG Platform. Transparent ESG reporting and action will be crucial if Maltese companies are to remain relevant to international business and align with the broader values of Malta’s residents. 

Read more in KPMG here.