Industry news

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IT spending in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) is predicted to grow 1.4 percent in 2013 to reach $1.154 trillion according to a report released by Gartner.

The report identified investment in mobile technology as being a key driving force behind the growth.

The movement towards the creation and employment of mobile technology by businesses is expected to create millions of new jobs as well as leading software manufactures to make their services mobile friendly.

Gartner senior vice president and global head of Research Peter Sondergaard said: “The mobile device market is currently the bright spot of the IT industry".

89.33 percent of UK web searches in October were made using Google, the lowest percentage in five years after Bing and Ask made strong inroads into the market.

According to web traffic monitors Experian Hitwise, Bing now has 5 percent of the market share within the UK.

The decrease in market share has come from a push on Bing by Microsoft in the winter months and the inclusion of the product on all Windows 8 operating systems as default.

The private sector should inform and lead the public sector rather than the UK government attempting to become the leader of big data.

Former deputy government CIO Bill McCluggage said during a government discussion that the public sector should be looking to the private sector in creating best practice and harnessing bid data, rather than attempting to become the market leader in bid data.

Former deputy government CIO Bill McCluggage said during a government discussion today on bid data that: "I don't see central government being that agile yet. If you follow the current model you won't get there." He added: “You need a new model, a new way of rapid following. The best examples need to come to the forefront before government can follow".

Car giant Nissan have slashed their full-year profits by a fifth from the diplomatic conflict surrounding China and Japan over territory in the East China Sea.

Demand for Japanese products in China has fallen after goods have been boycotted, sales of cars from Honda, Toyota and Nissan have all fallen.

Nissan has the most to potentially lose from the on-going land debate with 27 percent of vehicle sales coming from within China.

Inadequate IT customer service is wasting up to 1 billion man hours a year for UK businesses according to a report from Rackspace Hosting.

In the Rackspace IT Industry Service Report, 39 percent of IT staff are estimated to lose around one working day or more per week on tackling IT problems and chasing suppliers. General employees were also found to be losing an average of almost five hours per week due to IT service issues.

The failings in customer services has led to 27 percent of CIO’s now regarding the issue as a top priority.

Taylor Rhodes, Managing Director, International at Rackspace said: “A staggering amount of man hours are being wasted by UK businesses as they struggle to manage and control IT service issues. CIOs are taking note however and it is encouraging to see service being acknowledged as a crucial factor in procurement decisions along with parameters such as price, security and uptime guarantees.”

Cognizant today released its Q3 results which showed annual revenue growth of 18.2 percent from the same time last year with $1.892 billion.

The report included expectations of a 20 percent overall fiscal rise for 2012 over 2011, to $7.34 billion.

Gordon Coburn, President of Cognizant said: “Of particular note this quarter is the performance of our newer service offerings of Consulting, Business Process Outsourcing and IT Infrastructure Services. On a combined basis, these services have been growing materially faster than company average, and this quarter comprised nearly 20% of total revenue. They will continue to be important drivers of our long-term growth”.

TelecityGroup, Europe's industry-leading provider of carrier-neutral data centres, has today announced it has acquired Academica, a leading data centre and IT services operator in Finland, for a total consideration of €28million in cash.

The acquisition of Academica further strengthens TelecityGroup’s leadership position in Finland where there is a strong and growing demand for high quality, connected data centre services. Academica currently operates two carrier-neutral data centres in Helsinki with 1MW of operational capacity. 3MW of additional capacity is secured, some of which will be deployed in Viikinmaki, a new centrally-located facility.

The announcement follows TelecityGroup’s acquisition of Tenue Oy in August giving the enlarged TelecityGroup Finland a total of three data centres and 2MW of operational capacity. 7MW of additional capacity will be opened in two new facilities in due course.

Marko Vanninen, Managing Director of Academica, will become Managing Director of TelecityGroup Finland and Sami Holopainen, who joined TelecityGroup with the Tenue acquisition in August 2012 and was the founder and Managing Director of Tenue Oy, will become responsible for commercial and business development, sales and marketing.

Orders and output fall, but SMEs expect activity to stabilise

Both domestic and export orders among the UK’s small and medium-sized manufacturers fell in the three months to October. Production levels continued to contract modestly, while business sentiment deteriorated for the second consecutive quarter.

The CBI’s latest quarterly SME Trends Survey, which had 362 respondents, showed that total new orders fell (a balance of -13%), reflecting declines in both domestic orders (-11%) and export orders (-21%), with the latter falling at the fastest pace since July 2009 (-32%). While domestic orders are expected to be flat over the next quarter (-2%), demand for exports is expected to fall further, albeit at a much slower rate (-5%).

Southwark Council has announced a four year deal with Capita’s secure information solutions business for an IT managed service designed to help transform the council with benefits for both customers and the workforce. The contract offers significant, seven-figure, savings to the council and helps to protect frontline services during a period when local government funding remains very uncertain.

The contract is for the management and the upgrade of all of the IT facilities that support the delivery of council services and represents the most significant improvement in IT capability since major changes in 2000. Facilities include the provision of resilient and secure disaster recovery and business continuity, support for the council’s networks; data centre hosting including the management of IT equipment, and support for business applications. During the first 12 months of the contract, Capita will deliver nine major projects that will provide the Council with a platform to radically transform services, ranging from modernisation of the desktop and rationalisation of data storage and security to the use of mobile devices.

Councillor Richard Livingstone, cabinet member for resources at Southwark Council, said: “This contract gives us cost savings and an improved IT service at a time when resources are extremely limited, when frontline services need as much protection as possible and when staff need all the support that we can give them. We felt that Capita’s experience of local government and solution development will create a platform to completely transform our service. We expect a smooth transformation to a new, modernised IT infrastructure and, ultimately more resilient and responsive IT. Investing in technology is something I am wholly committed to, as I feel this is the key to ensuring that the authority can function effectively and respond quickly to the public to create a modern service with robust data protection.”