Industry news

Western Australia's Department for Child Protection (DCP) has entered in a support services contract with Fujitsu, in a deal worth AU$10 million.

The contract will last over a five year time frame and comes on the back of other DCP IT contracts.

Fujitsu will be tasked with providing support to the DCP’s CRM system, which helps to coordinate a network of social workers across the state.

Fujitsu successfully bid for the contract based on their expertise in providing large scale specific support. DCP Executive Director for Metropolitan Services in Western Australia Cheryl Barnett said: “Our staff require a high level of skill, commitment and resilience."

Infratil, a New Zealand airport owner, has emerged as a potential bidder for the London’s Stansted airport.

Infratil is currently in the process of selling Manston and Prestwick Airport, the new bid is expected to be launched as part of a consortium, including the New Zealand Superannuation Fund.

Steven Fitzgerald, an executive director of Morrison & Co, a infrastructure fund which manages Infratil, said to Bloomberg: "We've been following the BAA forced disposal process, with Stanstead being the last of them."

IBM have built a new data centre located in Canada, the IBM Canada Leadership Data Centre, has been constructed to provide businesses with growth management, cost savings and increased security.

The centre was built in in conjunction with the Canadian and Ontario governments and the city of Barrie.

IBM Canada president John Lutz , said that the $90 million centre, “provides a flexible foundation ingrained in best-practices so we can deliver essential services to help organizations and partners better manage data, reduce operating costs, improve productivity and gain competitive advantage."

Tesco is preparing for a rollout of dot.com stores which allow customers to order groceries online.

Currently four dot.com stores exist but the supermarket giant is looking to expand with the creation of multiple new suits over the next year.

Online grocery shopping is predicted by trade body IGD to rise to 6 percent of all grocery shopping by 2016.

Ken Towle, Tesco's director of internet retailing, said: “We can see demand at least doubling.”

Over £22 billion could be saved by the public sector through outsourcing and encouraging private sector competition according to an Oxford Economics study for CBI.

The research found that the inclusion of independent businesses and organisations could reduce costs by 11 percent.

CBI director general, John Cridland, said: "Most public services are still largely state monopolised and it's time to open some of them to competition. That is the way to maintain quality and achieve billions of pounds worth of savings."

AA and Saga look to split after their owners Acromas prepares for a future break-up.

The move comes as Acromas, worth £9 billion, brings in accountants to assess the future of the business. A division of AA and Saga would see the end of a £6.7 billion merger completed in 2007.

Insiders speaking to the Independent pointed to accountancy firm Ernst & Young as being involved in the planned split, however Acromas downplayed talk, saying: "There are no current plans to either sell part of or float the business. We remain focused on delivering excellent service for the customers of both AA and Saga."

Chinese online services Alibaba Group have invested $200 million into their Aliyun OS as a separate new business venture.

The investment will be used to fund the creation of Aliyun OS as a new business unit along with expanding infrastructure, technology and technical staff.

The news of the investment comes from a leaked internal email from Alibaba’s CEO.

A manufacturing facility owned by Foxconn, a major Apple supplier, was the location of a riot involving 2,000 workers.

The “incident” occurred on Sunday night and according to Foxconn related to a personal dispute which then escalated.

Foxconn stated that: “According to police, some 40 individuals were taken to the hospital for medical attention and a number of individuals were arrested".

Business Secretary Vince Cable will announce plans today to provide £1 billion in funding for businesses loans aimed at SMEs.

The fund will help to establish a business bank, tasked with helping struggling small and medium business, which have faced difficulty in securing loans from other high street banks.

Vince Cable said yesterday: "The government understands the frustration felt by many small- and medium-sized businesses around securing credit, especially from the big four retail banks. Many new, promising, growing companies simply can't get the loans they need to expand on reasonable terms.

International ICT services firm Getronics have received a £10 million extension on their contract to provide IT systems to Bid Shopping.

Bid Shopping, the UK's first-ever live auction TV shopping channel, hosts much of their critical IT systems in Getronics’ data centre.

The agreement will see Getronics staff and Bid Shopping’s own IT services department working together to develop a flexible IT system.