Industry news

Figures from a consultation document published by the Scottish government have revealed that SMEs are far more likely to be awarded public contracts in Scotland than England.

The document revealed that approximately 78% of Scottish public sector contracts are awarded to SMEs. Contrastingly, only 13.7% of central government contracts and 49% of local government contracts are won by SMEs in England. Scottish government also claim that of the 78% of SMEs being awarded contracts, 60% are also Scottish.

Regardless of the impressive figures, Scotland will be looking to make it even easier for SMEs and new business to bid for public contracts.

Alex Neil, cabinet secretary for infrastructure and capital investment: “Public sector spending on goods and services across Scotland amounts to over £9 billion per year. Good public procurement is a vital contributor to growing the economy and done well it can be an effective lever in supporting delivery of the government’s priorities whether that is job creation, infrastructure development, strengthening our communities or supporting our transition to a low carbon economy.”

Scotland claim that between 2006 and 2008 that in only four other EU states - Luxembourg, Slovakia, Germany and Ireland - SMEs had greater access to public procurement.

Logica CEO Andy Green has left the IT service provider as Canadian CGI moves closer to finishing the acquisition.

Gary Bullard, CEO of Logica's UK operations, has also reportedly left the company with Tim Gregory, head of CGI's European division, moving to replace him.

CGI is expected to divide Logica’s infrastructure and combine it with existing CGI business departments.

BP has moved accounting and finance services to Accenture in order to standardise processes and employ data analytics.

Accenture will provide reports, revenue accounting services and order to cash services.

Brian Puffer, group controller at BP, said: “BP sees this partnership with Accenture as an important milestone in driving standardisation in our finance and accounting processes by consolidating our F&A service providers”.

Capita members of the Unite union are preparing to strike after the company announced plans to offshore work to India.

Capita has claimed that moving skilled jobs to India is necessary in order to keep the company competitive and enhance services provided.

The company issued a statement saying: “This consultation process is not yet complete and we are disappointed that 84 employees who are members of Unite – 2% of the entire IT Services workforce - have voted in favour of industrial action”.

Turkish Airlines are expecting to create cost savings valued at more than £10.2 million over five years, through a new global networking deal.

The deal will see Juniper Networks provide networking services to 200 Turkish Airlines business locations around the world.

Adnan Metin, head of IT at Turkish Airlines, commented on new services, saying that: “integrated Juniper-based network infrastructure has enabled us to simplify our operations radically and reduce costs while improving security, performance and scalability.”

Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire councils are expecting to create £5million in ICT annual savings.

The shared services implemented in 2010, covering back office, HR, ICT, frontline and professional services.

Local Government Association (LGA) who identified the savings, said: “IT is a critical enabler of wider business transformation and any failure will slow down other initiatives and ultimately impact on the success of third-party contracts.”

Axway who specialise in business technology solutions, have announced the creation of its Managed Service Provider (MSP) partner program.

The new program is designed to enhance and extend current collaboration, encryption, and file transfer solutions offered by Axway.

Mike Dayton, senior vice president, said: “Together with our partners, our solutions will enable improved business productivity and efficiency for security conscious enterprises, delivering the visibility and controls needed to mitigate corporate risk and reduce overhead.”

Communities in rural Scotland are set to receive £5 million from a government programme, designed to bring the next generation of communications to areas lacking IT infrastructure.

The funding will come from a joint initiative between the Scottish Government, Highlands & Islands Enterprise, Scottish Enterprise, COSLA and Local Government.

Alex Neil, Holyrood's Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure and Capital Investment, commented: “This investment of £5 million, over the next three years, will see targeted support being provided to community projects to enable them to deliver broadband solutions for their areas."

Slough Borough Council has outsourced its datacentre to hosting company Savvis.

The move comes as part of the council’s attempts to deliver cost savings through selling the previous datacentre site.

Council IT staff are able to link remotely to the new site, while Savvis will host the datacentre, the council will retain physical access to the site and will be able to implement maintenance.

A shared services venture delivered across local government and the NHS in Herefordshire, has delivered savings of £619,000.

The shared services, delivered through a joint ventures company called Hoople, were established in 2011. The services include back office integration and IT support.

Involved in the shared services were Herefordshire Council, Wye Valley NHS Trust and Herefordshire Primary Care Trust.

The service cost £1.5 million to implement, but is expected to deliver savings of £12 million over the next 10 years, and £33 million when taking into account overall shared service reforms.