Industry news

Bloomberg have reported that IBM has informally approached RIM regarding the purchase of its enterprise business division, citing two individuals familiar with the proposal.

If the report is accurate, it would see IBM acquire the division that currently operates RIM’s corporate email and messaging servers.

RIM has refused to confirm or deny reports of IBM’s approach, saying “RIM does not comment on rumour and speculation”, IBM also refused to comment on the report.

VanceInfo Technologies and HiSoft Technology International have merged, creating China’s largest outsourcing company based on revenue.

The move saw the share prices of both companies fall as the markets reacted to the merger. VanceInfo saw its share listing fall by as much as 13 percent while hiSoft dropped 7 percent.

Despite the early fall in share prices, the combined company is expected to report revenue this year of $670 million.

BMT Defence Services and IPL, who already provide IT services to the Ministry of Defence, have been selected to provide information management systems.

The management contract is designed to "address known technical update requirements, resolve legacy issues and improve usability for all users across the operation”, according to the MoD.

The two companies will partner together to deliver the services, which is expected to drive down development cost and reduce reliance on long term support.

New IT and BPO outsourcing contracts dropped from 516 to 411 in the second quarter of 2012, according to research firm Everest.

The reduction in new contracts by 20 percent has been blamed on the economic crisis in Europe and uncertainty surrounding its future impact. The run-up to the US presidential elections has also seen US based companies look to distance themselves from the practice, with outsourcing linked negatively to off-shoring.

Practice director for global sourcing at Everest Group, Salil Dani, said: "The market is growing, but the pace of growth is slowing down".

G4S who failed to deliverer on its Olympic security outsourcing contract, have donated £2.5 million to the armed forces, who were drafted in to cover the gap in security.

The donation by the global security firm will be divided between the armed services, welfare organisations and sports groups.

A G4S spokesman commented that: "We wanted to recognise the huge contribution made by the military after it became clear that there would be shortfall in workforce delivery.”

Microsoft and the New York Police Department have joined together to develop a crime and counter-terrorism prevention system.

The system Domain Awareness System (DAS) will include smart cameras and license plate readers and will be able to relay information to the NYPD surrounding suspicious vehicles and packages. DAS will also include real time access to video feeds, records, and call logs.

New York city mayor Michael Bloomberg, said “we are finding new ways to leverage already existing cameras, crime data, and other tools to support the work of our investigators, making it easier for them to determine if a crime is part of an ongoing pattern, and will allow the NYPD to better deploy its officers".

The system has raised concern from privacy groups regarding the wide-sweeping nature of data collection by police and the involvement of a private corporation.

CSC CEO Mike Lawrie, has said that the company is making progress with the NHS, saying: “We made good progress with NHS. We're continuing to work with NHS”.

While Mr Lawrie was positive about on-going negotiations with CSC regarding the failed Lorenzo project, he failed to announce if an agreement had been reached regarding the National Programme for IT (NPfIT).

CSC have currently delivered management software to three trusts in the UK, contract negotiations regarding the programme are set to be resolved this month, with a deadline set for the end of August.

Google will settle US charges for $22.5 million for privacy violations regarding the tracking of Safari users through cookies.

The fine from the US Federal Trade Commission ranks as the largest ever handed down.

Google falsely told Safari users that it would not create tracking cookies within their software or place targeted ads on their browsers.

Jon Leibowitz, chairman of the FTC, said: “No matter how big or small, all companies must abide by FTC orders against them and keep their privacy promises to consumers, or they will end up paying many times what it would have cost to comply in the first place."

A study carried out by Virgin Media showed that UK businesses want ‘smart cities’ that can employ Big Data.

The study showed that 84 percent of UK businesses wanted ‘smart cities’ in order to reduce logistical pressure such as heavy traffic.

The study comes after the Chancellor pledged £100 million to create 10 citywide networks.

Lee Hull, director of public sector at Virgin Media Business, said “Big Data supporting better transport and road systems may just be around the corner for the British public”.

Infosys are facing new visa fraud allegations. In a lawsuit against the company, past employee Satya Dev Tripuraneni, claimed that he raised concerns to Infosys regarding visa applications.

Tripuraneni claims that he was asked in regard to an Infosys employee to persuade a client, “to agree not to bill a person on site, but rather to bill for dummy resources outside the United States who were not involved in the client's business."

Tripuraneni in the suit then claimed that on having raised these issues with his supervisors, he began to receive negative performance evaluations and later an anonymous caller threatened his family.

The case is scheduled to begin on the 20th of August.