Industry news

Google have announced announced plans to support the training of over 100 Teach First ICT and science teachers.

This three-year partnership between Google and Teach First is borne out of the severe shortage of teachers in economically important subject areas. It will see a new generation of teachers working in schools in challenging circumstances to enthuse pupils about ICT and open their eyes to the possibility of a career in the sciences.

Google's contribution will support Teach First's training of 102 teachers, 34 for each year of the partnership. Over the three years, Google will support 61 ICT and 41 science teachers to work in schools across the country, with the first 34 entering classrooms in September. To ensure that the ICT teachers, and their pupils, have access to the latest cutting-edge technology, Google will also provide each teacher with a bursary to fund the purchase of innovative teaching aides to inspire their classes.

Speaking about the partnership, Teach First Founder and CEO, Brett Wigdortz, said: “Through joining forces with Google, Teach First will be able to ensure that more than 20,000 pupils from low socio-economic backgrounds will benefit from having access to inspirational ICT and science teachers. It is fitting that, as we mark our tenth anniversary and begin to look to the future, we have been joined by a truly 21st century organisation. This partnership has the potential to help a generation of young people access the technologies of the future.”

Unite, the largest union in the country, is to hold urgent talks with Hewlett-Packard to safeguard up to 1,600 jobs under threat at its UK operations.

Hewlett-Packard, the world's largest maker of personal computers, is to cut 27,000 jobs across the globe by the end of 2014.

Unite believes that up to eight per cent of the UK’s workforce of 20,000 are under threat – and Unite will be working with the PCS union to use every means possible to protect those jobs.

Unite’s national officer for IT and communications, Kevin O’Gallagher said: “This is a devastating blow to the technology industry in the UK – a sector we need to develop to create future jobs and growth.

“We will be working with the PCS union to use every means possible to protect these vital and high-skilled jobs. We hope to arrange meetings with the senior management, both in the UK and with the global business leaders, as soon as possible to set out our alternatives.

“Hewlett-Packard is still a highly profitable company which is, we believe, simply aiming to cut costs to increase both its market share and profits, while showing scant regard to its loyal and dedicated workforce.”

Dell has announced it has finalised the acquisition of Make Technologies, a leading application modernisation software and services company.

This acquisition, combined with the recent acquisition of Clerity Solutions, enables Dell to empower customers to reduce the cost, risk and time required to transition business-critical applications from legacy systems to cloud infrastructure and open, standards-based platforms.

Through this technology, Dell is positioned to help organisations leverage more flexible platforms, allowing them to better leverage social and mobile technologies, enhancing workforce productivity and helping to deliver better business results.

Steve Schuckenbrock, president, Dell Services said: “The addition of Make Technologies to our Dell Services portfolio allows us to offer customers a complete suite of application modernisation services to help them move their legacy IT environments to more modern architectures. At Dell, we are focused on solving some of our customers’ most complex problems with powerful IT solutions. With Make and Clerity we believe we have the industry’s most robust offering to help customers meet their modernisation goals in an efficient, reliable and cost-effective way.”

“If Dell embraces the MAKE process as well as the tooling, it will gain a formidable weapon for its services arm. The sky truly is the limit for Dell - if it plays its cards right¹,” wrote Forrester Research, Inc. principal analyst, Phil Murphy.

“The combination of Make Technologies and Dell provides the market with a single vendor solution for any modernisation activity and is an exciting step in expanding growth opportunities for our core application modernisation software and services,” said Bill Bergen, president and CEO of Make Technologies, Inc. “Together, with Dell’s global reach, scale and reputation for customer support, Make’s methodology and tools will become even more accessible to more customers struggling with the dilemma that surrounds legacy environments.”

Oracle has announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Vitrue, a leading cloud-based social marketing and engagement platform that enables marketers to centrally create, publish, moderate, manage, measure and report on their social marketing campaigns.

The transaction is expected to close in the summer of 2012 and until the transaction closes, Oracle and Vitrue will continue to operate independently, and it is business as usual.

“The proliferation of social media and an increased demand by consumers to engage with brands across multiple social channels is driving chief marketing officers to look for an integrated social marketing platform,” said Thomas Kurian, executive vice president, Oracle Development. “Vitrue’s leading social marketing and engagement platform coupled with Oracle’s leading sales, service, and commerce products offers a complete social experience solution to our customers.”

Dell has reported a 33 percent drop in profits in a disappointing quarterly report for former market leader.

The company, which has slipped to third place in the global PC market, said its profit in the first fiscal quarter fell to $635 million. Revenue in the quarter was $14.4 billion, a four percent decrease from the same period the previous year.

Dell said however the firm was moving away from its traditional PC base to services. "We continued to shift the mix of our business during a challenging environment," said Brian Gladden, Dell's chief financial officer.

HP has confirmed plans to reduce its workforce by 27,000 which would amount to eight percent of the companies staff by 2014 in order to make savings of £1.9 billion.

The move will come as part of long term restructuring and cost cutting by the company, which began at the end of October. The cuts will come in the form of both retirement offers and redundancies.

The move comes as HP announce a reduction of the company’s net income by 31 percent in the third quarter from the same time last year.

De Vere had the challenge of trying to join two separate Wide Area Network (WAN) services using an interconnect which was proving costly and inefficient. They chose Claranet to design a WAN that would connect 60 locations to a single platform.

The aquisition and merge of Initial Style Conferences Ltd and De Vere Group plc, meant that both companies had seperate WAN providers, which was not practical or cost effective. With the two separate WAN contracts coming to an end almost simultaneously, De Vere began planning for a new networking solution that would unify the Group and provide a higher performing and more reliable platform.

Jo Stanford, De Vere Group IT Director, said: "We invited Claranet to pitch, but were unsure how they would compare to some of the larger players. Yet, without a doubt, they gave us the most confidence, and proved that they had the right team in place to deliver a better performing WAN that would unify our business. Thanks to the strength of their relations, expertise and experience, Claranet pulled the rabbit out of the hat – more than once – to make sure our WAN was delivered smoothly and on time."

BAE Systems has secured a contract worth £1.6 billion to provide Hawk and Pilatus aircraft to Saudi Arabia.

The move will secure 200 jobs and will see the defence giant supply 55 Pilatus turboprop and 22 Hawk jet trainer aircraft as well as technical support to the Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF).

BAE's group managing director, Guy Griffiths, said: "We have a long history in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and, working with Pilatus, we will provide the RSAF with the best training platforms to meet their requirements.”

Analytics is being viewed as an increasingly vital tool in business. Social media has been seen as a new way in which businesses can employ analytics technology. Analytics is being seen as a hugely important tool with many CIOs, rating the employment of analytic technology as one of their new top priorities for 2012.

The use of high quality data to inform high value decision making has become increasingly valued. The employment of analytics can provide cost-savings, efficiency as well as generate insights that can allow for market breakthroughs. The acquisition of social media companies or their employment externally from businesses in order to increase analytics within business has become increasingly prevalent.

This week multinational computer technology company Oracle entered into negotiations to buy social media marketing company Virtue. The acquisition of Virtue would provide the technology giant with the ability to combine Virtue’s services in providing social media campaigns and direct interaction with consumers with Oracle’s own data analytics and management capabilities.

The coupling of social media with advanced analytics will allow customers to accurately gauge how effective their social media campaigns are performing. Companies are increasingly releasing technology designed to incorporate analytics with social media for both internal use as well as selling the technology within a wider market.

Companies spend multi millions on social media campaigns however the implementation of analytics can allow the user to assess the success or failure of the campaign. Social media sites such as Facebook are widely recognised by businesses as being key in engaging and advertising to consumers, without analytics the impact of such services cannot be measured. General Motors pulled a multi-million dollar advertising campaign from Facebook after determining that the success of the campaign did not warrant the revenue expenditure.

The importance of social media in attracting consumers is being increasingly recognised and social media is being increasingly focused on within business strategies. The use of business and consumer analytics with social media provides insights and analysis revenant to business strategies and allows for a flexible approach which adapts to the evidence that analytics gathers. Analytics allows users to identify new areas open to innervation. When the technology is used in conjunction with a social media strategy then innovation can occur on-demand and be adapted to fit the evidence.

Marketing wisdom dictates that to make headway with the consumer, marketers need to be creative. Too often businesses believe that the secret to a successful marketing campaign is witty and hard hitting messaging. But that’s not always the case. It’s fair to say that until recently creative ruled the roost. However, with the birth of big data, marketers now have a new tool at their disposal.

The expanding data footprint left by consumers means that businesses are increasingly aware of individual preferences and reactions – gone are the days of mass market messages which rely solely on creative. By cleverly using customer data to their advantage, marketers are able to target consumers in a way never before possible.

Here are some top tips for making data and creative work for you:

• Use data to drive creative decisions

Marketers should view data as a new tool that can supplement the marketing process of old. The insight gained from data can be used to identify target audiences with a new-found degree of sophistication. In turn this influences the imagery and messaging used in advertising campaigns for competitive advantage and ROI.

• Combine your teams

For many businesses, the structure of the marketing team now includes marketers, creative and data experts. Data is increasingly an important part of the team. From an in-house and agency perspective, the ability to use data in campaigns is fast becoming an area of differentiation which sets them apart from the competition.

• Refine and optimise

Businesses need to recognise how data and creative can work alongside one another to drive ever-smarter and ever-more effective targeted campaigns. A prime example is email and web banners – with the use of data, knowing who to target and where to display or send them not only makes the process more effective, but a whole lot more efficient.

• Target more precisely

Businesses should appreciate that ‘the public’ rarely have homogeneous tastes. Instead they should look to target specific consumers based on their attributes and behaviours – not only is this more effective, but by removing irrelevant marketing it enhances the customer’s experience too.