Industry news

“Effective immediately, we will be bringing our technology, tools, and team to the revenue engineering team at Twitter,” Dasient wrote on its company blog.

Known for its anti-malware platform, which can scan web addresses to assess the presence of harmful content, Dasient represents Twitter’s second web security acquisition in three months. In November, Twitter bought Whisper Systems, an encryption startup that originally built encryption software for Android.

The purchase of Dasient is the latest sign of San Francisc0-based Twitter’s growing dedication to online security, an issue that the company had skimped on in the past. Along with its web address analysis products, Dasient has also created a service that can hunt down malicious online advertising to protect the ads and content of customer websites.

Stepping up his campaign against outsourcing, US President Barack Obama announced a series of measures that would offer incentives to those firms which will create jobs in the country, a move that may also affect companies in India.

"If you're a business that wants to outsource jobs, you shouldn't get a tax deduction for doing it," Obama said in his State of the Union Address during which he presented an economic blueprint aiming to take his country away from outsourcing, bad debt and phony financial profits.

Many of his proposals centred on changes to the tax code, including limiting deductions for companies that move jobs overseas, rewarding companies that return jobs to the United States and increasing taxes on wealthy Americans.

UK economic activity shrank by 0.2% in the last three months of last year according to official figures.

It marks a sharp drop in economic activity from the third quarter of 2011, when gross domestic product (gdp) expanded by 0.6%.

The figures, from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), are a preliminary estimate, which could be revised either up or down by 0.2%.

Apple reported record-breaking net profits for the three months to 31 December 2011 of $13.06bn (£8.36bn).

This figure is up 118% from the same period in 2010.

The company also sold 37 million iPhones, more than twice as many as it sold in the last quarter of 2010.

Software and outsourcing firm Quindell Portfolio has announced plans to buy personal injury specialist Silverbeck Rymer and combine it with its claims and Mobile Doctors business to provide a joint outsourcing offering to the UK insurance claims market.

The proposed acquisition, which values Silverbeck Rymer at £19.31m, involves £10.25m in cash and the issue of up to 120.8 million Quindell shares at 7.5p each, which will be subject to lock in arrangements ranging from 12 to 36 months.

Nelson will hold the post alongside his existing position as the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) CIO and will take over from Joe Harley, who will be retiring from the civil service at the end of March.

Nelson has been heavily involved in the government's cloud computing plans over the last year.

Commenting on the appointment, Ian Watmore, permanent secretary at the Cabinet Office, said: "It is fantastic to be able to assign the role of government CIO to someone who has held major CIO roles in private sector and has been involved in the ICT strategy since the very beginning. Andy has worked closely with Joe over the past months and will continue to do so – ensuring that we continue to deliver ICT services fit for a modern civil service."

Nelson will hold the post alongside his existing position as the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) CIO and will take over from Joe Harley, who will be retiring from the civil service at the end of March.

Nelson has been heavily involved in the government's cloud computing plans over the last year.

Commenting on the appointment, Ian Watmore, permanent secretary at the Cabinet Office, said: "It is fantastic to be able to assign the role of government CIO to someone who has held major CIO roles in private sector and has been involved in the ICT strategy since the very beginning. Andy has worked closely with Joe over the past months and will continue to do so – ensuring that we continue to deliver ICT services fit for a modern civil service."

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has awarded a significant desktop management contract to HP under the Desktop 21 framework agreement.

The five-year £316m Desktop 21 deal covers a range of desktop services including security, print, service desk and device provision and support, and will see the DWP move to HP's WorkPlace360 desktop management platform from 2013.

Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg has opened a £2m contact centre in Sheffield, which is set to create jobs over the next year.

It is Ant’s fourth contact centre, and will create 200 new jobs over the next 12 months, making the company one of the region’s largest employer.

Acquisition and refurbishment of the facility was backed by Santander Corporate Banking. The new premises will deliver outbound sales and customer service for some of today’s household names including British Gas.

Mr Clegg commented: “Ant is going from strength to strength and these 200 jobs are a big boost for Sheffield. I am always glad to see Sheffield companies grow and everyone at Ant should be very proud of their success.”

Information Services Group, a leading technology insights, market intelligence and advisory services company, has released data showing a surge of large contracts in the fourth quarter lifted the outsourcing market in Europe, the Middle East & Africa (EMEA) to a record performance for 2011.

The 4Q11 EMEA TPI Index, which measures contracts valued at €20 million or more, found fourth-quarter total contract value (TCV) in the region reached €13.4 million, an increase of 17 percent from the fourth quarter of 2010 and 12 percent from the third quarter of 2011. Four of the global market’s five fourth-quarter mega-deals – contracts valued at €800 million or more – were awarded in EMEA.

For the year, the region recorded TCV of €44 billion, an all-time high and an increase of 27 percent on 2010. The number of contracts awarded also set a record, mirroring a trend in the other regions of the world. Globally, EMEA accounted for more than 60 percent of the market’s value, half of all contracts awarded and eight of the ten mega-deals signed.

“This region had a substantial impact on the performance of the global market both in the fourth quarter and in 2011,” said Duncan Aitchison, Partner & President, ISG North Europe. “The growth we saw was largely the result of significant mega-deal activity as well as large contract awards in the historically less robust outsourcing markets, particularly France, Southern Europe and the Middle East.”

The TPI Index, presented by ISG, provides a quarterly snapshot of the sourcing industry for clients, service providers, analysts and the media. Now in its 37th consecutive quarter, it is the industry's authoritative source for marketplace intelligence related to outsourcing transaction structures and terms, industry adoption, geographic prevalence and service provider metrics.

The 4Q11 EMEA TPI Index recorded a return of demand in the private sector in the United Kingdom, which saw a 15 percent increase in contract numbers year-on-year and 40 percent in TCV.

By scope, IT outsourcing (ITO) and business process outsourcing (BPO) both recorded their highest-ever TCV and contracting activity in the region in 2011. ITO TCV grew for the third consecutive year, reaching €31 billion, while BPO TCV more than doubled to €13 billion on the strength of three mega-deals. The number of BPO contracts awarded in 2011 increased by 37 percent compared to the previous year.

All of the major industry groups in the region performed strongly in 2011. Financial Services saw its best year ever in EMEA, both in terms of contract signings and value, recording a TCV €13.4 billion. Manufacturing TCV of $13.2 billion was also near its high-water mark.

“Looking at the year ahead, it seems likely that the EMEA market will maintain its pace in terms of numbers of contracts but may find it challenging to match its 2011TCV, which was buoyed by exceptionally large transactions,” Aitchison said. “The economic volatility in Europe and continuing uncertainties surrounding the euro, however, could still change profoundly the shape and scale of outsourcing demand in the region.”