Industry news

Big Ambition is an innovative programme that seeks to attract teenagers towards education and careers in IT. It focuses on helping 14 to 19-year-olds make informed decisions in a way that is accessible and interesting.

Internet for Business (IFB) has been chosen to take part in a video project that encourages school-leavers into a career in IT. Thirty-two companies have been selected to create a case study in a four-minute video. Each film focuses on the day-to-day running of the company, and gives viewers an insight into what working for IFB would involve.

IFB operations director Graeme Gordon said: “It is great that we have the opportunity to encourage young people to join our industry. IFB is a forward-thinking, rapidly-growing organisation and this provides us with the ability to offer the highest levels of service and training and it is fantastic that we have the chance to inspire people to join the industry.”

Capita is to handle the BBC's TV licensing collection and administration for another eight years.

The deal, which comes into force in July, is expected to be worth about £560m to Capita but it will also save the BBC more than £220m over the contract.

Zarin Patel, BBC chief financial officer, said: "Capita's bid was the best both in terms of innovation and efficiencies and so offered best value for money."

SA can take advantage of Europe’s economic climate to become a top destination for business process outsourcing, including call centres, according to Full Circle CEO Franco Cotumaccio.

With the uncertainty in Europe, companies were looking to outsource call centres to cheaper labour centres and SA could benefit.

Earlier this year, US online retail giant Amazon said it would expand its call-centre operations in Cape Town, creating 1400 jobs by the end of next year.

Full Circle was established in 2005 and helps international companies to move their call centres offshore. Mr Cotumaccio said on Wednesday that SA had a "rich proposition" globally that put it at an advantage ahead of peer countries such as India.

Accenture and Enbridge Gas Distribution Inc., an affiliate of Enbridge Inc. have signed a new business process outsourcing (BPO) services agreement that extends their existing customer services contract for an additional five years, to 2017. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Under the extended agreement, originally signed in 2007, Accenture will continue to provide outsourcing services related to billing, payment processing, back office, call centre and collections functions. These services will be provided through Accenture’s Global Delivery Network.

The Press Association and Express KCS have formed a partnership to offer outsourced print and digital advertising production to newspaper publishers.

It means that PA, which already provides ready-made editorial pages to newspapers, will be able to include high-quality ads in its packages as well.

Standard Life has announced it will cut a further 69 jobs in IT, facilities and telephony in an effort to meet its promised £100 million cost savings pledge by the year’s end.

The latest cuts come after the firm announced it would axe 95 jobs in its customer services departments in Edinburgh and Glasgow earlier this month.

Overall 179 jobs in Edinburgh are affected by yesterday’s announcement, although the change will see 37 jobs created, which are expected to be filled internally. A further 17 jobs in the company’s network and telephony division are being transferred to BT

In his autumn statement, Chancellor George Osborne announced £5bn of spending on infrastructure projects such as roads, railways and broadband networks.

£100m of that is set to boost broadband coverage across 10 cities including London, Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff. Six other cities will be announced later.

"For the first time we are identifying over 500 infrastructure projects we want to see built over the next decade and beyond. Roads, railways, airport capacity, power stations, waste facilities, broadband networks," the chancellor told the House of Commons.

Private equity firms Blackstone Group and Bain Capital are preparing a bid for all of Yahoo with Asian partners in a deal that could value the web portal at about $25bn (£16bn).

The plan follows smaller bids made by consortia including Microsoft tabled earlier this week which valued the web portal at just $20bn. The Microsoft bid was the lower of two.

New Yahoo bid ups price to $25bnPrivate equity firms Blackstone Group and Bain Capital reported to be working with Alibaba to make full bid for web portal that would value above earlier bids by Microsoft and others

The EU Commission is proposing €80 billion in funding for research and innovation over seven years. The programme – to be known as “Horizon 2020” will make it easier to seek funding, easier to bring good ideas to market, and easier for Europe to invest in innovation for the future.

Neelie Kroes, EC vice president for the Digital Agenda, outlined details of the £63bn project, entitled ‘Horizon 2020', in a blog.

Neelie said: "Improving Europe’s investment in R&D – through better funding, and better coordination – is right at the heart of the Digital Agenda for Europe. The ICT sector, just under 5% of GDP, contributes an amazing 25% of business research and development spending. So it’s no wonder that ICT is the most important thematic area of funding of the Horizon 2020 proposal, as it is in the current FP7 programme.

"There’s funding for ICT-specific developments like e-infrastructures for science, and key enabling technologies (KETs) such as micro-/nanoelectronics and photonics in order to build on Europe’s strengths and fight for future industrial leadership. And support for a new instrument first put forward in the ICT area: Flagship projects in Future and Emerging Technologies (FET): long-term support for large-scale transformative projects (up to 1bn over 10 years per flagship)."

Accenture and BNP Paribas Cardif have signed an eight-year business process outsourcing (BPO) agreement under which Accenture will manage an important portfolio of BNP Paribas Cardif's group life insurance policies business in France, including the administrative management of the insurer's call centers and ancillary accounting operations.

The agreement is designed to enhance the quality and efficiency of services BNP Paribas Cardif is providing to its clients, leveraging an information technology (IT) platform that benefits from Accenture's expertise and competencies. The platform is designed to become an industry standard and to support BNP Paribas Cardif's growth agenda and reinforce its market position in the group life insurance business.

"In today's economy, leading insurers are increasingly looking to streamline their operations to create new business opportunities," said Didier Descombes, an executive director in Accenture's Financial Services group. "Our objective is to provide high-quality and cost-competitive services, and support insurers in their business strategy in France and globally."