Industry news

Advanced Computer Software Group secures £17m 10-year contract

Advanced Computer Software Group, a leading provider of software and IT services to the UK health, care and business sectors, has signed a 10-year, £17m agreement with the Northern Ireland Department of Health, Social Care and Public Safety to supply a province-wide finance, procurement and logistics solution.

The solution is part of the Business Services Transformation Programme aimed at saving Health and Social Care (“HSC”) in Northern Ireland in excess of £8m per annum over the 10 year contract. The contract will enable the HSC to streamline processes and reduce administration and purchasing costs.

Vin Murria, Chief Executive of Advanced, commented: “This key contract win is a clear demonstration of our Group-wide capabilities to provide a range of interlocking services and products to enable our customers to materially improve their operational efficiencies and reduce costs.”

G4S has pledged “not to throw in the towel” on its plans to buy ISS for £5.2 billion, despite growing opposition among shareholders who will hold a key meeting this week.

The world’s leading security company needs the backing of three quarters of investors to buy the Danish outsourcer, which specialises in cleaning and catering.

As they prepare for an extraordinary meeting on Wednesday, several institutions have indicated that they will abstain or vote against the acquisition, leading to speculation that G4S might abandon the deal or delay the meeting.

An independent tribunal in Australia has ordered a permanent end to the industrial dispute that has grounded all Qantas flights.

Fair Work Australia issued its ruling after hearing evidence from the airline, unions and government at an emergency session in Melbourne.

In August, Qantas announced restructuring and outsourcing plans to combat annual losses in international operation of about $200m. Unions responsed with a series of strikes, pressing for more job security

IBM announced that Medio Systems, Inc., a leading provider of mobile predictive analytics, has selected IBM System x servers to power its cloud-based IT infrastructure that analyzes the behavior of over 90 million users within Medio’s network of game developers, mobile publishers, handset OEMs and wireless operators.

Medio Systems worked with IBM to deploy 230 IBM System x servers powered by intelligent Intel Xeon processors running Apache Hadoop and Linux to offer its predictive analytics solution in a distributed, cloud-based environment. This software and hardware solution is purpose-built for the wireless application and smart device industry.

“With IBM's support, we will continue to provide best-of-breed predictive analytics solutions that allow our partners to take data-driven actions that optimize revenue and increase customer engagement,” says Medio CEO Rob Lilleness. “We’re already seeing the benefits from this new partnership and look forward to extending our industry reach. Our scalable data-driven business is built on IBM’s smarter hardware and software, systems and services.”

Bournemouth Council is to take independent advice on an outsourcing contract after staff unrest over the suspension of a senior official who questioned the deal.

Chief accountant, Stephen Parker, was suspended on full pay after raising concerns over Bournemouth’s plan to outsource its HR and finance services to the troubled firm Mouchel.

Datacentre will be powered mainly by renewables and handle all data processing from Europe, the Middle East and Africa

Facebook is building a ‘green’ datacentre in Sweden, the social networking giant’s first datacentre outside the US.

The company has said that it had picked the northern Swedish city of Lulea, just 100km south of the Arctic Circle, because of its access to renewable energy and the cold climate that is crucial for keeping the servers cool.

Sony has confirmed that it is to buy out mobile manufacturing partner Ericsson taking full control of the Sony Ericsson brand responsible for the likes of the Xperia Ray and Xperia Arc S devices.

In an effort to close the gap on smartphone rivals such as Samsung, Motorola and HTC, Sony has confirmed that it is to purchase the 50 per cent share of the Sony Ericsson collaboration previously held by the Swedish mobile powerhouse Ericsson.

It is believed Sony will part with 1.05 billion euros (£916 million) in order.

The Children’s Mutual has announced the details of the Junior ISA, supported by Capita, it will launch on November 1.

As a leading provider of family finance solutions, managing more than one million Child Trust Funds (CTFs) alongside other investments and insurance products, The Children’s Mutual will be offering Junior ISAs to help families save for the increasing cost of their children’s future. Like its successful CTF operation, The Children’s Mutual has selected Capita to deliver the product platform and administration for its Junior ISA in a long-term contract.

Computacenter and international law firm Eversheds has renewed its ground-breaking IT services contract.

The five-year contract will give Eversheds access to leading technology and the ability to ensure that members of staff can access core systems, regardless of their location.

The service includes cradle-to-grave lifecycle management for desktop devices, end user support, datacenter hosting and remote management.

Computacenter will also provide services to 25 of Eversheds’ 46 international offices across the globe.

Paul Caris, Chief Information Officer at Eversheds, said: “We have been working with Computacenter for the last five years, and were keen to maintain the high service levels and quality of systems while facilitating greater agility within the contract, thereby allowing Eversheds to stay ahead of the pack as new and better technologies come to market.”

It seems quite simply absurd that the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) does not have jurisdiction over outsourced workers that guard detainees in police stations. These people are working within police stations, working alongside policemen, doing police-like work. The notion that they are not subject to the same scrutiny as the rank and file seems ridiculous.

I’m sure the vast majority of contractors do an excellent job, 99.9% of the time. But when things go wrong they need to be as accountable as the next man, especially if that next man is a copper. Yet, even in the event of individual failures that cause injury, or even death, the IPCC has no automatic power to discipline them.

This is not how outsourcing works. When BP endured the calamitous Deepwater Horizon oil spill not so long ago, it was proven to be the fault of their outsourcing service provider, Transocean. It was Transocean who owned and operated the rig. There were more than 10 times as many Transocean employees as BP staff on the rig. A disaster happened. BP got sued for negligence. And in turn, BP sued Transocean. Such is the nature of the legal playing field - everyone is bound by the law.

If you apply the same (lack of) logic that the police outsourcer situation is suffering from, then, hypothetically, BP would have got sued, but Transocean would have walked away unscathed and untouchable. In actuality, this would have never happened, because they were partners, working side by side, and culpability must be shared.

When a pharmaceutical company decides to outsource some R&D work their sourcing partner is constrained by the same stringent industry regulations. They are conducting the same work; they follow the same rules. Simple. Fair. Legitimate. Logical.

IPCC not having jurisdiction over contractors guarding detainees is completely unacceptable. ‘New Bill’ must be equally accountable as ‘Old Bill.’ Anything else is just plain wrong. The National Outsourcing Association calls upon the government to correct this unseemly situation, and slam this bizarre loophole shut with immediate effect.