Industry news

IBM board of directors has elected Virginia M. Rometty president and chief executive officer of the company, effective January 1, 2012. She was also elected a member of the board of directors, effective at that time. Ms. Rometty is currently IBM senior vice president and group executive for sales, marketing and strategy. She succeeds Samuel J. Palmisano, who currently is IBM chairman, president and chief executive officer. Mr. Palmisano will remain chairman of the board.

“Ginni Rometty has successfully led several of IBM’s most important businesses over the past decade – from the formation of IBM Global Business Services to the build-out of our Growth Markets."

WNS, a leading provider of global Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) services has announced a 20-month extension in the outsourcing contract with its founder company, British Airways (BA), U.K.'s largest flag carrier airline. Under the renewed service agreement, WNS will focus on further strengthening the back-office operations center of excellence that delivers a range of airline operations, including customer relations, fares and PNR servicing requests, passenger and cargo revenue accounting, finance and accounting, research and analytics, revenue and yield management and HR shared services.

"This is an extremely proud moment for us; we are delighted to take this fifteen-year-old relationship with BA to the next level of growth. BA continues to be one of our most important and exciting clients and with the new service agreement we aim to provide strategic benefits to both parties, and drive further innovation for BA," said Keshav R. Murugesh, Group CEO, WNS Global Services.

Swiss drug-maker Novartis planning to outsource as it cuts 2,000 jobs in an attempt to save $200m (£125m) a year.

Novartis reported profits in the third-quarter of $3.5bn (£2.2bn) but is battling against rising prices and the strong Swiss franc.

The cuts will affect nearly 2% of its workforce and will be carried out over the next three to five years.

Sites in Switzerland and Italy will be closed, with work outsourced to countries with lower costs.

The Transport Workers Union (TWU) says Qantas will not employ new workers in Australia under its current corporate structure.

Qantas executives made the statement during enterprise bargaining agreement negotiations with the union today, TWU national secretary Tony Sheldon says.

Qantas executives had given an undertaking not to outsource any more jobs but have now reneged on that agreement, Mr Sheldon said.

IBM has announced that it has opened the IBM Smarter Cities Challenge grant program to new applications for 2012. Smarter Cities Challenge is a three-year, 100-city, US$50 million grant program in which IBM's top technical experts and consultants provide actionable advice to urban centers.

This highly successful grant program provides select applicant cities with access to teams of elite IBM employees with expertise on a variety of urban-related matters, such as finance, sustainability, public safety, and citizen services.

Oracle has announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire RightNow Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of cloud-based customer service, for $43.00 per share or approximately $1.5 billion net of RightNow's cash and debt. RightNow's Customer Service Cloud helps organizations deliver exceptional customer experiences across call centers, the web and social networks.

The Board of Directors of RightNow Technologies has unanimously approved the transaction. The transaction is expected to close by late 2011 or early 2012, subject to RightNow stockholder approval, certain regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.

"Oracle is moving aggressively to offer customers a full range of Cloud Solutions including sales force automation, human resources, talent management, social networking, databases and Java as part of the Oracle Public Cloud," said Thomas Kurian, Executive Vice President, Oracle Development. "RightNow's leading customer service cloud is a very important addition to Oracle's Public Cloud."

Vodacom, and its parent company Vodafone, have broken new ground in South Africa by achieving the first ever 6-star Green Star SA rating for the Vodafone Innovation Centre building in Midrand, Johannesburg.

This is the first time that a South African building has achieved this rating.

The Vodafone Innovation Centre will be powered by renewable energy and utilises innovative cooling and heating technologies. Once completed, the Centre will house a team of experts tasked with creating energy efficiency solutions that are expected to significantly reduce Vodafone’s global emissions.

Pieter Uys, Vodacom CEO says: “We are delighted that our building has achieved this accolade. Over the last few years, we have worked hard to reduce the Group’s impact on the environment; it is a core strategic priority for both Vodafone and Vodacom. The Innovation Centre, as the hub of our creative thinking around a low-carbon future, will play a critical role in the reduction of carbon emissions across the Group.”

Mahindra Satyam, a leading global consulting and IT services provider, has announced the inauguration of Saab India Technology Centre, a Research and Development Centre, in Hyderabad.

The Saab India Technology Centre, SITC, will form a bridge between India and Sweden. The aim of the centre is to support the internal operational excellence and optimization initiatives within Saab, while also supporting Saab to expand in the Indian market. An initial base of 100 skilled Indian engineers to be inducted by the close of 2012 will form the backbone of the Centre. The SITC is expected to increase its headcount to at least 300 over the next three years.

“Aerospace & Defence is a major growth area for us and establishment of SITC is a strategic step towards synergizing Mahindra Satyam’s unique strengths in mission critical systems, engineering services, systems integration and Saab’s expertise in aerospace, Network centric warfare, special IT systems”, said CP.Gurnani, CEO, Mahindra Satyam at the inauguration ceremony.

TPI, an Information Services Group company and the leading independent sourcing data and advisory firm in the world, today released data showing that an acquisition-driven mega-deal lifted the outsourcing market to a record level in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) during the third quarter of 2011.

The 3Q11 EMEA TPI Index, which measures contracts valued at €20 million or more, tallied €12.1 billion in total contract value (TCV), an increase of 99 percent year-on-year, and 47 percent sequentially, the region’s best third quarter ever. Excluding the €5.8 billion contract awarded by Siemens to Atos as a part of its acquisition of Siemens Information Services, the region’s TCV rose 4 percent over the third quarter of 2010 but fell 6 percent from the second quarter of 2011.

“The Atos-Siemens mega-deal made a major impact on outsourcing results in both the European and global markets in the third quarter," said Duncan Aitchison, Partner & President, EMEA, TPI. “However, even without that contract, this region market turned in solid results and a very steady performance.”

Unisys Corp.'s (UIS) third-quarter profit soared as the information technology company generated strong revenue from its systems integration and outsourcing services.

Shares jumped 20% to $24.03 after hours on the sharply better-than-expected results. The stock had been off 35% over the past 12 months through the close.

Unisys has sold convertible shares this year to help fund debt buybacks, which has pressured its stock but prompted Fitch Ratings to lift the company's credit ratings a notch in June.