Industry news

British firm Carillion expects its support services business to deliver substantial growth in 2012, helped by the acquisition of energy-saving firm Eaga and an increase in public sector outsourcing.

The group, which maintains motorways, railways, military bases and telephone lines, on Tuesday said public sector outsourcing work represented a major chunk of its bid pipeline and expected this to propel growth in the division, which accounts for around 50 percent of group profit.

Many public sector organisations at both local and central government levels are considering outsourcing large parts of their operations in a bid to meet tough cost saving measures

BHF-Bank, is outsourcing part of its IT system management to Atos. The international IT services provider will take over responsibility for the bank’s workplace computers, file and e-mail services as well as its telecommunications and network technology. BHF-Bank employees responsible for these services will transfer to Atos.

The transfer of the IT infrastructure services is due to start in October 2011, with Atos assuming full responsibility by first quarter 2012. The company will provide the services mainly from its location in Frankfurt, its nearshore centre in Poland, and the BHF-BANK computer centres in Offenbach.

"The project with BHF-BANK is a key part of the Atos growth strategy in the German finance sector" explains Winfried Holz, CEO of Atos Germany. "Under this agreement, we will use our industry and technology expertise and workforce integration experience to deliver a high quality and cost efficient service to BHF-BANK"

Mr Richard Bruton, TD, Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, has announced that Google has acquired 11 acres of land and an existing building on Dublin’s Profile Park and will soon begin construction work on a highly energy-efficient data centre. A data centre is a specialised building full of computers that run online services such as the Google search engine, Gmail and Google Maps.

Once complete, the facility will rank amongst the most energy-efficient data centres in the world. Google will use advanced air-cooling technology that has been tested and perfected at Google’s existing rented datacenter facility in Dublin. This technology takes advantage of Ireland’s naturally cool climate and uses outside air to cool computers instead of costly and energy-hungry air-conditioning units.

Google will invest up to 75 million Euros in the acquisition, build and fit out of its new facility, and will provide work for over 200 people from local and national firms at the peak of the construction phase. The contractors have already been selected after taking part in a competitive bid process.

Minister Bruton said: “As I have said repeatedly, the global cloud computing industry offers Ireland a massive opportunity for jobs and economic growth. I am determined that government will act decisively to seize that opportunity, and that is why I have established a cross-government implementation group to ensure that prompt action occurs.”

The world's largest mobile phone maker Nokia said on Friday that it had finished outsourcing 2,300 engineers to US-based global consulting firm Accenture.

"Nokia has announced that it has completed the transaction to outsource its Symbian software development and support activities to Accenture," the company said in a statement.

Nokia chief executive Stephen Elop announced in February the company would phase out Symbian as its smartphone platform in favour of a partnership with Microsoft, resulting in the loss of 4,000 jobs and the outsourcing of around 3,000 Symbian developers.

The number of outsourced jobs is fewer than the 2,800 that Nokia estimated in June.

The engineers will continue to develop Symbian software for Nokia through 2016, according to the company.

The news that Nokia and Accenture completed the transfer came just a day after the Finnish mobile phone giant announced it was slashing 3,500 jobs in Romania, Germany and the United States.

Those job cuts came on top of the 4,000 Elop announced in April, when he said no more layoffs were expected "for as far as we can see into the future."

Ultra announces that it has acquired AEP Networks Ltd. for an initial cash consideration of $57.5m.

A further sum of up to $17.5 million will be paid to the vendors based on financial results to 31 December 2011. The vendors were management, who have signed service agreements with Ultra, venture capital companies and private investors.

AEP is a leading supplier of secure network communication solutions. AEP‟s proprietary products are accredited by CESG/GCHQ, the UK government‟s national technical authority for secure electronic communications.

AEP has more than 5,000 blue chip and government customers in over 60 countries. Sales by region comprise 74% EMEA, 14% North America and 12% APAC. AEP undertakes system development in the UK and the USA. The majority of AEP‟s 80 employees are based in Ascot, Berkshire and Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire. AEP also has a sales and engineering operation in New Jersey, USA together with sales and support hubs in Australia and Malaysia.

The acquisition of AEP will be financed using Ultra‟s existing facilities and is expected to be earnings-enhancing in 2011 before the amortisation of intangibles. AEP is a bolt-on acquisition within Ultra‟s Tactical & Sonar Systems division.

Rakesh Sharma, Chief Executive of Ultra, commented: "I am very pleased that we have been able to bring AEP into the Group. AEP provides important complementary technologies and products to advance Ultra‟s strategy in the growing cyber security domain. AEP is a technology-rich company with strong intellectual property and wide global reach, operating in a fast-growing market place. AEP‟s encryption and network communication capabilities have strong market-facing synergies with Ultra‟s CIS, 3eTI, DNE, ProLogic and TCS businesses.”

Andy Haywood is leaving his role as IT Director at pharmacy chain Boots to join the Co-operative Group as Group CIO.

Haywood’s new role is as group CIO reporting directly to Peter Marks Group CEO of the Manchester based retailer, pharmacy, funeral services and banking group.

Haywood will remain with Boots until the end of this year and join the Co-operative Group in January 2012.

The Capita Group Plc (Capita) has signed a contract with The Pensions Regulator to support its direct communications with employers for automatic enrolment ofstaff into workplace pension schemes which will be phased in from October 2012.The seven-year contract has an option for the regulator to extend it for afurther three years and has an estimated value of £105 million.

The contract will commence from October 2011.The new requirements for employers to automatically enrol staff into work place pensions will be introduced gradually, on a `staged' basis from October 2012 toSeptember 2016, depending on employer size.

The Pensions Regulator will communicate with over 1 million employers as part of its role to maximise compliance with automatic enrolment. Under its agreement, Capita will take onthe responsibility for delivering high-volume employer communications and transactional processes in relation to new requirements.

Chief Executive of The Pensions Regulator Bill Galvin said: 'Helping more than 1m employers to get ready for automatic enrolment over thenext five years is a major challenge. We will provide high-quality information to every employer in the country, making it as simple as possible to comply.'Working with Capita will enable us to make a rapid transition to providing information to tens of thousands of small and micro businesses each month - as well as supporting them by dealing with their calls and questions - whilst continuing to focus on our role regulating the pensions industry.'

Nokia has announced plans to align its operations and workforce in its manufacturing operations, Location & Commerce business and supporting functions. As the key markets, as well as the majority of suppliers for feature phones are today in Asia, Nokia plans to focus its feature phone manufacturing on its high volume Asian factories and to close its manufacturing facility in Cluj, Romania by the end of 2011.

The planned closure of the Cluj factory combined with adjustments to supply chain operations is estimated to impact approximately 2,200 employees. Nokia will seek to aid the impacted employees with a support program to help with re-employment locally.

Wipro Technologies, the Global Information Technology, Consulting and Outsourcing business of Wipro Limited announced that it has won the 2011 Microsoft Software Development Partner of the Year Award. The company was honoured among a global field of top Microsoft partners for demonstrating excellence in innovation and implementation of customer solutions, based on Microsoft technology.

According to Srini Pallia - Senior Vice President & Global Head, Business Application Services, Wipro Technologies, “We believe that this recognition is testimony to our ability to seamlessly deliver comprehensive solutions across Microsoft technology platforms. We have been able to leverage our capabilities in Microsoft technology to adapt the enterprise system landscape to the present needs of business users. With the right expertise, blend of talent, tools and methodologies, Wipro has been able to deliver complex programs with defined business outcomes. We would also attribute this recognition to the significant investments that Wipro has made in delivering measurable business value to our clients.”

Wipro Technologies Recognized as 2011 Microsoft Software Development Partner of the Year

Wipro Technologies, the Global Information Technology, Consulting and Outsourcing business of Wipro Limited (NYSE: WIT) announced that it has won the 2011 Microsoft Software Development Partner of the Year Award. The company was honoured among a global field of top Microsoft partners for demonstrating excellence in innovation and implementation of customer solutions, based on Microsoft technology.

According to Srini Pallia - Senior Vice President & Global Head, Business Application Services, Wipro Technologies, “We believe that this recognition is testimony to our ability to seamlessly deliver comprehensive solutions across Microsoft technology platforms. We have been able to leverage our capabilities in Microsoft technology to adapt the enterprise system landscape to the present needs of business users. With the right expertise, blend of talent, tools and methodologies, Wipro has been able to deliver complex programs with defined business outcomes. We would also attribute this recognition to the significant investments that Wipro has made in delivering measurable business value to our clients.”

Verint Systems Inc. has announced the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire, upon closing, Global Management Technologies Corporation (GMT™), an Atlanta-based leading provider of workforce management (WFM) solutions.

GMT’s software and services are widely used by organizations particularly in retail branch banking environments.

“Verint continues to further broaden its enterprise workforce management solution with GMT’s complementary functionality backed by a comprehensive set of supporting services and consulting methodologies,” says Dan Bodner, CEO, Verint Systems. “We welcome GMT’s management and employees to the Verint team. Together, the combined capabilities will further extend our application suite and advance our enterprise WFM strategy.”