Industry news

Debenhams the department store is upgrading its HP servers across 100 stores, with a larger roll out to follow. The upgrade has been highlighted to improve customer service through improved transaction processing.

A spokesperson at Debenhams expressed concern that its legacy hardware was putting the company at risk on non-compliance to PCI and subject to fines.

Debenhams is continuing in its quest to deliver a multi-channel strategy.

Oracle has announced it’s acquisition of GoAhead Software.

The deal, announced yesterday, is expected to benefit NEPs, providing inclusive services across telecom solutions.

GoAhead’s President and COO remarked: “With over 100,000 deployments of GoAhead software by leading NEPs, GoAhead brings significant domain knowledge and engineering strength, coupled with a strong track record of delivering solutions to global network equipment providers,”

HP announced several changes to the board of directors yesterday.

Meg Whitman has been appointed as President and Chief Executive as Léo Apotheker steps down after just 11 months in office. In addition, Ray Lane has moved from his post as non-executive chairman to executive chairman. These changes come as HP recognises its need for revitalisation; “We are at a critical moment and we need renewed leadership to successfully implement our strategy and take advantage of the market opportunities ahead.” Lane commented.

The NPIA’s strategy for a centralised system is supported by The Home Affairs Committee.

Despite the recent criticism of centralising IT in the NHS, MPs have called for plans to centralise UK police IT systems to be protected.

As the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) remarked, there is currently a “duplication of investment and effort.” The NPIA’s Information Systems Improvement Strategy would see hundreds of systems replaced with nationally available services.

NHS 24, Scotland’s provider of national telehealth and telecare services, has named Capgemini as the “preferred bidder” to run its clinical applications and patient contact management services.

Scotland’s health advice service says contract with new services provider will be signed early next year. It said the appointment is part of a new IT infrastructure programme.

The technology and outsourcing services company will replace Clinical Solutions, which extended its telephone triage software, decision support and related services contract with NHS 24 for two years in March 2010.

Salesforce.com, the enterprise cloud computing company, has announced it has acquired Assistly, an instant customer-service help desk built for the cloud.

Assistly lets small companies and emerging businesses set up and deliver social customer-service in minutes, with zero-touch onboarding.

"Salesforce has spent over a decade democratizing enterprise applications in the cloud," said Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO, salesforce.com. "The Assistly acquisition doubles down on that strategy by putting us at the heart of the new trend of customer service help desk applications that have instant sign up and zero-touch onboarding, expanding the potential reach of the Service Cloud to millions of companies around the world."

The government has announced an acceleration of the dismantling of the National Programme for IT, following the conclusions of a new review by the Cabinet Office’s Major Projects Authority (MPA). The programme was created in 2002 under the last government and the MPA has concluded that it is not fit to provide the modern IT services that the NHS needs.

In May 2011 the Prime Minister announced in the House of Commons that the MPA would be reviewing the NHS National Programme for IT.

Francis Maude, Minister for the Cabinet Office, said: “This Government will not allow costly failure of major projects to continue. That’s why we have set up the Major Projects Authority – to work in collaboration with central Government Departments to help us get firmer control of our major projects, and ensure there is a more systematic approach by departments as well as regular, planned scrutiny to keep projects on track.”

“The National Programme for IT embodies the type of unpopular top-down programme that has been imposed on front-line NHS staff in the past. Following the Major Projects Authority review, we now need to move faster to push power to the NHS frontline and get the best value for taxpayers’ money.”

NICE Systems Ltd has announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire Fizzback, introducing the most complete Customer Experience Management (CEM) with the integration of revolutionary, real-time Voice of the Customer (VoC) solution.

The Fizzback SaaS offering is a real-time operational VoC solution. It sends consumers requests for feedback relating to a specific interaction or transaction via mobile, web or social media. The consumer is engaged at the point of experience, for example in the contact center, branch, point of sale (POS), mobile application, or web. The feedback is analyzed by the system to determine a relevant response, and automatically conduct a dialog with the consumer in natural language rather than in survey format.

Zeevi Bregman, President and CEO of NICE said, "The adoption of and demand for CEM solutions, at all levels of the organization, including Marketing, Finance and Operations, is on the rise. With the addition of Fizzback, NICE is expanding the scope of its capabilities of Impacting Every Customer Interaction by introducing a Customer Experience Management solution with the most complete Voice of the Customer offering. This enables our customers to more effectively capture, understand and leverage VoC as the foundation to a cross-enterprise CEM strategy.”

Most UK CIOs need clarity on cloud services, according to a report released by Xantus.

The report, 'Supporting Business: The CIO Challenge', also shows more than 70 per cent of CIOs in large companies with a turnover £250m - £1bn believe their departmental budgets will rise over the next 12 months, with more than half expecting an increase greater than 10 per cent.

But despite the anticipated boost in IT investment, less than half (48 per cent) of those surveyed think their departments are fully prepared to support growth. The financial services sector and smaller organisations rate skills as the priority in enabling IT to support the aims of their organisation as a whole, while public sector and manufacturing are more focused on technology.

Obstacle and solution to growth...

The biggest obstacle for growth appears to be legacy hardware and systems (41 per cent), although for many CIOs (43 per cent) the application of new technology, such as cloud computing will be key to overcoming these issues.

Overall, IT leaders are broadly positive about the future (56 per cent), although cost cutting still remains a priority for many (40 per cent).

Steve Watmough, CEO of Xantus, commented: "The past 18 months have seen immense pressure on IT budgets. Although our research shows that CIOs believe this pressure is easing, corporate and IT leaders, supported by a well-resourced IT department, still need to drive their businesses

What comes next after the announcement of a merger, acquisition or other major business change?

Execution of strategy, which should include a programme of communication to all staff, is key to driving or improving performance and profitability after a major change, writes Shirley Barnes, Client Relationship Director, Dinamiks Ltd

The outsourcing industry is still young and dynamic and its players subject to swings in fortune as well as to merger or acquisition. HR may lag other departments in importance and professionalism and, if so, will need an overhaul or a refocus in order to help the business meet significant challenges.

HR can help the CEO at all stages of an execution programme and with the strategy itself, particularly if the HR manager sits on the board or is close to it, or if an HR director has been appointed. The execution must be seen by staff to be driven or overseen by the CEO; HR can help drive this visibility via good communication with staff.

At the heart of every successful execution of a strategy is a clear plan of communication and strong leadership from the top. Most executions fail or disappoint because of failures in these areas.

The CEO, often in conjunction with the CFO and other board members, should plan the vision, strategy, goals and values of the post-change company. Objectives need to be set and, importantly, tracked and evaluated as the programme of change, and communication to staff, is carried out.

Each step of the programme, especially the vision, goals and company values, should be visible to all staff at all times. This is important because employees, managers included, will want to know on a regular basis what the steps are and what is expected of them and the objectives they are working towards.

Communication at a glance

Methods of communication can include (I) e-communications such as use of an intranet [company website, perhaps with a Face book-style forum, and live and archived you tube-style videos of presentations/explanations by the CEO], email notifications and e-newsletters (ii) traditional communication tools such as posters on the wall in meeting/refreshment areas, as well as paper newsletters (iii) face to face and/or group meetings with managers, allowing consultation with all levels of staff, and problems or issues arising from the merger to be aired and discussed openly. They can also be aired and discussed in a company online forum - see (I) above.

The control and eradication of ambiguity and rumor – and achievement of other objectives - can be achieved by good communications, aided by online tools that track business and performance goals and ensure they are met. That way, a tight grip can be maintained by HR on the direction the company is going and on the performance of everybody in it, the CEO included, where appropriate.

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