Industry news

Engineering and technology corporation Metso and Fujitsu Services Oy have signed an agreement on IT infrastructure services for Metso's sites in Finland.

The contract, which was signed at the end of August, marks a continuation to a long-standing collaboration which dates as far back as the 1990's. The first Patja agreement that incorporated all Metso sites in Finland was sealed in summer 2003.

”We have been happy with the service. In particular, Fujitsu has succeeded in productising its service provision. Although key people have changed along the way the basic concept has proved strong and there has been no disruptions in the service,” says Vice President, Group IT Pauli Nuutinen of Metso.

The Patja service model, known as the 4114 service at Metso, provides end-to-end services for 8,000 workstation users at Metso's 60 sites in Finland.

Dell Inc is cautiously optimistic that its strong performance in Europe and Asia will continue, but is concerned about U.S. government spending, an executive said.

Steve Schuckenbrock, who runs the U.S. company's $8 billion services business, told Reuters it was yet to be seen whether a typical September spending surge as U.S. federal budgets close would happen this year.

"We're continuing to monitor demand big-time, as European issues, U.S. issues continue to get debated and discussed," Schuckenbrock said in an interview in London on Tuesday.

Accenture has announced that it has agreed with the U.S. Department of Justice to settle a lawsuit originally filed in 2006 (United States ex rel. Norman Rille and Neal Roberts v. Accenture LLP) for $63.68 million. The lawsuit claimed that, in work for the U.S. federal government, Accenture received payments, resale revenue or other benefits through alliance agreements with technology vendors that were not sufficiently disclosed and that were not allowed on federal contracts.

Accenture and the U.S. Department of Justice have agreed to settle the suit to avoid additional time, inconvenience and expense that would come with protracted litigation.

The agreement is not an admission of liability by Accenture. Accenture continues to vigorously deny that there was any wrongdoing. The U.S. federal government was aware of alliance relationships in the IT industry and how they would benefit customers, vendors and the IT industry. The details of how alliances worked in the IT industry were widely reported in the industry press.

Capgemini Norge AS, part of the Capgemini Group, one of the world’s foremost providers of consulting, technology and outsourcing services has been chosen as EnterCard’s partner to support their rapid growth ambitions.

EnterCard is a Nordic company that issues credit cards on behalf of partners, or under its own consumer brand. Capgemini will be the main provider for application maintenance and development services supporting EnterCard to more rapidly deliver new innovative products to the market.

Through the agreement Capgemini will provide end-to-end responsibility for application development and management including testing services. EnterCard has chosen Capgemini to consolidate the number of suppliers operating its central systems.

“EnterCard is growing rapidly and we are heavily focused on developing great propositions for our customers and partners. For us it is important to have an agile IT-partner that can match our market leading ambitions as the card industry develops and the needs of our customer are changing. To speed up the pace of development we have chosen Capgemini as the partner to help us continue our growth in the Nordic region” said Tord Topsholm, Operations Director for EnterCard.

GE and PSA Peugeot Citroen have signed an agreement that will potentially become one of the largest Electric Vehicle (EV) deals between a single corporate and a single Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) in Europe. The agreement, which was signed as a memorandum of understanding on September 14th in Frankfurt, involves the potential purchase of up to 1,000 EVs from PSA Peugeot Citroen, by GE Capital, which the company would offer to its customers at a pan-European level.

The agreement would see GE Capital lease EV vehicles across Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the UK. GE Capital is a leading lessor of vehicles, with a customer fleet of approximately 250,000 vehicles in Europe, and 1.6 million globally. In July 2011, GE Capital announced the first European supply of EV Citroen C-Zero cars to technology giant, 3M. The PSA Peugeot Citroen move furthers GE Capital’s public commitment, made in November 2010, to purchase 25,000 electric vehicles globally by the year 2015.

“This is a landmark agreement and we are affirming our commitment to the future of electric vehicles and building on our strong relationship with European car manufacturers,” said Isabel Fernandez, CCO at GE Capital EMEA.

CSC has announced it has signed a ten-year contract with a U.S. based global multi-brand commercial products manufacturer to provide information technology (IT) and infrastructure managed services. The contract is a global 10 year agreement with an estimated value of more than $900 million and was effective on September 1, 2011.

By leveraging CSC’s expertise and global network of delivery centers, the new client expects to improve the overall efficiency and service level of its IT function.

Under the terms of the agreement, CSC will bring new innovative IT approaches covering a large scope of global infrastructure managed services, including: service desk, end user support services, network services, data center services, distributed computing services and security services.

“CSC and this new client have a common vision of what a world class IT function can bring to a large enterprise, and we are thrilled to be the IT partner of choice for such a successful and dynamic company,” said Michael W. Laphen, CSC chairman, president and chief executive officer. “CSC brings the right mix of expertise and innovation to this client that will reduce their overall cost and risk, elevate IT service levels and position them to more effectively capitalize on future growth opportunities.”

HP has abandoned plans to offshore the jobs of IT support staff working on the Adams 2 contract for the Department of Work and Pensions.

HP first revealed it was in talks to transfer some 200 roles based in north-east England to India to help it match the Government's demand to cut costs.

The move was met with obvious resistance from HP employees, the Public and Commercial Services Union and latterly local MPs, who highlighted the security implications of overseas workers managing a live database on 25 million citizens.

Hundreds of workers at a north London council are taking part in a strike in protest at changes to their terms and conditions, according to a union.

Unison said about 400 of its members at Barnet Council were staging a one-day walkout.

Highways, planning and crematorium workers are among those taking strike action over planned outsourcing.

The Capita Group Plc has announced that it has acquired Insurance Medical Group Limited (IMG) for an undisclosed sum. IMG provides medico-legal reporting, diagnostics, and pro-active physiotherapy and treatment services.

The acquisition, which follows the acquisitions, last year, of Premier Medical Group and First Assist, adds further expertise and capacity to Capita’s wellbeing and health business. It also opens up new parts of the medico-legal market, particularly claims management companies and small and medium sized law practices.

Commenting on the deal, Jason Powell, who moved to Capita with the acquisition of Premier Medical Group and now heads up Capita’s medical reporting business, said: “IMG produces more than 20, 000 medical reports each year and arranges more than 50,000 physiotherapy appointments through the Physio-link network. This acquisition will add important new expertise to Capita’s range of health services, enabling us to provide of a full suite of medical reporting and screening services. The deal also further demonstrates Capita’s commitment to, and investment in, the medico-legal market.”

HP has announced its expanded Enterprise Security Solutions portfolio, designed to help enterprises establish and execute a comprehensive security strategy that addresses threats and potential liabilities resulting from the rise of mobility, cloud computing and social media.

More than 50 percent of senior business and technology executives surveyed believe that security breaches within their organizations have increased during the last year. Nearly 30 percent responded that they experienced a security breach by unauthorized internal access, while 20 percent responded that they had experienced an external breach.

The expanded portfolio includes new capabilities to help enterprises assess, transform, manage and optimize their security investments.

“Organizations today are quickly realizing the importance of a comprehensive risk management strategy to securing assets across their corporate infrastructures and protecting corporate reputation,” said Jan Zadak, executive vice president, Global Sales and Enterprise Marketing, HP. “HP’s extended security portfolio provides the protection that enterprises require, while providing customers, employees, partners and consumers with instant access to the right enterprise assets without compromising risk.”