Industry news

London Borough of Merton has upgraded its IT platform to increase the proportion of requests driven through online channels.

With telephone support previously being the primary channel for logging service issues at busy periods, end-users often experienced long waiting times.

Now, the council has upgraded to Hornbill’s Supportworks ITSM Enterprise version 3, which will enable customers to submit faults, track their progress, request loan equipment and view FAQs and quick tips that may help them diagnose and resolve issues themselves.

Public sector organisations the world over have been the focus of a number of high-profile hacking attacks in recent months. Victims include the CIA, the EU and the US Senate and, closer to home, Britain’s own Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA).

“Government hacking is taking place right now behind the scenes,” announced a recent tweet from LulzSec, which claims to be the ‘hacktivist’ group that brought down the CIA’s website, and that used a denial-of-service (DoS) attack to overload the SOCA website with web requests until the organisation had to take it offline.

Vulnerable systems

In spite of all the horror stories about the stealing and leaking of confidential information, we still come across quite a number of public sector organisations that have yet to protect the sensitive data they hold – including email addresses, passwords and phone numbers – from cyber-attack. The NHS is just one high-profile example – LulzSec recently brought the weaknesses in the NHS’ networks to the public’s attention.

Public sector organisations’ failure to make their networks less vulnerable is particularly surprising, considering how easy it is to implement security measures, and considering how security budgets seem more or less to have survived cuts. In some instances it might just be that these organisations have too many priorities to consider, and not enough time in which to consider them all. In any case, many fail to take the action needed to protect their systems.

The cost of inaction

But there is much to gain and nothing to lose in being proactive about data security, in addressing weak password policies, un-patched systems, or badly configured firewalls and intrusion prevention systems.

If delayed action is just a question of timing, public sector organisations should weigh up the pros and cons of acting immediately or acting later. It makes a lot more sense to take preventative measures now than to wait for the worst to happen. The fallout from a hacking attack can be more than a little damaging: negative publicity, unwanted media attention, the cost of mending a shattered reputation, and the possibility of being fined thousands (one council recently paid £120,000) by the Independent Commissioners Office (ICO) for breaching the Data Protection Act.

Prevention is better than cure

Waiting to get hacked isn’t a viable option. Prevention is better than cure, and methods of prevention are cost-effective. Penetration testing is particularly effective in establishing which areas of an organisation’s security are vulnerable. The procedure involves checking the internal and external infrastructure, including web applications, and attempting to gain unauthorised access. Some organisations have an engineer turn up unannounced and try to gain access to the network under false pretences.

It is often surprising to see which assets are publically discoverable, but once you have identified where your network is strong and where it is exposed, you will know that the changes you implement will actually make a difference. A good engineer will leave you with instructions on how to check the network yourself for future reference.

In the process of securing their systems, public sector organisations should ensure that their internet access is controlled with an intelligent web solution, that they are aware of all the applications running on their networks, and that they have appropriate spam controls in place. Naturally, they should also ensure that they comply with all the relevant regulations.

Secure data

There have been many embarrassing, damaging headlines in recent years about public sector data leaks. Missing laptops and memory sticks are just one small part of a huge data security problem that it is in everybody’s interests to address. Data security providers can help to implement security at the device level, the network gateway level, and at the level of the client device within the secure network, so that a public sector organisation and its data are protected when the next hacktivist strikes.

HMRC will cut £235m in IT spending over the next four years, as part of a change program that uses private sector benchmarking to understand costs better, according to a National Audit Office report released today.

Using unit cost data to benchmark costs between business areas, HMRC has identified waste and improved its awareness of sound financial management "HMRC benchmarked its accommodation and IT costs against the private sector and other Government departments," says a National Audit Office Report.

National Outsourcing Association Chairman Martyn Hart writes for Guardian Government Computing today. The article comments on public sector ICT offshoring and the all-important exit strategy.

See the full article here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/government-computing-network/2011/jul/21/noa-it-offshoring-exit-strategy

Barclays Capital, the investment banking division of Barclays Bank, is rolling out a new IP address management (IPAM) platform globally.

Barclays has chosen to standardise on an IPAM platform produced by Infoblox, which simplifies IP address management and helps automate network infrastructure-related tasks.

IBM has opened a new IBM Cloud Data Centre in Japan and a dedicated data centre for LotusLive, IBM's cloud collaboration service.

The new facilities will extend IBM Cloud even further – currently it serves over 50 countries, from data centres in Singapore, Germany, Canada and the USA.

The European commission has begun legal action against 20 EU member states yet to inform the commission of steps they are taking to tunr new telecoms rules into National Law. The deadline for implementing the rules was 25 May 2011.

The directive was passed to update the rights of businesses and consumers regarding mobile phone services and internet access. A key facet of this is more clarity about services and better data protection online.

Only seven member states – including the UK – have informed the EC that the rules have been implemented in full.

Fujitsu will extend its managed services contract with the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).

The three-year extension will take the deal up to 2016. The £19m contract extension will make savings of 15 per cent on operational ICT costs.

“Fujitsu has delivered real, tangible benefits to our front line officers and we look forward to the contract’s continued success over the next five years.” said John Tully, head of Information and communication services for Northern Ireland Police.

When was the last time you heard someone - a child, a student, a young professional, someone wanting a career change – say that they wanted to become an outsourcer? Let me guess… never?

Yet outsourcing is everywhere, affecting organisations of every size, from major corporations to SMEs, in every industry, across all verticals. The outsourcing market is maturing, generating an enormous £207 billion per year for the UK economy – 8% of the UK’s output, which bears close comparison to the overall size of the UK financial sector (which totals 8.1% of output)

Outsourcing is never short of column inches, is discussed in cabinet meetings, is seemingly permanently in the limelight, yet no-one grows up wanting to be an outsourcer. Outsourcing’s ascension to the status of accountancy, law, medicine – a proper, ‘professional’ profession – is long overdue.

Despite being roughly equal in pecuniary terms, compared to the financial sector, outsourcing has a definite image problem. Just not enough people are aware of its potential as a viable, lucrative career. This is an issue of education – not only creating awareness, but creating standards to work towards. An industry wide, universally accepted kite mark of quality. A recognised benchmark of knowledge and ability. Accreditation. Professionalisation. Chartered status.

Outsourcing contracts valued in millions and billions are commonplace. With such gargantuan sums at stake, there is a clear need to make sure projects are optimised for best practice. Everyone involved knows what they are doing, and, at the same time, be assured that everyone around them knows what they are doing too. Training programmes with standardised qualifications are the only way to ensure this.

To get the very best of an outsourcing deal, you need the best people, and talented people are ambitious; they don’t want a ‘job’, they want a ‘career.’ If your best people are not furthering and bettering themselves, they will seek opportunities to do so elsewhere. Not only is provision of training and development opportunities is a decisive factor in the war against staff attrition, but continuing professional development is one of the most important factors in employee motivation. To have a supremely dedicated workforce - willing to go ‘the extra mile’ to ensure customer satisfaction - is of undoubted benefit to any company, and companies that do not invest in training are likely to fall behind their competitors and lose market share.

Whether an IT programmer, call centre advisor, or an operations manager, everyone involved in an outsourcing project has the dual responsibility of representing two brands. Outsourcing should not be seen as a simple delivery of services. It is a partnership. Partnering should be seen as a mutual benefit, not a threat. It is vital to understand that collaboration will only make their businesses stronger. Partners should be able to work as an integral part of clients’ businesses, as collaboration offers the opportunity to share the flow of knowledge and experience between individuals and organisations. Adoption of standards will quickly address this, providing a commonality of approach and implementation that can only be good for the industry.

Although outsourcing as an industry is established, the concept and development of outsourcing as a profession is relatively new. There is a significant challenge in transferring the necessary skills, knowledge, technical infrastructure, tools and techniques. This challenge needs to be embraced through qualifications, development workshops, skills mapping and expert panel groups.

Outsourcers need to set up ongoing talent programmes to plan, acquire, develop and retain talent aligned to sourcing needs. This can be done with a strong HR program and outsource training provider, promoting the advantages and opportunities to learn from cross cultural experiences, mentor programmes and teams.

Staff Development is certainly not the ‘soft’ side of outsourcing, but should be seen as one of the hinges to operational and individual employee success. The skills required are continually evolving, as companies now look towards outsourcing providers as an extension of their own organisation, demonstrating similar knowledge of their business issues and shared commitment to goals. Skills mapping in outsourcing enables an organisation to analyse existing talent and identify key activities, roles, client expectations and can also be used to outline responsibilities in a contract between an end-user and supplier. It is vital to look ahead and provide a timeline with progressive short term goals when skills mapping, so development and training can be completed to meet changing requirements as the relationship develops over time.

Whether onshore or offshore, the importance of finding a good outsource training provider should not be underestimated. A training provider which shares a common vision will not only provide courses for employees, and give support to rationalise administrative processes and costs - they can also help an organisation consider new options regarding suppliers and services.

The National Outsourcing Association’s NOA Pathway is a set of accredited qualifications designed to develop competency and provide professional recognition in the outsourcing industry. It is a talent programme that reflects the fact that outsourcing is part of everyday business now, and is awarded to individuals, rather than organisations. The programmes are flexible to allow the participants to shape the programme around their own agenda.

The gold standard in outsourcing education is the NOA Professional Certificate, which is accredited by Middlesex University - one of the UK’s leading work-based academic institutions. Participants reflect critically on their working experiences and are required to demonstrate that they are able to undertake in-depth research and develop insightful analysis.

The outsourcing industry offers a unique opportunity to professionals to develop new systems of best practice and create their own successful career path in an emerging market. So while outsourcing can only go from strength to strength -with the increasing flexibility of models, cost effective use of new technology and a prospective surge in public sector contracts - the amount of growth and recognition will ultimately depend on the management, recognition and development of the people.

Plans to cut 55 IT jobs from Birmingham City Councils call centre, and offshore them to India have been scrapped.

Service Birmingham, a joint venture between Capita and the council, relocated 17 roles in April and planned to outsource a further 38 in August.

Now, in the face of public and media pressure, the plan has been axed.