Industry news

Careline Services has been appointed by the Government to provide the new Business Link helpline.

The updated Businesslink.gov.uk website will be the primary point of support, but the helpline will provide help to 20 per cent of small firms who are not currently online. It will include a language translation service and textphone.

The helpline centre will be operational by 25 November when the Business Link Regional Services close. It will be based at two sites, in Hounslow, London and Seaham, County Durham.

Melin Homes, which provides affordable homes in South Wales, has signed a five-year deal with Capita's software services division. It is hoped the deal will create efficient working processes and streamline operations.

Capita is to provide a number of services for Melin, including CRM facilities, online access to tenancy information, customer profiling and satisfaction surveys, as well as CRM facilities.

Global company back-office function provider Aegis is creating 600 jobs in Manchester.

The company’s strategy involves operating call centres onshore in the country they are serving. "Increasingly, UK companies are realising that this delivers the best levels of customer service and many are starting to reverse previous decisions to establish call centres overseas." said Aparup Sengupta, Aegis global chief executive.

Further to this, Aegis will open more customer service centres in Continental Europe over the next two years, creating an estimated 3,000 new jobs.

Bharti Airtel and IBM have settled on a 10-year agreement to roll out IT offerings to Airtel's employees across 16 African nations.

The New York-based multinational technology and consulting firm is to provide a standard operating environment, 'help desk' and 'desk side' support. Not only will the deal improve employee efficiency and convenience, it is expected to bring about cost savings and efficiencies by streamlining processes for addressing IT operational issues

Expenditure on new IT systems for 2011-2012 to drop to one per cent of retailers' total sales revenue on average, the lowest since research firm Martec International first started compiling records nine years ago.

This year's survey –of CIOs and IT directors from 150 UK food and non-food retailers representing 71 per cent of total UK retail market by sales revenue - makes for grim reading.

"It is bad news, worse when you discount inflation, but there is a huge spectrum of some retailers growing, some going out of business and those in between," says Martec International managing director Brian Hume.

HTC infringed two of Apple’s patents, says Judge. Now, this intitial determination will be reviewed by a panel of ITC judges, who can choose to uphold or reject it.

The patents two are for a “system and method for performing an action on a structure in computer-generated data" and a "real-time signal processing system for serially transmitted data.” The same patented strings of code feature in a dispute between Apple and Motorola.

The case is ongoing. "We are confident we have a strong case for the ITC appeals process and are fully prepared to defend ourselves using all means possible," said Grace Lei, General Counsel for HTC.

The 2011 National Outsourcing Association Awards (NOAAs) for Best Practice in Outsourcing is inviting suppliers, users and support services to enter a submission to this industry leading event by the 5th August 2011.

For the first time ever the NOA will be bringing together it’s annual Sourcing Summit and Awards on the 9th and 10th November 2011 at the Park Plaza Riverbank Hotel, London. Held on the final day of the summit, the eighth annual awards will recognise and reward innovation and achievement by suppliers, users and integrated teams within the outsourcing industry.

Entries embrace the whole spectrum of the industry – no matter what sector they are in, outsourcers of all sizes, whether an individual, SME or multinational corporate - all have an equal chance to win.

With planned attendance of 500 guests, this unmissable evening will provide an ideal setting to entertain and network with leading players in the industry. The NOAAs are unique in that they are completely independent, and as such they are highly respected and coveted within the industry.

Visit www.noa.co.uk for registration details.

Aegis Limited, the leading global outsourcing services provider and part of the Essar Group, has announced it is to enter the UK and European market for the first time, creating 600 new jobs in Manchester.

The 600 roles will be at a new customer centre in Manchester, which is expected to open later this year. Aegis then plans a further significant expansion across various countries in Continental Europe, where a number of additional customer service centres will be opened during the next two years.

Aegis, which is one of the world’s largest outsourcing businesses with over 50,000 employees across 50 locations globally, is entering the UK and European outsourcing market at a time of strong

forecast market growth.

The U.K.’s Cabinet Office has published guidance to help Government procurers consider supplier proposals “Government ICT Offshoring (International Sourcing) Guidance”.

This guidance is aimed at Chief Information Officers (CIOs), Senior Information Risk Owners (SIROs), Senior Responsible Owners (SROs) and procurers in Government Departments and exchequer funded bodies, to help them consider supplier proposals which include offshore provision and which may offer value for money.

The guidance is focused primarily on situations in which suppliers of a procured service would wish to use offshore capability to deliver some or all of the service in question. It is not intended to deal with proposals to relocate inhouse services. Any such proposals would have to be considered, as now, by ministers in the light of all elevant factors.

Offshoring efficiency savings are currently often found in Application Development (AD) and Application Maintenance and Support (AMS) services as well as in Remote Infrastructure Management Services (RIMS), implementation, testing, etc. In addition the drive to move towards consumption of publicly available shared (cloud) services, will lead to increasing delivery of ICT services from worldwide locations.

The Guidance covers the following 60 main items by categories:

1.Definition

2.Potential Benefits

3.Risk Mitigation

4.Offshoring Plan

5.Offshoring and Procurement Law: Legal obligations

6.Procurement checklist when considering offshored sliutions

7.Information Assurance

8.Data Protection

9.Freedom of Information and commercially sensitive data

10.The Data Handling clauses and Cabinet Office Pliicy Notes

11.Human resources

12.Wider economic considerations

Williams Lea, the leading global provider of corporate information solutions, has announced that it has been appointed as Managed Service Provider for print and print management services to central Government.

The contract, announced by Francis Maude, the Minister for the Cabinet Office, on 13 July 2011, is the first centrally managed contract to be awarded by Government Procurement. Under the new arrangements, the HMRC print contract will be available to all Government departments in a deal that is expected to save £21m and will replace 140 contracts with a single contract.

Williams Lea, the largest print buyer in the UK, won the contract following a highly competitive process designed to identify a strategic partner to help HMRC and central Government departments move away from a tactical print model.

As the Managed Service Provider, Williams Lea will work with Government Procurement and key stakeholders to drive efficiencies, while identifying and developing opportunities to transform print activity throughout the life of the contract.

“We are delighted to have won this prestigious contract,” said Miles Toulson-Clarke, Board Sponsor for Williams Lea. “Government Procurement was looking for an organisation with a proven record of success and the ability to deliver a transformational solution on a pan-Government scale. With this being the first centrally managed contract to be let by Government Procurement, we are delighted to have been selected to work with central Government and look forward to engaging with key stakeholders and existing vendors.”