Industry news

Genpact Limited, a global leader in business process and technology management, has announced that effective June 17, 2011, NV “Tiger” Tyagarajan will become the President and Chief Executive Officer of the company and will be appointed to the Board of Directors. Tyagarajan, the current Chief Operating Officer of Genpact, succeeds Pramod Bhasin who has decided to step down as CEO and member of the Board and become Non-Executive Vice Chairman of the company.

“Tiger is a superb choice to lead Genpact to its next phase of growth and development,” said Robert Scott, Chairman of the Board. “To have someone of Tiger’s talent and experience ready for this role is a testament to Genpact’s deep leadership bench and the strength of its succession planning process. On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank Pramod for his vision, leadership and outstanding contribution that have built Genpact into a global leader in its industry. He will leave a significant legacy.”

Tyagarajan was CEO of Genpact from 1999 to 2002 and led the business through a critical growth phase as a subsidiary of GE. When Genpact became an independent company, Tyagarajan rejoined Genpact from GE Capital U.S. as EVP, Sales and Business Development from 2005 to 2009. Thereafter, he took on the role of Genpact’s COO. Tyagarajan began his career with the Unilever Group in India, and then worked with Citibank, India. He joined GE Capital in 1994 and held a variety of leadership roles in both India and the U.S. until 2005. He is a mechanical engineer from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, and holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

“I am delighted to be able to hand over the reins of the company to my long term business partner Tiger,” Bhasin said. “We have worked together for over a decade to build Genpact into a truly global leader. I am confident that he is the right person to take Genpact forward in its next stage of growth. I have been truly privileged to lead this remarkable company and its employees from inception and to have helped create an industry that now provides employment opportunities to millions of people around the world. Along with helping Tiger, particularly in the areas of acquisition integration, organization development and growth in new geographies, I now look forward to other pursuits.”

Tyagarajan said, “I want to take this opportunity to thank Pramod and acknowledge his contribution as the founder and CEO of this company. He has been an extraordinary leader and we have all benefitted tremendously from his leadership and vision over the years.”

Tyagarajan continued, “I am hugely excited to lead Genpact. There are tremendous opportunities ahead of us. We are fundamentally improving the way our clients work. We are building a new “Science of Process” and continue to innovate and invest in comprehensive, cutting-edge technology-based solutions. The recent acquisition of Headstrong has given us exceptional high-end capital markets domain and technology expertise. I look forward to working with our terrific team to continue to create exceptional value for our clients and shareholders.”

Transport for London (TFL) has put out a tender for IT support for its 30,000 employees that will run for 10 years and cost up to £70m.

The tender - which was placed with the Official Journal of the European Union - requests a centralised service desk to provide a single point of contact for all IT-related incidents.

The successful supplier will take on some existing TFL IT staff under TUPE.

In addition to service desk responsibilities, TFL wants the supplier to provide user self-service tools, adherence to governance, service performance reporting based on agreed service levels, customer satisfaction surveying and reporting and continuous service improvement activities and suggestions.

Global IT and Product Engineering Services Company MindTree has announced the integration of its Business Intelligence, Data Warehousing and Knowledge Services practices, forming a new Data & Analytic Solutions (DAS) practice.

The integration creates one of the world’s largest information management practices offering customers a one-stop-shop to capture, analyse, enhance and view their business information in support of their corporate objectives.

“As our customers look to harness the power of their data, and turn this information into business insights, the integration of our business intelligence, data warehousing and analytics practices into one allows us to enable our customers to better compete in the market space,” said Scott Staples, Head of the DAS practice. “When you combine the breadth of our offerings with our practice size, specialised industry focus and the overall capabilities of MindTree’s complementary groups, our Data & Analytic Solutions practice is strongly positioned to create greater value for our customers than ever before.”

The MindTree DAS practice is headed by MindTree co-founder - Scott Staples, . The practice is currently 800 people strong and is seeing strong growth momentum based on excellent customer traction for this specialized offering.

The DECC has initiated the process for the procurement of the smart meter data and communication services that will be contracted to DCC.

Smart meters will provide consumers with near real-time information, enabling them to monitor and manage their energy use and will also play an important role in the UK's transition to a low-carbon economy. DECC published it's plans for smart meters back in March.

The DECC tender states: "We are interested to hear from parties who wish to be considered for the data and communications service provision contracts or that have an interest in the SMIP so that we may include those parties in the circulation of information about the SMIP and seek input in a number of areas in order to inform the process for procurement of the services."

Energy Minister Charles Hendry said:“Smart meters will play a key part in our move to a low carbon economy. The Government is determined to drive the smart meters programme forward, and I am very encouraged by the commitment of companies like E.ON to ensuring its success. The rollout will be the largest changeover programme in the energy industry since the introduction of North Sea gas over 40 years ago, involving visits to all households across Great Britain.”

CSC chief executive Michael Laphen has responded to David Cameron's warning over the possibility of NHS contract termination.

Mr Laphen said: “My understanding is that the prime minister said they were continuing with the reviews as we knew, and as we reported, before they go forward signing a revised contract with us.

“I understand there’s some realtime reports out there regarding the prime minister’s comments and remarks in the prime minister’s questions and I understand there’s a number of interpretations coming out of those remarks.CSC is looking forward to the final approval and signing of the MoU agreement. While the process to develop the MoU was protracted, it has resulted in a realigned programme that will deliver significant success and substantial benefits to the NHS, and both strategic and financial benefits to CSC.”

CSC has insisted that an MoU would be signed in the “next few weeks”. But the government reviews, which will now precede any contract signing, could take months.

CSC, the provider of computer services to companies and U.S. government agencies, won’t win any new business with the U.K. government, David Cameron said today.

The Prime Minister has said that the government won’t sign any additional contracts with CSC until reviews of missed deadlines on the system it’s building for the Department of Health are completed.

“We’re absolutely determined to achieve better value for money,” Cameron said in Parliament in London. “There are no plans to sign any new contracts with Computer Sciences Corp. until the National Audit Office report has been reviewed, and until the Public Accounts Committee meetings and major project authorization reviews have taken place.”

CSC is currently revising its contract with the U.K. Government’s National Health Services which caused a fall in CSC shares. The company also said its full-year sales and profit for the year through March probably missed its forecasts.

Barnet, Enfield and Haringey mental health trust has become the first organisation to use Buying Solutions' Desktop 21 framework to purchase IT services.

The north London trust has confirmed that it has signed an agreement with HP, one of three Desktop 21 suppliers, to deliver outsourced services. The firm will provide a fully managed desktop, including applications hosting, network management, data centre services and remote support services.

Desktop21 is a collaborative procurement process between Buying Solutions, DWP and OGC that has resulted in a desktop services contract for the DWP and a framework agreement for the public sector delivering desktop services.

The core offering under the framework agreement is desktop services, closely mirroring the DWP requirement. The requirements provide a standardised set of desktop services suitable for the whole public sector.

The trust said the deal will provide staff with remote access from PCs, laptops, PDAs and tablets with a unified communications capability. Back up and security will be provided through dual data centres and the centralised upgrading of software.

Accenture has been ranked No. 1 on the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals’ (IAOP) Global Outsourcing 100 list, marking the fourth consecutive year that Accenture has topped this ranking of the world’s best outsourcing providers.

The Global Outsourcing 100 is designed to help companies compare and select service providers using an objective methodology that mirrors the evaluation process a buyer would use to select a provider. Providers are ranked on quality following a rigorously judged application process that examines 18 criteria. The final rankings are based on a weighted average of the judges’ scores on demonstrated competencies, size, growth, management capabilities and customer references.

“Achieving the number one ranking for four consecutive years is certainly an accomplishment by Accenture, considering the high quality of the applicants and increased competition from around the world each year to hold on to the top spot,” said IAOP Chairman Michael Corbett, who led the judges panel. “The leading outsourcing firms make ranking high on the Global Outsourcing 100 a strategic objective and going through the rigorous application process benefits all applicants as well as helps buyers make better purchasing decisions.”

CPA Global has underlined its commitment to the Korean market and opened it's Seoul office. The company’s first in Korea, will be led by Steve Kim, CPA Global’s Director for Korea and a former Senior Corporate Counsel for Samsung.

CPA Global has had local agent representation in the Korean market for over 15 years, but is now establishing a direct presence and expanding its agent network in response to increasing demand for the company’s services.

Korea is the fifth largest international (PCT) patent filer in the world. In 2010, international patent applications from Korean companies increased by over 20%, the second highest increase in filings after China.

Speaking in Seoul, CPA Global’s Chief Executive Officer, Peter Sewell, said: “Korea is an important global market with many Korean corporations now operating on the world stage. Korean companies are increasingly developing their own IP, and the need to protect and manage those valuable assets internationally has never been more critical. This has brought a growing demand for specialist support in IP portfolio management. Responding to that demand, we are reinforcing our commitment to the Korean market by expanding our local agent network and establishing a CPA Global office in Seoul with a dedicated Korean team, offering local customer support.”

Today, increasing numbers of organisations are reviewing how they buy and manage their IT services and resources. More and more companies are turning away from the clear cut distinctions of in-house or externally managed IT, and looking at a blend of IT sourcing models to assist in achieving the optimal balance between cost, risk, agility and performance.

Indeed, by outsourcing, IT spend can be reduced by 15 to 20 per cent within the first year and if done properly can provide stability with predictable costs, guaranteed outcomes and optimised technology, improving service levels for both employees and customers. By outsourcing IT services to a third party, risk is minimised and existing employees can concentrate on a more strategic agendas, helping the overall growth and development of the business.

Outsourcing Trends

There are many ways in which outsourcing can help improve a business, from simple cost savings to encouraging best practise within an organisation. However, recent research from Ovum suggests that the UK IT services market is in a very fragile state at the moment, with growth predicted to slow in 2011 as the industry feels the full force of the public sector spending cuts. In fact, many sources have predicted that growth will slow to just two per cent in 2011.

Despite the aforementioned benefits of outsourcing, the current economic climate has resulted in many medium and large businesses bringing certain services back in-house. To either save money or take control, however this could be a risky long term strategy.

Both of these factors are frequently misconceptions: not only can outsourcing be far more cost-effective than carrying out tasks in-house, it can also be more effectively delivered, with dedicated teams of experts handling specialist tasks, using best practice processes and systems. This can be in stark contrast to overworked in-house IT staff, who can rapidly become over-stretched generalists with limited resources, or limited exposure for how to handle newer technical challenges.

Perceived Challenges

It’s important to prepare for outsourcing, rather than jumping straight in. For example, ask questions such as ‘how do we exit?’, ‘how long should we contract for?’ and ‘what are the vendor’s security practices?’ They should also research the third party, seeking proof the supplier has done this before ‘what’s its reputation like in this field?’ and 'do they have outsourcing best practices in place to accommodate my needs?’. All of these questions are vital to ensure companies get it right and don’t outsource to the wrong provider, undersource or even oversource. Consider outsourcing as fixed term M&A. Then evaluate, “can my internal team know what will be expected of them in a newly outsourced environment?”.

Many organisations today are switching to a smarter approach, taking ‘best-of-breed’ technologies and services from a number of organisations, rather than trusting monolithic organisations with entire projects. This approach is known as ‘multi-sourcing’.

The Art of Multi-Sourcing

Gartner describes multi-sourcing as an innovation discipline that takes organisations beyond ‘quick-fix’ cost cutting to enable capability building, global expansion, increased agility and profitability and competitive advantage . Yet in its simplest form multi-sourcing allows customers to reduce its reliance on a single supplier and allows the sourcing of service components from the ‘best-of-breed’ suppliers.

One of the main drivers behind the concept of multi-sourcing is that it helps leverage competitive pressures. Multi-sourcing allows companies to choose the most commercially and operationally compelling solutions, combining onshore, offshore and onsite capabilities, essentially customising the solution to meet needs exactly.

An example of multi-sourcing in action can be seen through the work FirstGroup has recently been doing to improve its IT support, IT user service and email management. A contract worth £36.2 million was put in place with three providers to host, manage and delivery technical support across the travel group. It quickly realised that by dividing the one contract between three, they would get a much better return on investment and also have a strong network in place to support all types of data all across the country.

Back to the Future

As the economic pressures across the UK and Europe continue to tighten, companies need to be savvy about their IT sourcing arrangements. Multi-sourcing can be a very effective model for coupling best-of-breed suppliers with the flexibility which can really enable a smarter, sharper business.

As IT departments start to get back on track and become more willing to try new solutions, it will be the flexibility and competitive edge that multi-sourcing offers which will entice businesses back into spending and trusting third parties with services and infrastructure. With the help of multi-sourcing, businesses can develop strong propositions and relationships across the globe, helping companies to be more flexible and cost effective. If money makes the world go round, multi-sourcing makes it go round in a much leaner and more agile way.