Industry news

Utility giant Centrica is taking advantage of onshore and offshore software testing skills through an £8m deal with Software Quality Systems (SQS).

The 12-month managed software testing contract will test business critical systems such as those being used in Centrica's smart metering programme.

The deal is a signal of the increasing importance of software testing to Centrica, the parent company of British Gas. Previously the firm contracted SQS on a project-by-project basis.

Centrica will gain access to testing resources locally and offshore. SQS has software testing resources in India and South Africa.

The need to get smart metering applications right has increased Centrica's software testing requirement. The billing systems related to smart metering will be complicated because of the requirement to allow consumers to manage when they use energy and bill them accurately.

Source: http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2011/04/21/246511/Centrica-outsources-software-testing.htm

Greenpeace is lashing out at some of the world's largest technology firms over their datacentre practices.

The environmental watchdog group said in its 'Dirty Data Report' [PDF] that companies running large-scale cloud services are neglecting to adopt green energy practices and policies at the datacentre facilities.

The company pointed to vendors such as Facebook, Apple and Google as making poor choices in selecting green energy sources for their datacentre.

"Across the board, IT companies have thus far failed to commit to clean energy in the same way they are embracing energy efficiency, which is holding the sector back from being truly green," Greenpeace said in the report.

By failing to consider alternative energy sources when building facilities, the group argues that many vendors are driving up their carbon footprints and further damaging the environment.

Among Greenpeace's biggest complaints was the locations in which many firms are building their datacentre facilities. In particular, the group singled out Apple, Google and Facebook for their choices of venue.

All three firms have established datacentres in North Carolina, a region that Greenpeace has labelled as the 'Dirty Data Triangle.' The group said that the area in which the datacentres are located is particularly reliant on coal for generating electricity.

Source: http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/news/2045667/greenpeace-criticise-cloud-providers-dirty-energy-practices#ixzz1KcPRXxNj

The global cloud computing market will grow from a $40.7 billion in 2011 to $241 billion in 2020, according to Forrester Research.

On the way to all of this growth are a few notable nuggets from the report.

* For starters, the infrastructure as a service market will peak at $5.9 billion in global revenue in 2014 and then commoditization, price pressure and falling margins kick in. In other words, early wins by Amazon Web Services and Rackspace won’t add up in the long run.

* Software as a service will be adopted by companies of all sizes. In 2011, SaaS will be a $21.2 billion market and grow to $92.8 billion in 2016. AT that point SaaS comes closer to saturation.

* BusinessProcess as a service will be notable, but face modest revenue.

* Virtualization will recede to the background as new technologies take over.

Source: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/cloud-computing-market-241-billion-in-2020/47702

SQS signs £8 million Managed Services contract with Centrica

SQS Software Quality Systems AG has announced that it has signed a Managed Services contract worth £8 million with Centrica plc - the UK's leading integrated energy company.

Centrica has selected SQS to provide on and offshore testing, with a focus on raising quality and reducing risk within their business critical systems such as the Smart Metering programme, which is designed to be installed in over two million homes. The contract, which commences immediately, is worth £8 million over 12 months and will involve SQS providing end-to-end testing, from performance through to automated regression test suites, in an on and offshore model.

This contract represents a continuation of existing business volumes with Centrica. However, in signing a Managed Services contract for 12 months, Centrica has made a significantly longer commitment than the previous project-based contracts, resulting in improved revenue visibility for SQS.

David Cotterell, SQS Board Director, commented: "We are delighted that Centrica has extended its commitment to SQS, demonstrating the high value it places on partnering with a pure play, independent testing provider with a proven on and offshore presence. As well as providing greater revenue visibility this contract demonstrates the success of the ongoing strategic investment into our Managed Services business."

Sabio has won a contract to implement a customer contact centre infrastructure for Eurostar.

The contact centre specialist will apply Avaya Aura SIP-based technology platform that will allow the high speed rail service operator to integrate its call centre activities in London and Ashford.

Eurostar has nine million passengers a year and receives an average 1.2 million calls per annum. It also receives 85,000 customer interactions via e-mail and letter. The solution will support its current and anticipated future call volumes, and provide the flexibility to respond to heightened customer service demands at peak times or during periods of disruption.

The solution allows Eurostar's service staff to answer calls at both its Ashford or Central London sites, with the ability to switch traffic to either location as part of the company's broader disaster recovery plan.

Richard Thomas, Eurostar's chief technology officer said: “We needed to work with a contact centre specialist with a high level of Avaya solutions expertise, and a partner that could offer the local skills required to ensure Eurostar's demanding operations are fully resilient.

"Signing a long-term support contract with Sabio should ensure that the Eurostar customer experience team can rely on a best practice contact centre infrastructure to support our service operation."

Source: Call Centre Focus: http://www.callcentre.co.uk/ccf-news-content/full/sabio-wins-eurostar-contract

American online retailer Gilt Groupe is creating up to 200 jobs - 100 of which will be call centre roles in Limerick.

A Dublin operation will focus on software development with the contact centre due to open due to open in September.

Gilt Groupe provides invitation-only access to products and experiences at ‘insider prices’. It offers its members a selection of merchandise, including clothing, accessories and lifestyle items.

Source: Call Centre Focus: http://www.callcentre.co.uk/ccf-news-content/full/online-retailer-to-create-call-centre-jobs

Energy firm Centrica has signed a managed services contract worth £8m with SQS Software Quality Systems.

The firm has selected SQS, specialists in software testing and quality managed services, to provide on- and offshore testing, with a focus on reducing risk within its core business elements.

The 12-month contract commences immediately and is worth £8m. It will see SQS providing end-to-end testing, from performance through to automated regression test suites.

Centrica also announced that it extended its contract with IT services provider Fujitsu earlier this week, with a five-year infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) deal that will see Fujitsu refresh the company's desktop infrastructure to deliver access to new email and instant messaging solutions.

According to Fujitsu, the infrastructure can be scaled to meet Centrica's requirements going forward, and will support increased use of virtual clients and mobile devices.

Fujitsu's IaaS solution will be hosted using Fujitsu servers and storage in one of Fujitsu's UK datacentres.

"As Centrica grows both organically and through acquisition, the IT capabilities and support we provide to allow them to do their jobs are critical," said David Bickerton, group CIO at Centrica.

"Therefore our desktop services, which increasingly involve adoption of mobile devices, become ever more critical to the efficient running of our business and the IT experience we provide our people."

Source:http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2045126/centrica-signs-deals-revamp#ixzz1K97O9k1n

Company makes investment in social e-commerce

Wal-Mart has announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire, Kosmix, a social media site.

Kosmix, based in Mountain View, Calif., has developed a social media technology platform that filters and organizes content in social networks to connect people with real-time information that matters to them.

Kosmix was founded by Venky Harinarayan and Anand Rajaraman, early pioneers of online shopping, whose first company, Junglee, was acquired by Amazon.com in 1998. The founders and the Kosmix team will operate as part of the newly formed @WalmartLabs and continue to be based in Silicon Valley.

Kosmix's innovative technology platform searches and analyzes connections in real-time data streams to deliver highly personalized insights to users. The platform powers TweetBeat, a real-time social media filter for live events with more than five million visits last month; Kosmix.com, a site to discover social content by topic; and RightHealth, one of the top three health and medical information sites by global reach.

"We are expanding our capabilities in today's rapidly growing social commerce environment," said Eduardo Castro-Wright, Walmart's vice chairman. "Social networking and mobile applications are increasingly becoming a part of our customers' day-to-day lives globally, influencing how they think about shopping, both online and in retail stores. We are excited to have the Kosmix team join us to accelerate the development of our social and mobile commerce offerings."

"The world of social media is exploding and for millions of consumers their social connections matter hugely in their daily lives," said Anand Rajaraman, co-founder of Kosmix. "Our work has focused on developing a social genome platform that captures the connections between people, places, topics, products and events as expressed through social media -- be it a feed, a tweet or a post. We are thrilled to join one of the world's largest companies and combine our work with Walmart's vast online and offline retail businesses."

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and the company anticipates it will close during the first half of this year.

Fujitsu has worked with Cardiff University to implement Salesforce.com rollouts for two of the university’s customer-facing departments - the Centre for Lifelong Learning and the Knowledge Transfer Centre.

These implementations enable significantly increased response times to potential customers for both departments, as well as a much-needed central point in which to track customer engagement.

The university’s Centre for Lifelong Learning sells professional certifications and part-time training courses to postgraduates, businesses and the public. The University had previously employed a spreadsheet-based, offline system to manage courses, making it difficult to quickly access and share information and providing staff with a limited view of the status of courses. This offline approach resulting in missed revenue generating opportunities.

To address these issues, Cardiff University identified a need for an integrated customer relationship management (CRM) system, enlisting Fujitsu’s help in configuring and supporting a Salesforce.com deployment. For the Centre, Salesforce.com provides an integrated system for sharing data regarding course booking sales, delegates and trainers, ensuring all staff have online access to the same constantly evolving information. The system also facilitates comprehensive analysis of courses, helping to quickly identify course popularity.

The university’s Knowledge Transfer Centre (KTC) aims to enable businesses of Wales to gain access to the unique facilities and expertise that exist within the Cardiff School of Engineering, a subsidiary of Cardiff University.

The school required a robust way to capture and manage contact with businesses and government departments that may be interested in the research and innovation within the department. With no prior way to track conversations, business opportunities were being lost and multiple contact with the same companies occurring.

The Salesforce.com system offers comprehensive tracking and management of customer and client engagement, enabling the KTC to maintain company and contact records and attach records of specific engagement with each contact. By tracking conversations, the KTC could better measure the needs and outcomes of contact with target organisations from a single online hub that can be accessed by all staff.

Simon Parker, director, Knowledge Transfer Centre and Cardiff University, said: “Fujitsu’s advisors quickly understood our needs, converting these into simple enhancements to Salesforce.com, which we now use on a daily basis. Salesforce.com has since become invaluable in managing multiple simultaneous projects, ensuring we optimise our time in talking to companies and following leads.”

Mark Peplow, senior consultant at Fujitsu UK and Ireland, said: “Fujitsu prides itself on recognising and deploying the most effective and flexible solution in improving organisations’ efficiency, and quickly identified Salesforce.com as an ideal package for the University’s various requirements. We believe that many other higher education establishments can benefit from similar deployments.”

Fujitsu offers a range of services for business-critical applications. As well as CRM and cloud products such as Salesforce.com, Fujitsu also offers information management and application outsourcing services and works with leading providers such as Microsoft, Oracle and SAP.

CGI Group, Inc. a leading provider of information technology and business process services, has announced the signing of a three-year, $3.1 million contract with the City of Ottawa to advise and assist the City in support of its Service Ottawa initiative and implementation of the City’s Five-Year Technology Roadmap.

When implemented, the City’s Service Ottawa initiative will fundamentally transform how residents receive City-supplied services. It is an approach to deliver consistent, predictable, high-quality information and services to Ottawa residents and to generate significant operational cost savings.

“We are very proud to have been selected by the City of Ottawa and to support them in this major transformational initiative”, said Alain Brisson, Senior Vice-President, National Capital Region, CGI. “We look forward to assisting the City in implementing its Five-Year Technology Roadmap and achieving the Service Ottawa objectives.”

The contract, with an initial term of three years, is for systems integration services that include subject matter experts and expertise required for the planning, definition, design, implementation, co-ordination, integration, testing, deployment, training, program and project management, and operational support associated with projects implemented under the auspices of the Service Ottawa initiative.