Industry news

Ed Miliband is to launch Labour's campaign for council elections in England, saying the party will be the "first line of defence" against cuts.

The Labour leader will argue that local authority budget cuts will hit the poorest communities hardest and his party will stand up for those affected.

David Cameron told Conservative MPs on Wednesday they could win the "big argument" over the extent and speed of coalition plans to cut the deficit.

Voters go to the polls on 5 May.

More than 9,500 council seats will be contested in 279 local authorities across England, on the same day as devolved elections in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and a referendum on the future of the UK electoral system.

Although Labour has won both by-elections held since Mr Miliband became leader in September, next month's polls will be the first across-the-board national test of his performance.

In his speech later, he will argue that reductions in councils' spending power this year will be equivalent to a £182 cut for every two-parent household with children.

"Cuts designed by David Cameron and Nick Clegg are coming direct from Downing Street to your street," Mr Miliband is expected to say.

But he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme he was "proud" of Labour councils' record on making efficiency savings in "difficult" circumstances - and rejected coalition claims that some were deliberately cutting services to embarrass the government.

"It's nonsense for the prime minister to somehow say that Labour councils are making politically-motivated cuts to services.

"They are making efficiency savings and they are doing their very best to protect services that people really value and contribute to social justice in this country."

Under plans announced in October, central government funding for local authorities will fall by 28% over the next four years.

Ministers say councils can cut back on bureaucracy and procurement costs to mitigate the impact on core services used by the public and stress they are providing transitional funding for the first two years for the most affected councils.

Labour, who say this funding will provide only a "small cushion" for a short while, argue that councils are being forced to "frontload" cuts to services into the first two years. And they say town halls in more deprived parts of the country are being unfairly treated.

'Hold its nerve'

"Areas with the greatest need are being asked to bear the greatest burden," Mr Miliband is expected to add.

"The worst-off areas are being hit the hardest while the average family will be hit much harder than people in David Cameron's constituency.

"Labour will be your community's first line of defence against the damage being done by a Conservative-led government and their Liberal Democrat allies."

He will add: "Labour launches our election campaign with a clear pledge to people across the country: we will be your voice in tough times."

The government has accused Labour of having no concrete plan to deal with the UK's record peacetime deficit while stressing steps it is taking to help people with rising living costs - such as ensuring no council tax payer in England will see a rise in their bills this year.

Addressing a meeting of Tory MPs on Wednesday evening, Mr Cameron said they should be confident that they could win the key economic argument about the deficit and the pace of cuts.

The prime minister pledged to spend three days a week campaigning ahead of May's poll and urged MPs to campaign "hard locally".

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has urged his party to "hold its nerve" ahead of the elections, saying they are taking difficult decisions in the national interest and will be rewarded in the long term.

Source

Hours after a "faulty switch" took the entire BBC website network offline for an hour on Tuesday night, a row has broken out between the corporation and its IT contractor, Siemens.

The BBC News site reported the outage on Wednesday morning, quoting an internal security bulletin sent to corporation staff by Siemens explaining the cause of the disruption.

The BBC article – which has now been amended to remove all reference to Siemens – paraphrased the memo as: "Or, in layman's terms, they turned it off and back on again."

Siemens executives are understood to have been furious the internal email was published. Choice quotes from the email, which has been seen by MediaGuardian.co.uk, have been replaced by comment from Richard Cooper, the BBC's controller of digital distribution.

The offending email sent by Siemens to BBC staff on Wednesday morning said: "Cause of issue: Faulty Switch ... Services Impacted: Everything."

It adds: "Siemens network engineers remotely powered down equipment at a second Internet connection at Telehouse Docklands. This got things back up and running again.

"They then isolated the core router in Telehouse Docklands, and restored power to it. Once power was restored and the router was running in a satisfactory way, they reconnected to the internet and BBC networks in a controlled manner. Further investigations are ongoing to identify the root cause of this fault."

Siemens' £1.9bn contract with the BBC is thought to be coming to an end. The German engineering giant won the contract after acquiring the corporation's IT unit, BBC Technology, in 2004.

The BBC's decision to sell its technology arm to Siemens was heavily criticised at the time. A report published in 2007 by the House of Commons' public accounts committee said BBC management omitted millions of pounds of hidden costs when encouraging the board of governors to approve the sale in 2004.

Last March, the BBC narrowly averted industrial action by Siemens staff after offering a revised pay plan. Siemens staff working on the BBC contract were balloted for industrial action by the broadcasters' union Bectu over a pay freeze. The deal came after more than 70 redundancies were made among staff working on the BBC contract.

Steve Herrmann, editor of the BBC News website, explained the outage on the broadcaster's editors blog: "Last night, just before midnight, there was a thankfully rare event: a total outage of all BBC websites. We're still investigating precisely what happened, but as I said last night, I promised to keep you updated as we find out more."

The routers which direct people to the site had failed, Herrman explained. He added: "Normally this would not cause any problems as we plan for events like this and run backup equipment.

"But, in an unusual turn of events, these also failed meaning that the whole of BBC Online became unavailable. A number of internal services were also affected."

Source

Tony Blair's former IT chief has said Labour ministers ordered expensive computer projects because they wanted their policies to "sound sexy".

Ian Watmore - who is now in charge of a Whitehall efficiency drive - gave a scathing assessment of the previous government's IT record.

He told the public administration committee Labour's procurement had been over-ambitious and badly-managed.

The coalition has called a halt to big IT projects to save cash.

In a strategy document published by the Cabinet Office, it vowed to move to "smaller more manageable projects" and said no scheme will cost more than £100m.

It has also promised to open up procurement to smaller firms, who have found it difficult in the past to break the grip of giants such as HP, BT and Fujitsu, who together get about a third of central government contracts, worth about £5bn a year.

'Big bang'

Mr Watmore, who is permanent secretary at the Cabinet Office, said some of the high profile IT "fiascos" under the previous government had not been down to defective technology but to poor project management and badly-defined policies.

Too often, he told the Commons public administration committee, ministers simply ordered IT as an "after thought... or worse, there were people thinking they needed to have a piece of technology to make their policy sound sexy".

Mr Watmore became the head of Tony Blair's e-Government Unit in 2004 - at the height of Labour's IT procurement strategy - before going on to head the then Prime Minister's Delivery Unit.

He then left government for a brief spell as chief executive of the Football Association, before being brought back to Whitehall last year by Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude - who was also being grilled by the committee - with the task of cutting waste.

But it was Mr Watmore's career before entering government, when he was managing director of IT consultancy giant Accenture, that came under the spotlight most during the two-hour grilling by MPs.

'Open source'

Committee chairman Bernard Jenkin told him: "You come from exactly the large corporate culture which has bedevilled IT procurement in government. Are you part of the cultural change the minister is looking for, or aren't you just part of the problem?"

Mr Watmore replied: "I am certainly not part of the problem and I would contest that the corporate industry of this country has caused the problems."

He said the "so-called IT disasters" of recent years were not down to technical problems but "over-ambitious projects" that were expected to deliver complex changes at a national level on a single day, "the so-called 'Big Bang' implementation".

Mr Jenkin also questioned the government's commitment to "open source" software, asking how many civil servants in charge of making the policy work had a background in the open source community. He pointed out that the previous government's "open source" guru had left to join Microsoft.

Mr Watmore, who claims to have already saved £2bn in Whitehall efficiencies, said he wants to end the UK government's reliance on Microsoft products, which are used by about 90% of civil servants.

He insisted the government was committed to using more "open source" software to save cash - but had to balance this with concerns about how easily it could be "hacked".

Apple call

His "personal" view, he added, was that Apple products, which he said he used at home, should also be used more in government.

"I personally would like to see people move off Microsoft products onto open source or use Apple technology.

"I use Apple at home. I know it's not very open but I use it. I love it, it works and I think it is great - I'm Steve Jobs' best customer.

"But 95% of the business and government world still use Microsoft for its basic desktop products because it is reliable and it works.

"I think we, in government, have an opportunity to change that game quite dramatically, particularly on desktop technology, by getting greater use of open products."

Source

Cisco announced today that it would acquire newScale, whose portal software allows IT service providers to build catalogs of standardized services that customers can select and deploy off the shelf and on their own.

newScale’s portals make many desktop and data center support services “self-help,” allowing enterprise customers to initiate the provisioning of their own systems and infrastructure on an as-needed basis. Cisco intends to apply that methodology to cloud computing. Similar to Amazon Web services, the Cisco-newScale pairing would allow customers to build, provision and expand their own private cloud infrastructure on an as-needed basis based on standardized service options.

Cisco’s announcement of the acquisition:

“Cloud computing represents a major shift in the evolution of the Internet, and as more customers migrate from traditional IT infrastructures, the need for rapid self-provisioning and efficient management becomes increasingly critical,” said Parvesh Sethi, senior vice president of Cisco Services. “With the acquisition of newScale, Cisco will be able to accelerate the deployment of cloud services through a service catalog and self-service portal that allows customers to easily manage their IT infrastructures.”

Cisco said it intends to stock the catalog with existing Cisco and partner software offerings in IT and cloud management and automation.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. newScale, based in San Mateo, Calif., was founded in 1999 and is privately held. The company has more than 2 million users worldwide, including 20 percent of the Fortune 50 companies, according to its website.

Source

The government has unveiled a new information and communication technology strategy designed to save money by making the use of IT services more efficient.

Minister for the Cabinet Office Francis Maude outlined the strategy on Wednesday, explaining that it focused on cutting down duplication and waste, and promising an initial reduction in datacentre use by 35 per cent in five years.

The announcement is further evidence of the government’s determination to open up the procurement process to suppliers of all shapes and sizes, and ensure that the public sector achieves the best possible service from its suppliers.

Martyn Hart, chairman of the National Outsourcing Association, welcomed the government's plans to level the playing field for government IT contracts.

“At present, the government is tied into a range of contracts with large suppliers, which could mean that they struggle to get the best possible service as a result. In recent weeks, we’ve seen the coalition government pledging to support SMEs with a broad range of initiatives aimed at ensuring that larger outsourcing suppliers are not the only ones with access to public sector contracts. This morning’s announcement is designed to take this a step further and ensure a fairer procurement process for IT contracts in the public sector – which can only be a good thing.2

“It’s worth noting, however, that contracts with big-name suppliers are not necessarily a bad thing – many established names have a solid, established infrastructure which allows them to deliver projects in a timely, efficient manner. However, by pledging to free policy makers from the multi-billion pound contracts they have been tied to, and creating a ‘presumption against’ IT contracts in excess of £100 million, the government is ensuring that public sector procurement for IT is more cost-effective and competitive, which is good news for the outsourcing industry and the public sector as a whole."

“The NOA also notes that the Cabinet Office’s announcement related largely to ICT, which typically refers to the provision of hardware and software. However, it’s worth remembering that most major outsourcing and shared services contracts are also dependent to a large extent on building relationships and understanding business processes, which, if not effectively established, can lead to operational inefficiencies. Perhaps it would have been useful for the Cabinet Office to have considered these areas as well?”

The government was criticised over the way it procures and uses technology during several public affairs committee hearings examining the use of ICT within government.

More than 2,000 of the most experienced police officers will be made to retire by 2015 as forces across England and Wales try to find 20% budget cuts, a Labour survey has claimed.

A series of Freedom of Information Act requests by the shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, has disclosed that over the next four years 13 of the 43 forces intend to use an obscure regulation to compulsorily retire 1,138 officers who have more than 30 years of service.

Labour estimates that a further 986 officers could be affected if some of the remaining 30 forces also decide to use the same regulation to find budget savings.

Cooper said that it was "deeply worrying" that 13 forces had already decided to use the A19 regulation to compulsorily retire some of the most experienced officers in the force.

"Some of these officers are experts in their fields and internationally respected for what they do in the fight against crime," she said.

"The home secretary must realise that you cannot make 20% front-loaded cuts to the police without losing the very crime fighters we need. The home secretary is taking unacceptable risks with public safety and the continued fight against crime."

As fully sworn officers of the crown rather than employees, policemen and women cannot be made redundant under existing rules. However, the A19 regulation can forcibly retire officers with more than 30 years' service on not less than two-thirds pension on the grounds of the efficiency of the force.

The experienced officers who have already left or are leaving the police this week include:

• An inspector with 33 years' service who is the longest serving specialist in crime reduction and crime prevention in England and Wales. He advises architects and builders on "designing out" crime in new buildings, especially on council estates.

• A neighbourhood sergeant who, at 48, is one of the youngest to be forcibly retired. He manages a team of officers and liaises with the local community on anti-social behaviour.

• A 55-year-old frontline roads policing officer who has spent the last 20 years responding to motorway incidents.

The latest Labour survey of police authority current plans shows that the jobs of 12,500 officers are to be lost over the next four years in addition to a further 15,000 police staff jobs, confirming the estimate of 28,000 jobs made by the Association of Chief Police Officers.

The Home Office estimated in November that 3,200 officers in England and Wales could be affected if all the 43 forces decided to enforce the compulsorily retirement rule.

The Labour survey suggests that a total of 2,200 are likely to be forced out through this route by 2015, indicating that deeper cuts in police staff numbers or other measures may be required.

Police forces froze their recruitment last year, which saw 2,500 jobs go through natural wastage.

Home Office minsters say that forces should be able to identify sufficient savings to ensure that the budget cuts have no effect on the level of service the public receive.

The police minister, Nick Herbert, said there were currently "immense opportunities" to make savings without hitting the frontline.

Source

UK retailer Marks & Spencer (M&S) has expanded its outsourcing relationship with offshore IT service provider Cognizant, which extends a deal signed in 2009.

Cognizant will provide a managed service to M&S to support its applications.

In 2009 Marks & Spencer (M&S) outsourced IT support to Cognizant. On the back of the success of this move, the retailer decided to outsource more of its operations.

Damone Quigley, head of infrastructure and application services at M&S said: "Ever since our relationship began in 2009, both M&S and Cognizant have demonstrated an open, trust-based relationship that has created a strong foundation from which to deliver further efficiencies and achieve more positive outcomes in the coming years."

The contract will help M&S keep up with the changing behaviour of consumers by ensuring technology runs smoothly.

What the deal includes:

Application support services delivering Level 2/3 support for all applications that support lines of business and are used by end-users at stores, warehouses and head office.

Remote IT infrastructure management services based on an IT infrastructure library.

Resolution of incidents and problems to increase system availability and stability.

Service continuity to ensure all systems have adequate provisions and are ready to cope with any critical outages, ensuring business continuity and operations.

Source

Operational acceptance testing to ensure high operability across applications, infrastructure and networks.

South West Trains and East Midlands Trains, both part of the Stagecoach Group, have enhanced their contracts with Fujitsu for ticket issuing systems. The contracts, which will see Fujitsu undertake a technical refresh and upgrade of the STAR Point of Sale (POS) ticketing system to Team POS 3000, run to the end of each of the company's franchises (2017 for South West Trains and 2015 for East Midlands Trains).

The enhanced system will enable both Train Operating Companies (TOCs) to further increase the speed at which tickets are issued to customers as well as have a technology platform that enables them to add ancillary products to their service at a later stage, such as contactless card payments and dual customer displays to support full-motion video advertising Fujitsu is currently responsible for the STAR ticket issuing systems in 164 stations for South West Trains and 30 for East Midlands Trains.

The enhancement of Fujitsu's equipment is a mark of the success achieved since the original contract signing for South West Trains in October 2004 and East Midlands Trains in September 2009.

Paul Chick, head of retail systems for Stagecoach Rail, said: "We're pleased to be continuing our successful working relationship with Fujitsu and are looking forward to working with them on the upgrade of the STAR ticket issuing system. This will provide our passengers with a faster service when buying tickets at our stations."

Nick Chisnall, head of rail at Fujitsu UK & Ireland, added: "Increasingly TOCs are demanding a more 'retail-like' experience for their ticket issuing systems. We’re confident that our significant experience and heritage in both rail and retail means we can support the TOCs in driving innovation in the way they issue tickets and work with them to ensure that key innovation in this area forms part of their franchise proposals when the time comes."

Source

The government has launched its much-anticipated new IT strategy, with open source highlighted as a key part of its plans, and a promise that the coalition is "determined to do things better."

"We want government ICT to be open. Open to the people and organisations that use our services. And open to any provider, regardless of size," said Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude.

The ICT strategy report put open source as a purchasing priority,

"Where appropriate, the government will procure open source solutions," it said. "When used in conjunction with compulsory open standards, open source presents significant opportunities for the design and delivery of interoperable solutions."

As part of the government strategy it will push ahead with a move to cloud computing, which will include large-scale datacentre, network, software and asset consolidation. A cloud computing strategy will be published in the next six months to detail the transition of services, building on the work done on the G-Cloud initiative launched by the Labour administration.

An online government applications store, to enable the reuse of business applications and components across the public sector, will also be created in the next 12 to 24 months. And the private sector is to deliver the first instances of public sector networks in the next six to 12 months.

The government reaffirmed its intention to move away from large IT projects worth more than £100m, although it did not rule out such projects entirely. The "oligopoly" of large suppliers that monopolise IT will also be broken by streamlining procurement and opening up contracts to SMEs, it says.

"Many of these actions represent not just technological change, but changes to the operating culture of government; strong leadership within and across all departments will be required to drive this strategy forward," said the report.

Maude says the government's bad reputation for ICT is largely unjustified. "It is not obvious that the record of government is significantly worse than that of other big organisations," he said.

"Nonetheless there have been significant failings. The coalition government is determined to do things better."

The strategy outlined a series of major problems, many of which will be recognisable to people working on government IT, including the complexity of projects, with too little attention given to their implementation at senior levels; a lack of system interoperability; poor infrastructure integration; too many datacentres; and lengthy procurement timescales.

To combat these issues, the government is committing to:

• Introduce new central controls to ensure greater consistency and integration;

• Take powers to remove excess capacity;

• Create a level playing field for open source software;

• Greatly streamline procurement and specify by outcomes rather than inputs;

• Create a presumption against projects having a lifetime value of more than £100m;

• Impose compulsory open standards, starting with interoperability and security;

• Create a comprehensive asset register;

• Create a cross-public sector Applications Store;

• Expect senior responsible owners to stay in post until an appropriate break point in project/programme life; and

• Encourage department boards to hold ministers and senior officials to account on a regular basis for the progress of IT projects and programmes.

Read the full Government ICT Strategy document here.

Source

University Boat Race title sponsor Xchanging is to end its backing of the Oxford and Cambridge event when the current contract expires in 2012.

Xchanging, an outsourcing company, will have sponsored the event for eight years when it ends its association with the 158th race next year.

The firm has recently hit financial turbulence and last month announced the departure of its chief executive.

Boat race organisers said they were confident of finding another backer.

David Searle, executive director of The Boat Race Company, said: "We are now focused on finding a new title sponsor for the event from 2013.

"Given the success of the race and its growing TV, radio and online audience around the world - reaching more than 200 countries - we are confident of securing another partner wanting to help us take the event forward."

Xchanging, which runs accounting, personnel, and technology functions for companies, issued a profits warning last month, sending its share price plunging.

Source