Industry news

It was good to see so many attended the first two webinars - Strategic Operating Model Design and Managing Outsource Suppliers - in our Autumn-Winter series on operations.

The remaining two webinars in this series, accessible from our website, will offer key insights into: successfully managing major change, and getting the best out of your existing operations.

Our topic on Tuesday 23rd November at 1pm is “Managing major change”.

We have seen from experience that gaining an understanding of how large-scale change has been successfully managed is the first vital step for any company considering this process. Major change, if effected successfully, will ensure that maximum benefits are delivered and that the impact on BAU and product launches is minimised during the change process.

Change can often be an infrequent event for an asset manager, and the required skills are rarely found in-house. An integrated approach with a solutions provider thus becomes essential. This will prove central to securing commitment from all parties to the change process. Moreover, specialist experience will be required for integrating the change programme with BAU and small-scale change as well as setting up the correct project scope and monitoring the benefits.

Discussing these issues often raises many more interesting questions. By establishing a healthy interaction between professionals on this fascinating subject in the webinar we hope to gather together the thoughts and ideas of professionals from across the industry in order to analyse and write about our and their opinions. We very much hope you can join us.

Gordon Easden, financial practice lead, FusionExperience

For big companies, outsourcing works. If you’re Barclays Bank and you want to write a new core system and want to outsource that development to Infosys in India, it is absolutely the right thing to do. It’s a big project that’s going to require millions of man hours. It’s got a defined scope and it’s going to need to be very structured, because Barclays as a company is very structured, so the fit is perfect.

For small companies and start-ups, outsourcing can also work very well for non-core operations such as legal, accountancy and IT services. Whilst companies need to be careful in choosing the appropriate partner, these are functions which can easily be briefed out. However, for areas of the business which need control over who delivers them and how, outsourcing brings disadvantages for the smaller businesses which do not have distinct processes in place to keep projects on track when they are out of sight. As a result they can come across the following challenges:

You have a lack of control: Just when you have a great team member who understands your business processes and is really productive, they get moved over to another client and you then have another person in their place. You cannot control who is working in your team.

There is, inevitably, a lack of integration. An outsourced team can’t become part of your team; therefore they will not feel part of your company and understand your business culture – which can have a detrimental effect on productivity levels and quality of work.

You have limited day-to-day flexibility, which is normally a core requirement for SMEs. Outsourcers are very process driven, and SMEs generally are not.

There aren’t always cost benefits. People often outsource projects that last less than a year and subsequently don’t receive the perceived offshoring cost benefits or return on investment because the high planning, training, communication and travel costs mean that the wage differential can be severely reduced, while the training investment is lost when the project ends.

Lastly, there is a lack of IP protection and subsequently you can get IP leakage. If you are experts in something you have to teach an outsourcer your domain knowledge and, over time, the outsourcer becomes an expert as well. The next thing you know these guys are pitching that expertise to your competitors. They can’t help what they’ve learned and, as a third party company, they’re going to try and leverage that as much as they can. Larger companies are typically outsourcing non-core activities where IP is not as much of an issue.

So if outsourcing isn’t a good fit for your operations what are the other options for small companies? Well, for ad-hoc project work you should give it to a freelancer, or find a domestic company which already has an offshore model and expertise in place.

If you have on-going needs then look to build your own team abroad, in a location which meets your strategic needs. You can set up the team yourself, which does have a number of risks attached, or do it via a partner where you retain control but employ their local - or should I say global - expertise. And the final option is to consider a merger or acquisition to bring in a team in the relevant location.

For SMEs and start-ups which need flexibility, speed and control, have changing priorities, or where IP is a critical consideration, offshoring (be it DIY or assisted) is likely to be the best solution.

Legal services company Myhomemove faced exactly this dilemma. Having worked with traditional outsourcers in India and Sri Lanka for over four years, they were looking to move to a different model which would allow them to manage the staff in a way which fitted their company culture and ethos and gave them more control over decisions such as salaries, conditions and career paths of their staff. They considered setting their own operation, but were concerned by the complexity and bureaucracy involved.

By offshoring their operations through a partner they were able to have absolute control over day to day operations and culture compared to a traditional outsourced relationship and without the risks of setting up their own legal entity.

Whatever your needs do make sure you understand the different routes you can take and weigh up the pros and cons very carefully. Some companies make the mistake of confusing offshoring with outsourcing, and disregarding both models as a result. They are distinctly different and should be considered according to their individual benefits and disadvantages.

Neal Gandhi is the chief executive of Quickstart Global, which helps companies to expand globally, and is the author of Born Global which offers practical advice to entrepreneurs. www.quickstartglobal.com

In the fourth and final part of his series of blogs on the first 100 days as a new CIO, Alex Blues, Head of IT Sourcing at PA Consulting Group, reinforces the need to deliver projects on budget and to ensure the CIO’s visibility on the board spreads beyond IT-focused subjects.

We have already seen that a CIO’s budget will typically contain over 60 per cent in capital expenditure and business-driven projects. While the decision to do these projects may not rest with the CIO, they must ensure they are delivered well.

Typically, business cases are constructed on the basis of savings made, efficiencies gained, or revenue generated. When delivering complex transition projects, a useful approach is to start transitioning and signing off on key items that deliver benefits early and pushing items which deliver less value out to the end of the programme. Little thought is given to delivering parts of a project early, gaining some of the benefits early and maximising the return on investment. However this approach means the benefits can start hitting the bottom line straight away.

A final recommendation for newly appointed CIOs is to take advantage of their unique position in the senior management team. The knowledge a CIO has about the link between strategy and IT can prove invaluable in helping the company develop its corporate strategy. A CIO must put their hand up to take a big part in corporate strategy. This must not however be done at the expense of the day to day service – no CEO is going to trust you to deliver the company strategy if his PA's internet access is down.

My recommendation is to spend the first 100 days making a difference that will be felt sooner rather than later. Easing yourself in gently may seem the safe alternative, but by the time you start wanting to make real change, your honeymoon period will be over and you will not be forgiven so easily.

Alex Blues, Head of IT Sourcing, at PA Consulting Group

The group is aiming to get basic infrastructure in place with proof of concept by this time next year and are already said to have started the process of procuring a strategic partner and will start looking for solutions providers from January.

Merton and Sutton currently use private Cloud services but feel a "Community Cloud” shared by a group of organisations with shared concerns would be an ideal vehicle to provide both further savings as well as support a move to more shared services.

The former's director of transformation, Chris Pope, says the group will have to face various challenges in implementing the project, such as having different arrangements in place at the starting point and having potentially different aspirations for how they may use the service.

They will also need to ensure that the infrastructure meets the code of connection for the Government Connects Secure Exchange.

But Pope dismissed any suggestion the move was any kind of basis for a kind of South West London/North Surrey 'super borough', as the move is really driven by “an increasing recognition of the need to bring services together and integrate more fully”.

Source: http://www.publictechnology.net/sector/local-gov/london-boroughs-plan-their-own-cloud

China “hijacked” 15 per cent of the world’s internet traffic earlier this year, according to a report to the US Congress, in what could be a new form of cyber-terrorism.

A state-run telecoms firm is accused of diverting traffic including data from US military and government websites, and some in Britain, via Chinese servers.

Experts fear that the authorities could have carried out “severe malicious activities” as a result of the 18-minute operation, even harvesting sensitive data such as the contents of email messages or implanting viruses in computers worldwide.

The report by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission says it raises the prospect that China might use its powers to “assert some level of control over the internet”.

It is the latest sign that governments worldwide are apparently seeking either to launch attacks on computer networks or to defend themselves from them.

The US military now has a “fully operational” Cyber Command, while Israel is suspected of being behind a computer worm known as Stuxnet that may have damaged Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Earlier this year Google announced that Chinese hackers had tried to access the email accounts of human rights activists in the country in a “highly sophisticated and targeted attack”, while the government has blocked access to popular websites such as Wikipedia and BBC News.

The new US report provides previously unpublished details about a suspected “hijack” of almost one-seventh of all internet traffic, which originated in China.

“For a brief period in April 2010, a state-owned Chinese telecommunications firm ‘hijacked’ massive volumes of Internet traffic. Evidence related to this incident does not clearly indicate whether it was perpetrated intentionally and, if so, to what ends. However, computer security researchers have noted that the capability could enable severe malicious activities.”

The attack took advantage of the way that data is sent via computer servers situated all around the world to reach websites.

When an internet user in, for example, California wants to look at a website based in Texas, the data makes several short “hops” via servers on the way.

Data are meant to travel by the most efficient route however this can be manipulated, as servers based in China can suddenly announce that they provide the quickest route to various websites.

For 18 minutes on April 8 this year, the state-owned China Telecom advertised “erroneous” network routes which led to traffic going to 15 per cent of all internet destinations being sent via servers in China.

These involved official US websites covering the Senate, army, navy, marine corps and Nasa as well as leading companies such as Microsoft, IBM and Yahoo.

A handful of websites based in Britain were also affected, as well as many in Australia and within China itself.

The Commission admitted it did not know if the “hijacking” was intentional or what happened to the data, but the report states: “This level of access could enable surveillance of specific users or sites.”

Computer users could also have been prevented from accessing their intended websites, or been sent to fake sites, and “perhaps most disconcertingly” the operation could have allowed hacking of “supposedly secure encrypted sessions”. The large volume of data diverted could have been “intended to conceal one targeted attack”.

“Although China is by no means alone in this regard, persistent reports of that nation’s use of malicious computer activities raise questions about whether China might seek intentionally to leverage these abilities to assert some level of control over the Internet, even for a brief period.”

Wang Yongzhen, a senior press official with China Telecom, said: “China Telecom has never done such an act.”

Maitland Hyslop, managing director at Internet Central, said: “The event confirms cybersecurity at the centre of state conflicts and confirms an international capability for cyberwarfare.

"Hard on the heels of the news about the Stuxnet virus it places the threat from cyber attacks high on any national or business agenda."

The Chinese have also targeted Indian government offices and the office of the Dalai Lama, stealing secret and confidential documents, according to reports earlier this year.

One of the techniques they have used to set up false social network accounts on sites such as Facebook in order to bypass established firewalls.

In March last year, researchers discovered the GhostNet cyber espionage network that had infected 1,300 hosts in 103 countries around the world, largely government-based, sending information back to Hainan in China.

MI5 and GCHQ have issued a series of warning about Chinese attempts to hack systems in Britain over the past three years.

Pat Clawson, chief executive of the internet security firm Lumension, said the problem with the latest attack was that it was so easy to spot. “Traditional espionage tends to be conducted more discretely, but increasingly public cyber attacks are bringing the issue into public consciousness. In a digital age, it can be like airing your dirty laundry in public,” he said.

But he said the attack may have been very effective, adding: “The redirection of traffic isn’t just political espionage, the inclusion of data from Dell, IBM, Microsoft and Yahoo raises concerns around corporate espionage.”

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/8143460/China-may-seek-to-control-the-internet-US-report-on-web-hijack-warns.html

Cardiff is set to be home to one of the biggest software centres in Wales as part of a £4.3 million BT programme to create a global network of leading edge IT development centres.

Cardiff joins Glasgow and Belfast in a network of satellite centres that supports BT’s strategy of co-locating software development engineers in state of the art global development centres. Co-locating software engineers allows greater collaboration and enables the company to deliver better quality software, faster and cheaper than before.

Housed at BT’s International Data Centre in Cardiff Bay the centre, due for completion by the end of March 2011, will be home to around 200 software development engineers.

Incorporating the very latest multi-media communications technology, the centre will have three futuristic ‘real-time’ collaboration stations known as ‘pods’ with networked electronic whiteboards and video touch screens linking technology teams and customers from around the world to develop and deliver new IT solutions.

Andrew Board, project director for BT Innovate & Design said: “The facility will make it one of the biggest software houses in Wales. Locating our technical teams under one roof and combining this with the latest Agile working practices will radically speed up the software development process as we bring new products and services to our customers, as well as reducing costs. There is really no limit to what can be achieved in this collaborative working environment.”

Cllr Neil McEvoy, deputy leader of Cardiff Council and Executive Member Economic Development, said: "I'm delighted that BT has chosen Cardiff to be a part of this network.

“Some 4,500 people in Cardiff are employed in ICT, and this investment shows the confidence that BT has in the sector in our city. It will also attract the type of jobs that will help develop Cardiff as a modern competitive, knowledge-based economy."

The software solutions being developed in Cardiff range include network management solutions and ICT solutions for external customers.

This investment underlines BT’s commitment to bring the latest technology practices to Wales.

The Government has put forward proposals which will allow service providers (ISPs) to create “fast lanes” and “slow lanes” which websites will only have access to if they pay an extra premium.

This two-tier proposal has angered campaigners who say that the bid goes directly against the principle of net neutrality – the principle that all internet traffic should be treated equally – is one of the cornerstones of cyberspace and ensures that providers like BT, Virgin or Sky give a simple blog the same level of access as a website for a major corporation or institution.

The Government says that its intention to bring in a system where providers could charge money for a better and quicker service is due to future internet upgrades however many see the move as amounting to the death of democracy online.

The finalists have been announced in this year's e-Government National Awards.

The UK’s most closely watched public sector technology awards, supported by the Prime Minister David Cameron, recognise excellence and innovation in digital initiatives in national and local government, the NHS, education and the third sector.

The Awards ceremony, attended by ministers, top-civil servants and technology experts from the public and private sectors, will be held on Thursday 20 January at the London Guildhall.

The e-Government National Awards 2010 finalists

1. Building a fairer society with e-Government services (sponsored by KPMG)

• Barnsley MBC & South Yorkshire Police - Neighbourhood Watch / Good Neighbours Scheme

• The Charity Commission for England and Wales - Charity Commission Website Development

• City of Lincoln Council - Heritage Connect Lincoln

• Ealing Mencap & ESCAN - Ealing Help

• St George's, University of London - Taste of Medicine

• Westminster City Council - Westminster's Digital Inclusion Framework

• Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust - Big White Wall Online Wellbeing Service

2. Central e-Government excellence: Take-up & usage growth

• Department of Finance and Personnel, Northern Ireland - NI Direct website

• Department for Work and Pensions - Response to Economic Downturn

• Directgov - Directgov Travel News mobile application

• Charity Commission - Charity Commission Online Registration

• Department for Work and Pensions - Jobseekers Allowance On-Line

• HM Revenue & Customs - Business Tax Programme - VAT online filing

• Home Office - Adelphi ERP Shared Services

3. Central e-Government excellence: Team

• Welsh European Funding Office - WEFO Online

• Department of Finance and Personnel, Northern Ireland - NI Direct website

• National Policing Improvement Agency - IMPACT Programme

• NHS Connecting for Health - N3 technology team - collaborative working, connecting healthcare

• Ministry of Defence - Next Generation HR e-Resourcing Project

• Department of Health - Prison Health IT programme

• Scottish Government - Engage for Education

4. e-Government excellence in Learning & Skills

• Department of Health - e-Learning for Healthcare: e-Safeguarding Children and Young People

• Department of Health - e-Learning for Healthcare: e-SRH (Sexual and Reproductive Health)

• Crown Prosecution Service - Prosecution College

• Aberdeen College - StudentNet in Aberdeen College

• NIACE - TeesLearn

• Skills Funding Agency - Next Step, the Integrated Adult Careers Service web channel

• NHS Choices - NHS Choices Community Intermediaries Training Programme

• The Fire Service College - e-learning to UK Fire and Rescue Services

• NHS Education for Scotland - NES ePortfolio

5. e-Government excellence: For sustainable, 'green IT' or 'carbon-efficient' services (sponsored by KPMG)

• Department of Health - e-Learning for Healthcare: e-Safeguarding Children and Young People

• Land Forces, Ministry of Defence - Land Forces Enhanced Video Telephone Conferencing

• Queen Margaret University - Beyond thin-client: green IT at QMU

• Hampshire County Council - Hampshire's scalable, efficient 'green' Data Centre

• Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust - E-enabled innovative shared learning

• Southend Borough Council - Southend Borough Council's ICT Strategy 2010-13

• Bristol City Council - Green Digital Bristol

6. e-Government excellence: Innovation in strategy at a local level (sponsored by Pitney Bowes)

• Barnsley MBC & South Yorkshire Police - Neighbourhood Watch / Good Neighbours Scheme

• Peterborough City Council - Verto, Internet based Portfolio Management

• West Yorkshire Police - West Yorkshire Police iPortal

• London Borough Redbridge - YouChoose

• Greater Manchester and Cheshire Cardiac and Stroke Network - Wireless Telemedicine in Primary Care

• Birmingham City Council - Customer First Transformation Programme

• The City of Edinburgh Council - Mobile Working - Edinburgh Building Services

• South Yorkshire Police - South Yorkshire Police BlackBerry deployment

7. e-Government excellence: Innovation in strategy on a national level (sponsored by Vodafone)

• Welsh European Funding Office - WEFO Online

• Welsh Assembly Government - The PSBA Network: The UK's First Public Multi-Sector Network

• NHS Direct - Online Health and Symptom Checkers

• Central Office of Information (COI) - RAF Reserves Recruitment Process

• Charity Commission for England and Wales - That's -e-asy (electronically applied services for you)

• NHS Connecting for Health - N3 Managed Video Conferencing Service - transforming the way the NHS works

• Scottish Government - Engage for Education

8. e-Government excellence: Leadership & Professionalism

• Department of Health - e-Learning for Healthcare: e-Safeguarding Children and Young People

• Peterborough City Council - Verto, Internet based Portfolio Management

• Department for Education - Information Workplace Platform

• Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust - Collaboration and Communication Technology at the Heart of Hospital Transformation

• The Metropolitan Police Service - The Metropolitan Police Service's Police Forensic Liaison Unit

9. e-Government excellence: Shared Services

• Welsh Assembly Government - The PSBA Network: The UK's First Public Multi-Sector Network

• University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust - McKesson Shared Services - University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust

• Scottish Police Services Authority - Scottish Police Services Authority National Service Desk

• DWP Shared Services - NHS NSS PECOS Consortium Project - NHS National Services Scotland Consortium

• DWP Shared Services

• Department for Education - Employee Authentication Service (EAS)

• Northern Ireland Office - Causeway Data Sharing Mechanism

• Home Office - Adelphi ERP Shared Services

10. Local e-Government excellence: Take-up & usage growth

• Oxfordshire County Council - Registration Service - Oxfordshire Registration Service: website and e-services strategy

• City of Lincoln Council - Heritage Connect Lincoln - www.heritageconnectlincoln.com

• Department for Education - Connect Digitally Online School Admissions Project

• Hertfordshire County Council - Intalink Website

• Kirklees Council - Looking Local

• Lincolnshire County Council - School Administration Online System Project

• Aylesbury Vale District Council - AVDC's SMS texting service

11. Local e-Government excellence: Team

• Hampshire County Council - Hampshire IT - providing continuity in the face of adversity

• Learning and Skills Network (LSN) - M-learning - A tool for transformation in Sheffield (MATTS) - phase two

• Department for Education - Connect Digitally

• Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council - “More for Less" - How I.T. can deliver Value for Money

• University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire NHS Trust - Electronic prevention of potentially fatal blood clots in hospitalised patients

• Oxfordshire County Council - Registrar's Online Services

Capita has warned that its sales would be weaker than previously anticipated as the government’s spending cuts start to bite.

Capita has previously stated that the squeeze on public sector spending would create small short-term pressure. The group provides IT services to local authorities to running the teachers’ pension scheme.

As well as tighter public sector spending, sales growth during 2010 would also be adversely affected by an “unusually high degree of revenue attrition” – the loss of existing customers and their associated contribution to turnover – and sluggish sales to date in the second half of the year.

Capita said the cuts would “subdue revenue growth in the second half of the year more than previously anticipated”.

Global technology, consultancy and outsourcing company, Accenture has stated that it aims to hire 5,000 more people in the next 9 months in the Philippines.

During a press conference, Bill Green, Accenture chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said that the company will increase its workforce to 25,000 by end-August next year, the end of its current fiscal year 2011.

Accenture Philippines also inaugurated three additional sites: one each at McKinley Hill in Taguig City, Eastwood in Quezon City and Robinsons Cybergate in Cebu City, and aim to start operating two of the sites from next month. Accenture now has 13 centers all over the country. "This country is source not only of incredible talent but also of ideas and innovation. We are incredibly optimistic in partnering with this country to achieve great things," Green said.