Industry news

Jane Storey, Deputy Leader of Suffolk County Council has issued an interesting response surrounding the reaction to their decision to outsource:

Sir, We are not planning to outsource or sell off services to the private sector (“The great council sell-off. Everything must go”, Libby Purves, Sept 27). What we want to develop in Suffolk is a new model for public services in which the community and citizens play a much more active part in supporting themselves and each other. So we are working with local community groups, town and parish councils, voluntary groups, social enterprises, co-operatives and with our staff to develop new ways of service delivery.

Divesting services to these kinds of organisations and groups of individuals will strengthen local communities and build a bigger society — straightforward outsourcing will not. Building community capacity is fundamental to meeting the financial challenges in the public sector and is one of the three key themes underpinning our new model.

Second, we are not planning — as Unite has claimed — to reduce to a core of 200-500 employees, or any number close to this.

We know that building community capacity at the same time as our funding from central government is reduced will be difficult. But we believe that unless we change the way our services are delivered, we will be less able to support Suffolk residents through the coming years.

Jane Storey

Deputy Leader, Suffolk County Council

Source: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/letters/article2744436.ece

Home business groups are urging the government and other authorities to stop using staff numbers as eligibility criteria, saying the figures do not reflect the way small firms are growing. Some business support, mentoring and export programmes are available only to firms with a minimum of five staff, for example.

Emma Jones, founder of Enterprise Nation, the advice network, said this ignored the benefits that digital technology had brought to entrepreneurs. “Home business owners are making the most of technology to outsource work and subcontract to other companies and experts. It’s a most modern way to grow, yet is not recognised in business support programmes and policy,” she said.

“We call on central government, enterprise agencies and business support groups to take action to ensure support schemes recognise outsourcing as a form of company growth, and allow for ‘increase in turnover’ as opposed to ‘increase in headcount’ as a factor in being eligible for support and grants or incentives.”

Ecademy, the networking site, will next month launch a manifesto for change called Digital Business Britain. It will demand that “large, influential institutions such as the banks understand that the measurement of a successful business is not employee headcount or office overheads, but can be measured in terms of network size, influence and sentiment”.

Source:http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/business/small_business/article403605.ece

Suffolk county council voted last week to contract out many of its services to the private sector, a step that will mean all but a few hundred of its 27,000-strong workforce losing their jobs. The Tory-run authority plans to redefine itself as an “enabling council”, employing only people to manage and monitor contracts with its private providers. Highways, libraries, children’s centres and even the council’s records office are expected to be offloaded during the first phase, due to start in April next year. Jeremy Pembroke, the council leader said “bold, imaginative” thinking was necessary to cope with the 25% cut in the council’s £1.1 billion budget that is expected to follow the government’s comprehensive spending review next month.

The public service union Unison was outraged. It said the council had “leapt headlong into a gamble with services and jobs” in its rush to slash more than £300m from its budget and claimed service providers would be unaccountable to voters. The plan has implicit backing from the Conservative party in Westminster, though. Last year, in opposition, David Cameron told the Local Government Association that councils might do “literally whatever they like, as long as it’s legal” to cut outgoings. The plans also resemble proposals made in the 1980s by the late Nicholas Ridley, then a Tory minister. He said councils should have just one annual meeting “to award all the council service contracts to private firms”.

Suffolk is just one of a number of Tory-led councils to announce radical privatisation plans in recent years. Brighton and Hove council is to start restructuring its services in November, outsourcing them to the voluntary sector where possible. In August last year Barnet council in north London announced plans to sell off libraries and outsource elements of its environmental health and planning departments in an attempt to cut £15m a year in spending. The plans were dubbed “easyCouncil”, because householders would be able to pay supplementary fees for improved services, much as the budget airline easyJet charges for extras: applicants could pay extra to jump the queue for planning permission, for example.

Other creative cost-cutters include the Labour-led Islington and Camden councils, which announced plans this month to share a chief executive. This is small fry compared with some measures taken by US authorities. In an attempt to fend off bankruptcy, the Californian city of Maywood announced in June that it was laying off its entire workforce, disbanding the police force and handing services to the Los Angeles county sheriff and the nearby city of Bell. City spokesmen have boasted about the radical changes. “We’re on the cutting edge here. We’re the tip of the spear,” said Magdalena Prado, Maywood’s community-relations officer. Prado works for the city as a contractor.

Source:http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/Comment/article403536.ece

Accenture has signed a five-year application outsourcing agreement with DnB NOR (OSE: DnB NOR ASA), Norway’s largest financial services group, to develop, implement and manage a range of applications that support the company’s life and pension insurance operations in Norway. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Under the terms of the agreement, Accenture will support new and existing applications that manage DnB NOR’s defined-contribution pension plans business, including policy administration applications. The agreement is designed to help DnB NOR improve service for its customers and drive growth in a key sector, while reducing information technology (IT) costs.

“In the defined-contribution business, high-quality financial advice and deep asset management expertise are critical,” said Runar Holen, Executive Vice President at DnB NOR and Business CIO of Vital, DnB NOR’s Life and Pension company. “While Accenture delivers world-class application support for our operations, we can stay focused on providing innovative products matching our customers’ needs within the ever-evolving retirement savings plans market. Accenture’s proven track record of 20 years in application outsourcing and its understanding of the pension industry make it an ideal business partner.”

“By outsourcing its application development and management to Accenture, DnB NOR can be even more focused on addressing its customers’ needs and more cost-effectively managing their defined-contribution plans,” said Martin Fuhr Bolstad, a senior executive in Accenture’s Financial Services group. “Accenture and DnB NOR have been working together for more than 15 years and we look forward to continuing to help DnB NOR strengthen its position as a leader in the Norway life and pension market.”

About DnB NOR

DnB NOR is Norway’s largest financial services group with total combined assets of NOK 2 076 billion. The Group consists of strong brands such as DnB NOR, Vital, Nordlandsbanken, Cresco, Postbanken, DnB NORD and Carlson. For more information about the Group, please visit our websitewww.dnbnor.com

About Accenture

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with more than 190,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world’s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. Accenture is committed to being a good corporate citizen – dedicated to minimizing its environmental impact and helping individuals around the world get jobs or build businesses. The company generated net revenues of US$21.58 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2009.

Source: http://newsroom.accenture.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=5063

lcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) today announced a multi-million USD contract with Etisalat Lanka, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the United Arab Emirates-based Etisalat, to significantly boost its GSM/EDGE (2.5G) network capacity and coverage and build its first 3G HPSA+ (3.75G) wireless all-IP broadband network.

Alcatel-Lucent will be the sole supplier of an end-to-end solution, including the converged radio access, a new all-IP mobile packet core network capable of supporting 2G, 3G and LTE (including next-generation subscriber data management and end-to-end policy control), a full end-to-end IP transport solution and related professional services. In total, 480 GSM/EDGE (2.5G) sites and 515 3G HPSA+ (3.75G) sites will be deployed as part of the contract. Alcatel-Lucent’s solution also includes a MiTV™ application that will enable Etisalat Lanka to offer advanced mobile broadband and multimedia services such as mobile interactive television and video to over 3 million subscribers and businesses in Sri Lanka.

By transforming the network to IP, Etisalat Lanka is building a network that can intelligently deliver new personalized multimedia services to its business and consumer users. This network will also leverage IP to offer scalable bandwidth to accommodate the anticipated surge in mobile traffic and provide the foundation for the seamless future introduction of Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology.

“Alcatel-Lucent’s solution and support will help us expand our network and introduce the innovative wireless services that our subscribers are expecting,” said Mr. Sanath Pilapitiya, CTO of Etisalat Lanka. “Our ongoing relationship with Alcatel-Lucent and their experience in both wireless and IP along with an optimized total cost of ownership were among the key reasons we selected them as our sole supplier”.

Thanks to the company’s in-house IP and wireless capabilities, Alcatel-Lucent’s customers can build on its High Leverage NetworkTM (HLN) architecture which addresses the dual challenge of simultaneously scaling and managing network capacity to meet increasing bandwidth demands while delivering differentiated, revenue-generating services at a lower overall cost.

“Our expertise and our experience in deploying advanced wireless networks both in the region and globally will help Etisalat Lanka to deliver high-speed wireless services that will continue to drive economic development in the country,” said Rajeev Singh-Molares, president of Alcatel-Lucent’s activities in Asia-Pacific.

Alcatel-Lucent is a leading player in the wireless infrastructure market having deployed more than 350 commercial wireless networks worldwide. The company is also a world leader in the design, deployment, management and integration of networks.

About Alcatel-Lucent’s solution for Etisalat Sri Lanka

Alcatel-Lucent will provide a full end-to-end solution including its IP-based converged radio access network (2G/3G/4G RAN), mobile next-generation network (NGN) and transport solution that will enable the operator to expand his GSM/EDGE network and introduce W-CDMA. Alcatel-Lucent will also provide a comprehensive set of professional services - including civil works, network planning, radio design and operation and maintenance optimization.

The solution includes the installation of Alcatel-Lucent’s Base Station Subsystem (BSS) together with Twin TRX that doubles GSM/EDGE base-stations’ capacity to meet the requirements of users in high-density urban environments, and offers a wider coverage range making it well suited for less populated rural environments. It is complemented by Alcatel-Lucent’s W-CDMA Radio Access Network which is full IP with a distributed Radio Remote Head solution that easily fits into existing base stations, providing a high quality of service. The solution is field proven and has a large track record in high-quality networks. Alcatel-Lucent’s state of the art Packet Microwave technology will provide service differentiation and a high quality of service, ready to carry next-generation mobile traffic.

Alcatel-Lucent will also deploy its 7750 Service Router (SR), 7705 Service Aggregation Router (SAR), 5620 Service Aware Manager, as well as its 9500 Microwave Packet Radio for mobile backhaul. The 5780 DSC provides the 3GPP policy charging and rules function (PCRF) function that allows mobile operators to create and deliver new, innovative, and personalized services to their subscribers with scale and velocity. The Alcatel-Lucent portfolio of IP/MPLS products delivers a strong foundation on which a family of packet solutions for mobile networks is delivered. These solutions support reliable, scalable, future-proof, cost-efficient and fully-managed transport allowing mobile operators to take full control of their network and quickly enable the delivery of advanced, revenue-generating new services.

Alcatel-Lucent is also upgrading the current Home Location Register (HLR) system to subscriber data management (SDM) which caters to other types of future subscriber management applications such as Mobile Number Portability, Home Subscriber Server (HSS) for IMS.

Alcatel-Lucent also provides MiTV, an application which offers personalized content, live broadcast TV and made for mobile TV channels that support a broad spectrum of video and multimedia services such as on-demand content, broadcast TV and multi-party video gaming.

About Etisalat Sri Lanka

100% owned subsidiary of Etisalat UAE, who is the world’s 13th largest telco operator with subscribers exceeding 107 million worldwide. Etisalat UAE is on a very sound financial footing with S&P recently upgrading their rating to AA-/A-1+ and Fitch reaffirming their rating to A+ .

With the entry of Etisalat into Sri Lanka and re-branding of the Sri Lankan operation as Etisalat in February 2010, the name Etisalat has become a household name in the Sri Lankan market. The local company, Etisalat Lanka with the support and guidance of the giant parent telco of UAE is making in-roads into the telco market shares in Sri Lanka. Locally one of the most efficient and dynamic operators, Etisalat Lanka will continue to grow in strength whilst contributing to the economic growth of the country too.

This current expansion will take the company’s network coverage to be the best in the country including the North & east. Further the company will also be launch a 3G network with superior technology (HSPA+) and coverage to serve all Sri Lankans.

About Alcatel-Lucent

Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) is the trusted transformation partner of service providers, enterprises, strategic industries such as defense, energy, healthcare, transportation, and governments worldwide, providing solutions to deliver voice, data and video communication services to end-users. A leader in fixed, mobile and converged broadband networking, IP and optics technologies, applications and services, Alcatel-Lucent leverages the unrivalled technical and scientific expertise of Bell Labs, one of the largest innovation powerhouses in the communications industry. With operations in more than 130 countries and the most experienced global services organization in the industry, Alcatel-Lucent is a local partner with a global reach. Alcatel-Lucent achieved revenues of Euro 15.2 billion in 2009 and is incorporated in France, with executive offices located in Paris.

Source:http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/wps/portal/!ut/p/kcxml/04_Sj9SPykssy0xPLMnMz0vM0Y_QjzKLd4w3MfQFSYGYRq6m-pEoYgbxjgiRIH1vfV-P_NxU_QD9gtzQiHJHR0UAAD_zXg!!/delta/base64xml/L0lJayEvUUd3QndJQSEvNElVRkNBISEvNl9BX0U4QS9lbl93dw!!?LMSG_CABINET=Docs_and_Resource_Ctr&LMSG_CONTENT_FILE=News_Releases_2010/News_Article_002204.xml

Voice Commerce, an innovative financial services group, is today announcing an agreement to provide payment and mobile money services to mobile operators through Alcatel-Lucent's (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) Mobile Wallet Service (MWS).

Mobile service providers can now deliver fully regulated end-to-end financial services, with the capabilities enabled by this agreement. Voice Commerce, which recently launched its Cashflows® services, operates various financial services under licences covering the provision of payments, e-money services and is a membership of both Visa EU and MasterCard. This offering places mobile operators at the centre of mobile commerce because they can offer secure, regulated financial transactions to their customers.

This global offer is particularly well suited to mobile service providers in emerging markets where the mobile phone is used to deliver financial services, as it will enable them to meet the needs of those customers with a broader range of services such as mobile remittances and payments. The MWS can also be deployed in developed markets where consumers are interested in using the mobile phone for payments, coupons and loyalty programs.

The market for electronic mobile wallet services is growing fast and Gartner Group predicts it could reach $245 billion in value by 2014. Edgar, Dunn and Company predicts that mobile wallet users will reach 1.4 billion by 2015. Nick Holland, senior analyst, M-Commerce, Yankee Group commented: "We expect mobile payments to be an area of significant growth over the next few years as consumers are won over by the convenience, speed and security of paying by phone."

"Together with Alcatel-Lucent and mobile operators, we see the opportunities for consumers to manage their every day financial needs with their mobile phone,” said Nick Ogden, CEO of Voice Commerce. “At Voice Commerce we have focussed on developing new, innovative and regulated services, and this, coupled with the recent launch of our Cashflows® services, we believe will support mobile operators in delivering new services to their customers. Voice Commerce with Alcatel-Lucent’s MWS, enables mobile operations to accelerate their "go to market" offer of electronic wallet services, as all the financial services requirements and technical capabilities are delivered as an end-to-end service.”

“Our goal is to provide a complete mobile money eco-system for the mobile operator,” said Anthony Belpaire, general manager, Alcatel-Lucent Mobile Wallet Service. “For fast adoption of services across existing point-of-sale terminals, our customers need compliance with e-money licensing schemes and interoperability with global payment networks. Voice Commerce provides a unique market accelerator to make MWS a complete solution for mobile operators “

About Voice Commerce Group

Many of the innovations and standards used in internet, electronic, mobile and emerging e-money payment systems since the emergence of the commercial Internet in 1994 were developed by the team at Voice Commerce Group, including the creation of the Internet and Mobile Payments Guarantees, in 2001 and 2010 that protect businesses and cardholders from fraud.

Companies within the Voice Commerce Group are authorised by the UK Financial Services Authority under the Payment Services Regulations and provide a range of payment, electronic, and mobile money services.

Voice Commerce is a Principal Member of VISA and MasterCard and has contractual service relationships with American Express and other payment schemes where it operates as a principal. Voice Commerce Group is required to maintain appropriate financial capital adequacy. Group and certain outsourced operational services are delivered to the PCI DSS Level 1 standard. For further information please visit: http://www.voicecommercegroup.com

About Cashflows®

Cashflows® delivers a range of business to business financial services that are provided from a single account, designed to help businesses manage and maximise their cashflow. The Cashflows® account enables businesses to offer their customers a full range of payment options including retail, online, mobile and e-money payments. The Cashflows® account is fully integrated into the e VoicePay® mobile money service which delivers guaranteed transactions. For further information please visit: www.cashflows.com

About Alcatel-Lucent

Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) is the trusted transformation partner of service providers, enterprises, strategic industries such as defense, energy, healthcare, transportation, and governments worldwide, providing solutions to deliver voice, data and video communication services to end-users. A leader in fixed, mobile and converged broadband networking, IP and optics technologies, applications and services, Alcatel-Lucent leverages the unrivalled technical and scientific expertise of Bell Labs, one of the largest innovation powerhouses in the communications industry. With operations in more than 130 countries and the most experienced global services organization in the industry, Alcatel-Lucent is a local partner with a global reach. Alcatel-Lucent achieved revenues of Euro 15.2 billion in 2009 and is incorporated in France, with executive offices located in Paris.

Source:http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/wps/portal/!ut/p/kcxml/04_Sj9SPykssy0xPLMnMz0vM0Y_QjzKLd4w3MfQFSYGYRq6m-pEoYgbxjgiRIH1vfV-P_NxU_QD9gtzQiHJHR0UAAD_zXg!!/delta/base64xml/L0lJayEvUUd3QndJQSEvNElVRkNBISEvNl9BX0U4QS9lbl93dw!!?LMSG_CABINET=Docs_and_Resource_Ctr&LMSG_CONTENT_FILE=News_Releases_2010/News_Article_002206.xml

The union representing city Water Department employees says the City Council will put jobs at risk and lose control over the city's water rates if it approves an agreement with a private company to run its water, wastewater and recycled water systems.

"Our members have mounted a campaign to speak in opposition to what they want to do," said Tom Ramsey, a supervising labor representative for the San Bernardino Public Employees Association.

The council at a 4 p.m. workshop today will consider selecting American Water to run its water services, and to authorize a council subcommittee to enter negotiations with the company.

Ramsey said he is concerned that any proposed contract with a private company would not necessarily protect what he estimates are about 25 department workers the union represents.

A final request for proposals from the Rialto Utility Authority earlier this year said the agency that takes over the department would be obligated to extend offers of employment to current personnel with a guaranteed term of 18 months.

It also said the offers would include competitive salary and benefits subject to the agency's standard terms of employment, and the agency wouldn't be required to hire or pay city personnel after the 18 months.

"There's no guarantee that those safeguards will be in the contract," Ramsey said.

The union has produced two fliers slamming the potential agreement as a move that would not only cut jobs and cause uncontrolled rate increases, but also a loss of quality customer service.

Councilman Ed Scott, who, with Councilman Joe Baca Jr., sits on the subcommittee overseeing the proposed transaction, said Monday he was disappointed with the union's officials, adding that he doesn't believe they have been acting in good faith on behalf of their employees.

"Folks are not going to lose their jobs. That's an absolute untruth," Scott said. "That doesn't mean they are going to have a job with the city of Rialto necessarily."

Scott said American Water has conducted similar transactions with other municipalities, and the company suggested that as the employees leave the public sector for the private, the deal could potentially mean better pay and benefits.

American Water also has mentioned that the transaction could result in an additional nine jobs, Scott said.

Scott and Ramsey disagree over the implication of American Water wanting the department's employees to fill out applications for the company.

"That's applying for a job. That's not (the company) taking them," Ramsey said.

Scott said the application process allows the company to conduct background checks on the employees.

He said that for those employees who do not want to work for the company, the city would consider allowing them to transfer to the maintenance division of Public Works, where several retirements are coming up at the end of this year.

Scott warned that if the city doesn't find ways to downsize its government, there will be future layoffs anyway.

Officials have expressed concern about what they say are the growing costs of maintaining the city's water and wastewater systems.

Sluggish tax revenues and retirement enhancements set to kick in next year are just some of the economic difficulties that are spurring the city's leaders to scrape up cash wherever they can.

Officials are aiming to get a big payoff at the outset of the agreement to fund an immediate overhaul of the water systems.

City Administrator Henry Garcia said the workshop will include a broad comparison between the department's finances and the potential deal with American Water.

"We're looking to gain a partner while still maintaining ownership of the asset," Garcia said. "We (retain) control in the setting and collection of the rates. We're looking to transfer the operation, maintenance and compliance risks to American Water."

Garcia said the city also would keep its water rights, and there would likely be an option for both sides to terminate the agreement.

Source:http://www.waterworld.com/index/display/news_display/1271617350.html

Infosys Technologies Ltd (NASDAQ: INFY) and Jive Software today announced a strategic relationship to include Jive Social Business Software for customer and employee engagement functionality within the recently launched Infosys iEngage™ digital consumer platform.

The Jive Social Business Software (SBS) integrates the most powerful aspects of collaboration, community, and social networking software. With over 15 million users, Jive has unmatched expertise in delivering the richest user experience for every type of online community: employee, public or both. Infosys brings to the partnership its comprehensive digital consumer platform, industry-specific focus, global reach, and the convenience of a single point of accountability with its Enterprise SaaS model. Five leading Global 500 companies have already adopted Infosys iEngage™ to power their digital initiatives.

Infosys will work closely with Jive in three areas; product roadmap, platform expertise, and best practice sharing. Collaborating on a common product roadmap ensures that clients may quickly adopt new features and capabilities to meet the growing digital demand. This partnership also enables the development of industry-specific applications which could be made available on Jive Apps Market. Infosys has established a dedicated team of Jive-proficient product experts in all aspects of Jive's technology to accelerate rapid client adoption. Further, the partnership enables the two companies to exchange and develop best practices so clients are provided with specific business solutions to meet changing business needs.

According to Pradeep Prabhu, Vice President and Head – Enterprise Saas, Infosys Technologies Ltd, "Our strategic relationship with Jive enables us to offer Infosys iEngage digital consumer platform as a unique and comprehensive solution for both customer and employee engagement. The platform enables companies to deepen relationships, accelerate innovation and grow revenues with convenience of a single point of accountability."

"We are thrilled to partner with Infosys and extend the advantages of social business to our mutual customers," said John McCracken, senior vice president of sales, Jive. "By partnering with an industry leader like Infosys, we continue to grow our worldwide presence and further expand our market leadership."

Source: http://www.infosys.com/newsroom/press-releases/Pages/social-business-software.aspx?soc=rssmed

CSC (NYSE: CSC) today announced the ability for its customers to transform their business applications to a cloud-based computing infrastructure using Oracle hardware and software products. CSC Foundation Services for Oracle work together to assist clients in leveraging Oracle’s integrated stack from applications-to-disk; including storage, servers, virtualization software, databases, middleware, application and management software.

"Oracle provides the industry's most complete, open, integrated and secure enterprise grade infrastructure and platform products for customers and partners to build, deploy, and manage public and private clouds,” said Andy Bailey, senior vice president, Worldwide System Integrator Alliances, Oracle. “CSC’s Foundation Services, built on Oracle’s platform, provide customers with accelerated development and deployment of SaaS and cloud based business applications with increased agility and reduced IT costs."

CSC’s Foundation Services for Oracle are designed to guide clients on their journey to the cloud – from selecting and transforming applications to establishing their own private cloud environment – in a way that ensures their business goals are achieved. These services leverage CSC’s Business First Approach, which evaluates enterprise business processes and identifies the ideal workloads that will generate the greatest ROI from cloud services. A key feature of this offering is the development of a demonstrable reference architecture that provisions Oracle applications, middleware and infrastructure through virtual instances in minutes. This reference architecture and the accompanying services have been successfully used to guide customers in establishing their own private cloud environments.

“Enterprise workloads based on Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) require integration with the underlying middleware and infrastructure such as that provided by Oracle,” said Sreedhar Kajeepeta, vice president, CSC Global Technology Consulting. “CSC has developed a global practice and service offerings to enable our clients’ rapid adoption of cloud computing while extracting optimal value from the Oracle Platform Products.”

CSC Foundation Services for Oracle include:

• Plan & Design Services – Services to support decision-making around the application of cloud services in the customer’s business. These range from defining business process requirements to optimize business value to designing cloud architecture that ensures information security and compliance.

• Implementation and Integration Services – Services to help turn cloud strategy into a reality. These services cover launching chosen cloud technologies, configuring them to meet client-specific business needs, and setting them up for integrated management and reporting, even across multiple clouds. CSC enables private cloud solutions on the client’s premise or on CSC premises.

• Deliver and Manage Services – CSC manages private, public or hybrid cloud infrastructures and helps the client select and implement the right cloud to meet business requirements. This includes defining and refining all the details of standard service offerings, shared or dedicated services, prescriptive architectures, service level agreements, security requirements and any customized solutions.

“Foundation Services for Oracle is one example of CSC applying its experience and capabilities to application transformation and modernization,” said Siki Giunta, vice president, Cloud Computing and Software Services, CSC. “For every customer, no matter where they are on their cloud journey, CSC provides multi- platform application transformation to migrate ideal workloads to the cloud.”

For more information about CSC’s cloud services, please visit www.csc.com/cloud. For insights, resources and community interaction on cloud topics, visit www.trustedcloudservices.com.

About Oracle PartnerNetwork

Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN) Specialized is the latest version of Oracle's partner program that provides partners with tools to better develop, sell and implement Oracle solutions. OPN Specialized offers resources to train and support specialized knowledge of Oracle products and solutions and has evolved to recognize Oracle’s growing product portfolio, partner base and business opportunity. Key to the latest enhancements to OPN is the ability for partners to differentiate through Specializations. Specializations are achieved through competency development, business results, expertise and proven success. To find out more visit http://www.oracle.com/partners.

About CSC

CSC is a global leader in providing technology-enabled solutions and services through three primary lines of business. These include Business Solutions and Services, the Managed Services Sector and the North American Public Sector. CSC’s advanced capabilities include system design and integration, information technology and business process outsourcing, applications software development, Web and application hosting, mission support and management consulting. Headquartered in Falls Church, Va., CSC has approximately 95,000 employees and reported revenue of $16.2 billion for the 12 months ended July 2, 2010.

Source:http://www.csc.com/newsroom/press_releases/54369-csc_announces_cloud_foundation_services_for_oracle?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+csc_global_press_releases+(CSC's+Global+Press+Releases)

University College London, one of the country's leading institutions, is to introduce the "living wage" for all staff - including cleaners working for contract companies.

University authorities announced the change of heart over pay after a meeting with campaigners on Tuesday.

Academics, students and community groups had protested at a refusal to pay cleaners £7.85 per hour.

There are now nine London universities promising to pay the living wage.

Living wage campaigners describe the decision as a "significant victory".

The Citizens UK community group and University of London Union have been calling on all London universities to pay the living wage of £7.85 per hour - which is claimed to be the lowest rate needed to live in the capital.

'Business sense'

This is higher than the national minimum wage, which will be £5.93 per hour from October.

UCL had initially rejected calls for contract staff, such as cleaners and catering staff, to receive this level of pay.

But the university came under sustained pressure from students, staff and Citizens UK.

Campaigners contrasted the difficulties of low-paid cleaners, who might have to work several jobs to keep their families, with the £404,742 annual pay package of UCL provost, Professor Malcolm Grant.

Academics at UCL had written to complain about the "grossly inequitable" difference in pay between the highest and lowest paid at the university.

Professor Grant has already announced that he would take a 10% pay cut, as well as a pay freeze.

The university has now agreed to introduce the living wage, including staff working for outsourcing companies, over the next two years

A spokesman for Citizens UK says that Professor Grant "has clearly heard the arguments of the campaign that a living wage is both the right thing to do, and makes good business sense".

UCL is the latest London university to sign up for this higher rate of pay - with commitments already made by Queen Mary, London School of Economics, Birkbeck, Goldsmiths, School of Oriental and African Studies, London Business School, Institute of Education and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

On Tuesday, the newly-elected Labour leader, Ed Miliband, promised his support for the living wage in a speech to his party conference.

London Mayor Boris Johnson has also backed the living wage campaign, arguing that people should be "better off in work than out of work".

Source:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11427323