Industry news

KST Electric, Ltd., a subsidiary of Rosendin Electric, the nation’s largest private electrical contractor and a 100-percent employee-owned company, announced today it has signed a contract with Data Foundry, a leading provider of wholesale and retail data center outsourcing, co-location, and disaster recovery service, to wire the first phase of a $150 million data center in Austin, Texas. This project named Austin Data Center 2 (ADC2) is the first of a multi-phase construction project that will become a new, 250,000 square-foot master-planned greenfield data center – the only purpose-built, carrier-neutral data center in central Texas.

ADC2 is built upon a next-generation, 40-acre campus called the Data Ranch, which when completed will have capabilities to deliver over 100 megawatts of power to over one million square feet of data center space. In addition, the fully redundant ADC2 is powered by two independent substations and will feature an end-to-end underground power supply offering resilient and scalable power options.

KST Electric will be responsible for wiring the entire first phase of ADC2, including providing flexible power delivery for rooms from 2,500 square feet and up, as well as flexible power redundancy from N+1 to 2N+1 configurations. The first phase of ADC2 will support 12 MW of utility power with two redundant 12 MW feeds into the building and two independent substations, each independently connected to the ERCOT grid. All data and telecom cabling will be underground in a concrete-encased duct.

A unique feature of the current build-out is that unlike most construction projects, much of the wiring is in the open rather than hidden behind walls. Data Foundry plans to display key power rooms during tours and use KST Electric’s handiwork to showcase the wiring versatility and power capabilities of its new greenfield data center for prospective tenants.

“This is a tremendous opportunity for KST to not only demonstrate our prowess at wiring a mission-critical project such as the new Data Foundry data center, but it also gives us a rare opportunity to display our work,” said Kenneth Tumlinson, President of KST Electric.

“With the demand for high-quality data center and disaster recovery services from companies nationwide, we decided to build our new facility from the ground up, rather than compromising quality by retrofitting an existing building,” said Edward Henigin, Chief Technology Officer for Data Foundry. “We set out to build a state-of-the-art facility that competes with the best in the world. After a rigorous evaluation process, we chose KST Electric for its expertise and dedication to excellence. Together we plan to make our new Austin facility a showcase unrivaled in the Central Texas region.”

KST Electric is working with Holder Construction Company, a leading data center contractor with projects across the United States. Gensler is handling architectural design, and CCG Facilities Integration is providing engineering services for the project.

Source:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/kst-electric-signs-contract-to-wire-new-data-foundry-data-center-in-austin-104103833.html

India-based call center outsourcing services company Go4customer has announced launch of a new range of call center services which includes custom software development and internet marketing solutions.

The company said that it’s targeting small and mid-sized businesses who are seeking a reliable call center outsourcing partner. Moreover, it also plans to expand further in its domain.

Go4customer has rolled-out with inbound services. Company officials said that they have now developed a strong clientele. Additionally, the company is planning to expand on the type and number of services its catering.

In addition to regular Outbound, inbound and Web enabled range of call center service, the company is now also offering internet marketing solutions and custom software development, according to company officials.

Go4Customer provides outsourcing services. It aims to reshape the face of Call Center India outsourcing and CRM through strategic solutions.

Anuj Bairathi, CEO at Go4Customer said that a good internet marketing service can enable business owners to discover the latest methods of generating leads and can work best in boosting the overall business generation. “Our Internet marketing strategies would drastically transform your online existence.”

Source:http://www.tmcnet.com/channels/call-center-on-demand/articles/105552-go4customer-intros-new-range-call-center-services.htm

THE call centre, financial accounting, human resources management and IT support industry — collectively called business process outsourcing and offshoring — is one of SA’s fastest-growing economic sectors, according to the Department of Trade and Industry revised industrial policy action plan, released earlier this year.

This is significant in a country with one of the highest unemployment rates in the world — estimated by Statistics SA at 25,3%.

Business process outsourcing is the practice of using a third party contracted to perform specific, specialised processes on a company’s behalf, such as payroll functions, human resources and customer call centres.

The government has long pinpointed business process outsourcing as a high-priority sector, especially since its growth could absorb a “large and well-educated labour pool, with over 300000 new school leavers and 100000 graduates entering the workforce annually”, the document says. The call centre sub sector grew about 8% last year, employing 54000 people.

SA has a big youth unemployment problem, with 2,8-million of its citizens aged 18-24 jobless or in education or training facilities.

SA has made moves to elbow its way into the international tussle for the sector, offering incentives to global giants such as IBM, Fujitsu Siemens, Lufthansa, Virgin, Sykes, Avis, Car Phone Warehouse and Amazon. They have opened customer-service centres in SA.

According to the department, SA is seen as a preferred location for business process outsourcing as the majority of people speak English, the telecommunications infrastructure is improving and labour is fairly cheap compared with the West.

However, concerns have been raised about the potentially exploitative nature of outsourced operations, especially as competition for business increases.

But Garth Strachan, the department’s industrial policy director, says the incentive programme it and the Business Trust offer foreign companies is conditional, with exploitation prohibited.

SA is faced with stiff competition from other developing countries for this sort of business.

India has 63% of the business process outsourcing and offshoring market, commanding 30bn in revenue last year, according to the Indian finance ministry. China announced last month that it will not levy operating taxes on offshore service outsourcing businesses in 21 of its main cities in a bid to attract foreign investors.

In Africa, Rwanda’s 50m IT industry has pushed the Rwanda Development Board to promote the business process outsourcing industry. The board says Rwanda would handle financial accounting and human resource services, catering for nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) operating in the country.

“There are approximately 50 NGOs in the country who would be the key beneficiaries of outsourcing services. NGOs in Rwanda are keen to outsource skills outside their core competencies of relief, education and social development,” says Christine Akuzwe, the board’s investment officer.

Official figures for SA show that Gauteng dominates business processing outsourcing, employing about 35000 people.

In SA, call centres make up two- thirds of the industry, while the remaining part includes financial accounting, IT support, data analytics and an assortment of legal services.

Mteto Nyati, director of global technology services for IBM in SA, said at a seminar on outsourcing that SA was “at the centre of IBM’s new strategy”, which involves creating global shared services and centres of excellence in seven strategic locations around the world. IBM has moved many of the high-value services it provides to clients, including some big names, to SA, where it employs more than 1500 staff.

“SA is not a normal call centre location but a highly technical environment where highly skilled people are managing complex IT issues,” Mr Nyati says.

Source:http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=122218

Share

Accenture has reached agreement on a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Her Majesty’s Government (HMG) on existing work across the government and has put forward proposals on how efficiencies could be achieved in any future work.

Under the agreement, all current contracts have been retained and will be delivered according to plan. Accenture continues to build on its past performance of strong work, and the MOU marks a new phase in the successful relationship with HMG.

“We are delighted to have reached this new agreement with HMG to deliver our existing contracts. Accenture is committed to helping the Government achieve its savings,” said David Thomlinson, managing director of Accenture’s business in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Accenture has also outlined a new framework of innovative new ideas on how HMG can achieve further efficiencies this year and beyond.

“We look forward to continuing our conversation on how we can deliver these innovative ideas and increase savings for the HMG and the U.K. taxpayer,” said Mark Lyons, managing director of Accenture’s Health & Public Service group in the United Kingdom.

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with approximately 204,000 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. The company generated net revenues of US$21.6 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2010.

Source: www.accenture.com.

by Tony Collins, Managing Director, OPAL, the financial outsourcing company www.opal-uk.com

In the past outsourcing has, at times, been misrepresented in the media and consumers have been wary that it may generate unemployment. But – although it rarely makes the headlines - outsourcing can also create jobs. Almost every major multi-national study concludes that outsourcing actually creates more jobs than it destroys, for example Global Insight investigated the total process of offshoring and outsourcing in the US and found that more jobs were created than lost. It has also been highlighted by economists at the IMF that outsourcing jobs such as call centre, IT and back office staff does not create a negative effect on service industries. In financial services – the industry which OPAL spends most of its time working in – outsourcing has become an integral part of the business model, and many jobs have been created as a result.

Job Creation - how it works

Designed to reduce costs for businesses and consumers, outsourcing increases productivity and product investment, thus improving profitability and creating a demand for more new jobs. Therefore there are two sides to the argument, on one hand jobs will be cut and belts will tighten, but on the other these changes are necessary for a company to and remain competitive. When businesses outsource, the ultimate impact is often to create new, better quality jobs that pay more.

Key stats

In the UK, financial services outsourcing is continuing to grow as many seek to maintain a competitive edge whilst operating cost-effectively. It is estimated that the total UK outsourcing industry is currently worth £80 billion a year, and will continue to grow.

The UK Government is said to be looking to outsource more work, contradicting recent claims that outsourcing providers are facing a downturn because of the forthcoming Spending Review. Although the Government is trying to keep public sector jobs in the UK, offshoring is becoming increasingly popular in order to cut costs – and research carried out by the IMF shows that relocating British service jobs overseas has not led to a net loss of employment in the UK.

Financial Sourcing - Products to market

Here at OPAL, we provide third party administration for the financial services sector with clients including HBOS and Investec. We facilitate the need for our clients to launch financial products into the market place by providing full services including product development; marketing; IT; staff and resourcing. In order to do this we hire specialists in the field and since December 2008 we have employed 28 new members of staff and aim to increase that by the end of 2010. As such, we are a working example that outsourcing is creating jobs onshore in our St.Albans HQ.

The quarterly outsourcing confidence index released earlier this year by the NOA (National Outsourcing Association) included positive figures about the future of outsourcing, particularly in the financial sector. The report assessed confidence in outsourcing and found that the financial sector is the most positive with 71% convinced about the use of outsourcing in 2010 and thereafter. Business professional consultants, the Corporate Executive Board, conducted a survey amongst companies implementing restructuring plans and outsourcing was found to be the fourth most common activity taking place over the next twelve months.

The future looks bright for the outsourcing industry, after a few tough years financial services is thriving, innovating and dealing with regulation and outsourcing will play a major part in continuing this success. As providers look to bring new, more innovative products to market to help consumers repair their battered finances, the outsourcing industry will be there to help them along the way.

The IT help desk has often been under-appreciated – seen as a necessary function, but one offering little value beyond responding to basic user issues. Taking that view, however, can result in a missed opportunity for your business.

According to a recent study, the help desk function typically makes up less than five percent of an enterprise’s IT spend, but can represent almost 50% of the IT organization’s perceived value. Further, with the increasing adoption of ITIL and continuing trend towards globalization, the traditional level 1 IT help desk is re-emerging as the “global IT service desk” – and the heart of a successful global IT service management operation.

Here are three key ways that the service desk can deliver substantial value:

1. Information Gathering

As the central point of contact for resolving IT issues, the service desk can be a critical source of information as to what is working across an organization and what is not. Data collected at the service desk is both real-time and comprehensive – and because it comes primarily from business users, it provides important insight into how IT is working from the business user’s perspective. This is essential information for a results-oriented IT operation.

2. Reducing Costs, Increasing Quality

One effective way to use this information is by leveraging the ITIL discipline of ‘problem management’. This involves analyzing data to identify and resolve the root causes of incidents – helping to avoid them in the future and thereby boosting user productivity, increasing satisfaction and lowering costs.

Further, advancements in remote management technologies mean that the service desk can attend to many end-user computing issues that have traditionally required on-site personnel. This capability decreases down time and reduces the cost to resolve incidents.

Some companies have even extended the role of the service desk team to include broader Remote Infrastructure Management (RIM) – including network, server and application monitoring, and resolution responsibilities. This not only reduces staffing requirements, but can also enable service desk personnel to resolve issues more quickly and efficiently – before they impact the business.

For example, a global ophthalmic company with more than 15,000 employees in 90+ countries recently leveraged this RIM approach. As a result, it reduced alert resolution time by 30%, increased first level resolution to more than 80%, achieved end-user satisfaction of more than 90%, and exceeded its initial target for Return on Investment.

3. Enabling Globalization

Many companies are globalizing their service desk as an early step in a broader initiative to globalize IT. Implementing a global service desk with standardized processes and tools provides a full global view and a consistent approach to user support that can aid significantly in deploying global enterprise technologies. Additionally, when deploying new technologies, the service desk is an excellent advocate for the end user – working on the deployment team, helping to anticipate user challenges, and enabling proactive actions to achieve a smooth rollout, uninterrupted productivity and satisfied business users.

A global manufacturing company with more than 10,000 end users across Europe and North America took this approach ahead of deploying its first global applications. Not only did this approach help to ensure an effective implementation, but there was an added benefit – as the global service desk was implemented, it raised visibility to the performance of external vendors, helping the customer more effectively manage those vendors globally.

From cost reduction to increased efficiency to enabling globalization, realizing the full potential of the service desk can have a substantial impact on IT – and business – success.

Peter Keane is the EMEA Director of Performance Management Office & Business Process Improvement Team for TechTeam Global, Inc., a provider of IT and business process outsourcing.

Source: www.Techteam.com

Egypt hopes to see a tenfold increase in exports from its growing outsourcing industry by 2020 and will boost its focus on information technology entrepreneurship and co-ownership of intellectual property, the country's information technology minister said on Wednesday.

The new emphasis was outlined by Tarek Kamel at an investment conference in Cairo and offered a window into how the country wants to boost revenues and further diversify its economic base as it moves ahead with its reform program. Trade Minister Rachid Mohammed Rachid said officials are now more interested in opening new sectors to investments, hoping to eventually attract direct foreign investments of between $12-15 billion per year. Rachid said the priority was on maximizing the returns from state-run enterprises, including through restructuring and better management.

"We need to be able to consolidate. We want to be able to improve management. We want to be able to modernize our base of production," he said, reinforcing the government's desire to avoid further privatisation of the public sector, at least for the time being. Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, echoed those remarks, stating: "We need growth more than others" — a reference to the government's challenge in meeting the needs of its 80 million citizens and demands for more jobs.

The information technology sector has emerged over the past few years as a new source of pride for Egypt. Kamel, the IT and communication minister, said the sector had brought in almost $1.1 billion in exports so far in 2010, and officials were projecting an increase to $10 billion by the end of the decade.

"We're still completely convinced that this is the way to continue to grow because infrastructure growth (in the sector) will not be enough anymore," Kamel said. Egypt needs to "take its rightful share out of that service economy." The minister also added that outsourcing, call centers and other support services were creating about 40,000 jobs per year but that Egypt was no longer content with simply focusing on the call center business. He said the real value lies in creating entrepreneurship in the information technology sector through co-ownership of intellectual property.

"We can also work on the higher end of the value chain," Kamel said. "It will make Egypt part of the knowledge economy worldwide." With officials setting up Egypt's new Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and that there was already a pilot project under way with IBM on nanotechnology. Which Kamel hopes will attract foreign firms to similar projects in Egypt. The strategy for the entrepreneurship plan would be announced later in the year, he said.

The push for new revenue comes as Egyptian officials project economic growth could reach at least 6 percent this year, and inch up slightly higher in the coming year.

Egypt, the Arab world's most populous country, stumbled slightly during the world financial meltdown. Economic growth dropped from more than 7 percent before the crisis to slightly under 5 percent. Kamel said the IT sector saw sustained growth even during the crisis. Mobile phone penetration in Egypt now stands at more than 75 percent, with around 60 million subscribers, and broadband subscriptions are growing at about 25 percent annually, including both fixed and mobile services. He said there were around 1.1 million broadband household subscribers. But he discounted the possibility that a fourth mobile phone license may be offered before 2013, saying officials would rather wait until the fourth generation networks were more established. Kamel also said the country's first so-called "triple-play" license would be signed Wednesday. Officials have awarded two licenses for companies to provide a combined package with Internet, cable TV and phone services in gated communities springing up around Cairo.

Source:http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gwooP8DADMfWdrLrhW1ImLjbmGBQD9IHMLU80?docId=D9IHMLU80

GMT Corporation has created a strategic partnership with two leading UK organisations to deliver GMT Planet to public sector agencies in the UK. As a result of this partnership, PDMS, a UK IT and project management consultancy will act as a primary contractor to UK public sector agencies, whilst GMT and Ubertas Business Solutions (Ubertas), a UK supplier of strategic business solutions, provide product and implementation services, respectively.

GMT’s solutions are particularly well-suited for public sector organisations owing to the comprehensiveness of GMT’s flagship workforce optimisation solution, GMT Planet, its SureServices assured client lifecycle methodology, and a disciplined, well-documented implementation process. To date, GMT Planet is in use with a number of UK public sector and police agencies, such as West Midlands Police, Humberside Police, London Ambulance Service and many others.

“GMT is honoured to have been chosen by PDMS and Ubertas as their workforce optimisation solution partner,” said Simon Angove, chief executive officer of GMT. “Public sector agencies are under increasing budget pressure to stringently manage their costs whilst providing high quality service to the public. Philosophically, all three companies are very closely aligned in providing excellent value and assured project success for their customers, which is why this partnership makes sense.”

"We are confident that in this environment the need for more efficient delivery of technical and support services will lead to an increased demand for outsourcing," Babcock said.

The company has identified "significant additional opportunities" after being involved in talks with the Ministry of Defence and other government departments on potential outsourcing contracts in recent months.

Spending cuts will hit sales growth in the short term, the company acknowledged, but Babcock said it expected to meet its targets for the first half of the year.

Shares in the company, whose contracts include maintaining Britain's fleet of nuclear submarines, rose 23 to 574.5p on the news.

Babcock completed the acquisition of rival VT Group in July, and said its net debt position at the end of the half is likely to be lower than expected because of "excellent" cash generation.

The company is also confident of achieving the £50m of savings a year identified in its takeover offer. Babcock agreed to buy VT for £1.33bn in cash and shares in March.

The company said its modifications of the Rosyth dockyard to accommodate the final assembly of the Royal Navy's new aircraft carriers is mainly complete, with a 1,000 tonne crane installed. Training work for the three armed services has not been affected by the halt in new business awards during the spending review, and Babcock's rail maintenance business also improved.

Babcock's order book stands at £12bn, and the company has bids in for work worth another £5bn.

Source:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/industry/engineering/8032897/Babcock-expects-to-benefit-from-Government-spending-cuts.html

The Mara Group’s IT company, Raps, announced it has formed a joint venture with Spanco, a leading provider of global business process outsourcing. The aim of the deal is to set up two world-class call centres in East Africa, one in Kampala, the other in Nairobi. Over 1,000 jobs will be created in the first phase and will lead to further employment. The call centre is aimed at providing vital support services to the telecommunications, financial services and government sector. The new company will operate under the name Raps Spanco.

“After seeing the success of call centers in India that employ millions, educate the youth and provide a base for them to kick-start their careers, we wanted to replicate this model within the ICT sector in East Africa,” says Mara’s managing director, Ashish Thakkar. Raps Uganda has been providing superior IT services for 15 years. The unparalleled knowledge and expertise of a highly skilled and trained workforce is the bedrock for delivering superior service quality to their clients.

Spanco employs over 10,000 people in call centres in India and has a turnover in excess of USD250m and Mara has in-depth knowledge of the local market conditions and how to train staff in Africa. The combination of these capacities will drive the growth of the business in the region. Spanco Chairman Kapil Puri firmly believes that the strength and know-how of Spanco in the sector will send a signal that East Africa is ready to do business. ‘Building a world-class call centre business here will allow us and our partners at Mara to lay the groundwork for opportunities in the private and public sectors’, he says.

The Mara Group sees the partnership attracting international clients to the region and by so doing create more and more local jobs and lead to investment in the ICT sector throughout Africa. Raps Spanco have been shortlisted for a BPO bid in countries like the DRC, Nairobi and Tanzania.

Source: http://www.ratio-magazine.com/201009303679/Corporate-Press-Releases/Uganda-Press-Releases-Raps-and-Spanco-Partnership-for-Outsourcing-Capacity-in-East-Africa.html