Industry news

IT giant, Microsoft, has has signed a three-year outsourcing agreement with Indian IT services provider, Infosys.

Under the contract, Infosys will manage the company’s internal IT services, providing Microsoft with; IT help desk, desk side services and IT Infrastructure and applications support. Infosys will also contribute in lowering enterprise costs through the use of the latest Microsoft solutions such as Windows 7.

Under the three-year agreement, Infosys will provide support across 450 locations within 104 countries. In a statement the company said it aims to, “Streamline the implementation process, simplify support and services, and lower costs”.

"Infosys will deliver this engagement in an outcome-based pricing model, enabling Microsoft to associate and manage IT costs directly to business variables and demand," said Sanjay Jalona, vice-president and head of manufacturing North America at Infosys.

Kraft Foods, recent buyer of Cadburys, has signed a procurement outsourcing deal with

Capgemini. The company will assume responsibility for the strategic sourcing and spend management of Kraft’s various purchasing categories.

Capgemini plans to deploy a global service delivery model and leverage technology from its recent. IBX acquisition. IBX’s technology, on-demand purchasing solutions, will be combined with Capgemini’s BPO platform to service the contract.

“[We] will deliver spend savings, processes improvement and change management to leading, global companies like Kraft Foods. These services will streamline their procurement operations and support their goal of sustainable performance,” said Hubert Giraud, head of Capgemini Business Process Outsourcing.

Valueshore, a group of Spanish IT consultancies, conducted research and found that three quarters of organisations are dissatisfied with their offshore IT suppliers. sourcingfocus.com spoke to to Daniel Naoum, co-founder of Valueshore, to find out what's going on.

Listen to the interview.

The Irish business process outsourcer, Abtran has announced it will create up to 300 new vacancies at its call centre as part of a £3m research and development investment initiative.

The company which currently employs 1,000 workers will create new roles within Abtran’s offices in Cork including; management, human resources, information technology, business administration, finance, resource planning in addition to sales and customer service support.

Sinn Féin spokesperson on Enterprise, Trade and Employment Deputy Arthur Morgan welcomed the announcement, “In a county where there are currently nearly 45,000 people on the Live Register, the creation of new employment is vitally important. Abtran currently employ 1,000 people in Ireland and the expansion of employment is critical for the people of County Cork and for the local economy.”

More than half of outsourcing end-users are more confident in the use of outsourcing to support their business objectives than they were in 2009, according to the National Outsourcing Association’s (NOA) quarterly Outsourcing Confidence Index released today.

While the financial services sector was found to be the most positive about the use of outsourcing in 2010 and beyond, the services sector also showed high confidence with 61 per cent followed by the retail sector which was marginally less confident with 55 per cent.

The research also found 60 per cent of users intended to outsource services not previously outsourced this year, whilst 56 per cent of those already outsourcing planned to increase the scope of existing contracts.

The concentrated focus on cost reduction has also led-to a greater interest in offshoring, with 100 per cent of respondents planning on increasing offshoring by the end of 2010 and 88 per cent of respondents placing high importance on multi-shoring. However according to the report 78 per cent of respondents believe supplier outsourcing capability has not improved over the past 12 months.

Martyn Hart, Chairman of the NOA, said, “Outsourcing has traditionally been seen as a cost saving mechanism for business, so during the torrid 2009, it is not surprising that interest in outsourcing is continuing to grow. However, continued focus on cost above everything else, means that many are pushing through higher volume low cost contracts, over shorter time frames. This short-termism can be dangerous and these kinds of contracts frequently fail.”

He continues, “That said it looks like suppliers still have some work to do to ensure they’re fully catering for what users want in 2010. This is likely to be an ongoing issue as users continue to seek new cost savings from less mature providers and locations around the world.”

BT will close its Fort William contact centre resulting in forty redundancies.

The telecoms giant took the decision following a review to consolidate its activities into a smaller number of centres.

According to BT the Manpower-managed centre will close during the 2010/11 financial year.

A BT spokesperson told the BBC, "We will agree a closure date within the next few weeks and will communicate to the team in early May.

"Our priority now, with the assistance of Manpower, is to be able to clearly communicate to the team what our exit strategy is and to give them a timeframe for this to be completed.

"We will also be working closely with Manpower to help people find alternative work within the community."

BT said its contact centres in Alness and Thurso would remain open

The Labour party has announced that, if reelected, they will ensure migrant workers pass English language tests if they want to work within the public sector, according to Call Centre Focus.

Launched today, the proposal comes as part of the party’s manifesto ahead of May’s general election. Under current rules, enforced English language skill requirements only cover teachers, doctors and police officers from outside the European Union. However, the Labour party intends on widening this further across public sector roles, covering call centre agents, nurses, social workers and police community support officers.

Worldwide IT spending is predicted to reach $3.4 trillion during 2010, a 5.3 per cent increase on 2009 figures. The IT industry is expected to show continued steady growth, with 2011 spending projected to surpass $3.5 trillion, an increase of 4.2 per cent from 2010, according to Gartner.

The IT services industry is forecast to rise 5.7 per cent from 2009 with spending estimated to hit $821 billion in 2010. This and 2009’s reported growth in outsourcing revenue, comes as an encouraging sign for outsourcing service providers, something which Gartner analysts believe will extend to consulting and system integration in 2010.

Joanne Correia, managing vice president at Gartner, said, "Cost optimisation, and the shifts in spending form mega suites to the automation of processes will continue to benefit alternative software acquisition models as organisations will look for ways to shift spending from capital expenditures to operating expenditures. Because of this, vendors offering software as a service (SaaS), IT asset management, virtualisation capabilities and that have a good open-source strategy will continue to benefit. We also see mobile-device support or applications, as well as cloud services driving new opportunities."

By Dr Roger Newman, head of UK manufacturing and digital convergence relationship management at Mahindra Satyam

With the Winter Olympics now over, and many a football fan counting down the weeks to the 2010 World Cup, it is perhaps a timely opportunity to reflect on the transformations that technology is making to the world of sport.

We are now entering a new generation of ‘sport as entertainment’, and our culture demands coverage of sporting events delivered when we want, where we want and on whichever device we want. IT is revolutionising the way in which spectators experience live games and the means through which we ‘consume’ sport, from TV to mobile devices and PC’s . We are now also entering the era of 3D sporting events designed to bring us to the heart of the on-pitch action, without having to leave our homes. Earlier this year, the game between Arsenal and Manchester United became the first sporting event to be broadcast live to a public audience in 3D.

In the same way, IT can be transformational in the way in which global sporting events are set up, organised and delivered. Outsourcing has, of course, played a large part in the delivery of such events providing organisers with the ability to ramp up and down their resources quickly, and giving access to a global workforce with specialised skills. This is particularly important when the major sporting events tend to operate on four year cycles. The challenge for both the outsourcer and the sporting body is how the IT platform and business processes can be reused between and across events. At Mahindra Satyam we are now in the final stages of preparation for the FIFA World Cup in South Africa. We have certainly learnt a few lessons in the development of the software for this event that were given a trial run at the Confederation Cup last year. We know that behind the scenes, IT applications enable organisers to streamline operations and build efficiencies at every stage of the event from volunteer registration and management to material planning as well as creating communications platforms for fans.

Most of the applications used in sport for managing such events are designed from the ground up, or are core application modules which are tailored to the needs of events. Developing bespoke applications on diverse platforms which need to be developed and supported, can, of course, be time consuming and cost intensive.

The time is perhaps now ripe for a new model to emerge which can offer cost savings and greater flexibility for the management of events. Hosted, on-demand event management solutions would deliver timely commissioning, enable the fast ramp up / ramp down scalability of resources, limit fixed costs and enable customers to access continuously improving services and solutions. As the data is maintained in one place, the client could also benefit from reusing some of the data across various events, such as venue, fan or accreditation information.

As we enter a new era of sports viewing perhaps we also need to consider the way in which IT is delivered to support the management of such events. In fact the IT footprint now extends well beyond the actual event and into the whole experience before, during and after the event. A new way of developing and deploying applications for organisers that minimises resources and reduces costs has got to be a ‘win-win’ for the client and outsourcing provider.

Northamptonshire and Cambridgeshire County Councils plan to sign a four-year shared services deal for a joint IT platform worth up to £70.5 million.

The councils are partners in a Local Government Shared Services (LGSS) scheme, which is looking to appoint a supplier for a software as a service ERP, enhancement and optimisation and operational transition support. The councils are reportedly also looking for support for other functions such as HR, procurement, finance and legal.

According to a contract notice, the framework agreement will be made available to other councils around the country, including Chichester District Council, City of London, Cornwall Council, Herefordshire Council and North Yorkshire County Council.