Industry news

Airbus has selected CSC as the prime contractor to develop and support the aerospace giant’s ‘Value Chain Visibility’ (VCV) and Auto-ID program.

CSC will take responsibility for coordinating the implementation of all Auto-ID and RFID projects and will work with all previously selected Airbus Auto-ID suppliers to ensure overall delivery of the Airbus VCV & Auto-ID projects.

Electrolux IT Solutions, a subsidiary of Electrolux, has signed a multi-year contract with Accenture for application development and management services.

Under the contract, Accenture will develop and manage a portion of Electrolux’s existing enterprise applications including JD Edwards, Cognos, and Lotus Notes to help accelerate its current information technology (IT) transformation program.

The contract has been put in place to enhance operational efficiency, reduce technology costs, and better anticipate and meet future business demands.

“The decision to outsource the development and support for JD Edwards, Cognos, and Lotus Notes will ensure the availability of skills and resources to fulfill future delivery requirements,” said Bertil Norberg, CIO at Electrolux.

The services will be delivered to Electrolux in 22 countries through Accenture’s ‘Global Delivery Network’ including delivery centers in India, with local service management in Sweden, Germany, the United States, Brazil, Thailand, Australia and China.

UK travel giant, TUI Travel has announced it has signed a five-year network infrastructure outsourcing contract with Deutsche Telekom’s corporate customer arm T-Systems.

Under the agreement, which is reported to be worth £88.2m, (€100m) T-Systems will provide integrated voice, data and mobile services to all TUI’s major brands. The deal which will cover the mainstream travel sector will provide support to 25,000 staff in 2,370 travel agency shops and 73 other offices across the UK, Ireland, Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

The deal is hoped to help modernise the company’s telecommunications and reduce costs. The deal will also allow TUI to reduce the number of suppliers it uses for voice and data services.

“We selected T-Systems to integrate and enhance our telecommunications services as they have the technological and global expertise to manage a project of this scope and size. This project will transform our communication capabilities, enable greater collaboration between TUI colleagues, deliver better customer service and provide significant cost savings,” Jim Mann, chief information officer at TUI Travel comments.

The UK leisure company, Center Parcs is planning on reducing its number of call centre jobs as a result of its recent centre centralisation.

The company which employees call centre agents across its four sites in, Nottinghamshire, Elveden Suffolk, Wiltshire and Cumbria, has decided to centralise its call centre facilities to one main site, its head offices in Newark.

The move is said to come as call volumes decline and online booking increases, with 70 per cent of all bookings now made online.

Whilst it is expected that approximately 20 jobs will be cut, Center Parcs is trying to find jobs for the remaining workers, according to Call Centre Focus.

“The decision has been taken as a result of the declining call volumes following the increase in online bookings. A small number of employees have been affected at our four sites, “Center Parcs commented.

Once again, the controversial food giant Kraft has hit the outsourcing headlines this week with the announcement of its recent procurement deal with Capgemini.

After recently buying the nation’s favorite chocolate-maker, Cadburys, Kraft has appointed the global consultancy to provide strategic sourcing and spend management to the company’s various purchasing categories.

This week also saw some very positive industry research from both Gartner, and the National Outsourcing Association (NOA).

The NOA published its quarterly Outsourcing Confidence Index suggesting that more than half of outsourcing end-users are more confident in the use of outsourcing in supporting their business objectives than they were in 2009.

While the financial services sector was found to be the most positive about outsourcing in 2010, the services sector also showed mighty confidence with 61 per cent, whilst the retail sector was somewhat less confident with 55 per cent.

A high 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.

Gartner adds to this research fuelled enthusiasm with its report. Yes you have guessed it, once again IT spending is set to rise even further, 5.3 per cent to be precise within 2010.

With worldwide IT spending predicted to reach $3.4 trillion during 2010, and IT services forecast to rise by 5.7 per cent from 2009, the outsourcing world is looking rosy.

However before we all get too excited about these upturns in activity and confidence, 78 per cent still felt supplier outsourcing capability has not improved over the past 12 months, meaning “suppliers still have some work to do”, according as Martyn Hart, Chairman of the NOA.

And finally to end on a positive note, Thomson and First Choice owner, TUI Travel has announced its five-year, £88.2m network infrastructure outsourcing agreement with Deutsche Telekom’s corporate customer arm T-Systems.

The agreement will see T-Systems provide integrated voice, data and mobile services to all TUI’s major brands.

NorthWestern Energy, a large US-based energy provider, has signed a multi-year contract with Vertex to consolidate, upgrade, and host NorthWestern Energy’s Customer Information Systems (CIS).

Under the new contract Vertex will work to upgrade and consolidate the company’s existing customer databases into one hosted platform.

NorthWestern Energy provides electricity and natural gas in the Upper Midwest and Northwest, serving approximately 661,000 customers in Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota and Nebraska. With Vertex’s new system, the company expects to streamline and gain efficiencies within contact centre and billing operations while reducing costs. The company will also be providing enhanced customer care through better online customer self-service functionality.

“Our new, single website will provide enhanced self-service features, including streamlined logon and customer navigation, simplified payment options, and an easy way for customers to self enrol in programs such as eBill and EZ Pay,” said Bobbi Schroeppel, VP of customer care.

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.”