Industry news

Pharma giant AstraZeneca has signed a mulitmillion dollar FAO deal with Indian outsourcer Genpact, to manage its finance and accounting systems and processes.

As part of the five year deal, Genpact will work to improve AstraZeneca’s SAP-based accountancy processes whilst reducing cut costs. The company will address processes relating to procure-to-pay, record-to-report and order-to-cash functions.

Graham Russell, head of global transactional finance at AstraZeneca, said that streamlining business processes would enable the company “to improve the effectiveness” of its finance function “in driving, measuring and reporting business performance”.

The deal covers over 50 countries, including the company’s headquarters in London and Sweden.

T-Mobile UK has signed a five-year outsourcing contract with Infosys to provide FAO services to its finance directorate. Under the contract Infosys will supply solutions to customer finance, commercial finance, and accounting and procurement operations.

The decision comes as T-Mobile’s UK arm comes under pressure to cut costs and boost market share to avoid a possible sale by its German parents.

“Our F&A capabilities combined with our understanding of the telecom industry helps us transform businesses of our clients and so we are pleased to have been chosen,” said, Infosys BPO vice president, Gopal Devanahalli.

The US Army has signed an $88million ITO contract with Capgemini Government Solutions LLC, a member of the Capgemini Group. Under the contract, Capgemini will provide IT support for the organisation that delivers infrastructure and information management systems to the Army.

As part of the five year contract Capgemini will maintain programs including: Global Combat Support System-Army, Logistics Modernization Program, General Fund Enterprise Business System, Army-Defense Integrated Manpower and Human Resources System, and the Army Enterprise Systems Integration Program.

Capgemini will collaborate with a number of subcontractors to complete the project, including American Systems, Business Management International Inc., CSCL, Exalt, Hampton University, Lighthouse Technologies Inc., New Vectors, PRTM and Pragmatics.

Technology provider CSC has announced the extension of its partnership with the US Army to supply ongoing technical support at its Aberdeen Proving Ground.

The deal, which has an estimated total five-year contract value of US $79m, will provide help desk and data center operation.

The services will be provided by CSC subsidiary company Log.Sec, and will include network infrastructure support, software development, project management and quality control.

“For the past decade, Log.Sec employees have supported the Aberdeen Proving Ground and local community,” said Austin Yerks, president of CSC’s North American Public Sector Defense Group. “We are proud to continue providing mission-critical IT services under this contract for our Army customers.”

Indian big players, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys and Wipro are losing contracts to nearshore rivals, including Ness Technologies of Israel, CPM Braxis of Brazil and Mexico-headquartered Softtek.

Emerging destinations are becoming increasingly attractive for top outsourcing customers such as GE, Citibank and several others seeking to work with local, specialised vendors instead of sending all projects to offshore locations like India, it was reported in the Times of India.

In order to combat this new trend India’s top tech firms, TCS, Infosys and Wipro, are growing their presence in the emerging markets of Latin America, Eastern Europe and Asia.

Jimit Arora, research director of outsourcing advisory firm Everest Group, has commented on the trend saying: “Some customers having 70-80 per cent of their offshore resources in India are realising that they need to look at the third category of suppliers that are local and niche.”

Vodafone’s Newbury-based call centre has been evacuated in the wake of the ‘worst snow to hit the UK in thirty years’.

The phone company decided to send staff home late on Tuesday expecting up to 30cm of snow to fall in Berkshire, where the centre is based, it was reported on CCF Online.

The call centre is expected to struggle with customer calls today due to the number of staff affected by the weather.

Customers phoning the call centre have been told to ‘expect delays’.

As yet, no other call centres have reported problems, but further difficulties are expected.

The Federation of Small Businesses estimates that the snow could cost the economy around £600million a day for the next few days.

Syngenta has announced it will extend its long-standing BPO relationship with Capgemini in the UK to provide financial services.

Under the new and extended seven-year contract, the technology and outsourcing supplier will provide Swiss firm Syngenta with additional financial services including accounting and procurement globally.

“We are proud to extend our partnership with Syngenta and are delighted to be intrinsically involved in the success of their business processes optimisation,” said Hubert Giraud, global leader of Capgemini.

Lancashire County Council is set to launch a major shared services project in a deal reportedly worth over £1.9bn - and is on the hunt for an outsourcing supplier.

The contract will seek to share IT services across the council’s twelve borough councils, Cumbria County Council and other local bodies over the next ten years.

Services to be covered in the deal include IT consultancy and support, technological strategic review services, project management, system integration, the development of customer relationship management software and front line systems, provision of human resources systems, pension fund administration systems, data management and financial management. The deal will also address networking, provision of hardware and software, helpdesk services, user training, printing, and school IT services and related software development.

“The partnership is intended to deliver medium and long term cost benefits, increased efficiency, sustainable and effective services, and improved performance delivery with the primary aim of ensuring the best possible outcomes for the citizens of Lancashire,” the council said in a statement.

The new initiative was announced when the council issued a contract notice requesting suppliers to tender. The council is seeking up to five vendors, who have until 29 January to request participation in the tendering process.

The council has recently come under intense pressure to cut overheads, needing to save £21.7m next year and between £79m and £142m over the next four years. Spending reductions have been forced from numerous directions including increased pressure on services due to demographic changes, new legislation and uncertainties over continuing government grants.

The Sardar Bhiladwala Pardi People's Co-operative Bank Ltd. (SBPPCB), one of the leading co-operative banks in Gujarat, has signed a ten year IT services contract with IBM.

The contract, a pay-as-you-go model, will enable the bank to save up to 50 per cent in its capital expenditure on IT infrastructure. As part of the agreement, IBM will provide server management, network and security management, backup and database management.

Established in 1929, the SBPPCB’s main objective is to help improve the lives of farmers, small traders and artisans.

Mr. Hemant M Desai, managing director of SBPPCB, commented: "This model will set a good example for other co-operative banks for evaluating the core banking system with predictable and low expenditure as well as obtaining a high level of technology expertise."

The NHS has been criticized for spending around £1m on outsourcing to consultants, according to the Express.co.uk.

Health chiefs at NHS Manchester came under fire from patients and MPs for the spend, which went towards experts advising them on how to save cash, as the organization is facing an £18m debt.

NHS Manchester recently entered into a ten month contract with KPMG.

Laura Roberts, NHS Manchester chief executive, told the Express: “It’s important that every opportunity to improve quality and reduce inefficiency is taken.”