Industry news

A survey released this week of nearly 28,000 employers across 27 countries and territories, revealed that 31 percent of employers worldwide are concerned about the impact on the labour market from talent leaving their country to work abroad. A parallel Relocating for Work survey, also conducted by US-based Manpower research, revealed that 37 percent of individuals would be willing to relocate anywhere in the world for a better career, having interesting implications for outsourcing companies.

Jeffrey A. Joerres, Chairman and CEO of Manpower Inc, commented: "As the talent shortage becomes more severe, employers are naturally concerned about losing employees, not just to competitors within their own markets, but to those based overseas too. Individuals are now increasingly willing and able to find employment far from their homes. More people are living and working away from their home countries than at any other point in history: about three percent of the world's population. Talent goes where talent is needed and we are truly becoming a global, borderless workforce".

The survey found that 78 percent of individuals would be willing to relocate within their national borders or abroad for work and 41 percent of those would be willing to relocate permanently. Respondents from the Philippines (96 percent), Ireland (93 percent), Brazil (93 percent), Portugal (92 percent), Colombia (92 percent), Mexico and Central America (92 percent) and Peru (90 percent) were the most likely to consider relocating for employment opportunities in the future.

Respondents under 30 years old were more receptive to moving for work than their older colleagues. In terms of gender differences, men were more inclined to move for longer periods of time (four to six years or longer) while women preferred assignments varying from one to three years and less than six months. The majority of people (82 percent) would relocate to increase their pay and 74 percent would move for career advancement. 47 percent would move across borders for the opportunity to learn another language and, interestingly, this was the strongest reason for women (50 percent) to relocate for work.

The most popular destinations that people would want to relocate across borders for work are the US, the UK and Spain. This preference changed somewhat based upon the region in which respondents live. The US was the preferred destination in the Americas while China topped the list in Asia Pacific. The UK was preferred by those in the EMEA region. The parallel Manpower Borderless Workforce survey indicates that employers are currently sourcing the largest number of foreign professionals from China, the US, India, the UK and Germany.

The Top 10 Preferred Destinations for Work

1. United States

2. United Kingdom

3. India

4. Canada

5. Australia

6. United Arab Emirates

7. France

8. Italy

9. Germany

10. Argentina

Top 10 Source Countries for Foreign Talent

1. China

2. United States

3. Spain

4. United Kingdom

5. Germany

6. Japan

7. Spain

8. France

9. Canada

10. Poland

Employers expressed concern about the potential negative impact on the labour market from talent leaving their country to work abroad. These concerns are most prevalent in: Peru (82 percent), Argentina (66 percent), South Africa (65 percent), Taiwan (64 percent), India (57 percent) and New Zealand (52 percent). The exodus of talent is least concerning to employers in China (1 percent), Ireland (7 percent), Switzerland (12 percent), Japan (12 percent), the Netherlands (13 percent) and the U.S. (14 percent).

Only 15 percent of employers worldwide think government and businesses are doing enough to slow the outward migration of talent and attract these people back to their country. The top 10 countries reporting concerns are: Germany, Peru, Italy, Belgium, Austria, United Kingdom, Argentina, Canada, Mexico and South Africa. Employers in Costa Rica (35 percent), China (35 percent), Hong Kong (35 percent) and Ireland (33 percent) were the more optimistic regarding government and business response to the issue.

"In most countries, the consensus is that business and governments are not doing enough to slow outward migration, or to attract individuals back to their home country. While it's true that many governments and businesses alike need to do more to keep their most talented workers, they must also consider how they can strengthen their collective employer 'brands' to attract more talented workers from overseas to fill their talent shortages," commented Joerres.

The National Secure Credentials Agency (ANTS), the body responsible for passports in France, has awarded Atos Origin and Sagem Sécurité with a biometric passport contract.

The contract will see Atos and Sagem manage the implementation and deployment of a new biometric passport system throughout France. The new passport is being developed under a new European Union directive to reinforce passport reliability and personal security whilst combating their fraudulent use.

Nearly 5,000 data acquisition and processing systems will be deployed in 2,000 French town halls and 350 prefectures and sub-prefectures before June 2009, making it possible to include fingerprints on passports.

Chinese cities will overtake Bangalore, Manila and Mumbai as the highest ranked global offshore delivery centres by 2011, according to an index developed by analyst firm IDC.

The ‘Global Delivery Index’ (GDI), released this week, is comprised of data from more than 35 cities in the Asia/Pacific region and is based on a comprehensive set of criteria such as cost of labour and rent, language skills and turnover rate. Some of the cities assessed in the index include Adelaide, Bangalore, Dalian, Hanoi and Kuala Lumpur.

While the index found that Indian cities were still ranked highly as offshore delivery leaders, Chinese cities were seen to be rapidly gaining on traditional locations.

Conrad Chang, Research Manager for IDC's Asia/ Pacific BPO Research, commented: "There are different risk factors to consider when evaluating outsourcing, offshoring, onshoring, and nearshoring. Some factors are obviously more critical than others and the GDI takes that into consideration. What differentiates leading cities from the rest is their focus on deal-clinching factors, and the GDI weighs that more heavily than other factors".

According to the report those cities placed in the top 10 for global delivery focused more on deal-clinching factors. Some of these factors were agent skills, political risk, cost of labour and language skills. Other factors that are also important in global delivery according are resources & skills, infrastructure, and government factors – all of which are well balanced among the leading cities.

According to the firm the following issues rank highly among key decision makers regarding business decisions for global delivery:

· Confusion about offshoring, onshoring, nearshoring and how to leverage different delivery methods for optimal results.

· Is India the only viable option and what are the other alternative global delivery centres?

· How to objectively compare and quantify risks between different locations, for example, is Bangalore better than Dalian, and what is the basis for comparison?

· What is the potential of different locations for the future, particularly second tier locations such as Vietnam and Malaysia?

HPs planned $12.6 billion purchase of EDS has received approval after a US government antitrust review.

While the two companies are still waiting for approval from European regulators, EDS plans to hold a shareholder meeting on July 31 to get clearance from its investors to close the deal.

The proposed merger, announced by the companies last month, is touted as a major challenge by HP to IBM’s dominance of the IT business services marketplace.

Oracle has finalised a deal to acquire Skywire Software, a leading provider of insurance and business applications. The deal will see Oracle acquire 1,450 new insurance customers to add to its existing cache of over 1,000.

Skywire Software's insurance software assists insurers in managing the life cycle of an insurance policy, including insurance policy creation, rating, insurance agent/broker management and information exchange solutions.

With this and the impending acquisition of AdminServer, another insurance software provider, Oracle plans to create the most complete software suite for the insurance enterprise.

Patrick Brandt, Skywire Software President and CEO, said: "Insurers look to software to speed policy implementation, accelerate new business acquisition, reduce costs and manage regulatory risk. The combination of Skywire Software's best-in-class insurance and document automation software applications with Oracle's solutions will drive innovation and leadership to ensure our customers' continued success."

The acquisition is expected go through in the second half of 2008. Until the deal closes, each company will continue to operate independently. The value of the deal was not available.

Atos Origin, the international IT services company, has announced plans to establish a new 'Competency Center' in Beijing to offer its portfolio of technical automation solutions to the civil nuclear industry and the oil & gas markets in the region.

Atos says the move reflects the growing demand from customers in China for expertise in IT services and the importance of the Asia Pacific and Chinese energy markets to the IT sector.

This ‘Energy and Utility Competency Centre’ will be launched in July 2008 to become fully operational by January 2009. This will provide domestic and global energy companies and nuclear operators with advanced technologies to meet the needs of China’s fast growing energy market.

Philippe Germond, CEO of Atos Origin, said: “This decision is a new step forward for Atos Origin to position the group as a worldwide provider of distinctive industry solutions. Atos Origin’s Digital Control System is widely recognized as a state-of-the-art reference by the most prominent nuclear operators in the world. Our solution is already implemented in three nuclear power plants in China and we are happy to reinforce our presence in this major market and to bring this expertise to the rest of the Asia Pacific region”.

Former CEO of Logica, Martin Read, has been hired by the government to cut public spending in the IT sector – at a time when some public sector IT projects either seem out of control, mired in controversy and recriminations – or both. p>Read will report to Alistair Darling in the Treasury, where his role includes standardising business processes and cross-departmental compatibility, and improving procurement. Significantly, he will be able to abandon failed projects.

he Information Commissioner has this week established that few Whitehall departments have any real idea of their legal responsibilities under the Data Protection Act, and fewer still have any idea of how to manage IT systems securely.

His findings were made public this week as two government departments face enforcement action under the Act: HM Revenue and Customs, and the Ministry of Defence. Both departments have been in the spotlight this year for serious breaches of data security, along with the Home Office and the NHS.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) and Poynter review found that there was a lack of meaningful systems, no understanding of the importance of data security and a “muddle through” culture at HMRC when it lost 25 million benefits records in internal post.

HMRC was described as having “an organisational design which was unnecessarily complex and crucially, did not clearly focus on management accountability”.

The MoD’s loss of 600,000 personnel details was slammed in a report by Sir Edmund Burton, who also blamed poor management. The MOD’S Chief of the General Staff has ordered an inquiry to investigate whether there are grounds disciplinary action.

Information Commissioner Richard Thomas, said: “The reports that have been published today show deplorable failures at both HMRC and MoD. Information security and other aspects of data protection must be taken a great deal more seriously by those in charge of organisations.

“It is beyond doubt that both Departments have breached Data Protection requirements and we intend to use the powers currently available to us to serve formal Enforcement Notices on them.”

• See Editor's Blog for more on this week's public sector IT and data meltdown.

BBVA, one of the top 15 banks in the world, has partnered with Infosys Technologies and Finacle to implement a new universal banking solution.

The system, to be implemented across BBVA, will cover core banking, CRM, treasury and wealth management.

Francisco Gonzalez, Chairman and CEO of BBVA, said: “Our aim is to transform BBVA to a winning player in the global banking industry of the 21st century. We need to think different approaches to customers, and IT is a key element in our innovative business model. BBVA is strongly committed to its innovation and transformation plan, and the partnership with Infosys and Finacle is a big step in that way. We like to work with the best partners and Infosys is a very strong global partner”.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), the Australian equivalent of the UK’s competition commission, has awarded Getronics an outsourcing contract worth £2 million.

Under the terms of the agreement, an initial three year contract, Getronics will provide the ACCC with desktop, server and network support as well as database administration for the watchdog’s 700 strong workforce.

The contract will be serviced by Getronics Australia staff onsite at ACCC and will commence on 1 July 2008.

Getronics Australia managing director, Paul Timmins, said: “To be providing IT support to such an eminent body will energise my team and we look forward to a long and prosperous partnership with the ACCC”.