silicon.com : IT Services

Why are Indian outsourcing companies such bashful suitors?

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:24:01 GMT

Indian outsourcers certainly have the cash - so why aren't they buying up their competitors? Saritha Rai finds out.

They have accumulated piles of cash so you would think top Indian outsourcing firms such as Infosys Technologies and Wipro Ltd would go hunting for sizeable acquisitions in the current market.

Taxman to save £110m by taking an axe to its IT estate

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:09:01 GMT

The taxman will cut £110m from its annual IT bill by trimming its IT infrastructure.

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) will reduce the £840m it currently spends on IT each year by ditching or shrinking the size of 40 computer systems and shutting down a number of datacentres.

Who do you trust when you're spending your IT budget?

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:47:02 GMT

When it comes to deciding how to spend a hard-won portion of the IT budget, who do CIOs trust for advice?

Consultants? Blogs? Whitepapers? Or something else entirely?

How Google Apps helped Jaguar Land Rover keep motoring after Ford sale

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:45:02 GMT

Following its sale by parent company Ford last year, car maker Jaguar Land Rover has had to face the thorny problem of cutting itself loose from Ford's web of business applications.

JLR is spending £200m separating its IT operations from Ford, largely on carrying out the painstaking process of copying and cloning more than 1,600 business applications.

Will 'citizen developers' shake up IT development?

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:53:02 GMT

We've had the 'citizen journalist', blogging from war zones or capturing breaking news on their cameraphone. Now step forward the 'citizen developer' - an individual set to play an increasingly important role in creating business apps, according to analyst house Gartner.

Gartner defines a citizen developer as a user working outside the scope of enterprise IT and its governance who creates new business apps for others to use either from scratch or by mashing up and building on various existing services.

2010: When IT budgets start to grow again

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:53:02 GMT

If you haven't guessed already: 2009 was a bad year for IT spending, analysts have found. But fear not - things are looking brighter for the coming years.

According to research from Gartner, enterprise tech spending is down 5.2 per cent on 2008 figures.

Outsourcing - how to make sure it's reliable

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:33:01 GMT

Outsourced IT is of little value if it's not reliable. William Benn offers advice on how to make sure you can count on your technology.

Last month I wrote about the critical dimension of security when outsourcing IT. Security ensures a safe environment in which the technology can operate.

NHS bodies outsource payroll in £12m deals

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:15:01 GMT

A further eight NHS bodies have signed on with NHS Shared Business Services (NHS SBS), an outsourcing joint venture between the Department of Health and Steria.

NHS SBS will supply the eight organisations - which include NHS Nottingham City, Trafford Healthcare NHS Trust and Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust - with services including finance, accounting and payroll.

Google unleashes biggest ever Apps rollout for 35,000 users

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 16:56:02 GMT

Business support services company Rentokil Initial has signed up for the biggest enterprise deployment of Google Apps to date.

The implementation of Google Apps Premier Edition will eventually cover 35,000 of the company's users across 50 countries.

Home Office inks £430m deals with Atos Origin, Fujitsu

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 13:03:01 GMT

The Home Office has announced it's extending IT contracts with suppliers Atos Origin and Fujitsu, under new deals worth £430m.

The Home Office claims the contract extensions, which will run until 2016, will reduce IT costs by £100m over their lifetime.

Sainsbury's tech shopping spree revealed

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 09:54:02 GMT

Technology has helped Sainsbury's keep the tills ringing throughout the recession.

The supermarket giant is busy revamping its tech, from fitting stores with self-scanning technology to replacing its warehouse and supply systems.

Downturn means fewer outsourcing workers saying 'I do'

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:14:02 GMT

Economic hard times are causing Indian outsourcing workers to put off tying the knot, says Saritha Rai.

What's Bangalore's hottest outsourcing trend? It's got nothing to with high-value services or cost savings - but rather the marriage prospects of outsourcing workers.

iPhones unshackled, IT wages revealed and outsourcing explained

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 16:08:01 GMT

Once again, September saw another fresh crop of students head off to university for the first time, on their way to becoming the next generation of IT workers.

But how good are the UK's universities at turning out the skilled professionals that the tech industry needs? According to a silicon.com CIO Jury last month, the answer is not very. Asked if tech graduates are finishing university with the expertise their companies are looking for, only four out of 12 said yes.

How to avoid getting burned when outsourcing

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:06:01 GMT

Want to avoid getting burned when signing a BPO deal? There's a set of warning signs that buyers should look for in order to avoid unreliable vendors.

Choosing the right BPO outsourcing partner is becoming increasingly important with analyst house Gartner predicting that one quarter of the biggest BPO providers will not exist in their current form by 2012.

Xerox snaps up ACS in $6.4bn deal

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:42:02 GMT

Xerox said Monday it will buy Affiliated Computer Services (ACS) in a cash and stock deal valued at $6.4bn.

The move is a big bet to transform Xerox into a services company that does everything from collecting tolls and installing government systems to retooling business processes and information technology outsourcing.

IT chiefs ignoring datacentre energy use

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 17:11:01 GMT

Datacentre and IT chiefs aren't paying enough attention to measuring, monitoring and modelling energy use in datacentres - and unless they do, they will not be able to cut their energy costs and meet compliance requirements, according to analyst Gartner.

The analyst group said its research found that although IT managers think datacentre energy management is their most important green IT issue for the next 18 months, few consider green procurement and pushing vendors to create more energy-efficient products as their top priority.

HM Treasury strikes five-year IT services deal

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 16:56:02 GMT

HM Treasury has struck a five-year deal with Fujitsu to provide a range of IT services.

The services include providing desktop, laptop and multifunctional devices, secure service desk support, data storage and disaster recovery facilities.

Businesses fail to appreciate the value of IT

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 16:05:02 GMT

More than half of tech professionals feel their IT systems, processes and services are failing to provide the value expected to their business.

In a survey of 1,500 IT professionals, two-thirds of respondents (64 per cent) said the main problem was their inability to provide the rest of the business with quantifiable metrics related to the actual value IT services and assets are delivering.

Beyond CRM: How to improve customer interactions

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:58:02 GMT

Customers have much more power these days - so why do so many companies fail to build a proper strategy to engage them and win their loyalty? Quocirca's Louella Fernandes explains how they need to rethink their relationship.

In today's global business environment, customer loyalty is under pressure: intensified competition, deregulation, greater choice and social networking have all contributed to increased customer power.

ERP delays give CFOs a headache

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 10:01:01 GMT

Cost over-runs on the largest ERP implementation projects can reach tens of thousands of pounds per month - so what are the classic stumbling blocks that delay the roll out of these gigantic projects.

The late completion of ERP projects can create problems in terms of additional cost, delayed savings and potential loss of revenue, meaning the CFO has a real interest in reducing these delays. According to research commissioned by ecommerce technology maker GXS, 84 per cent of businesses it surveyed had experienced ERP roll-out delays due to integration issues with suppliers and partners.

Uncomplaining techies turn in extra hours for free

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 10:08:02 GMT

If you feel like you're spending more time at your desk than ever, you're not alone.

According to a new survey, more and more techies are putting in extra hours. Some 7.3 per cent of techies said they are working between 60 and 75 hours per week - an increase of a third on last year's 3.8 per cent - while 4.8 per cent of IT workers claimed to be notching up 75 hours or more, compared to 2.4 per cent in 2008.

The right skills to boost your pay packet unveiled

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 14:45:01 GMT

Thinking of brushing up on your IT skills? Choose carefully and you could make a significant improvement to your pay packet.

According to new research, techies working in IT management should consider brushing up on their outsourcing expertise: those with skills in that area make the best paid IT management workers with an average annual salary of £58,791. That's on average £1,001 more per year than techies boasting skills in consulting and business services - the next best-paid set of IT management workers with an average annual salary of £57,790.

Dell buys Perot Systems in $3.9bn deal

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 10:15:01 GMT

Dell says it has agreed to buy the IT services company Perot Systems for about $3.9bn as it looks to expand beyond the PC business.

On Monday Dell said it will offer $30 per share in cash for Perot, which is based in Plano, Texas, 200 miles away.

Exclusive: BBC CIO swaps Auntie for consultancy

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 15:14:02 GMT

The BBC has confirmed that its CIO, Keith Little, has departed after eight years with the corporation.

Little joined the BBC in 2001, initially holding the CTO post before becoming the broadcaster's CIO.

White House looks to the cloud for IT cost-cutting

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:02:01 GMT

The Obama administration on Tuesday announced a long-term cloud-computing policy intended to cut costs on infrastructure and reduce the environmental impact of US government computing systems.

Speaking at Nasa's Ames Research Center in California, federal CIO Vivek Kundra unveiled the administration's first formal efforts to roll out a broad system designed to take advantage of existing infrastructure and, in the process, cut federal spending on information technology, especially expensive datacentres.