Big legacy tech companies in UK govt start to feel pinch – report Big legacy tech firms are finally feeling the pinch of the government's contract "disaggregation" plans, although Brexit could halt that trend - according to an annual report by analyst firm TechMarketView. BT and DXC (formerly HPE's enterprise services biz and CSC) saw a double-digit percentage drop in their government biz, …
The Big Corporate lever is not so much single-point-of-paperwork as scale and resources to sort out problems. Government beancounters hate writing off an unsuccessful project and somebody cocking it up is a powerful reason why gov't projects fail. By getting in bed with a Big Boy, you convince yourself that they will be able to throw resources at any cock-up to sort it out and meet your delivery targets. Cost escalation then becomes a blame game between the legal teams, i.e. Somebody Else's Problem. Small fry just don't have that kind of backup resource to call on.
Of course, F/LOSS licensing blows that corporate stitch-up out of the water, but that requires a change of procurement policy, nay even a rewriting of the Preferred List and Approved Catalogue, a painful process which government departments are singularly unwilling to carry out.
"Looking at some of the recent news they'll be looking for some yet-to be defined temporary customs, frictionless import/export or other magic nostrum to be ready by Brexit. Temporary. Right."
Right, nudge nudge, say no more, a nod's as good as a wink to a blind man, cor blimey guvn'r, know what I mean? Hey, is that a parrot out there?
Lenovo has struck an agreement with Hong Kong comms conglomerate PCCW to create a jointly owned services company, advancing its strategy of growth through services.
PCCW operates a globe-spanning software-defined network, some of which uses its own submarine cables. The company also owns PCCW Solutions – an IT services provider with a big footprint in Hong Kong, mainland China, and parts of Southeast Asia.
Lenovo and PCCW Solutions will create an entity dubbed PCCW Lenovo Technology Solutions (PLTS) that will see the Chinese kit-maker and the Hong Kong services company offer "one-stop customer solutions that integrate services, devices and digital infrastructure" according to a joint Lenovo/PCCW announcement.
The government of the Philippines has welcomed the decision by giant business process outsourcer Concentrix Corporation to forgo tax incentives and instead allow its staff to continue working from home for the foreseeable future. The nation feels that subsidising outsourcers' bottom lines does nothing to boost the local economy.
The Philippines imposed lengthy and strict COVID-19 lockdowns that saw its substantial business process outsourcing sector quickly adapt to working from home. The nation's government supported that move by continuing to offer the pre-COVID subsidies it offered to outsourcers that run offices located in certain special economic zones.
Those subsidies have subsequently been removed, and the requirement to operate from special economic zones restored.
Infosys celebrated the first anniversary of the e-filing portal it built for India's tax authorities fixing another prominent glitch – this time a search functionality error.
Complaints about the error streamed in to India's Income Tax Department, which tweeted about the error on Tuesday.
Everyone's favorite outsourcing business Capita is scheduled to see 415 government contracts with the British public sector expire between 2022 and 2025, more than any other major supplier.
According to UK government spending research firm Tussell, the IT services company will see government contracts to the value of £700 million come to an end during the next three years.
While it is set to wave goodbye to more contracts than any strategic supplier in any area of the public sector, the value of its expiring contracts is eclipsed by facilities management supplier G4S, which will see 30 contracts worth a total of £1.8bn expire over the period.
A labor rights non-profit has filed a complaint with India's Ministry of Labor alleging IT services giant Infosys has subjected its employees to an illegal noncompete clause.
Within the contracts for onboarding employees is a stipulation, according to Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES), that staff may not accept employment from any Infosys customer they worked with while at Infosys for six months after terminating employment.
Employees are also barred from working for an Infosys competitor if it means they would work with a customer they worked with at Infosys during the 12 months prior to leaving Infosys.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has warned the nation's finance sector that outsourcing information technology jobs could "expose them to significant financial, operational and reputational risks."
The RBI offered that opinion last week in a Statement on Developmental and Regulatory Policies that, after considering issues such as emergency lending for healthcare infrastructure and reform of default credit swaps, wends its way to a "Master Direction on IT Outsourcing and Master Direction on Information Technology Governance, Risk, Controls and Assurance Practices."
That section opens with the observation: "The financial system is seeing extensive leveraging and outsourcing of critical IT services by Regulated Entities to get easier access to newer technologies through financial technology players to improve efficiencies."
Four top global consultancies, all with big IT practices, have quit Russia.
PwC on Sunday decided that Russia's invasion of Ukraine means it "should not have a member firm in Russia and consequently PwC Russia will leave the network."
KPMG also chose Sunday for its announcement, which it argued was necessary because "We believe we have a responsibility, along with other global businesses, to respond to the Russian government's ongoing military attack on Ukraine."
The bad news keeps rolling for Atos after its third financial warning in eight months, this time accompanied by confirmation the French integrator will start to lessen its focus on "classic infrastructure services" and unified comms in favour of the cloud.
The group has revised estimates for sales to shrink 2.6 per cent in calendar 2021 to €10.8bn ($12.3bn) and operating margin to be closer to 3.5 per cent than 4 per cent due to higher than expected costs from a BPO agreement with a UK financial service client, believed to be Aegon.
Talking to analysts this morning, CEO Rodolphe Belmer – who only took office early January and days later issued a profit warning – said Atos is booking goodwill impairment charges of €1.9bn, related to prior acquisitions and assets including data centres and IT kit rentals.
A pro-outsourcing CIO whose first act at a new employer was to set up a £475,000 backhander scheme has been jailed for six years.
Brian Chant, 62, took the bribes after joining procurement services firm Achilles in 2011, Southwark Crown Court heard.
One of the first things he did was recommend outsourcing of various IT functions, suggesting three companies to Achilles' board for the £22m SPTL and Systems Plus IT contracts.
Lloyd's, the world's largest insurance marketplace, has contracted DXC Technology to digitise its processes as part of a multi-year effort to move on from a largely paper-based, analogue way of working.
The London insurance market accounts for 7.6 per cent of global commercial reinsurances, and comprises almost a quarter of the gross domestic product for the City as its gross written premium is worth more than $110bn. It is made up of more than 50 insurance firms, 200-plus registered brokers, and a global network of 4,000 local cover holders.
Oh, and it employs 47,000 people across the UK.
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