Martyn Hart's Blog Posts Tagged 'outsourcing' (16)

David Cameron's Tech City plan will deliver real benefits



In the last week we’ve seen Prime Minister David Cameron announce plans to redevelop London’s East End into a ‘Tech City’, with the construction of a £200 million network of technology and innovation centres to rival Silicon Valley.



The thinking behind this is clearly that a technology hub of this sort will help to encourage foreign investment and give the economy a boost.



It seems that research and…

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Time to tell Obama a ban on outsourcing is not the answer to his domestic troubles



As US President Barack Obama primes himself for his imminent visit to India next month, the question on everyone’s lips is whether or not he will be able to rebuild the bridges he burnt with the strong anti-outsourcing stance he has demonstrated in recent times.



By visiting India earlier in his presidency than any US leader before, Obama’s visit is intended to be symbolic of the new US-India… Continue

Thinking through the Spending Review



Wednesday’s announcement of the government’s Spending Review was greeted in some quarters with howls of derision by critics who argue that the cost-cutting measures are leading Britain into a new age of uncertainty. But how fair is this view?



It seems to me that the government has approached the review in the same manner as any organisation would do at the outset of a successful outsourcing deal. By reviewing performance as a whole, and… Continue

How do you know when your business is well placed to benefit from outsourcing?



New research announced this week from analyst group Gartner found that more than half of all European organisations are planning to increase their use of outsourcing services.



Gartner’s study found that 53 percent of organisations said they would outsource more in 2010, with 40 percent of organisations planning to boost spending on external services. If accurate, it’s a clear sign that people in… Continue

Last week’s warning from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) on the dangers of the proposed immigration cap should be a stark warning to us all about the dangers of creating a skills gap in this country. After releasing figures which pointed to a 14% reduction in the number of work visas issued in the year to June 2010, the CIPD argued that not only is the present points-based system actually working, but that employers will struggle to fill the resulting skills gap…

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I’ve often thought that entering into a business partnership is a lot like spinning plates on a stick; it requires a great deal of attention, a sure touch and a great deal of awareness.



Recent changes in the way contracts are sourced means that, in outsourcing terms, this is a task that’s become either much more difficult, or far more simplified in recent years, depending on what sort of organisation you are.



An example is the sharp decline in the number of single source… Continue

The waiting is over. Tuesday’s Emergency budget announced by Chancellor George Osborne has for many consumers confirmed their worst fears: increased taxation and slashed public sector spending.



Most of us have been left reeling from the announcements that the VAT is set to increase to a whopping 20 per cent and cuts to unprotected government departments, excluding health and international aid, will amount to 25 per cent over four years. It’s not all doom and gloom for businesses… Continue

So the Tories have snapped up Sir Peter Gershon - exciting times! Sir Gershon, not one to beat about the bush, has already started doing what most have been too afraid to do – actually looking at where public sector savings will be made.



This could be a dangerous move for the Tories just weeks before the election, especially as the headline most media outlets have gone with concerns the 40,000 jobs that could be ‘at risk’ in Tory hands. But pragmatism is vital if we’re going to get… Continue

According to the IOD the public sector could save up to £25bn by overhauling its procurement and outsourcing. It says procurement is currently far too siloed leading to mass wastage and duplication of work. While £25bn is obviously a top-end figure, it’s great to see someone with the IOD’s profile doing the numbers on this.



We’ve been pushing the message on public sector sourcing for some time now and more… Continue

And so the NHS IT saga continues. According to BBC reports, and the resulting media storm, Labour plans to push through what amounts to a ‘deathbed deal’ before the general election, committing a new government to many years more tussling with the fated National Programme for IT. The Tories had not long ago announced the ‘end of big IT’ and plans to enthusiastically dismantle this very programme. This plan could be thwarted if new agreements are signed-off early and could also spell trouble for… Continue

It is all happening exactly as we had foreseen. Research figures have abounded this week and thankfully confirmed a few more of our NOA member predictions. It’s always great to be proved right, and even more its better than we predicted, great for the industry.



No sooner had we released our 2010 predictions, did Lancashire County Council kick-off public sector sourcing… Continue

BSkyB has won a substantial part of its £709 million lawsuit against EDS, over a failed £48 million customer services system implementation. The lawsuit, filed in 2007, alleged that EDS had fraudulently misrepresented itself in a sales pitch in 2000 for the system, leaving Sky complete the project itself at great expense. EDS complained that Sky did not know what it wanted and changed requirements too frequently.



Though EDS may appeal again, it looks likely this case won’t go much… Continue

This week the Independent Newspaper decided to reopen old wounds from public sector IT failures of the past. The paper, with the bit between its teeth, decided to mount an investigation into the biggest IT ‘bungles’ presided over by a labour government. The current bill stands at a staggering £26bn above initial estimated costs.



Though most of these embarrassing projects have already hit the headlines before, the investigation brings some important issues back into popular… Continue

It’s the time of year again where Christmas-addled sourcing professionals come up with their predictions for the coming 12 months. As predicted, predictably, the sourcing industry’s would-be fortune tellers have been busy, with tens and twenties of forward thinking releases hitting the NOA’s newsdesks in the last week. Add our own member’s predictions to the pile and it makes some interesting reading. Without further ado I thought it best to give a quick rundown of the most promising… Continue

They took our jobs! Cry the detractors. Thousands of UK jobs are simply disappearing as big “Indian” (insert outsourcing location as applicable) outsourcers continue do our work at lower cost. They even start work five and a half hours before us – how can we possibly compete?



It seems the battle lines are being drawn again as we stare into another encroaching protectionist maelstrom. Just this week we have seen silicon.com release its annual offshoring survey, finding that ‘47.5 per… Continue

The NOA attended the launch of the EOA’s Spanish chapter this week, EOA Espaňa. Hosted in Madrid by Repsol, the Spanish oil company, the meeting marks a new chapter in the story of outsourcing Europe and globalisation as a whole. The NOA is proud to be a part of this ongoing narrative, having been around for over 22 years now. The reason why this is such an exciting occasion is that the launch is part of something bigger – a signal of the coming together of the EOA’s separate chapters, that… Continue