MCN Direct Newswire

Vol. 3 No. 33, 27 September 2004

This issue is sponsored by:

McGuffie Brunton, Exel and Aleri

Get your free Integration Technology Industry report

This issue news

1. PA consultants set for windfall
2. AT Kearney creates public sector practice
3. CIOs cut back on consultancy
4. Atos Origin seeks success at Paralympic Games
5. MCA adds CM Insight and Rossmore
6. Further information - feedback/pass on to a colleague/remove from mailing list

Sponsor

McGuffie Brunton

McGuffie Brunton provide business solutions to UK manufacturing and distribution companies. Encompassing ERP, CRM, HR, e-business, Warehouse Management and supply chain, our solutions are installed in some 6000 sites worldwide, 600 of these in the UK. McGuffie Brunton have worked with numerous consultants in our 22 year history, from initial ITT completion through to implementations. Cutting edge technology coupled with a sound implementation and support methodology have made us a prime choice for many consultants working in the SME marketplace.

To find out more about recent projects where McGuffie Brunton have worked closely with consultants, please click here or click here or visit click here.

1. PA CONSULTANTS SET FOR WINDFALL

PA Consulting employees are looking forward to windfall payments following a deal to sell the consultancy's Meridica drug delivery technology subsidiary to pharmaceuticals group Pfizer for $125 million (£69 million).

PA set up Meridica in May 2001 as part of its venture programme, spinning ideas generated by the employee-owned consultancy into new subsidiaries.

As well as Meridica, the venture portfolio includes UbiNetics, a developer of products for the wireless communications market, and Cubiks, a specialist HR consultancy in which PA still holds a stake following a management buyout in April.

PA executive chairman Jon Moynihan said the Meridica sale was the biggest deal the consultancy had struck for one of its venture companies since investment began five years ago. To date, PA has ploughed about £30 million into the three companies, giving a substantial return to its employees through the Pfizer acquisition. Pfizer first acquired a 10% stake in Meridica in October 2003.

Moynihan added: "This deal with Pfizer is recognition of Meridica's major achievements, accomplished in a startlingly swift timeframe, its innovative technologies and PA's wider venture programme. The deal offers a healthy return to our shareholders, giving PA confidence to invest further in some of the promising new ventures that we have coming through."

2. AT KEARNEY CREATES PUBLIC SECTOR PRACTICE

AT Kearney (ATK) has grouped together the public sector consulting resources it has developed in the US and Europe over the past 10 years to create a government practice in North America.

The new practice will be led by ex-European aerospace and defence practice leader Terry Luettinger, alongside US ATK veterans John Anderson, Joel Goldhammer and Randy Garber.

ATK - a subsidiary of IT services firm EDS - has come late to the US federal party but said it would use its best practices from the private sector to help government organisations. Its focus will be on supply chain management and sourcing, as well as services and technology efficiency and cost-saving applications.

While the government practice has been initiated in North America, AT Kearney has not ruled out a similar operation in the UK where it has about 160 consultants.

Commenting on the practice, Luettinger said: "Governments today are faced with a triple threat: an ageing workforce, an ageing and more demanding population, and the need to protect the public and our way of life from an ever-present terrorist threat. All of these point to greater demands on budgets and people. Governments must become more agile and we can help them get there."

Sponsor

Exel

Exel Computer Systems is one of the UK's largest authors of ERP software for manufacturers, large, medium and small, serving an increasingly diverse customer base.

EFACS E/8 is a modern, powerful business solution, built with modern Internet technology. It has a component structure that enables an economic and precise fit to the most demanding business requirements.

For further information, click here.

3. CIOs CUT BACK ON CONSULTANCY

Consultancy is the IT services area that has suffered most in 2004, with demand for IT consulting down 34% and demand for management consulting down 26%. This is the main finding of Goldman Sachs' latest 2004 European IT spending survey, conducted among chief information officers and IT directors across Europe's top 300 companies.

However, the study found that total services have benefited most from IT spending this year, leaving software and hardware well behind. Some 27% of CIOs said they are spending 50-60% of budget on services this year with only 7% spending less than 10%.

Hardware and software were on roughly equal terms with 10-20% of budget each.

Services disciplines gaining budget this year are security, offshore outsourcing and applications outsourcing, with the losers being desktop PCs, IT consulting and IT management.

In terms of IT services suppliers, IBM and EDS are the only players to gain market share in the Goldman Sachs survey, with the likes of Atos Origin, Capgemini and LogicaCMG losing share.

The prognosis for services in 2005 is not so good, with 39% of CIOs expecting a 0-10% drop in services spending and 16% forecasting a fall of 10-20%.

IT investment in 2005 is expected to be led by offshore solutions, ahead of network outsourcing, applications outsourcing, business process outsourcing and hosting.

Goldman Sachs also found that companies would axe consultancy before systems integration and outsourcing projects if faced with budget cuts. 97% of CIOs would cut consulting costs if faced with budget pressure.

Sponsor

Aleri

Are you interested in networking with CIOs and other Directors from leading financial institutions including Lloyds TSB, Morgan Stanley, Barclays Capital Group, Merrill Lynch, and CSFB?

Aleri, a leading provider of innovative aggregation and analytics software, is offering qualified consulting and systems integration firms the opportunity to attend this event and complementary wine tour at Vinopolis in London on the 6th of October.

For more information on this event, please click here or reserve your seat by contacting pete.roberts@aleri.com.

4. ATOS ORIGIN SEEKS SUCCESS AT PARALYMPIC GAMES

Atos Origin is hoping to replicate its successful IT implementation for last month's Olympic Games at the current Athens 2004 Paralympic Games.

The company, which is the International Olympic Committee's worldwide IT partner, said the Paralympics are being supported by an IT team of 160 Atos Origin staff and 200 volunteers. Two main systems are being provided: an information diffusion system, which is a modified version of the system used at the Olympics and will relay results and athlete information to the media; and a games management system which was used at the Olympics to provide accreditation for 55,000 people and cover numerous administration tasks.

Commenting on the IT for the Paralympic Games, Atos Origin chief integrator Agamemnon Kaimakis said: "This is a world-class sporting event and the systems to run it are as complex as for the Olympic Games, though on a smaller scale. Our first priority is ensuring the systems are secure to prevent any IT security breaches."

During the 16 days of Olympic competition, more than 5 million security alerts to the Games' IT systems were recorded. Some 425 were serious and 20 critical, but none breached Atos Origin's security measures ensuring that there was no disruption to the event nor any delays in reporting results.

Get your free Integration Technology Industry report

Integration technology is widely regarded as one of IT’s biggest growth areas in recent years - is this really happening? Are companies getting value from enterprise integration tools? Are emerging integration technologies such as business activity monitoring (BAM) producing the goods?

To answer these questions and get a range of information including market research and independent expert commentary click here.

5. MCA ADDS CM INSIGHT AND ROSSMORE

The Management Consultancies Association (MCA) has signed up two new members that deliver niche skills to UK and international clients.

CM Insight, founded in 1998, is a customer management consultancy with an annual turnover of £2.7 million and 20 consultants and analysts. Its work focuses on contact centres and customer-related business processes. Its client list includes the BBC, Microsoft, Sainsbury's, BT and Powergen.

The second new MCA member, Rossmore Group, was formed in 1994 and is a specialist behaviour and operations consultancy. Its 30-strong team offers two service lines: integrated business change for organisational improvement; and human behavioural dynamics encompassing human factors, safety and systems performance.

Rossmore has a relationship with global engineering group Arup that gives it access to Arup specialists who support client projects worldwide. To date, clients include BAE Systems, Boots, Caterpillar, Cinven, Coca-Cola, MTR (Hong Kong) and Virgin Rail.

6. FURTHER INFORMATION - FEEDBACK/PASS ON TO A COLLEAGUE/REMOVE

• For more information or if you have any feedback on MCN Direct, please email editor@pmp.co.uk
• If you no longer wish to receive MCN Direct, simply send a reply to mcndirect@pmp.co.uk. In the BODY of the message please type MCN DIRECT REMOVE.

Please visit http://www.pmp.co.uk to view any of these publications, all of which are fully searchable and represent thousands of pages of information relevant to the consultant community.

Publications include:

Management Consultants' News

Consultants' Advisory

International Consultants' Guide

International Consultants' News

Copyright 2012 PMP (UK) Ltd.