MCN Direct Newswire

Vol. 5 No. 26, 25 September 2006

This issue is sponsored by:

Maconomy and Annual Consultants' Forum 2006

This issue news

1. Atos Origin and LogicaCMG secure £500m court contracts
2. Deloitte attracts top civil servant
3. Xansa in recruitment drive
4. Capgemini forecasts Rain
5. IBM leads transatlantic defence project
6. Further information - feedback/pass on to a colleague/remove from mailing list

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1. ATOS ORIGIN AND LOGICACMG SECURE £500m COURT CONTRACTS

Atos Origin and LogicaCMG have beaten competitors to contracts worth half a billion pounds from the Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA) to support the development of a single UK courts system.

Atos Origin beat EDS to a £350 million, seven-year IT infrastructure deal covering the support and integration of three existing IT infrastructures within the DCA. It will take responsibility for 28,000 desktops across 700 locations, offering a common office environment and access to all DCA applications, as well as a single point of support.

LogicaCMG beat Atos Origin and IBM to the DCA's applications services contract, which is worth £150 million over seven years. It will be responsible for the support and maintenance of existing applications and the development of new applications.

The deals replace six existing contracts that are due to expire in 2007 and 2008, and are part of the DCA's Disc - Development, Innovation and Support Contract - programme aimed at optimising and modernising the department's IT services. The contracts are expected to be finalised next month.

• Atos Origin has won a further £46.7 million, four-year contract from the Cabinet Office to provide IT managed services for the Government Gateway. The Gateway is part of the Cabinet's 'transformational government' strategy and will support service delivery for a number of public sector agencies, including HM Revenue & Customs, the Department for Work & Pensions and local authorities.

2. DELOITTE ATTRACTS TOP CIVIL SERVANT

Dame Sue Street, permanent secretary at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, is to join Deloitte's public sector practice in January, following her retirement from the Civil Service this month.

At Deloitte, Street will work closely with the firm's head of government and public sector, Mike Turley, providing strategic support to the public sector leadership and advising clients.

John Connolly, Deloitte senior partner and chief executive, said: "Dame Sue brings a wealth of experience of the realities of policy making and delivery at the centre of government. This will further deepen our expertise in the public sector arena. She is one of the longest-standing permanent secretaries in Whitehall and her appointment to Deloitte is just one of a series we are making across our industry teams."

Street has held a number of senior government roles and became a permanent secretary in 2001. In the mid-1990s, she spent three years as a management consultant in a private practice. Under government regulations, she must wait three months from her last day of service to join Deloitte and must stand aside from any work relating to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport for 12 months.

• Deloitte has been named second in a ranking of the most preferred 100 graduate employers, published by The Times. Deloitte moves up from sixth place this year, while PricewaterhouseCoopers stays first, KPMG rises from fourth to third and Accenture drops from third to eighth.

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Shared services: the future of public service delivery? David Myers, Director Shared Services, The Cabinet Office, discusses improving efficiencies and effectiveness within government through sharing across departments as part of the Transformational Government Agenda.
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3. XANSA IN RECRUITMENT DRIVE

Xansa is hiring in both the UK and India to meet increased business activity across the group. Its offshore operations in India are looking for over 70 consultants and staff, while the UK business has vacancies for a further 50 consultants.

Chief executive Alistair Cox told Xansa's AGM that demand for offshore services is particularly strong, with the company employing around 4,400 of its entire 8,000 staff in India, making it one of the largest British employers in the country.

Cox said trading for the 2006/7 financial year is in line with management expectations, with new orders won since the start of the year totalling £150 million. Clients signing these orders include Barclays, Lloyds TSB, Northern Ireland Water Services, the Office for National Statistics and, most recently and importantly, a new customer, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) - where Xansa has signed a multi-year contract to work with Capgemini and Tata Consultancy Services to transform the FSA's information systems capability.

Cox said: "We have broadened our service offerings successfully and entered the HR outsourcing market, securing a key contract with Lloyds TSB. Progress in our NHS shared business services joint venture is encouraging as we continue to grow the volumes of transactions we are handling in that business."

4. CAPGEMINI FORECASTS RAIN

Capgemini is planning a series of 'environments' around the world that will support its clients' adoption of IT service orientation in pursuit of business transformation.

The environments, called Rain, for Rapid Innovation, are being developed in collaboration with Intel. The first has been opened in California, and a European environment is due to open soon. The centres allow organisations to model business processes with plug-and-play applications and a modular infrastructure.

Joe Thomas, global head of new business development at Capgemini, explained: "Together, the service oriented enterprise concept and Rain act as the gateway to the emerging intelligent economy. Rain will deliver industry-specific roadmaps that come alive through the research, development and testing power of the partners that will populate the California hub and future environments around the globe."

Rain is vendor neutral and will initially focus on the utilities, manufacturing and retail sectors.

5. IBM LEADS TRANSATLANTIC DEFENCE PROJECT

IBM has been selected by the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) and US Army Research Lab to lead a consortium researching technology that could support the allies in future military operations.

The so-called International Technology Alliance (ITA) in Network and Information Sciences will spend up to $135.8 million (£71 million) over 10 years and includes 25 US and UK industry, government and academic members, making it one of the world's largest collaborative technology programmes.

UK representatives include IBM and LogicaCMG, universities such as Aberdeen, Cambridge, Cranfield, Southampton and York, as well as Imperial College and Royal Holloway and Bedford College.

The research areas for improved military operations cover network theory, security systems, sensor information processing and delivery, and distributed coalition planning and decision making.

The IBM Research-led consortium won the programme, which is described as 'a ground-breaking model' in international research & development, in a competitive procurement process. IBM will also provide project management and contract administration in both the UK and US.

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Written by Sarah Underwood. Copyright 2012 PMP (UK) Ltd.