MCN Direct Newswire

Vol. 5 No. 20, 26 June 2006

This issue is sponsored by:

CedarOpenAccounts, The UK Consulting Industry Report 2005/6 and TeleWare

This issue news

1. Fujitsu Services justice contract under fire
2. Accenture buys financial services consultancy
3. Deloitte adds female influence to board
4. EDS buys Mphasis in India
5. BearingPoint picks up major MoD contract
6. Further information - feedback/pass on to a colleague/remove from mailing list

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1. FUJITSU SERVICES JUSTICE CONTRACT UNDER FIRE

Fujitsu Services' Libra project, aimed at bringing magistrates' courts into the electronic age, has foundered and costs have spiralled to triple those of the original contract.

The project was first secured by Fujitsu Services, then ICL, in a PFI deal in 1998. In 2002, the deal was renegotiated with a forecast cost of £390 million. The scheme is now expected to cost £487 million, although a date for implementation has yet to be fixed and much of the original systems plan, essentially PC-based, will be redundant by the time it is installed.

MPs on the Commons Public Accounts Committee discovered the rising costs and latest delays in minutes to a committee hearing. Alex Allan, permanent secretary at the Department for Constitutional Affairs, told the committee that the project is at least a year behind schedule and that he hoped it would be completed by March 2008, by which time the cost is expected to be £487 million.

Allan said some of the overspend was due to enhancements to the system, such as secure email, and argued that a large part of the £232 million spent on cabling magistrates' courts will be used for new systems that the department has already tendered for and will extend beyond the scope of Libra.

Fujitsu Services, which is still working on Libra, refused to comment on the committee's findings, saying it has been told by the government department not to talk about the project.

2. ACCENTURE BUYS FINANCIAL SERVICES CONSULTANCY

Accenture is back on the acquisition trail, this time agreeing to buy Random Walk Computing, an IT consulting firm specialising in trading and risk management systems for banks, asset managers and exchanges. The financial details of the deal were not disclosed, but it is expected to close within 60 days.

Founded in 1995 and based in New York, Random Walk has a client base of around 70 financial services firms, many of them global. The consultancy will extend Accenture's custom software integration and development capabilities for financial institutions that trade in bonds, stocks and derivative products.

Joel Scotkin, co-founder and CEO of Random Walk, said: "By becoming part of Accenture, we are better positioned than ever to deliver the differentiated solutions needed to win in today's financial services industry."

In 2005, US research firm Celent valued the financial services software and inhouse IT development market at $4.4 billion (£2.4 billion).

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3. DELOITTE ADDS FEMALE INFLUENCE TO BOARD

Deloitte has named Sharon Fraser as managing partner for talent and elevated her to its executive board, the first time a woman has been promoted to this level in the UK firm.

Fraser succeeds David Sproul - who will become managing partner of Deloitte's tax practice - and takes overall responsibility for talent and people development at a time when the firm is hiring both new partners and employees.

She said: "The recruitment and development of the very best people is absolutely fundamental to the success of Deloitte. Our people already have a reputation for being and delivering the best. My focus will be to ensure we build on this reputation and create a development and feedback culture that leads other organisations, confirming Deloitte as a great place to work."

John Connolly, senior partner and chief executive of Deloitte, said: "I am delighted that Sharon Fraser has joined the executive board as managing partner for talent. She brings a breadth of experience to this role and I am sure she will make a significant contribution to the firm's talent strategy."

Fraser has been with Deloitte for most of her 19-year career. Her appointment reflects an increase in female partners at the firm, with 17% of this year's new partners being women and overall female partner numbers increasing to 13%.

4. EDS BUYS MPHASIS IN INDIA

EDS has acquired a majority stake in Mphasis, an applications and business process outsourcing services company based in Bangalore, India.

In one of the largest acquisitions in India to date, EDS paid $380 million (£209 million) for 52% of Mphasis' shares. Initially, Mphasis will operate as an independent subsidiary, but EDS is evaluating whether to consolidate the rest of its operations in India with the new business.

Mphasis is listed on the Bombay and Indian stock exchanges and has around 12,000 employees, 11,000 of them in India. It works with clients in financial services, transport, technology and healthcare, but has particular strength in retail banking, where it serves the world's top five banks.

The acquisition reflects EDS' intention to build its presence in India, in order to deliver services to clients around the world. EDS says that with the addition of Mphasis and current expansion plans, it expects to have more than 20,000 staff in India by year end.

EDS chairman and chief executive Mike Jordan said: "The acquisition will not only bolster our current offshore delivery capabilities in priority growth areas, but will also allow EDS to deliver a stronger value proposition to better align with clients' changing needs. Mphasis also gives us access to a world-class management team, a global talent pool and world-class clients."

In the year to 31 March, Mphasis made net profits of about $33 million (£18 million), on revenues that have quadrupled over the past five years to $210 million.

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5. BEARINGPOINT PICKS UP MAJOR MoD CONTRACT

BearingPoint has won a competitive tender to develop an enterprise data warehouse as part of the Defence Logistics Organisation's IT strategy. The initial deal is valued at £2 million, but could increase to £5 million if all contract options are exercised.

The goal of the project is to create a warehouse that can hold information from current and future logistics systems supporting the Air Force, Navy and Army. The warehouse will merge data not only from operational domains, but also from functions such as finance and HR, giving operational commanders and defence logistics managers better shared awareness.

BearingPoint will design the data warehouse using Teradata technology and will integrate business intelligence tools and web access. The consultancy will then develop the warehouse and provide support services for an initial three years.

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