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Archive for April, 2011

Blazent Joins Tagvault.org to Further Adoption of Software Identification Standards

April 27th, 2011

Blazent, the leader in IT Outsourcing Governance, today announced it has joined Tagvault.org, the certification authority for software identification tags based on the ISO/IEC 19770-2:2009 software identification (SWID) tag standard. Tagvault.org’s charter includes evangelizing and enhancing Software Asset Management best practices specifically where use of the ISO/IEC 19770-2:2009 software identification tag standard will result in marked improvement in accuracy, completeness and efficiency.

ISO/IEC 19770:2009 SWID tags provide significant benefits to any organization that creates, publishes, tracks, manages or purchases software. Tagvault.org provides the required tools, documentation and services to make adoption and implementation of software identification tags even more effective by providing standardization of terminology, certification requirements, registration and certification services and digital signing of publisher developed and distributed software identification tags.

As a Tagvault.org member, Blazent will contribute mindshare to Tagvault.org Working Groups and support their Software Asset Management community efforts. Blazent’s Howard Hastings, senior director of products and services, was instrumental in helping found Tagvault.org while at CA Technologies, serving as Chairman of the Board for Tagvault.org. Hastings is an acknowledged industry expert in Software Asset Management and IT Asset Management that contributed to development of the initial drafts of the ISO 19770-2:2009 and 19770-3 (”Software Entitlement Tag”) standards, as well as providing expert witness testimony for software copyright infringement and counterfeiting litigation.

“Software identification is critical to many IT processes, but has never been adequately managed properly. Existing band-aid approaches are inconsistent and inaccurate with a lot of guess work about which software products are installed,” said Steve Klos, executive director of TagVault.org. “Basing IT processes such as compliance, patch management, security management and device management on data provided by existing software identification approaches exacerbates the problem. By using certified software identification tags, organizations know they are basing their IT operational processes on the exact data as provided by the publisher.”

“Since ISO/IEC 19770:2009 was approved and published, IT organizations have been anxiously awaiting viable market solutions supporting this standard to address the inherent challenges of accurately identifying software,” said Howard Hastings. “Blazent plans to be at the forefront of this paradigm shift by incorporating the authoritative identification of software assets provided by ISO/IEC 19770:2009 conforming software identification (SWID) tags into the data analysis processes embodied within our patent-pending technologies, further improving overall visibility into our customers’ IT portfolios and ultimately reducing cost and risk.”

Blazent will be participating in the Tagvault.org Software Identification Summit next week in Herndon, Virginia. TagVault.org will present on the state of Software Identification on Wednesday, May 4, 2011.

Source:http://www.sys-con.com/node/1806237

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Tags: IT Outsourcing

APAC IT services to hit US$53B in 2011

April 27th, 2011

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IT services spending in the Asia-Pacific region, excluding Japan, is expected to achieve a year-on-year growth of 8.7 percent over 2010 as more companies turn to outsourcing and embark on new IT projects, a new study revealed.

Released Tuesday, Springboard Research said the IT services market will grow to hit US$52.9 billion on the twin waves of outsourcing and new IT projects that revolve around cloud computing and “smarter infrastructure”.

Delving deeper, the research showed that 64 percent of the spending on IT services will come from discrete services, major infrastructure support and integration-related services, The remaining 36 percent will come from outsourcing services, it noted.

“The high skew towards discrete services in the region clearly highlights the fact that the IT services market in Asia-Pacific, excluding Japan, is still in the maturing phase as opposed to some of the more mature economies in the West where outsourcing services can constitute close to 50 percent of total IT services spend,” said Seepij Gupta, associate research manager of IT services at Springboard Research, in the study.

The research also showed that China, Australia and India will account for 72 percent of the total spend by 2011. Growth in more mature IT markets such as Singapore and Australia will be led by investments in new technologies such as cloud computing. That said, developing countries such as India and China will also be leapfrogging legacy IT to adopt these new technologies to further drive growth, the research stated.

IT services spending is not expected to slow down, either. Springboard Research identified three factors that will drive IT services investments, namely the shortage of resources and skills, complex IT environments and innovations in the managed services space.

First, organizations are finding it increasingly difficult to recruit, train and retain qualified IT professionals. As a result, companies have to outsource the management of their IT assets, the study revealed.

Secondly, as the IT sprawl continues unabated with companies continuing to adopt new technologies into its existing infrastructure, they are increasingly unable to manage their IT systems effectively. This, in turn, means they would look to service providers that can help them manage it, the research firm stated.

Thirdly, and as an extension to the second point, the study also predicted that 2011 will see an expansion of managed services beyond basic infrastructure management to include more application-related services. As more organizations seek to reap the benefits of a better integrated approach to managed services, there will be a clear move towards application outsourcing that combines infrastructure and application management to yield better application performance at a lower cost, the research paper stated.

“We strongly believe that this shift to new services will transform the way IT is delivered and consumed and, moving forward, “as-a-service” will be an integral element for almost everything IT consumed by organizations,” said Fred Giron, vice president of IT services at Springboard Research.

Source:http://www.zdnetasia.com/apac-it-services-to-hit-us-53b-in-2011-62208569.htm

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Tags: IT Services

Centrica outsources software testing

April 26th, 2011

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Utility giant Centrica is taking advantage of onshore and offshore software testing skills through an £8m deal with Software Quality Systems (SQS).

The 12-month managed software testing contract will test business critical systems such as those being used in Centrica’s smart metering programme.

The deal is a signal of the increasing importance of software testing to Centrica, the parent company of British Gas. Previously the firm contracted SQS on a project-by-project basis.

Centrica will gain access to testing resources locally and offshore. SQS has software testing resources in India and South Africa.

The need to get smart metering applications right has increased Centrica’s software testing requirement. The billing systems related to smart metering will be complicated because of the requirement to allow consumers to manage when they use energy and bill them accurately.

Source:http://www.sourcingfocus.com/site/newsitem/3509/

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Public services move into cloud computing

April 26th, 2011

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The public sector is moving into cloud computing with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs signing a major contract with Huddle. Cloud computing allows oganisations to share resources, software and applications.

The significance of the contract is that it marks a shift away from data centres and outsourcing and towards a situation where public bodies will be able to operate without owning a single server or having a share in a data centre. The contract will also reduce costs and risks and bring scalability and resilience.

The Society of IT Management has agued that the advent of cloud computing means that ICT strategies must be rewritten with cloud adoption as a central theme. It is equally vital to avoid any moves that will delay or compromise this, so investing in a new or enhanced data centre would probably be ill-advised at present. Similarly, outsourcing the IT service now might mean that the benefits of moving to the cloud would be very much delayed.

Huddle is already working with more than 60 per cent of central government departments including the Cabinet Office and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. The company has become the first cloud supplier to recognise government as a single ICT customer, actively working together to deliver increased value for money.

Under the new arrangements, any government body, including central government departments, local government, executive agencies, arms-length bodies and NHS agencies, can benefit from government-specific Huddle pricing, training and support. The agreement follows the release of the Government ICT Strategy, highlighting the need to move to cloud computing, increase collaboration and remove the barriers preventing SMEs from participating in the government ICT marketplace.

Cloud computing is the next stage in computer driven human transformation. Ultimately it will shift data storage and management from organisational servers and the personal computer to remote servers and networks. The ICT industry will be transformed because individual users will need little more than a screen and a minimally powered terminal. All processing will be done in the cloud. No one has yet been fool-hardy enough to suggest how this development will affect organisations and the lives of people.

Source:http://www.publicnet.co.uk/news/2011/04/26/public-services-move-into-cloud-computing/

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Tags: Cloud Computing

Atos Origin wins 10-year IT outsourcing deal with D+S

April 26th, 2011

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German customer contact management company D+S communication center management (D+S CCM) has signed a 10-year IT outsourcing contract with Atos Origin. Under the terms of the contract, 50 employees will be transferred from D+S solutions to Atos Origin. The services covered by the outsourcing agreement include data centre and infrastructure operations and network and desktop services, as well as application management.

Source:http://www.telecompaper.com/news/atos-origin-wins-10-year-it-outsourcing-deal-with-ds

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CompuTech network solutions IT managed service enters Dallas, Texas market

April 26th, 2011

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The rising trend to capitalize on a growing need of IT managed solutions has brought a lot of players to the marketplace. In the abundance of IT software management solutions and IT help desk specialists comes a newcomer from San Francisco, CompuTech Network Solutions. They have been a long time technical favorite in the Bay Area and are now expanding their offices to the Greater Dallas, Texas business landscape. They are launching their multi-faceted IT management support program to the corporate arena. This is fulfilling an expanding need for corporate outsourcing leaving small and medium business to concentrate on their core business model.

This has been a popular trend that has been flourishing throughout the country. Remote computer support network solutions seems to deliver the same solid corporate IT support on the back end while also saving on corporate cost. In economically challenged business climates this company model tends to serve on several levels. By relying on outsourcing the business is able to focus on revenue driving activities that protect the bottom line. This also reduces risk and saves on expenses such as acquiring new staff, corporate training and support as well as new equipment acquisition.

This is a corporate shift and more Blue Chip and Fortune 500 companies are embracing it for the better. There is also a current rise in American based IT support systems. This helps on a communication level and in some cases the companies prefer to work with someone local. A business owner will experience the same level of high IT expertise when working with a local vendor. The communication level is solid and the IT managed support team like with CompuTech Network Solutions can work on a wide number of computers simultaneously.

When it comes to ROI there really is no substitute says website administrator Ted Cantu. We can track viruses throughout your network in a fraction of the time as other network providers. It is essential to keep corporate computers up to speed so that they do not retract from productivity. A virus such as the Cornficker worm can not only slow the computers down but can also destroy vital information.

Source:http://www.benzinga.com/press-releases/11/04/e1030593/computech-network-solutions-it-managed-service-enters-dallas-texas-mar

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Tags: Computers IT

HCL Tech gives BPO biz a fillip, inks three deals

April 26th, 2011

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The country’s fourth largest information technology (IT) services and software exporter HCL Technologies is boosting its business process outsourcing (BPO) arm and expects the business to be on track by the January-March quarter next year. The business had not been doing well for a few quarters with both revenue and headcount constantly declining. The BPO arm was last year rechristened BSERV and the strategy seems to be working for the IT major. Of the 11 deals it won this quarter, three are in the BPO segment and range from $20 million to $100 million (R 90-450 crore).
The three deals in BPO have been inked in the logistics, media and banking verticals and one of them is worth $100 million while the other two range between $20-50 million.

“With a BPO coming up in every single corner of the country, it is obvious that the contact centre business had become commoditised and the differentiation was becoming necessary. We had to differentiate and thought we can we combine BPO plus application and create a new division called business services?” said Vineet Nayar, vice-chairman and CEO, HCL Technologies. As another positive indicator, the firm expected losses of $7 million per quarter in BPO because of investment in platform business and some disinvestment in clients with a motive to move from voice to non-voice service lines. However, the loss in this quarter ended March 31, 2011, was $5 million which Nayar termed as “BPO being on track for verge of profitability.”

Moreover, HCL Tech is also looking at significant investment in sales expenditure, department platforms and creation in markets which is estimated around $35-40 million. “We thought this would be on track by early next year. It will start making profit or break even next year,” Nayar added. BPO currently contributes 5.4% to HCL’s total revenues while its own revenues fell 5.5% to R225.6 crore compared with R237.6 crore in the year ago quarter.

Source:http://www.financialexpress.com/news/hcl-tech-gives-bpo-biz-a-fillip-inks-three-deals/781226/0

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