Vodacom’s Tanzanian mobile unit is close to signing a five-year network operations outsourcing agreement with Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN). Under the partnership contract NSN will optimise, modernise and manage Vodacom’s cellular networks in the country and operate them for the next five years. Further, as another aspect of the deal a number of Vodacom Tanzania employees from its network operations division will be transferred to NSN. Vodacom Tanzania operations managing executive, Daniel Bakker, said: ‘Nokia Siemens Networks’ capabilities to ensure network efficiency, service quality and global best-practice-in-network operations will enable Vodacom Tanzania to improve network efficiency and maintain operational performance, while freeing up resources to focus on our core business of delivering the best and most advanced technology and experience to our customers.’

Source:-http://www.telegeography.com/cu/article.php?article_id=35837&email=html

Wipro Infotech, the India, Middle East and Africa, IT Business of Wipro Ltd, has been awarded a 5-year IT outsourcing contract by Vasan Eye Care – one of India’s largest network of eye care centre and a unit of Vasan Healthcare Group. As a part of this contract, Vasan Eye Care will outsource its entire IT Infrastructure to Wipro, for monitoring and management for duration of 5 years.

The scope of service includes entire IT infrastructure management encompassing complete datacenter management and end user support services. Vasan’s network of hospitals comprises 75 independent hospitals, distributed across four southern states of India, and caters to 5 million patients a year.

Endorsing the choice of Wipro as it’s trusted IT partner, Dr. A. M. Arun, Chairman & Managing Director, Vasan Eye Care said, “Wipro will help us in our mission to create a world-class service system by implementing technologies and achieve our vision of becoming the world’s largest eye care provider.”

Dr. K Premraj , Chief Mentor, Vasan Eye Care said, “We are now free to concentrate on our core competency of offering quality eye care to patients across India.

Source:http://www.expresscomputeronline.com/20101227/news03.shtml

IT services provider HCL Technologies Ltd today said it has signed a contract with Finland’s OP Pohjola for implementation and support and maintenance of a claims management solution.

The scope of this long-term engagement covers delivery of a turn-key centralised claims management software solution, HCL Tech said in a statement.

However, the company did not disclose the financial details of the contract.

“In HCL we found a partner that understands insurance business, standardisation of services and has an ability to support our business locally with utilisation of a global delivery with a strong focus on value added delivery,” OP Pohjola senior vice president Pekka Sarvi-Perakyla said.

HCL will deliver these services to OP Pohjola through its Global Delivery Centers in India as well as locally in Finland.

Vesa Siitari has been appointed head of HCL Finland , and Per Hove appointed head of HCL’s business in Norway, to lead the regional expansion.

Further, Siitari has also been appointed to lead and implement HCL’s business strategy for Manufacturing, Hi-tech, Telecommunications, Media and Retail client segments, as well as be the head of HCL’s business in Finland.

In addition to this, Hove has been appointed to lead and implement HCLs business strategy for public services, including logistics and energy and utilities, and be the head of HCLs business in Norway.

“By implementing a centralised claims management solution with standardised services and value added delivery, OP Pohjola will be able to deliver greater efficiencies to customers in the long term,” HCL financial services Europe Executive Vice President Stuart Drew said.

OP-Pohjola Group, is the financial services group, offers the most comprehensive and versatile range of banking, investment and insurance services in the country.

Source:-http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/ites/HCL-Technologies-bags-IT-contract-from-Finlands-firm/articleshow/7029778.cms

MphasiS, a leading Indian IT services provider launched its Global Delivery Centre in Colombo, announcing a possible link up with a multinational company. Ganesh Ayyar, CEO MphasiS revealed that the company plans to enter into a contract with a multinational firm to outsource services starting next month. He declined to name the multinational company. If the contract materializes, the company will recruit around 500 to 1,000 youth, he said. “This number would be growing 3,000 to 5,000 youth within 36 months,” Mr. Ayyar said.

He noted that MphasiS Lanka has aggressive plans to strengthen its presence in financial services, insurance, capital markets, telecom and healthcare servicesworld wide with an investment of US $ 3.5 million. It will join MphasiS’ network of Delivery centres providing Applications, Business Process Outsourcing (and Information Technology Outsourcing services to clients all over the world, he added. “Our launch is a testimony to our well laid out plans and are working closely with the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka to play a pivotal role in redefining the IT landscape in the country.” MphasiS has so far recruited 55 young IT graduates and GCE Advanced Level qualified youth to manage infrastructure and application services. The centre was formally inaugurated by Basil Rajapaksa, Minister of Economic Development at Orion City, Dr. Danister De Silva Mawatha, Colombo 9.

Speaking to Sunday Times on the sidelines of the launching ceremony, Mr. Ayyar said that MphasiS has hired Boston Consulting Group to revamp its business structure. This will help the company grow direct channel business, apart from increasing overall organisational effectiveness, he added. MphasiS was looking at opportunities to buy companies that have a annual revenue of $50 million to $100 million to strengthen its presence in financial services, insurance, capital markets, telecom and healthcare services, he said.

The company plans to hire over 2000 people in the next three years in Sri Lanka. With over 38,000 employees, MphasiS, has a presence across America, Europe, Australia, Asia Pacific, Japan and India. Employees at the Sri Lanka centre will be part of MphasiS Global Talent Pool and groomed as a part of MphasiS Talent Development Program.

Source:http://www.sundaytimes.lk/100912/BusinessTimes/bt33.html

Wipro Infotech recently today announced that it has signed a seven year total outsourcing contract with 5 regional rural banks sponsored by UCO Bank, a leading public Sector Bank.

The contract is for implementing a Core Banking Solution (CBS) across 803 branches of RRBs under UCO Bank’s sponsorship.The RRBs under the sponsorship program are Jaipur Thar Gramin Bank (JTGB), Kalinga Gramya Bank (KGB), Bihar Kshetriya Gramin Bank (BKGB), Paschim Banga Gramin Bank (PBGB) and Mahakausal Kshetriya Gramin Bank (MKGB). These RRB’s have operations primarily in the states of Rajasthan, Orissa, Bihar, West Bengal and MP. With this initiative, all five RRBs would come under the ambit of core banking, thereby ensuring uniformity in technology platform and related business processes for improved business efficiency and customer care.

Speaking about the engagement, Ajai Kumar, Executive Director, UCO Bank said: “Today RRBs are being viewed as one of the primary vehicles to drive financial inclusion. This implementation by Wipro would be a big step in technologically enabling our sponsored RRB branches to deliver rural banking services to the masses.”

The scope of services includes building, hosting and managing the underlying infrastructure at the Data Centers, in addition to implementing the Finacle CBS across 5 RRBs. Wipro would also provide network management and user training across all 803 branch locations as a part of the Total Outsourcing relationship. The CBS would be executed on an Application Service Provider (ASP) model where Wipro would get paid on a monthly pay-per-use basis. Roll out of all branches is expected to be completed by September 2011.

Anand Sankaran, Senior Vice President and Business Head, Wipro, India, Middle East and Africa said, “We are excited to be partnering with 5 of the RRBs sponsored by UCO Bank for this long-term and strategic engagement. We are confident that coupled with our vast domain expertise and knowledge of global best practices, we will be able to help RRBs achieve their business objective of taking low-cost banking to the rural masses.”

The contract is the outcome of a competitive bidding process. In a keenly contested deal, Wipro emerged as the preferred partner for the total outsourcing deal spanning 7 years.

Source:http://informationweek.in/Software/10-08-27/Wipro_signs_7_year_outsourcing_contract_with_UCO_Bank.aspx

IBM delivered a letter to DIR that mischaracterized the obligations of IBM and DIR under the MSA, was insufficient to cure the breaches identified in the Notice to Cure Letter, and was little more than a reiteration of inconsistent and incomplete ideas that IBM has previously expressed. During discussions over the past nine months, IBM suggested that DIR re-procure all or part of the services under the MSA. Given IBM’s failure to cure the breaches set forth in the Notice to Cure Letter, IBM now leaves DIR no course but to pursue procurement.”

“In accordance with the terms of the MSA, the Notice to Cure Letter specified that IBM had thirty (30) days to cure each such breach. IBM has failed to cure the identified breaches. Accordingly, DIR has full legal right and authority to terminate the MSA for cause. DIR has determined that it is not in the best interests of the State to exercise that right at this time. DIR will proceed with procurement for all services required of IBM under the MSA. DIR requires IBM’s full and compliant performance of its obligations under the MSA.”

“DIR expressly retains all rights with respect to termination of the MSA, and no delay in termination of the MSA shall be deemed a waiver of those rights.

Source:-http://spectrum.ieee.org/riskfactor/computing/it/texas-tells-ibm-make-way-for-others-on-outsourcing-contract

I was pretty confident that IBM and the State of Texas would reach some sort of mutually unacceptable accommodation in their disagreements over the quality and level of performance involving the outsourcing contract Texas awarded to IBM in 2006 that would allow everyone to save face and move on.While I got the mutually unacceptable bit right, more importantly, I was way off about the two sides reaching an accommodation.As you may recall, the Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR) sent an 8-page “Notice to Cure” letter to IBM last month in essence stating that in the state’s opinion, IBM has failed to live up to the IT outsourcing promises it has made to the state since the contract’s start.

The DIR gave IBM 10-days to come up with an acceptable cure plan, and 30-days to cure the contract breaches noted in the cure notice.The 30-day period ended this week, with IBM declining to submit an acceptable plan, as well as in DIR’s opinion, declining to fix the contract breaches noted in its cure letter.
On August 13, 2010, IBM delivered a letter to DIR that mischaracterized the obligations of IBM and DIR under the MSA, was insufficient to cure the breaches identified in the Notice to Cure Letter, and was little more than a reiteration of inconsistent and incomplete ideas that IBM has previously expressed. During discussions over the past nine months, IBM suggested that DIR re-procure all or part of the services under the MSA. Given IBM’s failure to cure the breaches set forth in the Notice to Cure Letter, IBM now leaves DIR no course but to pursue procurement.”

In accordance with the terms of the MSA, the Notice to Cure Letter specified that IBM had thirty (30) days to cure each such breach. IBM has failed to cure the identified breaches. Accordingly, DIR has full legal right and authority to terminate the MSA for cause. DIR has determined that it is not in the best interests of the State to exercise that right at this time. DIR will proceed with procurement for all services required of IBM under the MSA. DIR requires IBM’s full and compliant performance of its obligations under the MSA.”
DIR expressly retains all rights with respect to termination of the MSA, and no delay in termination of the MSA shall be deemed a waiver of those rights.

What this all means is that the DIR will take over control of the contract, and according to a story in the Dallas-Morning News, rebid much of the remaining work on the contract.An article in the Austin-American Statesman states that the contract required the merger of the data centers of 28 Texas state agencies “into two streamlined and secure facilities. The consolidation was supposed to be completed by December 2009 but is still only 12 percent complete.

IBM disagrees with the DIR’s stance, and is quoted in the Statesman as saying it is still “hoping to continue a constructive dialogue” with the DIR.That doesn’t look too likely.I hesitate to make any predictions, given my previous track record, but I would guess an eventual trip to court looks better than a 50-50 chance.

Source:-http://spectrum.ieee.org/riskfactor/computing/it/texas-tells-ibm-make-way-for-others-on-outsourcing-contract

US hospitality giant accuses Big Blue of fraud.

US hospitality heavyweight Carlson has canned a multimillion dollar outsourcing deal with IBM five years before its expiry, alleging fraud by Big Blue staff.

The privately held US company owns major brands such as Radisson Hotels, Country Inn, TGI Fridays, Park Inn and Par Plaza.

Carlson had signed a 10-year outsourcing deal with IBM in 2005, with several hundred IT and finance staff losing their jobs or being transferred across to IBM.

The signing of the outsourcing deal was opposed by the firm’s CIO, Steve Brown at the time, who resigned from the company in protest.

Besides fraud, Carlson has alleged IBM breached its contract and its fiduciary duties, according to court documents obtained by Information Week.

IBM has dismissed the claim as “baseless”, claiming Carlson filed the complaint because IBM was demanding payment from parties under the Master Services Agreement between the two.

Source:http://www.itnews.com.au/News/229232,report-ibm-sued-loses-major-contract.aspx

Reprints Desk, the content workflow company, today announced that the company had secured an exclusive, multi-year contract to provide article Reprint and ePrint outsourcing services for the journals published by the American Medical Association (AMA): Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the nine specialty Archives Journals, American Medical News, and Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness (DMPHP). Life science companies and other research-intensive organizations use both paper Reprints and digitally deployed ePrints of copyrighted materials as educational tools for communicating with healthcare professionals and consumers. JAMA is considered one of the premier medical journals in the world.
The multi-year agreement went into effect on July 27, 2010. Under the terms of the agreement, the Reprint and ePrint services that Reprints Desk provides will span article quoting and order processing, printing, delivery and deployment, billing, and customer satisfaction. Financial details were not disclosed.
“Reprints Desk is honored to have been selected as the sole supplier entrusted with managing reprints for JAMA and other AMA journals whose brands are respected worldwide for their excellence, integrity, and leadership,” said Peter Derycz, President and Chief Executive Officer at Reprints Desk. “As an organization that believes science improves public health, Reprints Desk is committed to making it easier for brand managers, medical marketers, and others to license and re-use content that can help save and improve lives.”
“We at the American Medical Association are impressed with Reprints Desk’s initiatives and its abilities to manage the reprint and ePrint business issues that arise in the handling of published materials,” said Elizabeth Jones, Sr. VP of Periodical Publishing. “We can think of no better company to oversee the smooth running of these varieties of services for our flagship publication, JAMA, as well as our other marquis journals.”
Reprints Desk is headquartered in Santa Monica, California, and was founded in 2006 by document delivery pioneer Peter Derycz. The company provides business software and information services that simplify how individuals and research-intensive organizations procure, manage and share journal articles and other copyright-protected content. The company’s content workflow and compliance solutions help customers effectively use peer-reviewed literature in research, regulatory submissions, education and product promotions. For more information, visit Reprints Desk online at www.reprintsdesk.com.
Reprints Desk, Inc. is a business software and information company that simplifies how research-intensive companies and other organizations procure, manage and share content in compliance with copyright, Good Reprint Practices, and Good Promotional Practices. Reprints Desk solutions help customers effectively use peer-reviewed literature in research, regulatory submissions, education and product promotions. An authorized sales representative for Copyright Clearance Center’s rights management tool Rightsphere and a channel supplier for more than 100 scientific, technical, and medical (STM) publishers, Reprints Desk earned the #1 ranking in the 2008 Document Delivery Vendor Scorecard by Outsell, Inc., and currently serves companies in life sciences, energy, aerospace, industrial products, food and beverages, consumer packaged goods, information technology, legal, academia and government. Reprints Desk is a Derycz Scientific company. For more information about Reprints Desk, contact Ian Palmer at

Source:-http://pr-canada.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=245380&Itemid=58

Retail giant Unilever has extended its outsourcing deal with BT in a contract worth an extra £144m.

BT’s Global Services arm will look to implement new technology around unified communications, messaging, supply chain and wireless technology, in more than 100 countries across Unilever’s three operating regions, over the next four years.

The scope of the service includes the design, management and operation of a secure, fully integrated end-to-end IT networking infrastructure, delivering data, voice, video and mobility services to about 1,000 Unilever sites.

Jeff Kelly, CEO of BT Global Services, said: “Unilever is one of our largest customers in an important market for us. Our aim is to help them drive out costs and deliver their market-leading brands more efficiently.”

Unilever’s chief enterprise support officer Pascal Visée said that the aim was to “double the business while reducing environmental impact.”

The original £833m contract was awarded in November 2002 and was BT’s first comprehensive global communications outsourcing contract.

Source:-http://www.managementconsultancy.co.uk/computing/news/2266439/unilever-extends-bt-outsourcing

It seems a frequent affair for the global management consulting firm, Accenture plc (ACN – Snapshot Report) to win outsourcing contracts. Yesterday, Accenture announced that it had been awarded a 6-year outsourcing contract to provide application management services to Germany-based Henkel’s North American operations.

As per the terms of the contract, which is in addition to an existing contract signed last year, Accenture will provide management services to Henkel that are expected to reduce costs and streamline its activities.

Though we remain unclear about the financial impact of the deal on Accenture’s revenue stream, we continue to believe that the company’s solutions will attract a series of contracts and customer wins across various industries spanning over several years.

Last year for instance, Accenture won a 7-year outsourcing contract from Scandinavian Airlines for providing financial management services. We believe this is a good growth opportunity for Accenture in the aviation segment, where it operates through its subsidiary, Navitaire. The latter provides technological support to more than 75 airlines worldwide.

Furthermore, Accenture enhanced its Mobility services with the strategic acquisition of Nokia Corp.’s (NOK – Analyst Report) Symbian service unit. The Symbian operating system is the world’s most widely used platform for smartphones. The acquisition helped Accenture to develop innovative solutions for mobile devices, which in our view, will attract major handset manufacturers.

According to the U.S. research firm Gartner Inc., global spending for IT services will witness a boost in 2010 with an anticipated 4.5% increase from 2009. With a major part of revenue coming from the consulting business, we expect Accenture to be a major beneficiary.

With about 181,000 employees around the world, the company delivers a wide range of consulting, technology, and outsourcing services to its clients in diverse industries. Accenture has extensive relationships with the world’s leading companies and governments, and operates in over 120 countries.

Accenture reported an unexciting second quarter, with EPS of 60 cents missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 61 cents and revenue declining by 2.1% compared with the year-ago quarter. However, the company reported strong bookings of $6.52 billion with equal contribution from consulting and outsourcing businesses.

Despite improving trends noticed in Accenture’s businesses, we would remain cautious until revenue growth shows more sustained momentum.

Source:http://www.zacks.com/stock/news/35644/Accenture+Wins+Outsourcing+Contract

Latisys has captured a $3.4 million contract to provide data center colocation services to the Illinois Department of Central Management Services. Here are some fast details.

The colocation, managed hosting and managed services firm has been working in the government sector and earlier this year acquired a data center in the suburban Washington, D.C. area.

A Latisys spokesman said the company can’t disclose which specific colocation facilities are handling contract requirements, but noted that “services will be utilized across multiple Latisys facilities.”

In addition to its D.C. area center, Latisys operates facilities in Chicago, Denver, and Irvine, Calif.

Under the Illinois contract, Latisys’ services include multi-site failover redundancy and multi-layered security, according to the company. The Latisys spokesman said the contract marks the first time the Central Management Services department has offloaded data center services to an outside provider.

Overall, government agencies appear more willing of late to outsourcing IT infrastructure and consider approaches such as cloud computing and SaaS. Budget constraints are one key motivation. Cloud and SaaS are also viewed as faster procurement methods.

Source:http://www.mspmentor.net/2010/05/20/latisys-wins-illinois-colo-contract/

CSC today announced a three-year extension to its information technology outsourcing agreement with Sempra Energy. Under the extension, CSC will continue to provide IT infrastructure support for Sempra’s California utility businesses and corporate center in Southern California, supporting 11,000 desktop devices, as well as operating the IT Service Desk.

“We’re committed to enabling Sempra to achieve its enterprise business imperatives through the delivery of unmatched IT and business solutions,” said Bob Welch, president, CSC’s Chemical, Energy and Natural Resources Group.

CSC’s Chemical, Energy and Natural Resources Group, which serves chemical, petroleum, utility and natural resources companies worldwide, is a global leader in helping companies achieve strategic business objectives through the application of industry-specialized business solutions and services.

Source:http://www.marketwatch.com/story/csc-signs-three-year-it-services-contract-with-sempra-energy-2010-05-17?reflink=MW_news_stmp

The IT Outsourcing market witnessed a robust sequential growth with the Annual Contract Value (ACV) increasing by 43 percent in first quarter of 2010 as compared to the last quarter of 2009. The global sourcing market continues to give signals of a recovering global economy, according to Everest, a global consulting and research firm. Transaction volumes for the first quarter of this year, valued at $ 3.9 billion in ACV, maintained a steady, even paced growth for the third consecutive quarter.

Everest’s market vista, reports North American transaction activity in the first quarter 2010 increased 18 percent and ACV was up 36 percent over the fourth quarter of 2009.This growth is in the backdrop a 6 percent rise in outsourcing transaction volumes in Q1 2010 over Q4 2009. Q1 2010 reported four mega deals as compared to one such deal in the previous quarter.

“Outsourcing market activity during the last quarter was largely led by renewals and restructuring of existing contracts”, said Gaurav Gupta, Principal and Country Head India, Everest Group.

According to the report, the captive market continued to grow steadily in Q1 with 35 new captive centers being announced, three-fourths of which were in Asia and 11 in India. Apart from captive set ups. Leading IT majors such as Infosys, Cognizant and TCS have already announced 50,000-60,000 new recruits over the course of this year. In addition, global majors such as Capgemini, IBM and CSC also have similar plans. This has already started impacting attrition rates and wage inflation in the India offshore services industry.

Amneet Singh, Vice-President-Global Sourcing, Everest Group added, “It is encouraging to see demand side momentum translate into 44 new supplier delivery centers in Q1 with activity continuing to be concentrated in Asia”

Source:http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/Annual_Contract_Value_of_IT_outsourcing_grows_43_percent_in_Q1_-nid-67756.html

CSC (CSC 54.44, +0.06, +0.11%) today announced a five-year extension to its global information technology (IT) outsourcing agreement with United Technologies Corporation (UTX 72.39, -0.11, -0.15%) . The extension adds over $1.5 billion in value to the existing contract, which now runs until December 2019. The extension also provides CSC with the immediate opportunity to expand into new geographies with a potential new business value of an additional $300 million.

Under the extension, CSC will continue to provide IT infrastructure support for UTC in 22 countries, supporting 110,000 desktops as well as UTC’s server and mainframe requirements. These services have resulted in continued cost reductions over the course of the partnership, while delivering high quality IT services to UTC’s businesses.

“CSC has demonstrated the technology service capabilities needed to address our requirements, especially in our aerospace and commercial marketplaces around the world,” said Nancy Davis, UTC Vice President and Chief Information Officer. “We continue to rely on CSC to support the growth of our global businesses.”

“CSC is honored to extend our long-term strategic relationship with UTC and to be given the opportunity to expand our scope in many new geographies,” said Russ Owen, President of CSC’s Managed Services Sector. “This extension demonstrates the value that our IT outsourcing services provide to our clients and reflects our continued commitment to provide UTC the most innovative, high quality and cost-effective services available in the market.”

The original contract was awarded to CSC in 1999 for IT infrastructure and applications services for approximately 50,000 desktops in North America. Since then, the partnership has continued to expand globally. CSC currently supports 110,000 desktops in 22 countries.

Source:http://www.marketwatch.com/story/csc-signs-major-five-year-it-services-contract-extension-with-utc-2010-03-18?reflink=MW_news_stmp

Malaysia Airlines seals outsourcing deal with TATA Consultancy Services

Under the five-year agreement, Indian consultancy TATA will provide the Malaysian Airline with IT services.

In a statement, the company announced the partnership was part of its wider strategic IT outsourcing programme designed to transform the airline’s IT operations, in hope of delivering seamless internal customer experience.

“One of the key initiatives is fine-tuning our IT outsourcing strategy to deliver the required business results at lower cost,” said the airline’s chief information officer, Faridah Abdul Rahman.

Source:http://www.sourcingfocus.com/index.php/site/newsitem/2230/

The Financial Intelligence Unit India, part of the Indian Government’s Ministry of Finance, has signed an IT outsourcing contract with Wipro Infotech. The project is due to be completed in 24 months with a further service period of 36 months.

As part of the deal, Wipro will manage the Unit’s IT in a bid to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of its collection, analysis and dissemination of financial information and highlights the Government’s intentions to use technology to bring efficiency into analysis of data.

Mr Arun Goyal, director of Financial Intelligence Unit India, said: “We are keen on timely implementation of the Project as it will significantly enhance capabilities to collect financial information from various reporting entities, analyse it and disseminate actionable information to various law enforcement and intelligence agencies.”

Source:http://www.sourcingfocus.com/index.php/site/newsitem/2212/

DirectPointe, Inc., a U.S.-based managed
IT outsourcing services provider, today announced an agreement with its first
master agent, Concierge Communications. The companies will work together to
offer businesses a full suite of IT outsourcing tools and managed IT services to
help manage their computing infrastructure in a more efficient and controlled
manner.

“DirectPointe has a history of developing strong partnerships by providing
quality customer service and convenience,” said Dan Atkinson, VP of Marketing &
Alliances. “As a leader in the managed IT services industry, it is important for
us to deploy these types of partner programs so we can service customers with
unique IT outsourcing needs. We are pleased to have such a prominent and
well-respected master agent partner representing DirectPointe. Working closely
with Concierge Communications will allow us to promote and provide more holistic
outsourced IT solutions to the Concierge dealer network.”

DirectPointe will support Concierge Communications and its agents with a
combined effort through DirectPointe’s sales team.

“We’re excited to add DirectPointe’s products and services to our portfolio
along with their nine-year track record,” said Clark Atwood, Vice President of
Concierge Communications. “Their managed IT services and data products will
complement our success in managed voice services. Companies are looking to do
more with less in 2010, and they desire to remove many of the technical
management headaches and skyrocketing costs associated with technology.
DirectPointe rounds out our service offerings for managed voice and network
services and hosted services. Their model allows us to offer managed desktop
services, LAN services, virtualization services and much more.”

Highlights of the master agent program include generous commissions for the life
of the customer, DirectPointe sales and marketing resources, the ability to add
new offerings without an upfront investment, and the ability to increase
bandwidth needs for existing clients. The true benefit of this master partner
relationship is the ability to offer IT services to customers with one reliable
source to manage all of their IT needs on a continual basis and for one
predictable monthly fee.

Source:http://www.itnewsonline.com/showprnstory.php?storyid=90983

Mobile communication services provider NII Holdings has signed an IT outsourcing deal with HP Enterprise Services.

Under the agreement the outsourcing service provider will manage NII’s IT applications and technology infrastructure support services throughout Latin America and its headquarters in the US.

Technology giant, HP aims to standardise processes, consolidate technology infrastructure support services and employ new technology to assist NII’s customer offering.

It will also provide applications development, management and testing services that include NII’s software development processes, billing systems and applications support.

Alan Strauss, chief technology officer of NII, said: “Using the expertise of HP and the experience of our employees, we will standardise our processes and leverage the opportunities to increase our operational flexibility, improve cost efficiencies, and improve our service quality.”

Source:http://www.sourcingfocus.com/index.php/site/newsitem/2186/

The partnership assumes significance in view of the Punjab and Sind Bank’s objective to become a INR1000bn bank by 2011 by increasing its branch networks and services.

Through this partnership, PSB will be able to leverage technology to compete and achieve operational excellence. Wipro will be responsible for system integration, provisioning and management of Finacle core banking solution and enterprise applications. This would include management of the entire underlying IT infrastructure covering computing platforms and networking.

As part of the program, Wipro will also undertake commissioning and management of the Data Centre and the Disaster Recovery centre, and Service and Support for the Bank. The solution is expected to completely transform the bank’s IT landscape in terms of improved agility for offering innovative banking services.

Sardar GS Vedi, chairman and MD of Punjab and Sind Bank, said: “The vision of the bank is to leverage technology to achieve business transformation. We are re-engineering our IT processes and applications to deliver superior quality of service and products to accelerate business growth and achieve operational excellence. We are delighted to partner with Wipro in this journey towards business excellence, given Wipro’s track record in the BFSI segment, leadership position in India and strong IT and people processes.”

Anand Sankaran, SVP and business head of India and Middle East at Wipro, said: “Wipro’s Total Outsourcing Framework and strong programme governance will ensure the application suite and the underlying infrastructure is aligned to PSB’s business needs. Coupled with our deep domain knowledge, over two decades experience in the IT space and knowledge of global best practices, we are confident PSB will set new standards in Banking services and Customer Relationship Management in the years to come.”

Reportedly, PSB has terminated an earlier agreement with Satyam in 2009 after the troubled outsourcing firm failed to fulfil its criteria.

Source:http://www.newstatesman.com/banking-and-insurance/2010/02/bank-psb-wipro-india-punjab