In his first interview with ZDNet Australia since taking over the role from long-running CIO John Wadeson in October last year, the former ANZ CIO said that as part of the department’s Service Delivery Reform program, long-running contracts that IBM has with Medicare and HP has with the Child Support Program (CSP) will not be renewed, and will instead be brought in house, in line with other agencies in the mega-department.

“It’s about value creation,” he said. “The Centrelink program … has a huge capacity, because of the strengths that can be shared. Harvesting that value is what we’re going to be doing in the next two to three years.”

In this financial year’s Federal Budget, the department was given $530 million to consolidate the ICT systems for each agency within the department. DHS also successfully integrated the Department of Veteran Affairs completely at the end of 2011, and Sterrenberg said that should the government require it, DHS is in a good position to acquire other government agencies.

“What we’ve created by the integration of the agencies is set up, almost like the business term would be, a mergers and acquisition capability to [integrate other agencies]“.

Sterrenberg said that this capability would work better for agencies that deliver services directly to the public, and would be particularly useful in the event of a disaster.

“You want to be able to deploy a range of services to the broader community, and having a service arm like DHS enables that,” he said. “Everything we do, we think about whole of government. I think there’s a lot of good thinking around where we can help each other. If you can do it working together, that’s the way to go.”

One of the major projects under the Service Delivery Reform program is to consolidate 14 DHS datacentres into just three, and Sterrenberg revealed that the department is already ahead of schedule on this initiative.

“We’ve completed a lot of the mainframe work. We’ve moved CSP onto the mainframe; we’ve moved DVA onto the mainframe. We’ve moved most of CSP out. We’ve closed Macquarie and Bruce, [and] we’ve got most of the stuff out of Belconnen.”

Sterrenberg said that the timetable for moving out of datacentres tends to be determined by when the leases for those locations end. The department is now in the planning stages for moving Medicare out, which Sterrenberg said could have been done earlier, were it not for the IBM contract.

“We believe we could have gone quicker with Medicare, but we have a sourcing contract with IBM, so it makes sense to do it that way,” he said.

Despite the hurdles, Sterrenberg said that by the end of 2012, the department will be six to nine months ahead of schedule on the datacentre consolidation.

Moving to a common communications platform would be a much larger task for Human Services. The infrastructure planning, such as the directory design for the platform, was completed in September, Sterrenberg said, and a small pilot of 500 desktops running Windows 7 was completed at the end of 2011, but there is a huge task ahead to roll it out to all 37,000 DHS staff.

“It’s about bridging multiple domains, multiple networks, moving four to five SoEs [standard operating environments] to a single SoE, to move to a single IP-addressing layer across everything, and create a single environment for all DHS people,” he said.

“The hard work is right to get the construct right, so that it cannot just service the current DHS agencies, but also whatever comes beyond.”

The aim is to have 10,000 desktops rolled out by June, and an additional 15,000 by the end of 2012, leaving just over 10,000 left for the next year. The desktops will have thin clients, so department staff will be able to log in using a swipe card, as part of a two-factor authentication process. This roll-out will also bring about the end of Lotus Notes for Centrelink and Medicare, which has been on the cards since 2010.
Moving from ANZ to Human Services

Sterrenberg praised the legacy of his long-time predecessor John Wadeson, and the 3800 IT staff under him.

“It’s actually better than expected. I was very pleasantly surprised that the previous CIO John Wadeson left a really good legacy. You don’t do that overnight; it’s four or five years in the making,” he said. “Particularly in the quality of staff we have in the ICT are exceptional. We have a very sound base to work from.

“I would rate some of our mainframe teams as the best, certainly in Australia, if not broader.”

He said that he sees a lot of similarities between coming from a bank to moving to Human Services, particularly given the volume of payments the department makes to the general public, and the back-end technologies used. He said that desktop consolidations and desktop roll-outs are all experiences that the private sector knows well, although he said that the government is about a year behind corporate Australia.

One of the major differences, he said, is that the government role is a lot more transparent.

“Everything you do is very open for all to see, and I think that is the right thing. We’re dealing with huge amounts of investments of public money, and, as such, that level of scrutiny has to be there,” he said.

But that’s a powerful motivator, too.

“One of the things I was saying to an ex-banking colleague the other day is that you don’t wake up without motivation. Everything you do is delivering a service to the community. And you just know it has a huge responsibility attached to it, because if our systems do not pay, people will not have money for rent, will not have money for food, in some cases,” he said, adding that his staff feel that way, too.

“They’re absolutely passionate about providing service to their customer, and in some way that motivation is not always there in corporations I’ve worked for in the past,” he said.

Recruiting the right skills set is still an issue for Human Services, though, and he said that the department is looking for more workers outside of Canberra, where it is much tougher to find workers. The department is also continuing to work with universities to encourage school leavers to take up ICT degrees to get those skills, but he said that a lot of it has to do with public perception of those roles.

“I think there is a view that you are a code cutter, whereas nowadays, a very small portion of the work is code cutting,” he said.

He said that working for the government is also undersold to students.

“We actually are using some of the latest technologies to serve the communities, and I don’t think it is well understood. Everything that you do in corporate you can do for us and more. The cherry on the cake is that you’re serving the community. You’re making a difference.”

Source:http://www.zdnet.com.au/human-services-ends-ibm-hp-outsourcing-339330003.htm

In an announcement yesterday, HP revealed that diversified local company Elders had signed it for a seven-year infrastructure and applications services agreement. Elders is a 172-year-old company incorporating the Elders rural services businesses and the automotive and forestry operations acquired and developed by Futuris Corporation.

According to the agreement, Elders will utilise cloud technology to deploy its enterprise technology refresh program – Project Connect. HP Enterprise Cloud Services will provide Elders with secure processing capacity and real-time data access that will enable the company to respond quickly to the changing business conditions intrinsic to agribusiness. This will help Elders to drive innovation by getting new services and products faster to the market, avoiding the typical protracted capital acquisition and systems deployment processes.

Shaun Hughes, Chief Information Officer, Elders Australia stated that outsourcing to HP was an integral part of the company’s transformation program. “HP’s cloud will provide us with a robust infrastructure and service delivery model that enables us to scale up for each of our program releases, and the applications methodologies and tools HP brings to the table enable us to de-risk the legacy development components of our build,” Hughes said.

In October, HP had announced new solutions and services based on HP Converged Infrastructure that would help businesses and service providers to efficiently deliver cloud services and to minimise risk, lower costs and leverage existing investments.

As part of a phased four-year program, Elders can utilise a combination of existing technology along with automated processes and procedures for application and infrastructure management and security. HP will also offer its full range of Technology Outsourcing services to modernise and refresh the technology environment. HP Data Centre Services, according to the vendor, will help to guarantee high accessibility to IT services and uninterrupted reliable operations. HP also will deliver Network Management Services to remotely manage and monitor Elders’ 540 distributed networks across Australia.

Additionally, HP will provide a set of Security Services, offering comprehensive security oversight of the managed environment in accordance with Elders’ security standards and policies. To plan for a cloud environment, HP will use HP Storage, ESL E-series Tape Libraries and HP BladeSystem servers to refresh Elders’ hardware.

HP will synchronise Elders’ technology infrastructure with the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) Version 3 service management framework using products from its HP Software suite.

HP will also supply Workplace Services for all of Elders’ computing devices, including printers, handheld devices and desktop and notebook PCs. All of these infrastructure and applications services will be provided from HP global delivery centres in Australia and the Philippines, minimising risk for clients like Elders while offering them greater flexibility and cost efficiency.

Source:http://delimiter.com.au/2011/12/07/elders-inks-seven-year-outsourcing-deal-with-hp/

Meg Whitman is Day 8 into her new gig as HP CEO, but she took time out to honor a previous commitment to talk to the Public Policy Institute of California in SF about how to grow the state’s economy.

Much of it sounded reheated to those who have followed her gubernatorial campaign. State needs to cut regs, increase “efficiency” of government by 5 percent (not a lot of detail on how, or how many people to lay off), keep taxes low, and promote charter schools. For a complete look at Meg’s slides, check out the PPIC site here. We’ll revisit this later.

Afterward her speech, Meg was back in CEO mode — and indeed she seemed much more relaxed in handling biz-related questions than she did as a guv candidate fending off political queries. Not that they got any easier. First one: Will there be any layoffs at HP? Too early to tell. Check back in mid-November, she said.

Given that her talk was about growing the California economy — and the problems of doing biz in what she described as a high-tax, over-regulated state, — we wanted to know if she would have any hesitation outsourcing HP jobs or growing the business?

Source:http://blog.sfgate.com/nov05election/2011/10/05/meg-whitman-on-the-ca-economy-layoffs-and-outsourcing-at-hp-video/

In the future, CIOs will get fired for becoming beguiled by the tyranny of choice offered by cloud computing. They will lose control of which applications are running where and where servers are physically located. Costs will run out of control as systems are spun up and left running. And when outages are suffered and the CIO doesn’t know about it, that too will lead to a swift and ignominious exit.

But it is not all bad news. These things can be avoided.

Pete Karolczak, SVP and general manager of Infrastructure Technology Outsourcing at HP Enterprise Services, welcomes the end of traditional outsourcing and embraces the disruption of cloud computing. He says he believes HP’s Enterprise Cloud Services is positioning the company to deliver against real requirements in the market while avoiding the pitfalls that will befall the unwary (at least for the parts that his clients entrust to him).

What the cloud means for wholesale outsourcing is nothing more than an end to the traditional ‘mess for less’ contracts that have dominated the industry since its inception. The challenges of traditional outsourcing contracts, the longevity, the controversy, the legacy and the contract negotiations or renegotiations are about to become yesterday’s war. With wholesale outsourcing, the issue was often about how many processes and their supporting technologies and people would shift to a single third-party supplier.

Today, the cloud does not mean there will be less outsourcing but the landscape will be very different. This landscape will consist of clusters of services. And from a supplier’s perspective this means choosing to operate in markets that guarantee a win.

THE NEW WORLD ORDER
Karolczak welcomes the end of traditional outsourcing. “I recognize it, I’m leading it; I embrace the end of comprehensive outsourcing. It will be replaced by more discreet clusters of services. For my end user [of the future], the application hosting environment, the web hosting environment, the back office enterprise resource planning (ERP) will all be with different suppliers while the network could be at another supplier,” Karolczak says.

“Let’s take data center hosting. You could run your apps in someone’s public cloud. You could try three providers and decide which one you prefer and after one year choose a preferred supplier. The switching costs are relatively low.”

Karolczak advises providers to think as the customer would. “They will be seduced by choice and fragment their operations so entirely that they will regret it within two years. The good news is that we’re going to help them and some will be enlightened enough to help themselves.”

Take for example Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and network service provision. Within these offerings there will still be a lot of areas the customer will want to manage itself. Karolczak says as a result he believes we’ll see more and more customers adopting a multiple choice approach when it comes to services.

THE DANGER IN CHANGE
But here’s the rub: “You will be fired as a CIO if you don’t know where things are running. You will be fired if something goes down and you don’t know about it. If you are a CIO and some of your apps are running on Amazon and you don’t know about it then your costs are running out of control. If they are running a mission-critical app and it gets breached, you will get fired.”

Much of this comes down to service management and security. “Those horizontals must traverse this fragmented world of choice. Service management in the New World Order changes dramatically,” Karolczak says. “In the Cloud you had better know which applications are in the Cloud and which cloud they sit on. One of the delusions of the Cloud is that you have unlimited bursts of separation. But you can’t, in most situations, separate the apps from the Cloud.”

No one jumps to the future state instantaneously, and there are key differences between the traditional outsourcing deal and the cloud options, he says.

“The beauty of the cloud is that you don’t need to move all 2,000 applications at once. You move one app at a time, pilot one and then move three. This is the perpetually hybrid model. You’ll never be in a future state because once you get there there will be a new future state.”

This acceptance of forever being in flux appears to be a major, if little recognized, aspect of moving to the Cloud.

More and more customers will take this route, Karolczak says. Within large suppliers every major service line will expose its new generation as a service offering. Every new customer or renewal of existing deal is looking at going discreet. “I will try to win seven out of seven, or I will look to win three out of seven [cloud deals from one company],” Karolczak says, highlighting the fragmentation that is about to become a major part of outsourcing.

RETHINKING APPS
The attraction of all of this disruption is the promised reduction in cost and introduction of flexibility. Karolcak says the beauty of cloud is that it is a destination that is so much cheaper than anything ever seen.

“By the nature of the destination this is a pennies on the dollar offering,” Karolczak says. But then you must think of how you get there. “You need to transform your apps to get there,” he says. “There is no such thing as free cloud. The annuity business is cheap, and you need to rewrite your apps to get to the cloud. You need to stop expecting customized infrastructure for every app. You need to change your apps not to care. If you need high availability you need to build it into the app.”

“We (HP) are also focusing on the journey to help customers take advantage of the annuity price point. But the next time you install SAP you can’t run it on Amazon, it doesn’t work that way. Even on a hardened cloud, it is more standardized than anything before in order to hit the price point,” Karolczak says.

“In the past we have trained our application teams to have the infrastructure customized for them and now we need to wean them from that. The apps need to run on standardized infrastructure which is the nature of cloud.” It is not ‘one size fits all’ and there are options in configurations which mean you most certainly can’t say: “I want it exactly the way I always had it.” The apps need to modernize to fit on the Cloud.

FROM CHAOS…
“The beauty of cloud — this spill and fill —changes what was operation’s worst enemy. You can pay as you go (because you don’t have to put the 1,000 servers in the Cloud).” Managing change more methodically means your journey to the Cloud is not as chaotic. “It is risky,” Karolczak says. “But pay-as-you go is really good for you and really good for me. I don’t inadvertently sign up for a fixed contract and lose money because I guessed wrong. You don’t put me out of business and I don’t put you out of business because I’m milking you dry. It is a natural intuitive commercial model. Commercials are tough enough and whenever you have a predictable commercial model it is actually a good thing.”

“It is also outcome based. The phone bill isn’t a $1bn black-box bill, but it is a line item — if you turn the knob to the right the volume goes up.” The cloud also promises repeatability. The more consistent, the more reliable, the more scaleable means the better the quality. Suppliers will be happy to have fewer escalations, and customers will as well. The cloud also gets outsourcing suppliers out of the ‘mess for less’ outsourcing model. “We actually get to become really good at certain things we do well multiple times. Mess for less is a hard business,” he says.

THE CLOUD FOR HP
So where is HP with its cloud goals?

“When you set up an enterprise cloud instance — it is like a hotel — I can’t sell rooms until I build the hotel and I can’t build the hotel until I own the land. The good news is I own a lot of land, a lot of data centers around the world. I first need to build the core then I can start adding blades,” Karolczak says.

HP is going to set up ten-plus cores around the world. (“We’re still doing business planning.”) He says: “That will include an equally large number for messaging collaboration cloud services. So by the end of 2012 we’ll have global presence in cloud and those customers who are able to move will start the journey. Will anybody be 100% moved by the end of 2012, I doubt it.”

Source:http://www.datacenterdynamics.com/focus/archive/2011/09/dont-get-fired-over-the-cloud

Technavio’s analysts forecast the Data Center Outsourcing market in North America to grow at a CAGR of 12 percent over the period 2010-2014. One of the key factors contributing to this market growth is the increasing need to reduce data center capital and operational costs. The Data Center Outsourcing market in North America has also been witnessing increasing adoption of private cloud-based data center outsourcing. However, the growing number of end-users’ concerns for data center security could pose a challenge to the growth of this market.

Key vendors dominating this market include HP, IBM, CSC, and Dell.

Technavio’s North America Data Center Outsourcing Market 2010 -2014 report has been prepared based on an in-depth analysis of the market with inputs from industry experts. The report focuses specifically on North America and the current Data Center Outsourcing market landscape and its growth prospects. The report also includes a discussion on the key vendors operating in this market.

Source:http://www.marketwatch.com/story/north-american-data-center-outsourcing-market-2010-2014-2011-09-15

HP Enterprise Services announced the inauguration of two new facilities in Bangalore, India. The new facilities will increase the capacity of the Best Shore hub in India and will offer infrastructure technology outsourcing (ITO) services to clients across the globe in a shared service delivery environment.

Earlier, HP had announced that it expects to add more than 500,000 square feet of real estate in FY11 through three new facilities in Bangalore and one in Chennai to deliver multiple services to clients across the globe. Additional facilities will be added before year end and will increase the hub’s capacity to deliver applications as well as infrastructure technology outsourcing services in India.

HP’s Best Shore hubs are designed to enhance the client experience by giving them access to technical expertise and tailored solutions to meet their unique requirements. The hubs also help reduce delivery complexity by providing multiple services from a single location and support rising client demand for low-cost, scalable services. They also integrate with other delivery centers to create a global sourcing model that is balanced, flexible and best-in-class.

“Global sourcing has the potential to not only support short term, tactical goals of cost savings, but also long term advantages of increased competitiveness, efficiencies and above all, innovation,” said Prakash M S, director, Best Shore ITO India Center, HP. “At HP’s Best Shore ITO India Center, we are driving non-linear growth through automation and innovation.

This new facility will deliver next generation infrastructure services to our clients across the globe. Given HP’s leadership in this space, our employees in India get the opportunity to move up the value chain and deliver high-end infrastructure engineering and architect roles as well.”

HP has additional delivery centers worldwide that are critical to its overall sourcing model, providing specific skills, languages and time zones that clients require. Other hub locations include Bulgaria, China, Costa Rica, Malaysia and the Philippines. These mature HP Best Shore locations operate in time zone-relevant countries and offer a significant employee base that can deliver highly scalable services to clients.

Source:http://www.indiainfoline.com/Markets/News/HP-announces-inauguration-of-two-new-facilities-in-Bangalore/5238486099

HP, arguably the World’s largest IT company, has opened two out of the four new IT outsourcing facilities it plans to add in India this year.

The two facilities, part of its plan to make India one of its six global hubs for services, will provide Infrastructure (technology) Outsourcing services for HP’s global clientbase, it said.

In all, it is set to inaugurate 4 new buildings in 2011 to house its burgeoning Indian IT workforce — three in Bangalore and one in Chennai — totalling a whopping 500,000 square feet.

It said it remained committed to meeting its expansion target for India.

HP, which was primarily a computer maker seven or eight years ago, burst on to the services market after it found its main competitor IBM make the transition profitably even as the hardware market became commoditized.

Despite acquiring the IT services firm EDS, HP is still estimated to have only around 200,000 services employees, or about half of what IBM has. The latter is estimated to have 25-30% of its workforce in India.

HP’s announcement at making India a “Best Shore Hub” — its market term for a services hub — was seen as an effort to similarly take advantage of the mature, cheap and abundant IT services talent base in the country.

Its other former-hardware-turned hybrid competitor, such as Dell too had announced an aggressive plan to make India its hub for services.

The annoucement has come barely two months after Microsoft unveiled a sprawling 154,000 square feet facility in Bangalore.

HP had announced that it will start recruiting talent to fill in the empty chairs as well.

IT is one of India’s biggest sources of employment — both direct and indirect, with millions of engineers drawing their livelihood from the business.

Source:http://rtn.asia/1000_hp-opens-two-sprawling-outsourcing-centres-bangalore-expansion-plan-track

The specifics of Hewlett-Packard’s planned shift away from hardware remain unclear, and opinions about the company’s stronger focus on enterprise software and services have run the gamut from “corporate suicide” to “it’s about time.”

What does this iteration of HP’s strategic future tell CIOs about its IT services business, and more importantly, what does it mean for HP’s outsourcing customers?

HP is clearly attempting to model itself after outsourcing powerhouse IBM, says Adam Strichman, founder of outsourcing consultancy Sanda Partners. He notes that Big Blue continues to bundle the hardware it no longer owns into its outsourcing deals.

“IBM heavily markets its services offerings around having ‘IBM centric’ hardware platforms (including Lenovo Thinkpads), retaining all the marketing benefits of hardware without actually having it,” says Strichman.

At the same time, if HP technically rids itself of its computer business, it could give customers who may be wary of an outsourcer that pushes its own hardware the impression that it is now vendor-agnositc, adds Strichman.

“This is HP’s ‘necessary correction’ in the industry, getting out of markets where it’s getting a hiding and focusing on the enterprise clients who want alternatives to IBM,” says Phil Fersht, founder of outsourcing analyst firm HfS Research.

Increased investment in softwaresuch as HP’s recently announced plans to purchase Autonomy for $10.2 billionmay or may not benefit HP’s outsourcing clients. “It really depends on the type of software upon which they focus,” says David Rutchik, partner with outsourcing consultancy Pace Harmon. “If they continue to build their enterprise capabilities in IT service management and related areas, then their focus should be very positive for enterprise IT outsourcing customers. If they start competing more directly in areas such as CRM and ERP, they may damage their strategic relationships with the SAPs of the world.”

HP’s CEO Leo Apotheker has said that the company is taking “bold, transformative steps…to drive creation of long-term shareholder value through a focus on fewer fronts, thereby improving its ability to execute, invest in innovation and drive a higher-margin business mix.”

But real transformation in the outsourcing industry requires more than simply shifting dollars from hardware to software. “Saying that HP is going to focus on software and services does not necessarily mean that the future of those areas becomes especially enhanced,” says Strichman. “It is a way to point the conversation away from the reality that the hardware business is going to move faster toward an undifferentiated commodity. It is all about marketing spin.”

Apotheker, who recently removed HP veteran Ann Livermore from her role as head of enterprise services and replaced her with John Visentin, formerly of IBM, “has a massive task ahead to restructure the business,” says Fersht. “They’ll need to take a close look at beefing up their consulting, service integration and offshore operations next.”

While Big Blue is clearly the target, HP faces formidable competition from offshore rivals with lower cost structures. “It’s one thing to go after IBM, but another to fend off the aggression of the rampant Indian IT services firms, such as Cognizant, Infosys, HCL, TCS, Wipro and the newly-merged iGate/Patni,” says Fersht.

HP owns a majority stake in Indian IT services provider MphasiS and could consider rolling it fully into its outsourcing business, says Rutchik.

“A smart acquisition or two to bolster its enterprise services presence, a well-executed management and business reorganization, a cohesive and clear marketing plan, and we may yet just see this company start to fulfill some of its potential,” says Fersht.

HP’s outsourcing customers, however, shouldn’t wait around to see if HP delivers. “They should insist on getting more visibility into future plans and a commitment that HP will execute upon them,” says Rutchik. He points out that earlier this year Apotheker indicated total commitment to its hardware business, and the company invested heavily in a tablet it has since scrapped.

“All of these are signs that the company is grasping to determine its future identity and ultimate focus,” adds Rutchik. “IT outsourcing customers, who are typically in multi-year agreements with a great deal of dependency on their provider for long-term success, need much greater comfort that this is not just another attempt to get HP’s growth and share price on an upward trajectory.”

Fersht agrees. “The time has come for smart outsourcing customers to get closer to the strategies and plans of their providers,” he says. “[For] an increasing majority of clients today, needs are getting more complex, and providers are being asked to take on more challenging tasks. Clients need to know what is under their provider’s hood and need to make sure they have the contractual terms that enable them to renegotiate their agreements in light of acquisitions that could directly impact their existing relationships.”

Source:http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/090711-it-outsourcing-what-hps-new-250547.html?hpg1=bn

The specifics of Hewlett-Packard’s planned shift away from hardware remain unclear, and opinions about the company’s stronger focus on enterprise software and services have run the gamut from “corporate suicide” to “it’s about time.”

What does this iteration of HP’s strategic future tell CIOs about its IT services business, and more importantly, what does it mean for HP’s outsourcing customers?

HP is clearly attempting to model itself after outsourcing powerhouse IBM, says Adam Strichman, founder of outsourcing consultancy Sanda Partners. He notes that Big Blue continues to bundle the hardware it no longer owns into its outsourcing deals.

“IBM heavily markets its services offerings around having ‘IBM centric’ hardware platforms (including Lenovo Thinkpads), retaining all the marketing benefits of hardware without actually having it,” says Strichman.

At the same time, if HP technically rids itself of its computer business, it could give customers who may be wary of an outsourcer that pushes its own hardware the impression that it is now vendor-agnositc, adds Strichman.

“This is HP’s ‘necessary correction’ in the industry, getting out of markets where it’s getting a hiding and focusing on the enterprise clients who want alternatives to IBM,” says Phil Fersht, founder of outsourcing analyst firm HfS Research.

Increased investment in softwaresuch as HP’s recently announced plans to purchase Autonomy for $10.2 billionmay or may not benefit HP’s outsourcing clients. “It really depends on the type of software upon which they focus,” says David Rutchik, partner with outsourcing consultancy Pace Harmon. “If they continue to build their enterprise capabilities in IT service management and related areas, then their focus should be very positive for enterprise IT outsourcing customers. If they start competing more directly in areas such as CRM and ERP, they may damage their strategic relationships with the SAPs of the world.”

HP’s CEO Leo Apotheker has said that the company is taking “bold, transformative steps…to drive creation of long-term shareholder value through a focus on fewer fronts, thereby improving its ability to execute, invest in innovation and drive a higher-margin business mix.”

But real transformation in the outsourcing industry requires more than simply shifting dollars from hardware to software. “Saying that HP is going to focus on software and services does not necessarily mean that the future of those areas becomes especially enhanced,” says Strichman. “It is a way to point the conversation away from the reality that the hardware business is going to move faster toward an undifferentiated commodity. It is all about marketing spin.”

Apotheker, who recently removed HP veteran Ann Livermore from her role as head of enterprise services and replaced her with John Visentin, formerly of IBM, “has a massive task ahead to restructure the business,” says Fersht. “They’ll need to take a close look at beefing up their consulting, service integration and offshore operations next.”

While Big Blue is clearly the target, HP faces formidable competition from offshore rivals with lower cost structures. “It’s one thing to go after IBM, but another to fend off the aggression of the rampant Indian IT services firms, such as Cognizant, Infosys, HCL, TCS, Wipro and the newly-merged iGate/Patni,” says Fersht.

HP owns a majority stake in Indian IT services provider MphasiS and could consider rolling it fully into its outsourcing business, says Rutchik.

“A smart acquisition or two to bolster its enterprise services presence, a well-executed management and business reorganization, a cohesive and clear marketing plan, and we may yet just see this company start to fulfill some of its potential,” says Fersht.

HP’s outsourcing customers, however, shouldn’t wait around to see if HP delivers. “They should insist on getting more visibility into future plans and a commitment that HP will execute upon them,” says Rutchik. He points out that earlier this year Apotheker indicated total commitment to its hardware business, and the company invested heavily in a tablet it has since scrapped.

“All of these are signs that the company is grasping to determine its future identity and ultimate focus,” adds Rutchik. “IT outsourcing customers, who are typically in multi-year agreements with a great deal of dependency on their provider for long-term success, need much greater comfort that this is not just another attempt to get HP’s growth and share price on an upward trajectory.”

Fersht agrees. “The time has come for smart outsourcing customers to get closer to the strategies and plans of their providers,” he says. “[For] an increasing majority of clients today, needs are getting more complex, and providers are being asked to take on more challenging tasks. Clients need to know what is under their provider’s hood and need to make sure they have the contractual terms that enable them to renegotiate their agreements in light of acquisitions that could directly impact their existing relationships.”

Source:http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/090711-it-outsourcing-what-hps-new-250547.html?hpg1=bn

IBM announces two acquisitions, while spat between Oracle and H-P continues.
Hewlett-Packard Co.’s aggressive push into the high-end corporate tech market has been called a smart move, but the company’s bold dream faces two big would-be spoilers: International Business Machines Corp. and Oracle Corp.

This was underscored by developments this week.

On Tuesday, Oracle, the software giant that morphed from H-P’s close partner into its bitter competitor, escalated its legal war with the Palo Alto, Calif., company by filing a cross-complaint in their dispute over the Itanium platform.

Then IBM, which many see as the corporate behemoth H-P is trying to emulate, announced two acquisitions in a row this week.

Both companies IBM has agreed to buy–Cambridge, U.K.-based i2 and Toronto-based Algorithmics–are focused on data analytics, business software geared to helping companies analyze and make useful the enormous amounts of data they collect.

“Analytics is definitely one of the big applications that’s emerging for enterprises,” Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu said in an interview.”Companies have lots of information and they need a way to manipulate it and monetize it, to help them make better decisions. It’s very software intensive.”

Two weeks ago, H-P made its own big move into analytics when it said it was buying British software maker Autonomy Corp. for $10 billion.

The acquisition is seen as a step toward H-P’s grand ambition: to build up enough software muscle to attract big corporate customers and win lucrative IT contracts in which the game is not just about helping corporate customers cut costs, but also grow their businesses.

“Most of [H-P's] services work is about integration and outsourcing and keeping stuff running,” said Gartner analyst Martin Reynolds.”It’s not about transforming the way you do business–which is the way IBM would go.”

H-P has sent a strong signal that that is where it wants to go.

In fact, it unveiled the Autonomy deal the day it also stunned Wall Street by saying that it is considering spinning off its personal-computer business, effectively getting out of the consumer market.

Autonomy is particularly strong in the area of processing unstructured data, which Gartner’s Reynolds describes as covering a range of mostly random information from “every e-mail to every lunch order” that companies collect and hope to monetize.

“It looks like a very brave move to get into that market,” he said.

An H-P spokeswoman said in an email that the company is “inventing the next-generation information platform to empower enterprises to leverage all information through a natural, search-based interface.”

Pushing deeper into enterprise software also plays into the strengths of H-P Chief Executive Leo Apotheker, former CEO of SAP AG. “As an executive who has spent most of my career primarily in software, this is a world I know well,” Apotheker told analysts.

But it is also a world in which IBM and Oracle have established pretty formidable beachheads.

Both have been buying up players in enterprise software. Together with this week’s acquisitions, for example, IBM has spent $14 billion to gobble up about two dozen firms in data analytics alone over roughly the past five years, according to the company.

“What we see H-P doing today, IBM has been doing for many years,” said IBM business development director Gordon Burnes.

An IBM spokesman also noted in an email that despite a number of acquisitions since Apotheker took over, H-P “has yet to use software as a strategic growth play for the company.”

Wu of Sterne Agee said H-P “doesn’t have the brand yet” in analytics. Oracle is also “trying to get some traction” in data analytics, he added, but the Redwood City, Calif., company has one advantage,”the most widely-deployed” database product.

At war with Oracle
Oracle had been H-P’s major database partner, but that partnership is effectively dead. In fact, the two companies are now at war.

This was underscored by the escalation this week of the legal dispute that erupted when H-P accused Oracle of breach of contract for dropping its support for Intel Corp.’s Itanium chip platform, which is critical for H-P’s high-end server products.

Oracle fired back, accusing H-P of duping it into signing an agreement related to a dispute over the software company’s hiring of former H-P CEO Mark Hurd, who is now Oracle’s co-president. As part of the settlement, the two companies reaffirmed their partnership, which H-P argues means Oracle had no right to drop Itanium.

In a strongly worded cross-complaint filed in a California state court, Oracle said H-P “concealed” that it was about to hire Ray Lane as its new chairman, and Apotheker as its new CEO, two executives that “H-P knew Oracle distrusted so completely–and justifiably–that ‘partnership’ would be impossible.”

Oracle has been a bitter rival of SAP, while Lane was a former Oracle president who left the company after reported clashes with CEO Larry Ellison.

In a statement earlier this week, H-P said Oracle “is relying on invented excuses to cover up its blatant disregard for its legal obligations.”

Given the confusion over H-P’s new direction, the disputes could only make it harder for the company to establish a bigger presence in higher-end corporate IT markets.

Gary Beach, publisher emeritus of CIO Magazine, which is geared to chief information officers, portrayed H-P as facing a dilemma.

“CIOs currently doing business with H-P will remain loyal to H-P in the coming 12 to 18 months, though CIOs will have more leverage on pricing until H-P rights the ship,” he said.”CIOs considering to begin a business relationship with H-P might delay that decision.”

In fact, a Wall Street Journal report on Friday said some of H-P’s corporate customers are getting nervous.

ISI Group analyst Abhey Lamba said the legal showdown could serve as an “overhang” on H-P’s high-margin business critical server products. In fact, in its last earnings call, H-P said the dispute with Oracle hurt sales for that business segment.

Beyond the court battle, however, H-P also has to worry about Oracle’s own effort to strengthen its hardware portfolio, underscored by its purchase of server maker Sun Microsystems.

“Oracle is working on an integrated stack of hardware and software,” Lamba said.”That would be a tough one for H-P to replicate. If that were to take off, H-P will have to worry about a new competitive dimension.”

The current competitive landscape, dominated by established rivals such as IBM and Oracle, is worrisome enough for H-P.

“I think Oracle has got a war room going,” Beach of CIO Magazine quipped.

“Hurd knows where all the bodies are buried,” he added, referring to the ex-H-P chief who is now one of Ellison’s top lieutenants. “IBM would be a bit more diplomatic, but they, too, know where things are.”

Source:http://www.totaltele.com/view.aspx?ID=467439&G=5&C=4&Page=0

Hewlett-Packard (HP) has added four new facilities in India, three in Bangalore and one in Chennai, a reflection of its increasing focus on enterprise services. The world’s largest IT company had announced last month that it would spinoff its PC business, a move that showed that HP, like IBM, wanted to concentrate on software and services that come with higher margins.

Ludger Rohlmann, vice-president for Best Shore ITO (infrastructure technology outsourcing ) in HP, who was in Bangalore recently, said the company is expanding rapidly in India. “The new facilities will enable HP to add about 5,000 people,” he said. HP does not provide a break-up of its employee strength by geography, but it is estimated that it has about 30,000 people in India.

The enterprise services business unit was recently elevated to report directly to the CEO, an indication of its growing strategic importance. Earlier it was part of a larger unit that included hardware.

Source:http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-09-01/india-business/29953386_1_hp-india-enterprise-services-business-ludger-rohlmann

HP has announced Wärtsilä Corporation of Finland, a leading power solutions provider to the global marine and energy markets, has signed a three-year outsourcing services agreement with two one-year extension options. HP will deliver information technology services to help Wärtsilä become even more productive servicing their customers in the 70 countries where it operates.

“Our customers depend on us to power the ships that sail the world’s seas and power plants that light up our world, a feat requiring tremendous operational innovation and efficiency,” said Esa Kivineva, chief information officer, Wärtsilä. “HP helps us remain on top of technology developments with an infrastructure that gives our team the flexibility they need to serve customers and sustain cost-effective growth.”

HP will continue providing a full scope of technology infrastructure outsourcing services enabled by the HP Best Shore global delivery model. Best Shore combines HP’s technology portfolio with global delivery expertise to give clients greater flexibility and cost efficiencies while minimizing risk.

Wärtsilä will continue to benefit from Data Center Services, which HP will deliver from HP data centers and customer’s global sites. HP will provide Server Management Services and monitoring from HP Best Shore delivery centers in Bangalore, India as well as Storage and Backup and Restore Services to ensure high availability of IT services and continuous reliable operations. HP will also provide Network Management Services to remotely manage and monitor the company’s LAN/WAN environment from the HP Best Shore delivery center in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

In addition, HP will continue delivering Workplace Services for all of the company’s computing devices such as desktop and notebook PCs, handheld devices and printers. Wärtsilä will use HP Service Desk Services, Onsite Support Services and remote Desktop Management Services from HP Best Shore delivery centers in Bangalore, India.

Source:http://www.sourcingfocus.com/site/newsitem/3704/

Recent moves by Hewlett-Packard, CISCO and Motorola to establish stronger bases in Egypt have the outsourcing community in an optimistic fit. Adel Danish, the head of Xceed, one of Cairo’s leading call centers, believes the recent developments will help continue to push Egypt to the forefront of international investment options.

“We are definitely keeping pace, even after the troubles earlier this year with the protests,” he said. “Outsourcing is a key institution for Egypt and through our concerted efforts, it is obvious that companies see it the same way.”

All three companies have signed agreements with either ITIDA – a government information technology operator and regulator – or the ministry of communications to develop their companies reach into Egypt and the region. For analysts, it is a sign that the Egyptian economy appears to be rebounding nicely.

“It is a positive step in the right direction. Now the key is to keep it going forward,” said Reda Omran, a Cairo-based IT executive.

Yasser ElKady, ITIDA’s CEO said in a press release that “this MoU is a clear testament to our commitment to support all segments of the IT industry in Egypt. While our endeavours in positioning Egypt as one of the key outsourcing destinations have yielded significant results, we are keen on extending all the necessary support to the Egyptian hardware companies and we are positive that this training, along with other initiatives will have considerable impact.”

Hewlett-Packard (HP), the world’s largest technology company, and Egypt’s Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to provide world-class training to Egyptian hardware companies and increase their competitive advantages. The MoU aims to assist Egyptian companies in training to help grow their businesses, impart key skills to employees and in the wider talent pool, and increase their footprint in local and regional markets.

Source:http://bikyamasr.com/wordpress/?p=34813

Hewlett-Packard (HP), one of the world’s largest technology company and Egypt’s Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to provide world-class training for Egyptian hardware companies and increase their competitive advantage.

The MoU aims to assist Egyptian companies to impart key skills to employees and increase their footprint in local and regional markets.

Adel Danish,head of Xceed, a contact centre based in Cairo believes the recent developments will help continue to push Egypt to the forefront of international investment options.

“We are definitely keeping pace, even after the troubles earlier this year with the protests. Outsourcing is a key institution for Egypt and through our concerted efforts, it is obvious that companies see it the same way,” says Danish.

All three companies have signed agreements with either ITIDA – a government information technology operator and regulator or the ministry of communications to develop their companies reach into Egypt and the region. For analysts, it is a sign that the Egyptian economy appears to be rebounding well.

“This MoU is a clear testament to our commitment to support all segments of the IT industry in Egypt. While our endeavours in positioning Egypt as one of the key outsourcing destinations have yielded significant results, we are keen on extending all the necessary support to the Egyptian hardware companies and we are positive that this training, along with other initiatives will have considerable impact”, says Yasser ElKady, ITIDA CEO.

Source:http://www.itnewsafrica.com/2011/06/hp-supports-egypt-it-skills/

Recent Investment and Commitments From HP, Cisco and Motorola Reinforce Strength of Egypt’s ICT Sector
Hewlett-Packard (HP) and ITIDA sign MoU providing world-class training to Egyptian hardware companies
Cisco invests $10million to seed sustainable job creation and economic growth in Egypt
Motorola expands regional operations in Egypt

Egypt continues to prove its appeal as a leading outsourcing destination, with substantial commitments from multinationals pledging continued support as the country moves forward.
Hewlett-Packard (HP), the world’s largest technology company, and Egypt’s Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to provide world-class training to Egyptian hardware companies and increase their competitive advantages. The MoU aims to assist Egyptian companies in training to help grow their businesses, impart key skills to employees and in the wider talent pool, and increase their footprint in local and regional markets.
Commenting on the MoU, Yasser ElKady, ITIDA CEO said: “This MoU is a clear testament to our commitment to support all segments of the IT industry in Egypt. While our endeavours in positioning Egypt as one of the key outsourcing destinations have yielded significant results, we are keen on extending all the necessary support to the Egyptian hardware companies and we are positive that this training, along with other initiatives will have considerable impact.”
The MoU signed between ITIDA and HP was accompanied by news of a major new investment from Cisco. Cisco has announced that it will invest $10 million to seed a sustainable model of job creation and economic development in Egypt. The venture capital investment targets high-potential small businesses that provide innovative products and services.
Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Dr. Magued Osman said: “The Egyptian government recognizes that properly functioning telecoms and IT infrastructure is essential for attracting foreign investment and enabling the private sector and government to function more efficiently. The government’s aim is for Egypt to become an IT hub, providing IT-assisted teleservices to foreign companies. This $10 million investment will help us promote economic development, leading to enhanced opportunities for the people of Egypt.”
John Chambers, Chairman and CEO of Cisco, said: “We believe there is tremendous growth potential in Egypt’s ICT sector and are committed to supporting Egypt’s – as well as MENA’s – long-term goals. It is therefore appropriate for Cisco to make this investment into the Egyptian economy and its people.”
Olaf Krahmer, President of Cisco Egypt, continued: “Job creation and the chance for greater opportunities are of clear importance to Egyptian citizens. Through this investment, Cisco is demonstrating its commitment to assisting the people of Egypt to begin to invest in meeting these needs,”

A further development was the announcement by Motorola Solutions Inc. to open a key office for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in Cairo, Egypt. Strategic expansion in Egypt will help Motorola deliver its leading mission-critical communication products and services directly to Egyptian customers but also to many other customers outside of the country as the Cairo base of operations becomes established as the newest Regional Engineering Centre.
Overall, Egypt remains a major IT destination, with many multinationals including Google, IBM and Valeo having established a significant presence in Egypt over the last year.

Source:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/egypt-secures-major-new-tie-ups-and-investment-from-hpcisco-and-motorola-123739854.html

Wipro Technologies, Global Information Technology, Consulting and Outsourcing business of Wipro Limited (NYSE: WIT), in partnership with Citrix and Microsoft, launched Wipro Desktop as a Service (WDaaS), a desktop virtualization solution that delivers desktops, applications and data as an on-demand service. The solution is based on HP technology. The announcement was made at Citrix Synergy™ 2011 in San Francisco, the conference where virtual computing takes center stage. WDaaS was announced earlier in October 2010 and is available in the market now.

WDaaS is an integrated service offering which uses the market-leading desktop virtualization technologies of Citrix and Microsoft and provides efficient plug and play desktop and application virtualization capabilities. The solution is built on HP Converged Infrastructure. For enterprises that want to deploy desktop virtualization on-premises, WDaaS will offer a pre-configured appliance (hardware, software and services) that can be managed remotely by Wipro. This solution lowers deployment cost and reduces the implementation time by half as compared to traditional system integration approach. For enterprises seeking a hosted or cloud offering, Wipro delivers desktops and applications as a service from a dedicated private cloud environment in its own datacenters or by leveraging cloud infrastructure providers. These delivery models lower the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and move the desktop cost from a CAPEX to an OPEX model.

Dominique Raviart, Research Director, IT Outsourcing, NelsonHall, a leading analyst and advisory firm, says, “The development of the Wipro Desktop as a Service offering is a good example of the growing take-up of cloud desktops in the market. Interest is growing across the world and especially in the U.S. and U.K., typically initially triggered by server cloud computing and virtualization overall.”

The WDaaS solution is based on Citrix XenDesktop®, the Microsoft VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) Premium Suite and Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V) software components. It leverages Citrix FlexCast™ delivery technology which enables IT to optimize the performance, security and cost of virtual desktops, hosted or local, for any type of user, including task workers, mobile workers, power users and contractors. It uses Citrix HDX™ technology that assures each user gets a rich, high definition experience over any network on any device, including PCs, Macs, thin clients, tablets and smartphones. The solution relies on Hyper-V for running the Windows desktop in the guest virtual machines and incorporates Microsoft’s comprehensive VDI infrastructure and management software, including Windows Server 2008 R2 Remote Desktop Services, App-V as well as System Center management solutions so customers can virtualize, manage and deliver applications and desktops. WDaaS will be offered on the HP Converged Infrastructure solution. The hosted and cloud delivery models leverage Rackspace infrastructure.

WDaaS includes a hosted session virtualization platform that can be efficiently used to build industry-specific cloud solutions. Utilizing this platform, Wipro has created an ‘Application access over the Internet’ solution to address the needs of higher education. Students and faculty will have a convenient way to access applications anywhere, anytime from any device instead of visiting the traditional computer lab on campus. For the industry specific solutions, Wipro will work with its channel partners to address the Small and Medium Business (SMB) market segment.

Wipro conducted a primary research with colleges in the US to analyze the benefits of desktop virtualization in the higher education and compare traditional implementation approach through in-house system integration with a cloud computing delivery model. The findings of this research are published in a White Paper and clearly demonstrate reduction of implementation time from 18 month in a traditional approach to 3 months with cloud computing.

“Traditionally, desktop virtualization has been complex to implement,” said Neeraj Jaitley, Vice President, Cloud Infrastructure Solutions, Wipro Technologies. “Customers are now looking for providers with end to end technical and operational capabilities who can deliver scalable and highly reliable infrastructure, leveraging hybrid cloud architecture as appropriate. Wipro Desktop as a Service solution benefits from focused technology R&D investments and supports ‘as a Service’ delivery models. Our engagement methodology can reduce the technology deployment cycle by half.”

“Desktop virtualization is a key priority for today’s CIOs as they look to transform their desktops to become more agile, flexible and secure. Citrix XenDesktop supports this desktop change with market leading technologies that turn desktops, applications and data into an on-demand service that can be accessed from any user on any device,” said Dave Jones, Vice President of System Integrator Development at Citrix. “WDaaS is a perfect example of how customers can transform their workplace and quickly realize the benefits of desktop virtualization through an integrated hardware, software and services offering of a major global System Integrator.”

“Wipro, Citrix and Microsoft are breaking down the barriers that impede desktop and application virtualization,” said Mike Schutz, Senior Director, Server and Cloud Division, Microsoft Corp. “Our work together helps provide a broad range of solutions for desktop and application delivery that enable users to stay connected and productive anywhere, anytime.”

“To accelerate growth and produce higher-quality products and services, organizations must change the way they use technology,” said Paul Miller, Vice President, Solutions and Strategic Alliances, Enterprise Servers, Storage and Networking, HP. “HP Converged Infrastructure gives organizations using WDaaS solution an integrated, scalable and automated IT platform for virtualization, to drive out cost and provide the foundation for agile service delivery.”

Odus Wittenburg, VP of Enterprise Solutions at Rackspace said, “Our collaboration with Wipro is focused on creating end to end service offerings leveraging capabilities from both companies. Rackspace offers private and public cloud environments or a hybrid combination using RackConnect® that is highly optimized for hosted desktop virtualization.”

R Srinivasan, General Manager, Wipro IT said, “Desktop and application virtualization enables transformation of the end user computing in an enterprise. Wipro has many different user groups that can take advantage of this technology. The ROI can be achieved through improved worker utilization, enhanced productivity, distributed workforce, optimized office space allocation and reduced desktop management overhead. We are actively exploring new approaches like Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). WDaaS offers us a convenient way to take advantage of this technology without the need to go through a complete learning curve on another new technology with our own staff; it allows us to take advantage of the investments done by the core team.”

Wipro is a global systems integrator, delivering industry-specific business solutions. For WDaaS, Wipro is actively leveraging its strategic relationships with Microsoft, Citrix and HP to create an integrated and productized service offering and deliver increased value to its customers.

Source:http://www.businesswireindia.com/PressRelease.asp?b2mid=26999

HP will appoint a new head for its burgeoning enterprise services division after chief executive Leo Apotheker found the company was too reliant on IT outsourcing.

Until now, HP enterprise services, bolstered by dozens of EDS-legacy outsourcing deals, has sat under the company’s US$54 billion Enterprise Business umbrella, led by executive vice president Ann Livermore.

Apotheker told investors today that Livermore would remain the interim leader of services until HP had recruited an executive vice president to oversee it separately, according to a Barrons report.

Besides a 5 per cent decline in PC revenues, year-on-year services revenue grew 2 per cent while the unit’s 15.2 per cent operating margin fell 0.6 percent compared to last year, according to HP’s second quarter 2011 results.

The unit suffered because HP was too focused on short-term margins, according to Apotheker.

“I have concluded that we had a solid strategy for services, but we didn’t invest in the path to support the strategy,” he said, according to the report.

“Instead, HP focused on maximising its shorter-term margins. We have over-executed operationally and under-invested strategically.

“As a result, our short-term margin expectations have been too high. This has impacted our ability to create sustainable growth for the long term.”

HP would address this by targetting higher value work such as application modernisation, migrations to the cloud, business analytics and mobility, he said.
The reliance on IT infrastructure outsourcing could be a difficult to break. HP’s US$3.7 billion IT infrastructure outsourcing revenue for the quarter made up the bulk of its US$8.9 billion services income, which overshadowed technology services, application services and business process outsourcing by at least US$1 billion a piece.

Apotheker’s comments regarding a leadership change for services confirmed earlier reports that HP would split up the Enterprise Business monolith as part of a major strategic overhaul.

HP cut its outlook for full-year profit, excluding items, to “at least US$5.00 per share” from previous outlook of “US$5.20 to US$5.28″ and cut full year revenue outlook from US$130 billion to US$131.5 billion to new forecast of US$129 to US$130 billion, according to Reuters.

Source:http://www.itnews.com.au/News/257787,hp-too-reliant-on-it-outsourcing.aspx

Hewlett-Packard has become the new outsourcing provider of IT services to San Diego County under a $700 million contract.

The county has been one of the pioneers of IT outsourcing in the state and local market ever since it turned over its information systems infrastructure to Computer Sciences Corp. in 1999. Northrop Grumman took over in 2007 when it won the contract’s recompete.

Now, it’s HP Enterprise Services’ turn.

HP has teamed with AT&T to provide IT and telecommunications services, including data center hosting, desktop support, networks, applications and cross-functional services. One of the county’s goals for the latest iteration of outsourcing is to improve citizen-centric services, the company said.

Another goal is increasing mobility capabilities so workers can collaborate and share data wherever they are working. It is part of the county’s e-government and green IT initiatives, HP said.

Government Technology reported that HP is taking over sooner than expected because Northrop Grumman transferred ownership of its contract to HP ahead of the 2013 deadline.

Source:http://washingtontechnology.com/articles/2011/05/10/hp-san-diego-outsourcing-win.aspx

Printer ink firm Hewlett-Packard (HP) announced it has been chosen by the county of San Diego, California, to manage a $700million (£426.3 million) Information Technology (IT) Outsourcing contract.

The company’s mission is to provide the area with sustainable, efficient and effective IT provisions to better serve residents and employees.

HP’s new contract will make it the prime provider for IT and telecommunications services within San Diego.

Dennis Stolkey, senior vice president and general manager of US public sector at HP Enterprise Services, said: “Local governments work hard to provide taxpayers with timely and convenient delivery of government services while being faced with significant pressures from aging technology.”

He added the new contract will help improve business transparency, accuracy and productivity with the area.

Recently, the printer firm launched the HP Strategic IT Advisory Services scheme that has been designed to help chief information officers ensure their computer technology is sufficient to allow their firms to grow and become profitable.

Source:http://www.internet-ink.co.uk/ink-news/HP/Printer-Firm-HP-Wins-IT-Outsourcing-Contract-For-The-County-Of-San-Diego-9875

Seven-year contract will see Hewlett-Packard deliver a “private cloud and utility-based computing environment” to British Gas’ parent company
Centrica, the UK-based utility company that trades under the name British Gas, has signed a £250 million ($400 million), seven-year IT outsourcing contract with Hewlett-Packard.

Under the deal, HP will provide utility computing services to Centrica. These will not be based on HP’s recently launched ECS Compute public cloud offering, but on its previously available HP Utility Services instead, although it is “likely” to migrate to ECS Compute in future, the company says. HP will also support a hosted “private cloud” environment for Centrica.

HP said that the services will be hosted in two of its UK data centres, but also that Centrica would receive support from its delivery centres in India, Malaysia and the Philippines.

Last week, Centrica announced annual profits of £1.9 billion, more than double its 2009 figure. This profit jump came as revenues grew by just 2% to £22.4 billion.
In 2010, trade union GMB criticised what it described as the “profit-at-all-costs culture at British Gas”, and alleged that Centrica was planning to axe as many as 4,000 jobs.

Centrica vigourously denied these claims, and last week CEO Sam Laidlaw insisted that the company’s profit would be reinvested in the UK’s energy infrastructure. “The government wants energy companies to fund £200 billion of investment over the next decade to ensure secure, clean energy for the future,” he wrote for the Daily Telegraph. “We can only raise this enormous sum of money if we are profitable.”

Centrica has had mixed success with outsourcing in the past. In 2008, it sued IT services supplier Accenture for £182 million over a billing system that it says was delayed, fraught with glitches, lost the company customers and damaged the British Gas brand. That legal dispute is still ongoing.

HP’s Enterprise Services business shrank by 2% in its most recent financial quarter, but the company has recently signed a number of large outsourcing deals, many of which have been in the utilities sector. These include a $400 million contract with BP, and a $1.4 billion deal with E.ON.

Source:http://www.information-age.com/channels/it-services/news/1605473/uk-gas-giant-centrica-signs-250m-cloud-deal-with-hp.thtml