Nokia Siemens Networks announced that it will acquire IRIS Telecom, a Turkish telecommunications firm.

Financial details were not disclosed. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2011.

In a statement, Nokia Siemens Networks’ Geert Buijk, regional head of services, said the acquisition is part of the company’s expansion strategy in Turkey, Eastern Europe and Central Asia. IRIS has offices in Belarus and Uzbekistan. The company has done projects in several North African countries, as well as the Middle East and Central Asia. Buijk said network data traffic is rapidly growing in those regions as access to broadband expands.

Mete Gokdemir, chief executive officer of IRIS Telecom, said carriers are increasingly outsourcing their network management, as Internet Protocol networks become more complex.

Nokia Siemens and IRIS have a long history, said Bobirol Yamali, business development director at IRIS. “NSN was our customer both in Turkey and elsewhere in the region,” he said. “Nokia wanted to be stronger in [network planning and operations] and they asked us to join forces.”

NSN will continue to use the IRIS Telecom name. IRIS will be operationally independent with its head office in Istanbul, Turkey. Mete Gokdemir will continue in his role as CEO and Johan Bruce, currently chairman of IRIS Telecom’s Board, will be nominated executive director of the company. After closing the deal, NSN said it will honor all existing commitments made by IRIS Telecom, including those to other equipment vendors.

Source:http://uk.ibtimes.com/articles/71921/20101014/nokia-siemens-acquires-turkish-network-services-company.htm

The Cabinet Office has inked a government-wide savings agreement with Siemens IT Solutions and Services.

Siemens is the fifth supplier to sign a memorandum of understanding with the government, following Accenture, Logica, Atos Origin and Capgemini.

Siemens’ work with the public sector includes a £2 billion outsourcing agreement with broadcaster the BBC, which sold its own technology wing five years ago. Siemens provides it with all its IT, technology and transmission services. Siemens’ other government contracts include an IT and process overhaul at National Savings & Investments, and computerisation of MOT testing at the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency.

The news of Siemens’ agreement comes ahead of the publication today of a government-commissioned report by Topshop boss Sir Philip Green, in which government spending – including across IT suppliers and goods – is expected to be branded as wasteful. It is understood that the Cabinet Office will stick to plans of insisting it signs off any government IT project costing over £1 million.

Siemens declined to give exact details of the company’s agreement with the government, saying only in a statement that it had signed a “long term, strategic” agreement. There would be “short term operational savings that will translate into additional future benefit”, it said, but declined to explain whether or not this meant short term cost cuts in return for more work in the long run.

The savings from different suppliers would be targeted in a number of ways, said Tola Sargeant, research director at analyst house TechMarketView. While the individual agreements were not public, she said, “some will concern the extension of contract timescales for the same work”, with some “rescoping” of other work. The government would likely “take out some elements” of existing contracts with various suppliers, she added.

Previous agreements with a number of suppliers have included other steps such as cutting administration, as well as the government buying as a single customer instead of as different departments.

Source:http://www.cio.co.uk/news/3243823/cabinet-office-in-governement-savings-agreement-with-siemens/

Nokia Siemens Networks has begun rolling out a programme to revamp its global order management operations.

The communications services company has sealed a deal with Capgemini subsidiary Capgemini Outsourcing Services to provide order management services, including preparation for delivery, customer order management, distribution and customer invoicing.

Under the terms of the agreement all customer-facing activities will remain with Nokia Siemens Networks.

This engagement will see close to 400 employees from Nokia Siemens Networks joining Capgemini BPO Supply Chain Services teams from several countries including Brazil, China, Finland, Germany and India. Additionally, more than 300 contractors to Nokia Siemens Networks will continue their work under Capgemini’s management.

“We believe that this relationship will considerably improve our order management and delivery performance through shorter lead times, better quality and increased efficiency, while Nokia Siemens Networks will focus more intensely on the customer facing aspects of order management”, said Johannes Giloth, global head of Supply Chain, Nokia Siemens Networks.

Capgemini revealed that it will use its BPOpen technology platform and its Rightshore network to standardise the processes across Nokia Siemens Networks’ worldwide operations.

“As clients face an increasingly global business environment, growing supply chain costs, and a larger ecosystem of partners and customers, a streamlined and sustainable supply chain will be key to growth”, said Hubert Giraud, head of Capgemini BPO.

Source:http://www.procurementleaders.com/news/latestnews/3813-nokia-siemens-networks/

The entry into the procurement sector by Siemens IT Solutions and Services in March with Siemens Global Procurement raised a few eyebrows. But according to director of portfolio and strategy for Siemens Ray Crowe, it has long been part of the company culture to take commercial advantage of the areas of expertise it acquires while running its own business.

“Because of the depth and breadth of what we do, we are able to take what we use internally and commercialise it for clients and since we have a compelling procurement organisation, we have been able to offer it to external clients,” he says.

“Most clients have a procurement organisation but we can help in a couple of areas that typically go unmanaged such as one-time or minor purchases. We don’t necessarily replace their existing procurement service, we compliment it and drive savings.”

Typically, most companies manage their big spend through an internal or external procurement organisation but there is a significant number of indirect or one-off purchases that often gets overlooked. Crowe agrees that procurement is not an obvious fit with Siemens’ IT solution because it is part of the back-end system but Siemens’ purchasing power is huge – it is a $90bn business. “We cover all aspects of internal procurement: software, hardware, buildings and facilities. We have tremendous buying power,” he says.

The company has outsourced its expertise in other areas, too. “We are one of the largest users of SAP and Microsoft and we supply SAP and Microsoft services to clients, host their exchange, help them adopt these functions, design it, help them build it, host and maintain it for them,” says Crowe.

Providing an outsourced procurement service started with existing clients, where Siemens had an established relationship and the client company had regular minor purchases it was not managing. Siemens offered to take those over and manage them. “We provide a full portfolio of procurement technologies, consulting and outsourcing and we can create a relationship with their [incumbent] procurement provider,” says Crowe.

Siemens Global Procurement Services has sourced items ranging from car parts to castles. “One company was doing an event and needed a castle in Great Britain for a month. It was not something they typically purchased, so they came to us,” he says. “We were able to locate what they wanted and at a significantly lower price than they would have paid. We take a split of the savings. It was a good opportunity for the client and they had little risk upfront.

“For us, it is about adding value to the client experience and adding to our portfolio of services. It allows us to have a proven solution – we can demonstrate that it works. There is no better way of testing it than using it ourselves and that concept is important for the customer, they are not tasting the first oyster,” he says.

Now, Siemens is beginning to approaching companies outside its client portfolio. “At the moment, we are looking to drive the business based on opportunity. Our existing clients know the excellence of the service we bring to them but we are introducing it to other companies as well. We can put a good value proposition to them.”

Source:http://www.procurementleaders.com/news/latestnews/1211-siemens-outsourcing-space/

Siemens has announced the cull of 4,200 jobs worldwide from its IT business.

The company said that 2,000 of the job cuts will be in Germany, but did not provide a breakdown for the UK. The cuts will be made by the autumn of 2011.
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A spokesperson for the company said that around 3,500 workers are employed in the Siemens IT Solutions and Services (SIS) division in the UK. The company employs around 35,000 people in its IT business worldwide.

In a statement, Siemens said it would “exhaust all possibilities for voluntary measures” when making the job cuts.

Source:http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/031910-siemens-announces-4200-job.html?hpg1=bn

Global manufacturer Siemens AG, which plies its trade across a diverse array of industries, from manufacturing technology, to healthcare IT, to energy products, today announced that by 2012 it would invest €500 million in its IT Solutions and Services (SIS) business, which will be realigned to deliver IT expertise to complement Siemens’ business divisions.

As part of the restructuring, Siemens will cut 4,200 jobs at the SIS unit, out of a workforce of 35,000. The revamped organization, which will become a wholly owned, independent entity, will comprise two units rather than the current seven, with IT Solutions and IT Outsourcing surviving the realignment.

The solutions division will offer customers systems integration expertise as well as tailored IT solutions that complement Siemens’ three main business units of Energy, Healthcare, and Industry. Currently, SIS earns 40% of its revenue from this type of work, with the balance of sales coming from its work managing customers’ IT infrastructures in an outsourcing capacity.

“The IT division is closely cooperating with our sectors, which means it’s a very attractive growth area,” said Siemens CFO Joe Kaeser in a press conference Thursday. Kaeser called SIS an “important backbone of Siemens’ IT,” and offered examples of the synergies he sees between the restructured SIS and the larger company.

SIS, for instance, will complement the factory-to-enterprise integration expertise within the Industry division, helping to create for customers what Kaeser called the real-time factory. This integration work between factory floor technology and business systems will help produce “‘the next major step in industrial productivity increases,” he said. Specifically, the SIS unit would help manufacturers link PLM and factory floor technology with, for example, SAP ERP systems.

“Managing these two worlds, integrating them … is a very attractive proposition for an IT company that knows the industrial sector,” he said.

In the Energy sector, the reconstituted SIS division would help implement smart grid technology, while in the Healthcare sector, Kaeser said, “knowledge-based medicine will not be possible without IT.”

The effort to bolster Siemens’ IT consulting chops will take some time to implement, officials said. The investment of a half-billion euros will be targeted, at least in part, at developing SIS staff expertise. Christian Oecking, acting CEO of the IT business, said the company will hire and redistribute to SIS individuals who boast a combined competency in IT consulting and Siemens’ business sectors.

Even as they revealed plans to add staff with specific consulting expertise, Siemens officials said they need to trim the workforce at the outset. With sales down 13% in 2009, said Chief Human Resources Officer Siegfried Russwurm, the SIS business “has to be adapted to the lower business volume.”

Kaeser said the recent global recession caught the IT consulting business in its tentacles, and he conceded that competitor IT consultants fared better than SIS did during the downturn. He said Siemens needs to catch up, and that “the market environment for SIS could brighten up by 2011 at latest.”

Of the headcount reductions, 2,000 are expected to come from Siemens’ home country of Germany. Officials said they informed the country’s powerful works councils of the plan today, and will work with the labor group on the details of the reduction in force. The €500 million figure does not include restructuring costs, which for now are indeterminate, officials said.

“Inclusive of restructuring costs, this will create losses,” Kaeser admitted. But he also said the restructuring will create cost efficiencies in the triple-digit millions of euros.

Part of the capital investment could be directed at acquisitions of “certain small software companies that can be links between IT and software competence in [Siemens’] industries,” Kaeser said.

The SIS unit will become a discrete business as a wholly owned subsidiary at latest on Oct. 1, the beginning of Siemens’ next fiscal year. Asked by reporters today whether SIS will eventually become a public company, Kaeser said this is an option, but such discussions are “still for the future.”

Source:http://www.managingautomation.com/maonline/news/read/Siemens_Reorganizes_IT_Consulting_Division_Cuts_Jobs_33338

Industrial conglomerate Siemens AG said Thursday it will cut 4,200 jobs world-wide by end-2011 at its information-technology unit SIS, as part of a restructuring.

About 2,000 of the cuts will be in Germany, and as many as possible will be made through mutual …

Source:http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704207504575129270910935694.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection

Siemens IT Solutions and Services, Inc., a leading provider of IT consulting and outsourcing services, today announced it has been positioned by Gartner, Inc. in the niche players quadrant in the 2009 “Magic Quadrant for SAP Outsourcing, North America”.

We are pleased to be included in this prestigious analysis,” said Joe Kovach, Vice-President of Professional Services, for Siemens IT Solutions & Services, Inc. “Siemens is an SAP Gold Partner, the largest global user of SAP and one of the largest SAP outsourcing vendors in the world. We bring access to Siemens’ global network for unmatched industry know-how and leading-edge technology innovation to bear in implementing SAP solutions for our clients. We believe being positioned in the ‘Niche Players’ quadrant of the Gartner research illustrates the focus we bring to our core verticals and reflects wonderfully well on our 6,000 employees throughout North America. We look forward to sustaining this progress and making even greater inroads in the robust SAP market.”

In this market leading report, Gartner analysts evaluated technology providers in two primary focus areas — Ability to Execute and Completeness of Vision. For Ability to Execute, Gartner evaluated criteria such as customer experience, sales execution and pricing, financial viability and operational excellence. For Completeness of Vision, Gartner evaluated the vendors using criteria such as market understanding, industry strategy, sales strategy and innovation.

“We focus on our core areas of expertise — energy, industry, services and healthcare — areas in which we are highly differentiated. We know what we’re good at and we are good in those areas. We are one of only a handful of globally certified SAP Gold Partners in Application Management, Implementation Services and Application Hosting. That high level of achievement, combined with our industry focus, works to the benefit of our customers. Building upon the strong Siemens engineering heritage, we bring high-quality methodologies and accreditations, and a strong focus on process excellence, to all of our customers. We feel that this report,” said Kovach, “reflects our client focus.”

Siemens IT Solutions & Services provides innovative products and outstanding client service to clients throughout the IT industry. Global reach, quality personnel, and continual innovation provide clients with a stable and innovative partner in a challenging economic climate.

Source:http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Siemens-IT-Solutions-Services-prnews-3771252278.html?x=0

Fewer organizations expect to outsource IT application development in the coming year, due to concerns about cost and time overruns and a wish to keep initial application work in-house, according to recent research. But more firms, such as Nokia Siemens Networks B.V., are looking to outsource IT application management and maintenance as a cost-saving measure.

Telecom giant Nokia Siemens Networks recently signed a three-year IT application management services agreement with consulting and outsourcing firm Accenture PLC. Under the terms of the agreement, Accenture will manage applications related to Nokia’s human resources and finance and control functions, as well as Nokia’s corporate-wide tools and platforms. IT application management around these functions was previously outsourced among a number of vendors.

Nokia Siemens CIO Manfred Immizer said that the outsourced management services include maintenance, monitoring and enhancements for Nokia Siemens’ systems where appropriate. Outsourcing these applications in bulk provides an economy of scale such that “the cost reduction compared to the baseline we have today is very significant,” he said. (Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.)

The need for consolidating and outsourcing IT application management stems from the merger of Nokia’s Network Business Group and Siemens AG’s COM division two years ago. The combined company operates in approximately 200 countries worldwide and has about 60,000 employees.

“These were two big companies with very different cultures and governance models merging, which requires a heavy integration process,” Immizer said.

“From the past, we inherited a lot of different systems [developed and managed] by different companies,” he said. “Bringing them together from two worlds, we needed to make a clean cut.”

Outsourcing application development less popular now.

Nokia Siemens Networks’ deal is part of a larger swing toward outsourcing IT application management rather than outsourcing application development.

Application development still remains the most popular form of IT outsourcing, according to a recent survey on IT outsourcing by Computer Economics, which earlier this year interviewed more than 200 U.S. and Canadian companies to find out where their outsourcing dollars were going. But that usage has fallen almost 40% since 2007, when 52% of companies surveyed were outsourcing some or all of their application development, compared with 33% today.

Some of that drop can be attributed to companies delaying projects due to the recession and/or hiring contractors for in-house project work instead of outsourcing. In “The State of Enterprise IT Services: 2009,” a recent study from Forrester Research Inc., 38% of 659 firms said they will either outsource custom application design and development or hire a consultant to do that work in the next year.

“I think a lot of project work, which is the development stuff, is what’s dried up,” said John McCarthy, a Forrester analyst and co-author of the study. “I think [companies] are outsourcing maintenance and bringing people in to do some of the in-house developing — they’re doing it as more of a project, and running it themselves.”

McCarthy predicted that companies will increasingly turn to managed services as they replace older systems with more cost-effective solutions.

“By the latter half of next year, organizations [will say] it’s not in their best interests to be trying to run all of these old systems anymore,” McCarthy said. “They’re going to have to have the courage to do some rationalization, cut some [systems] and then outsource the maintenance of those [remaining services] in a managed services environment.”

The Forrester study also reports that 38% of surveyed firms outsourced maintenance of packaged applications in the past year, an increase of 11 percentage points from the year before.

“Going forward, I think next year is going to be a tougher year for organizations,” McCarthy said. “There’s still going to be pressure on IT budgets, but the business also has to go to Wall Street … and show growth.”

Source : http://www.sourcingmag.com/offsite.asp?A=Fr&Url=http://searchcio.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid182_gci1375330,00.html#

Siemens IT Solutions and Services has won a six-year outsourcing contract from Germany-based publishing group Ernst Klett to provide IT infrastructure operation services. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Under the contract, Siemens will operate IT services for the service desk, networks, desktop services, and take over server services. It will operate the IT infrastructure of Klett Systeme und Service and will analyze existing processes, software and IT networks to generate an appropriate implementation program.

Additionally, Siemens’ outsourcing services for Klett Verlag includes server services, desktop services, LAN/WAN services and operation of the IT service desk. It will implement business processes and service tools. The system management will provide server monitoring
, reporting and alarm services.

The deal follows the company’s five-year E19m ($27m) outsourcing contract in August from industrial services provider Man Ferrostaal to provide IT infrastructure services. In July, the Siemens consortium won a seven-year E100m ($141.36m) contract from Eurocontrol to provide IT services, operational management and service desk, as well as management of networks, servers, storage systems and business applications.

Source: http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/2588854/

Ernst Klett AG will outsource parts of its IT infrastructure operation to Siemens IT Solutions and Services.

Beginning January 2009, Siemens will operate IT services for the service desk, networks, desktop services and take over server services for one of the largest publishers in Germany. The contract has a term of six years and a volume in the low tens of millions of euros.

Ernst Klett AG publishes some 3000 new titles and 50 magazines annually. This places high demands on the company’s information technology. The contract with Siemens encompasses operation of the IT infrastructure of Klett Systeme und Service GmbH. Siemens will analyze existing processes, software and IT networks and generate an appropriate implementation program.

Outsourcing for Klett Verlag includes server services, desktop services, LAN/WAN services and operation of the IT service desk. For optimized user support from the service desk, Siemens will implement business processes and service tools. The system management will provide server monitoring, reporting and alarm services. The goal of both companies is to establish a long time and strategic collaboration.