EU Wants Privacy Standards in Data Sharing with US

The European Union wants to agree broad privacy rules with the United States to safeguard personal data shared in pursuit of criminals and terrorism suspects, the EU's rights chief said.

The executive European Commission presented plans on Wednesday to negotiate a deal with Washington that would set standards for giving crime investigators access to information about EU citizens such as tax and health records or phone bills.

Such an agreement could make it easier for the 27-country EU to negotiate specific data transfers to the United States, and prevent messy battles such as an ongoing debate in Brussels over access to EU citizens' bank data.

Cooperation on information is vital for anti-terror investigators because Europe lacks the technology to use some data, particularly bank records, in cross-border probes.

But access to information has become increasingly controversial in Europe because of concerns over privacy, notably in Germany.

"The two continents are putting down values on which they can build all technical agreements in the future," Viviane Reding, the EU's Commissioner for justice and fundamental rights said in an interview with Reuters.

"All bilateral agreements would be based on this basic agreement."

Underscoring controversy in Europe, the European Parliament in February vetoed a temporary deal to allow terror investigators from the United States access to Europeans' bank details, raising concerns in Washington over security.

Europe outlines plan to boost broadband by 2020

All European households will have broadband speeds of 30Mbps (megabits per second) by 2020, the European Union has pledged.

It also promised universal broadband coverage by 2013 while getting half of Europeans using public services and shopping online by 2015.It is part of the European Union's five year plan for the digital economy.

The raft of measure were announced by newly-appointed digital affairs commissioner Neelie Kroes.

The EU's digital agenda will see over 30 laws introduced over the next three years.

Laying out her plans, Ms Kroes said that the EU invested 40% less in technology than the US.

It meant that nearly a third of Europeans had never used the internet and only 1% had access to fibre-based high-speed networks.

In order to catch up, EU governments must double their annual spending on research and development to 11bn euros (£9.4bn) by 2020, she said.

She also plans to improve technology standards, eliminate regulatory barriers, encourage electronic payments and simplify digital copyright management and licensing.

In November the European Parliament voted in favour of a major overhaul of telecoms law.

It aimed to harmonise the way mobile broadband is rolled out across Europe as well as establishing internet access as a fundamental right.

TPI says UK no longer biggest outsourcing market outside US

For the first time, France, Germany and Sweden all spent more on outsourcing than the UK in the first quarter of this year as contract renegotiations surged, according to TPI.

The UK spent less than €800m, 50% less than last year, compared with more than €1bn in Germany and €2bn in France as a result of a massive SNCF deal.

TPI said one mega-deal in Sweden meant the country doubled its total value of outsourcing contracts. It would not name the customer, but Swedish engineering company ABB recently signed a big deal with IBM.

This was on the back of a 7% increase in the total Emea market to €7bn.

TPI's Index measures commercial outsourcing contracts valued at €20m or more.


Contract restructuring accounted for a massive 40% of the total value of deals in the Emea region, which was significantly more than the previous record of 24% set in 2006.

New scope in deals in Europe was down by 22% and the number of contracts awarded in the region also declined by 24%.

"Even though this is only one quarter's results, it does appear that the key countries contributing to Europe's outsourcing performance are shifting to the less mature continental markets," said Duncan Aitchison, president at TPI Emea

IT Outsourcing is set to growth in the second half of 2010

According to the industry experts IT outsourcing looks set to grow in popularity throughout the rest of the year.

This is the suggestion of a new report by IDC European Software and Services, which has predicted European IT services expenditure will grow in second half of 2010 and further in 2011, with IT outsourcing being the main driver behind this dynamic.

With stabilized IT budgets and easing of economic conditions businesses will begin to invest in IT project again. The study revealed the industry could record a growth rate of 2.2 per cent next year.

Laura Converso, research manager at IDC European Software and Services, said: "Demand for projects and outsourcing will pick up towards the second half of 2010."

She added that the need for IT services will be most prominent this year in the UK, Germany and the Nordic countries.

Patrick O’Brien, senior analyst at IT industry analyst Ovum, recently predicted a strong year for outsourcing IT as the economy emerges from recession.

CIO Nearshore trip in april

For more info
http://events.linkedin.com/CIO-nearshore-trip/pub/269658

Government Sector Outsourcing: Transforming Public Service with Outsourced IT Services

Government organizations are not too different from large corporate firms, in that, both have cost savings and operational efficiency as core objectives in carrying out their functions and mandates. It is with these objectives that governments are increasing their outsourcing and simultaneously its share of IT/ITeS spends... Read More

Why Near shore - the mitigation of business risks

During last years we have seen in practice that the nearshore outsourcing model provided a viable alternative between the desire to optimize application development and maintenance costs from one side and to reduce uncertainties and downstream risks of sending those activities to offshore providers from another. Geographical and cultural proximity, no time-zone difference, linguistic and scholar affinity and availability of strong IT skills inherent to nearshore locations allowed to develop intimate business relationships that translated into better communication and project management. While proximity and no visa hassles made it easier for project management to be more present in the project. As a result companies engaged in nearshore outsourcing model in many cases saw increased project management efficiency, better quality of output and less extra work.

From other side escalating uncertainties in traditional offshore locations, increasing costs and attrition levels combined with increased focus on vulnerability management and safety of corporate data have irreversibly changed customer delivery preferences to nearshore and sameshore options allowing those geographically closed destinations to profit from nearshoring advantages in their specific clusters based around clients in North America, Europe and Asia. According to recent surveys of global corporate executives, the top locations to operate with lowest downstream risks in 2009 were Central and Eastern Europe as well as Latin America, which are significant nearshoring destinations for US and West European customers respectively.

According to Black Box Research report uncertainties in offshore locations continue to escalate thereby strengthening focus on vulnerability management. Having service centers Nearshore and Sameshore will be a major client priority in outsourcing for next several years as clients will prefer to keep their data, process resources and account closer to where the business actually is.

Farshoring, nearshoring, outsourcing

Het Nederlandse bedrijf Exact (software ontwikkelaar voor CRM, ERP en HRM toepassingen), bestaat dit jaar 25 jaar. In de loop der tijd zijn de producten van Exact uitgegroeid tot behoorlijk kennisintensieve producten die niet zomaar door een willekeurige ontwikkelaar zijn aan te passen aan de nieuwste eisen van de markt. Om als bedrijf overeind te blijven is innovatie cruciaal. Interessant is het dus om te weten hoe een bedrijf als Exact, dat inmiddels vestigingen heeft in 40 landen, dat doet. Lees meer

Detachering op afstand

Paul Schuyt;
Inmiddels ben ik 22 jaar werkzaam in de ict-industrie en ondanks alle goede bedoelingen is Nederland nog steeds een detacheringsland. In mijn jonge jaren, zo’n vijftien jaar geleden, sprak ik als accountmanager al met klanten over het outsourcen van applicatiebeheer en het aangaan van een resultaatverplichting bij bouwtrajecten. Smalend werd in die tijd al gesproken over ‘uurtje/factuurtje’, of wat netter ‘time and material’. Het leek alsof de ict-industrie niets anders wilde en de klantorganisatie niet anders kon.

In de jaren negentig zijn de Anglo-Saksische landen ons voorgegaan bij het outsourcen van ict en het neerleggen van een resultaatverplichting bij de ict-leveranciers. Alleen in Nederland zijn we nog niet veel verder gekomen dan het grootschalig uitbesteden van het beheer van infrastructuren. Op het gebied van applicatieontwikkeling en -beheer wordt nog steeds aarzelend gekeken naar uitbesteding en wordt er regelmatig verslag gedaan van het feit dat uitbestedingen, zeker in samenhang met offshore, niet vanzelfsprekend een succes zijn.

Read more: http://www.computable.nl/artikel/ict_topics/outsourcing/3238447/1276946/detachering-op-afstand.html#ixzz0eNGlJS9E

Ten tips from outsourcing experts and practitioners on how to save money on external consultants with do-it-yourself outsourcing.

Sure, you could hire a big, expensive outsourcing consulting firm to guide you step-by-step through the IT services procurement process. They've got experience, off-the-rack SLAs and contractual provisions, and enough templates and processes to fill a large conference room. But not everyone can or will pay $300-plus an hour for outsourcing handholding anymore.

The good news is that many IT organizations are capable of handling much of the process in-house. And such do-it-yourself outsourcing can pay off in ways beyond the bottom line, like a more flexible contract or a stronger relationship with the IT service provider. Read more

Oost-Europa, een lonkend alternatief

Ondanks de huidige economische recessie wordt over het algemeen aangenomen dat in Nederland een structureel tekort is aan goed opgeleide ict’ers. Tevens wordt aangenomen dat dit tekort zich niet oplost en alleen maar groter wordt. Er zijn ongeveer 250.000 ict’ers werkzaam in Nederland en bij een groei van 3 à 4 procent is er een jaarlijkse behoefte aan een toename van circa vijfduizend ict’ers. Dit aantal staat nog los van de compensatie van de uitstroom van ict’ers uit de arbeidsmarkt.

Read more: http://www.computable.nl/artikel/ict_topics/outsourcing/3148598/1276946/oosteuropa-een-lonkend-alternatief.html#ixzz0WYxSfVJU

Westpac's Kelly says mega outsourcing trend is shifting

Westpac CEO Gail Kelly has broadly hinted that the bank is unlikely to renew its decade-long IT outsourcing deal with IBM, as banks move away from all-in-one mega deals to more tactical best-of-breed outsourcing arrangements.

Impression of Serbia

Are there differences between nearshore versus offshore outsourcing?

The advantages of outsourcing software development to low cost countries are noticed by the market. But is there a difference between outsourcing software development to an offshore (far distance) country (outsourcing to far distance countries) then to a nearshore (relatively close) country?

According to some definitions is offshore a ‘business activity that is complex and risky because it involves working with a foreign, distant organization’ (www.wikipedia.org). In contrast to nearshore that is ‘understood to mean the business has reduced complexity and risk’. It is clear that in general the risk and complexity are greater between Western Europe countries and an offshore country like India due to geographical, political, historical and cultural differences than between a nearshore country like Serbia. This all comes down to communication between the business partners and especially the level of understanding of each other’s written, verbal and non-verbal communication.

In common practice you see that outsourcing software development to offshore countries requires quite heavily formal governance and management processes to mitigate the communication complexity and risk. Often the outsourcing party has setup, even for relative smaller software development projects, a significant team to manage, control and communicate with the offshore partner.

On the other side of the spectrum you see that outsourcing software development to nearshore countries requires much less stringent governance and management processes due to fact that communication is less complex and risky. Beside less governance and management, the physical distance between Western Europe and a nearshore country is closer and therefore easier to travel in case communication problems requires attention.

Therefore, the differences between nearshore and offshore outsourcing of software development are significant, mainly to mitigate complexity and risk of poor communication. Nearshore is, although slightly more expensive, a better choise for outsourcing of software development.

Nederlandse software om trots op te zijn

Software is eigenlijk het centrale zenuwstelsel van de ict-industrie. Het zorgt voor de besturing van de ict-infrastructuur en van automatiseringssystemen en voor de werking van ontelbaar veel producten en diensten in alle mogelijke onderdelen van de economie. Het heeft ervoor gezorgd dat de manier waarop we leven, werken, studeren en recreëren spectaculair is veranderd. Het is de drijfveer van maatschappelijke verandering en verhoogde productiviteit en het is de motor van innovatie.

Read more: http://www.computable.nl/artikel/ict_topics/ictbranche/3007623/2379258/nederlandse-software-om-trots-op-te-zijn.html#ixzz0MjV5o9Jk

IT gaining business influence

UK boards are investing in IT innovation to drive their business out of recession.
Investment has dropped by only 7% in the past year, a European-wide survey of over 1,300 IT executives by recruitment firm Harvey Nash found.

"IT leaders must be proactive, aggressive cost-cutters and strategic implementers," said John Whiting.
He said it was encouraging that organisations are turning to the IT department to innovate their way to recovery.

Some 88% of UK respondents to the survey said they had achieved success by collaborating with other organisations to improve their innovation processes.
Achieving greater results on tighter budgets is likely to see the IT function rewarded with the strategic influence they desire, he said.

10 Ways to Save Money on Your Current Outsourcing Contract IT executives in outsourcing relationships need to cut IT services costs now.

1. Enlist your service provider to identify cost-cutting opportunities.
2. Negotiate gold, silver and bronze service levels.
3. Reap the benefits of standardization and process maturity.
4. Increase the scope of the contract or extend the terms of the agreement.
5. Verify provider performance.
6. Opt for more offshore/nearshore delivery.
7. Turn down the volume.
8. Renegotiate some or all of the contract.
9. Exercise your right to audit, benchmark or walk away.
10. Get rid of bodyshopping

Top Three Outsourcing Initiatives for 2009

1. Reviewing Deal Structures
Most current outsourcing deals and models are outdated and ineffective because they are people-based and not demand-based. Companies have a need for resources to do the work that is required; they negotiate a rate with a vendor; and determine contract durations. The contracts primarily follow a simple model: People x Rates x Duration.
2. Portfolio Rationalization
Portfolio rationalization has been one of the biggest trends in the application outsourcing market over the past two to three years. The industry has matured to a point where CIOs can now review their portfolio of outsourcing partners and set themselves up with better mixes of companies, countries and models. This is not an easy task, since every company is different and there is no cookie-cutter approach to finding the right mix of outsourcing partners.
3. Cost-Cutting
The combination of hard economic times and the maturity of the outsourcing industry will force and enable CIOs to find new ways of cost-cutting. It is important to realize that there is no silver bullet on cost-cutting and it is equally important to understand that the biggest levers for cost-cutting are not the rates themselves.

How can CIOs cut costs with their outsourcing initiatives?
Offshore to Onsite Ratios—this is by far the biggest lever in reducing the total cost of ownership of an application or suite of applications. The more roles that can be moved offshore, the more money can be saved. The industry benchmark is 80:20 (80 percent of resources offshore and 20 percent onsite), but most companies flounder with "fat" models and have too many people onsite. With mature processes and governance, there is no reason 90:10 cannot be the new benchmark. Plus, outsourcing companies make more money on offshore resources, so they will be eager to help CIOs reduce costs with better offshore-to-onsite ratios.
Time-to-Market—if products and applications can be delivered faster, companies will reap the benefits sooner. To do this, IT organizations must work with their outsourcing partners on better ways to execute projects, leverage reusable components and foster knowledge-sharing.
Quality Improvements—if products and applications can be delivered with fewer bugs and defects there will be less time and money spent on re-works. IT organizations must leverage the knowledge, experience, tools and processes of outsourcing companies.
Productivity Improvements—productivity is married-at-the-hip to the outsourcing model being deployed between the company and the vendor. If companies embrace the demand-based models depicted earlier, real productivity gains will follow because outsourcing companies will be forced to increase productivity to control costs.

The role of procurement in IT

IBM attempts to make offshoring easier

Last week IBM issued a patent application for an offshore outsourcing methodology that is aimed to help companies minimize the risks associated with sending work overseas.

This application describes a computer-driven approach that values both the quantitative and qualitative attributes of a “global resource sourcing strategy”. The methodology considers language skills and morale of offshore staff as well as a list of hard numbers of setting up offshore operations.

In fact, IBM intends to reduce concerns associated with offshore operations to a mathematic model, and to create an unified application that can be a reusable sourcing template for identifying and analyzing global resources.

The company recently submitted the application to the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, it couldn’t be better time for “Big Blue” as in the same day the company announced that it is eliminating more jobs in its North American operations.

Alliance@IBM has said it expects up to 5,000 workers to be laid off. The union associates it with a plan by IBM to move more jobs overseas.

In turn, IBM claims that its methodology allows decision-makers to conveniently trade off one or more qualitatively defined levels between one or more factors in terms of quantifiable costs. It is also explains why its so important to look at a broad range of variables when making global sourcing decisions. By simply looking at wages and material costs, "the organization may indirectly increase other costs such as those associated with poorer quality workers and/or materials," IBM said. That could include loss of customers, lower productivity, increased product returns and higher worker attrition, the company said, adding that a company "needs to consider both direct and indirect costs associated with its resources."

This isn't the first time when IBM has filed for a patent related to an offshoring methodology. An application filed in 2007 described a software-driven approach "for identifying at least a portion of a human-resource within an organization for outsourcing."