It’s time to take a fresh look at existing and future outsourcing contracts, and It’s time for outsourcing relationships to transcend the normal client-vendor dynamic.

Over the last year, industry commentators, consultants, lawyers and academics, from over 40 organisations have discussed and analysed the future relationships between outsource buyers and suppliers. The paper, launched in the last week, states that the economic events of the last two years have not only dramatically changed the outsourcing landscape, but the future for outsourcing relationships also.

Click this link to read “A New Decade: A New Outsourcing Challenge,”

Technorati Tags: Outsourcing

As reported last week in Silicon.com “Taxman lifts lid on deal that’s saving HMRC £1bn,” the HMRC are planning to find more than £1bn worth of savings out of one of the UK’s largest outsourcing contracts. The contract is worth a significant £750m per year and provides the department with nearly all of its IT services and supplies comprising: 8,000 servers, 80,000 desktop PCs and 7,500 laptops. Their aim is to reduce costs and to simplify and streamline its core systems by reducing the number of computer systems used within the department from more than 600 to just 13.

But do the HMRC give enough consideration to their Outsource/Supplier relationship? As it turns out the answer is yes, they do. Mark Hall, who is overseeing the project, recognises that the HMRC and their suppliers must “transcend the normal client-vendor dynamic,” and that collaboration, “has to be about joint outcomes.” Furthermore that partnership “has to be about teams that are aligned and it has to be about both organisations taking the share of risk and reward.”

This thinking echoes the Intellect paper being launched shortly, “A new Decade, A new Outsourcing Challenge.” Individuals from over 40 organisations discussed and analysed the future relationships between outsource buyers and suppliers; they concludes that customers and suppliers need to have a shared and transparent understanding of their risk and reward issues and who is best placed to deal with them. A shift towards faster, less adversarial bidding processes that provides a forum for shared understanding through a genuine competitive dialogue are long overdue. The Outcome Based Agreements group will also be holding a roundtable shortly to assess the practicalities of OBA contracts in the development of a new way of working, underwritten by new procurement approaches focused on the delivery of business outcomes.

Please let us know if you’d like to attend either of these two events, full details are linked below.

Upcoming events:
A new Decade, A new Outsourcing Challenge - paper launch and industry discussion 12/10/10
Outcome Based Agreements: Achieving the outcome – roundtable discussion on the legal contracting implications of affectively implementing OBAs 13/10/10

Technorati Tags: outsource, Outsourcing

Whitehall Watch is roaming the corridors of power a few weeks earlier than is usual for the time of year. That is because MPs have had their summer holiday cut short to enable Parliament to return for two weeks before the Party conference season kicks off.

First up will be the Liberal Democrats who are having their conference in Liverpool. Usually a fairly modest and relaxed affair, this year’s conference promises to be their biggest yet. Many lobbyists and campaigners that have rarely been to Liberal Democrat conference will be making an appearance and trying to understand the party and its politicians better. This may well be a shock for both the politicians and the activists who are used to a more intimate atmosphere at their annual conference. The conference will be a crucial one for Nick Clegg in particular who has the difficult task of selling the coalition to his party all over again – particularly in the context of woefully poor poll ratings over the summer. Reports that Nick Clegg has directly told his ministers to ‘mingle’ with the troops to avoid the impression that being in government has gone to their heads speak to how vulnerable they feel.

A week later we’ll all be descending on Labour Conference in Manchester. The main event will be the announcement of the leadership election result which takes place on the first day. David Miliband has looked to be the favorite throughout the campaign but there are reports that – because of the AV system Labour use to elect their leaders – little brother Ed might just pip him to the post. In any case, the winner will dictate the atmosphere and direction of the rest of the conference and much of the reporting will be devoted to analysing the performance of the winner and the tensions and shifting powerbase within the party.

Finally, we’ll be with the Conservatives in Birmingham. There is no doubt that deep unpopularity is on the horizon for the government as they roll out their spending plans and – though the Lib Dems look set to suffer the most – there will be an awareness amongst activists of how that will play out in local elections. David Cameron and his ministerial team will have to convince the party to hold their nerve and equip activists with the messages they will need to take back to their constituencies.

There remains a section of MPs and activists that feel that they have paid a price for David Cameron’s “Big Society” campaign experiment – they may be in government but it is not on their own terms.

It seems that Westminster has only just got into its usual rhythm before everything stops for the summer recess next week. Those new MPs are just beginning to find their feet and learn the curious ways of Parliament. The Select Committees are almost all up and running and my inbox has been pinging regularly with details of new enquiries and evidence sessions. We have also seen dozens of new peers being appointed. Many of those peers will have been MPs or ministers before but most will not and will find the House of Lords a strange environment.

The new crop of MPs attracted a great deal of interest in the weeks very shortly after the election and their first few days in parliament were the subject of some considerable coverage. But now that the dust has settled a little on general election we’ve had a little more time observe the new intake at work and understand what makes them tick. It will be of little surprise that many of them are focussing on issues that directly affect their constituencies. Interest in rural broadband is especially apparent with flurry of Parliamentary Questions being asked on the subject. The MP for Penrith and the Border, Rory Stewart has made broadband one of his priority issues . He is not alone – many Conservatives that represent those large rural seats see broadband through this “rural lens”. It is a point of view that is reflected by the fact that Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has made the delivery of rural broadband a key plank of her department’s work programme.

It is also clear from examining some of the business backgrounds of the new intake that there are a number of MPs who should have entered Parliament with solid knowledge of the technology sector. To cite a couple of examples, Conservative James Morris has had a successful career as a small businessman specialising in software companies and Labour’s Chi Onwurah is the former Head of Telecoms Technology at Ofcom. They may still be in a minority but we can still welcome the addition of this expertise to the Commons and encourage them to help raise the quality of debate around technology issues.

Technorati Tags: government; parliament

There were no flags, no whistles and certainly no vuvuzelas at what turned out to be the second most important national event of the week – the Budget. Even if they were allowed in the public gallery of the House of Commons – I don’t think anyone really felt like celebrating. George Osborne termed it the “unavoidable budget” and we should be in no doubt that everyone will suffer. Over the last few weeks, Cameron and Osborne have skilfully talked up the size of the debt. Nick Clegg has also been out and about talking about the need for tough decision on public sector pay and pensions. There does seem to be a level of consensus about the need for radical action to deal with the public finances.
Perhaps he has just parted his hair differently but at Dispatch Box for his first Budget the Shadow Chancellor who was criticised for being too young and inexperienced seems to have grown a little in stature and gravitas over the last few weeks. Government seems to be good for George Osborne.
Overall, Intellect has welcomed the Chancellor’s commitment to the ideas in the Dyson Report. That was the report that the Tories commissioned James Dyson to write before the election, which put forward some strong ideas on how to foster innovation in the UK including focussing R&D tax credits on high tech businesses. There will be a further consultation on this later in the year so it is an issue that we will still need to keep pushing.
On capital allowances and, though the Chancellor announced a small reduction in the rates for capital allowances. Whilst this was better than many had expected, monitoring the situation to make sure that this does not penalise companies, like telecoms businesses, that are heavy investors in infrastructure and small and medium sized businesses that buy technology as capital expenditure.

The announcements on capital gains tax which extend the 10 per cent capital gains tax rate for entrepreneurs to the first £5m of lifetime gains may be good news for technology entrepreneurs but the higher rate could also deter investment in technology companies.

However, it is in the Public Sector that trepidation abounds. The announcement of a further £17 billion of savings, on top of what has already been announced, from departmental spending will undoubtedly be tough to meet. Once again, we have a top line figure and a little detail about exactly where the axe will fall. It simply isn’t true that the government’s belt tightening has started to bite, that will come with the Spending Review in October. Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Simon Hughes had already hinted that he is prepared to amend the budget. It is not at all clear whether he has the support of other Lib Dem backbenchers. Depending on whether Hughes is serious or just posturing, there could be serious trouble ahead for the Coalition Government in the autumn.

Technorati Tags: government; coalition; budget

Or very nearly at least. Approximately a month after taking office the coalition government is now carefully laying out their plans to cut public spending. David Cameron gave a speech earlier this week in which he hinted that the reality of the nation’s finances were even worse than he had asserted in opposition. It follows the announcement by George Osborne and David Laws of £6 billion of savings in government spending and ahead of the hotly anticipated emergency budget, Cameron’s speech was pitched to place a renewed urgency on action to cut the deficit. However, perhaps the most important function of the speech was to make an appeal to the public to accept the measures to cut spending as inevitable. For those of you that don’t have time to pour over the prime minister’s every word the predictable key messages were as follows:

- we’ve inherited a mess, and a big one
- we’ll have to make tough decisions – we understand they won’t be universally popular
- cutting spending is in the national interest and we all need to take action now.

It is hard not to read an extra ‘please don’t hate us’ plea into the speech. Cameron gave very little detail of what would actually be cut but he did mention big areas of spending like pay and pensions and benefits. Turning this into a national debate will be key to how the successfully the coalition manages to stick to its spending plans. Cameron also knows carrying the public along with him will be a tall order once those measures start to affect individuals.

In quick succession and with the budget date looming, the treasury has outlined a tight timetable for the secretaries of state to submit plans on how they intend to meet ‘a tough new set of criteria to deliver value for money.’ But they have also announced that they will embark on a period of external engagement between the government, the private sector, the general public, voluntary and charitable organisations and experts, in order to obtain the best ideas from those most involved in and affected by public services. It could be described as crowd sourcing the budget but how sensitively this process is carried out will be critical to formalising that ‘national debate.’ Much has been made of discussions between the prime minister and his Canadian counterpart who also embarked on some strict deficit cutting measures. The Canadians famously blew up an entire hospital as a symbol of their commitment to reduce public spending. Even with a comprehensive national debate, I would be very surprised if the coalition or indeed the general public in the UK have the stomach for such high profile gesture politics.

The next edition of Whitehall Watch will cover all the key announcements from the budget.

Technorati Tags: government coalition David Cameron speech finance George Osborne David Laws

Rather shockingly it was reported today that a printing error at HM Revenue & Customs has led to the private financial details of up to 50,000 people who claim tax credits being mistakenly sent out in the post.

The problem is that in the past, public sector procurement of Managed Print Services (MPS) has too often focused on procuring like-for-like without any challenge taking place as to whether what was bought previously was what was needed.

I’d hope the HMRC’s procurement process looked at a secure set up where only authorised documents could have been printed. This would significantly reduce the chance of any sensitive or confidential information being printed out unauthorised.

• The question the public should be asking the HMRC is: who was responsible for each element of the MPS including the strategy, policy creation, decision making and day to day operations?

• The question I’d ask the HMRC is: who was in charge of the governance? Arguably, the most important element in any project involving multiple parties is governance. Printing infrastructure can often grow organically without a single point of control so it is vital to define roles and responsibilities for support departments.

• Finally, the question the industry should be asking the HMRC is: do they realise that not only will effective MPS make it unlikely that this awful error happens again, but that it can: reduce costs; increase the efficiency and sustainability of their printing; mitigate other risks (e.g. business continuity); and result in greater user satisfaction?

The Intellect Managed Print group are in the process of finishing a paper on the Procurement and Governance of MPS. I’ll make sure the HMRC are the first one on my list to receive a copy. In the mean time they can learn more by reading the Intellect paper “Managed Print Services: A Business Tool for the Information Age”.

Technorati Tags: Intellect Managed Print, managed print, printing

The government plans to direct Ofcom (the first it has ever done this) to implement the, glamorously titled, Wireless Spectrum Modernisation Programme. Through it, The Digital Dividend is about to become a reality, as analogue TV is switched off by the end of 2011. You, civil servants, parliamentarians and their researchers look on, slightly bemused, as those of us who live and breathe spectrum (it is thin air after all…) thrash out the GHz, the MHz, The LTE’s, The WiMax, the DVB T2’s, and all that go with them. All too often, the debate bypasses why these kinds of issues are crucial to Mr. Joe Voter, why real parliamentary engagement is so important and why UK Citizens need representation. Part of this process is making these issues understandable for those representatives.

So why is spectrum, and by implication the digital dividend, so important to your every day man, or woman, on the street? (more…)

Technorati Tags: 4G, Broadband, digital britain, Digital Dividend, Digital Economy Bill, Digital Switchover, NGA, Ofcom, Spectrum, Wireless, Wireless Spectrum Modernisation Programme

Despite what my colleagues may think, I really do make an effort to keep my desk clear. It’s becoming increasingly difficult. The government is simply producing so much paper on telecoms at the moment. There are no less than five meaty consultations, a select committee inquiry and, lets not forget, the mighty tome that is the Digital Britain report, (along with its little brother, the Digital Britain implementation plan), all stacked up and teetering over into my neighbours territory. I have added first and second draft responses. On Friday, the whole stack of paper fell on my foot. It hurt.

So is my bruised toe worth it? Or, more specifically, is all this frantic policy making actually producing the end results we hoped for? Well, from a legislative perspective, things are definitely moving along well. We are hearing reassuring noises that despite the upcoming general election, the digital economy bill is taking shape broadly as we hoped it would and there isn’t much appetite for playing around with it in parliament. The much hyped “broadband tax’”is likely to make it into the finance bill. An additional statutory duty for Ofcom (“to promote efficient investment”) is almost certainly on the way. If they can work out what “efficient” actually means, this can only be good. Although, DCMS seems to have got jealous and decided that it wants to add a duty for Ofcom as well, probably without consulting. Anything BIS can do DCMS can do better. Whitehall in action.

On the negative side, there appears to be, much to industries concern, clear momentum for ISPs to be required to cut off their customers for sharing files illegally. I have great respect for right-holders. In another life, perhaps I could have created some content worth possessing the rights to… But the fact remains that industry, or ISPs, are effectively being contracted out as a law enforcement agency. There is absolutely no direct benefit, or proposed recompense, for them under these proposals. Instead, they incur huge additional admin costs and may well lose revenue as well. Right holders share none of this burden. That is apart from the fact that the whole system is likely to be unenforceable and likely to be superseded by the Telecoms framework directive, which, dogged by infamous “Amendement 138″ controversy, is currently grinding its way through Brussels as we speak.

We also wonder where all the non-legislative (or partially legislative) proposals are going. Already, large elements of the Digital Britain spectrum modernisation programme are probably going to need to be looked at again. T-Mobile and Orange, unless the competition commission intervenes, are to merge. This means that Kip Meeks valuable work, which Mandleson recently got involved with and was near to completion, will most likely be delayed and revised. While the government hasn’t missed its target yet, the ‘arms length’ entity responsible for procuring the capabilities to deliver a 2Mb/s USC currently has no CEO and hasn’t been formally established. We hope that whoever is appointed will talk to industry in a language it understands. Not quite time to worry, but the way the procurement is run is crucial.

Then there are the Tories. We still don’t really know (apart from the short term point scoring we saw immediately post publication) where they stand. The vaunted Review of the Creative Industries appears no closer to publication. This could all be for nothing if they choose to take a different direction on all these issues. Apart from the fact that we are last starting to get some coherency and traction on these issues in Government, this would mean a new wodge of paper hitting my desk. And a visit from HR about health and safety and Intellects ‘clear desk’ policy. I think I will just blame the government. I normally do.

Technorati Tags: BIS, Broadband, DCMS, digital britain, filesharing, Ofcom, P2P, Spectrum

Yesterday, the FSB launched a new report urging the Government to transform post offices into small business hubs. A number of interesting ideas were put forward, including establishing a business desk at each Post Office with specially trained staff or offering meeting room facilities to start-ups and micro businesses.

I welcome the report and its call for action. A number of the points resonate with proposals Intellect put forward in its response to the Business and Enterprise Committee’s inquiry into the future of the PO network. For example, Intellect’s response suggested:
(more…)

Technorati Tags: Post offices