Items tagged with : UK
A new dawn for UK healthcare
Healthcare in the United Kingdom is provided by the government through its healthcare provider, the NHS (National Health Service). The NHS is one of t...
21 November 2011 | Articles, Finance & Accounting, HR, IT, Procurement, Functions Other, Europe, UK, All Columns,A perfect storm is coming for call centres
Today, call and contact centres are operated at high efficiency standards. That’s due to high costs in labour, brick and mortar and technology. We man...
08 March 2011 | Articles, Customer Service, North America / Caribbean, USA, Global, All Columns,A shift to the right?
The UK government is taking a close, hard look at how it does business. Its review reaches beyond savings strategies into fundamental questions about ...
08 March 2011 | Articles, Procurement, Europe, UK, All Columns,Alan Leaman
Alan Leaman OBE is Chief Executive of the Management Consultancies Association. From 1988-93, he was Head of Office for the Rt Hon Paddy Ashdown MP, r...
06 June 2011 | Columnists, Finance & Accounting, HR, IT, Procurement, Customer Service, Logistics, Legal, Functions Other, Europe, UK,Alliance Boots outsources pensions
Alliance Boots, the pharmaceutical vendor and parent company of UK High Street chemists Boots, is to transfer approximately £300m in pension liabiliti...
01 September 2010 | Articles, Finance & Accounting, Functions Other, Europe, UK, Global,An education...
I’ve often been sceptical of tall tales about conversations with London cabbies – they’re such an easy stereotype that I often get the feeling people ...
23 February 2012 | Articles, Europe, UK, Global, All Columns,Are we in the business of outsourcing, sourcing or services?
I recently started work with a new South African collaborator: he I are together helping a major ICT firm in Johannesburg review its established tra...
13 September 2010 | Articles, UK, South Africa, Global, All Columns,Aviva Plc
Our main activities are long-term savings, fund management and general insurance. We have worldwide sales of £45.1 billion and £380 billion of funds u...
01 September 2010 | Finance & Accounting, Directory, UK,Avoiding the car crash: cultural diversity in change management
You’re riding in a car driven by a close friend. He hits a pedestrian. You know he was going at 35 miles an hour in an area where the restriction is 2...
03 June 2011 | Articles, Finance & Accounting, HR, IT, Procurement, Customer Service, Logistics, Legal, Functions Other, Global, All Columns,Big Society: big trouble for public sector workers?
In recent weeks, we’ve seen the Prime Minister fiercely defending his Big Society project against criticisms that it is just a ‘cover’ for spending cu...
04 March 2011 | Articles, Europe, UK, Global, OLD ARTICLES, All Columns,Bribery, corruption and outsourcing responsibility
In the current economic environment the move towards outsourcing, particularly offshore, is unsurprisingly attractive. Suppliers, staff or distributor...
06 December 2011 | Articles, Legal, Europe, UK, Global, All Columns,Call Britannia
This article originally appeared in Outsource Magazine Issue #27 Spring 2012 It’s a crucial part of the UK economy – but like that economy, the cou...
05 April 2012 | Articles, IT, Customer Service, Functions Other, Europe, All Columns, UK,Cloud computing: what are you signing up to?
The benefits of cloud services are often cited. They’re low-cost. They’re scalable. They’re permanently state-of-the-art. However, at least with trad...
14 February 2011 | Articles, IT, Global, Europe, UK, North America / Caribbean, USA,Clouding your business with data protection issues? (Part 1)
In Part 1 of this article we provide an overview of some of the current data protection issues inherent within cloud computing and consider the data p...
01 February 2012 | Legal, IT, Articles, Europe, UK, Global, All Columns,Clouding your business with data protection issues? (Part 2)
In Part One of this article, we looked at current data protection issues inherent within cloud computing. Here, we look at the trend towards cloud usa...
16 February 2012 | Articles, IT, Legal, Europe, UK, Global, All Columns,Collaboration is the future
The last few years have brought with them a number of sizeable changes which change the way each of us work and live our lives. However, what few peop...
02 February 2011 | Articles, Europe, UK, Global, All Columns,Consultancy Captain
Alan Leaman is the CEO of the UK’s Management Consultancies Association (MCA). At a time when the relationship between consultancies and government is...
15 December 2010 | Articles, Europe, UK,Custom apps focus for UK ITO
A survey released this week shows that custom applications top the agenda for outsourcing amongst IT directors in the UK. The study, carried out by Va...
07 July 2010 | Articles, IT, UK, Regions, Europe, Spain,Delivering back-office savings in the UK public sector
Public sector organisations are being challenged by the coalition government "to cut senior officials’ pay and share back-office functions with o...
10 February 2011 | Articles, Europe, UK,Delivering public service through social enterprises: the next Big Idea?
The much anticipated and long overdue Public Services White Paper finally appeared towards the end of July. It left many people with decidedly mixed f...
17 August 2011 | Articles, Finance & Accounting, HR, IT, Procurement, Customer Service, Logistics, Legal, Functions Other, Europe, UK, All Columns,DHL secures British Gas tie-in
DHL Supply Chain has won a £17m+ ($25.3m+) contract to implement a national supply chain solution for energy giant British Gas, it was announced this ...
23 June 2010 | Articles, Logistics, Functions Other, Europe, UK,Diligenta secures £250m deals
Tata Consultancy Services’ (TCS) UK subsidiary Diligenta has won two contracts with a total value of £250m, the company announced this week. Unisys In...
01 September 2010 | Articles, Finance & Accounting, IT, Europe, UK,Don’t let clouded thinking make you forget the network
According to a recent study by the Cloud Industry Forum, nearly half of UK organisations are using some form of cloud computing, and almost all of the...
02 June 2011 | Articles, IT, Functions Other, Global, All Columns,Double dip: outsourcing opportunities, not obstacles?
The grim news of a GDP contraction in the fourth quarter of last year of 0.6% on revised figures just released by the Office of National Statistics ha...
04 March 2011 | Articles, UK, Global, All Columns,Driving In My Car
The company car in the UK is a very emotional subject, declares Zafar Currimbhoy, analyst with market research firm Datamonitor. He can say that again...
11 August 2004 | Articles, UK, Functions Other, Logistics,Everything old is new again
The "invisible hand of the market" is the term economists use to describe the self-regulating nature of the marketplace. The invisible hand ...
22 September 2011 | Articles, Finance & Accounting, HR, IT, Procurement, Customer Service, Logistics, Legal, Functions Other, Asia/Pacific, Australia, All Columns,Government ICT policy: throwing the baby out with the bath water?
As I suggested in last week’s blog, it seems as though the wind of change is blowing hard through public sector procurement processes at the moment – ...
14 April 2011 | All Columns, UK, Articles,Government shared services: how much longer?
In a previous article I compared the success of Tate Lyle’s launch of shared services in ten months with the ten-year gestation period for the Resear...
24 January 2012 | Articles, Functions Other, Europe, UK, All Columns,How do small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) best benefit from outsourcing?
The sector of “mid-sized businesses” (at the recent NOA Summit such organisations were defined as those with a turnover of up to £250M) is a major dri...
19 January 2011 | Articles, Europe, Germany, UK, Global, All Columns,Immigration cap – is it really business-friendly?
It’s been another busy week in the halls of power at Westminster, with the government’s decision to slash the number of migrant workers allowed to com...
08 December 2010 | Articles, Europe, UK, All Columns,Is offshoring the answer?
This week, we’ve seen outsourcing hitting the headlines again, as the Public Commercial Services (PCS) union refused to rule out strike action over H...
15 June 2011 | Articles, Europe, UK, Global, All Columns, Sri Lanka,Is the government biting its nose off to spite its face?
It’s been a tough week for those of us with a vested interest in the outsourcing industry – and not just because of the difficulty of returning to wor...
19 May 2011 | Articles, Europe, UK, Global, All Columns, Finance & Accounting, HR, IT, Procurement, Customer Service, Logistics, Legal, Functions Other,Making Contact
This article originally appeared in Outsource Magazine Issue #25 Autumn 2011 The word “revolutionary” is bandied about extremely liberally, and fre...
28 September 2011 | Articles, Customer Service, Functions Other, Global, All Columns,Michel Robert
Michel Robert has been MD of managed services provider Claranet UK since 2007. Michel is experienced in business development and marketing with partic...
18 February 2011 | Columnists, IT, Europe, UK,Midsummer murders or winter of discontent?
They were summoned (or summonsed ... you decide) to appear ... the challenge was clear: how to incentivise the top echelon of IT suppliers to UK gover...
27 October 2010 | Articles, IT, Europe, UK, All Columns,More Than Just a Headcount
This article originally appeared in Outsource Magazine Issue #23 Spring 2011 A census is an indispensable tool for any government: without accu...
06 April 2011 | Articles, Europe, UK, All Columns, Logistics,Multi-sourcing: driving the outsourcing industry?
Last August I used these pages to spell out the advantages and disadvantages of multi-sourcing in light of changes to the way contracts were being sou...
07 June 2011 | Articles, Europe, UK, All Columns,Nearshore, onshore or offshore for investment banks?
Some of the UK’s largest financial institutions are increasingly onshoring and nearshoring work to locations such as Scotland, Ireland and the north o...
26 September 2011 | Articles, Finance & Accounting, Europe, UK, Global, All Columns,NHS IT: the public sector outsourcing challenge
(This column has been written by guest author Thomas Senger, Senior VP, EMEA Software and Solutions, Kofax.) Efficiency savings are an integral part ...
26 August 2011 | Articles, Functions Other, Europe, UK, All Columns, IT,Nothing north of Watford
“Make it In America” is Obama’s newest jobs battle cry. Not to be undone, David Cameron went to Bangalore to push for jobs creation in Britain. With u...
21 September 2010 | Philippines, China, Asia/Pacific, India, South/Central Asia, USA, North America / Caribbean, UK, Europe, All Columns, Global, Articles, Sri Lanka,OK, now I'm listening...
Over the past couple of weeks I have been involved in a review of my organisation’s hiring and onboarding policies; it’s been a very interesting proce...
08 September 2011 | Articles, Finance & Accounting, HR, IT, Procurement, Customer Service, Logistics, Legal, Functions Other, Europe, UK, All Columns,Operational Efficiency in Financial Services
This conference brings together senior representatives from across the retail banking, consumer finance, general insurance and life assurance industri...
01 October 2010 | Videos, Finance & Accounting, Europe, UK, Global,Outsource - or cloudsource?
There’s no question that cloud computing is here to stay. A recent infographic released by IT consulting firm Avanade shows that globally, 74 per cent...
16 April 2012 | Articles, IT, Europe, UK, Global, All Columns,Outsource, insource or shared service? There’s a place for each service model in the NHS…
Healthcare in the United Kingdom is provided by the government through its healthcare provider, the National Health Service (NHS). The NHS is one of ...
17 April 2012 | Articles, Europe, UK, All Columns,Outsourcing and data security: the layman’s view?
I was asked this week for my views on the transfer of personal data to an offshore-based provider of outsourced services to a large telecommunications...
23 May 2012 | Articles, Legal, Europe, UK, All Columns,Outsourcing and planning for unknown demands
(This column has been written by guest author Sue Brooks, Managing Director, Ochre House.) As the future of the UK business environment continues to ...
05 December 2011 | Articles, HR, Europe, Ireland, UK, All Columns,Outsourcing training takes a slice of the pie
There is no doubt that we have seen a huge increase in outsourcing deals in recent years, especially since the Government Spending Review was announce...
27 April 2011 | Articles, UK, Global, All Columns,Outsourcing: changing the face of business
I was extremely interested to see research published this week which suggested that Britain’s outsourcing industry is now almost as big as the financi...
11 May 2011 | Articles, Europe, UK, Global, All Columns,Peter Brooks
Peter Brooks is the MD of LDC London, the leading mid-market private equity arm of Lloyds Banking Group. He has over 23 years of private equity experi...
17 September 2010 | Global, UK, Europe, Columnists,Philip Hadcroft
Dr. Philip Hadcroft is a leading authority in the field of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO). He attained the world’s first PhD in that discipline in...
25 November 2011 | Columnists, Asia/Pacific, China, Australia, Global,Post-Election Thoughts (Part 1)
As part of the research into the lead article for the autumn issue of Outsource (Outsource 21, published next week), on sourcing in the post-election ...
01 September 2010 | Articles, Finance & Accounting, HR, IT, Procurement, Customer Service, Logistics, Functions Other, Legal, Europe, UK,Post-Election Thoughts (Part 2)
As part of the research into the lead article for the autumn issue of Outsource (Outsource 21, out now - see our Subscriptions page to find out how yo...
10 September 2010 | UK, Europe, Legal, Functions Other, Logistics, Customer Service, Procurement, IT, HR, Finance & Accounting, Articles,Post-Election Thoughts (Part 3)
As part of the research into the lead article for the autumn issue of Outsource (Outsource 21, out now - see our Subscriptions page to find out how yo...
01 October 2010 | Articles, Europe, UK, Global,Private Properties
This article originally appeared in Outsource Magazine Issue #24 Summer 2011 Privacy issues have been a minefield in offshore outsourcing proje...
29 June 2011 | Articles, Legal, South/Central Asia, India, Asia/Pacific, China, Philippines, Global, All Columns,Public sector outsourcing: tackling the SME challenge
In its first year, the coalition government initiated a hiatus of activity and announcements. I’ve heard a Tory MP describe it as a policy "blitz...
06 June 2011 | Articles, Europe, UK, All Columns,Public Sector Roundtable: To Share, or Not to Share?
This article originally appeared in Outsource Magazine Issue #25 Autumn 2011 As government-imposed cuts continue to impact upon the UK’s public sec...
28 September 2011 | UK, Europe, Articles, Finance & Accounting, HR, IT, Procurement, Customer Service, Logistics, Legal, Functions Other, Global, All Columns,Q&A: Ralph Geertsema, BT
Ralph Geertsema is Head of Finance Transformation at BT Group. In advance of Ralph's presentation to SSON's 11th Annual European Shared Serv...
26 April 2011 | Articles, Finance & Accounting, Global, All Columns,Review Ructions
This article originally appeared in Outsource Magazine Issue #23 Spring 2011 The UK’s Financial Services Authority has set out discussion points whic...
18 March 2011 | Articles, Finance & Accounting, Europe, UK, All Columns,Roundtable Review: The Wood for the Trees?
Gareth Davies of Veredus reports on a recent roundtable where representatives from across the UK sourcing space looked at the bigger picture… Can’...
15 December 2010 | Articles, Europe, UK,Schools and the private sector: a marriage of mutual convenience
Under the Coalition government, more academies will be opened than in the first eight years of the programme. More than 1,200 schools have now applied...
04 August 2011 | Articles, IT, Europe, UK, All Columns,Shareholder satisfaction in a low-growth economy
As 2011 fast draws to a close, most companies will have given thought to their plans for 2012. What revenue growth are you expecting next year? How ha...
25 November 2011 | Articles, Functions Other, Global, All Columns, China,SMEs should not be shy of embracing the business benefits of outsourcing
Change is sweeping through the outsourcing sector. Often seen as the preserve of larger companies, outsourcing is being embraced by an increasing numb...
30 November 2010 | Articles, Europe, UK, Global, All Columns,Some none too subtle shifts in the commerce of outsourcing
Transformational change always takes longer than the early adopters believe is either likely or reasonable – but if the drivers for the change are rea...
11 October 2010 | Global, UK, Articles, All Columns,Swiss Post wins M&S logistics deal
Swiss Post Solutions has been awarded a logistics, mailroom and record management support contract by retailer Marks Spencer, the company announced t...
23 June 2010 | Articles, Logistics, Europe, UK,Talent Show
Traditional recruitment methods - such as third-party agencies, specialist headhunting firms or basic print advertising - are time-consuming and costl...
11 August 2004 | UK, Other, Europe, Functions Other, HR, Articles,Telecom Service Centres Ltd
Customer Management InnovatorsHEROtsc are innovators in the design, development, deployment and delivery of insightful customer management solutions. ...
02 September 2010 | Customer Service, Directory, UK,Telling the positive story of UK ITO trends
EquaTerra recently released the results of its 2010 UK IT outsourcing (ITO) service provider performance and satisfaction (SPPS) study. EquaTerra cond...
10 December 2010 | Articles, Europe, UK, Global, All Columns,The Bribery Act: one month on…
The new Bribery Act came into force recently in a bid to stamp out corruption and bring the UK in line with international anti-corruption legislation....
29 July 2011 | Articles, Procurement, Legal, Europe, UK, All Columns,The Data Protection issues of outsourcing
Data Protection law in the form of the Data Protection Act 1998 ("the Act") applies to all organisations processing "personal data"...
11 January 2012 | Articles, IT, Legal, Europe, UK, Global, All Columns,The era of easy assumptions about outsourcing is over
Gone are the days when there was a natural consensus, never mind zeal, in support of this reform. Now there are more likely to be public doubts – abou...
27 October 2011 | Legal, Logistics, Customer Service, Procurement, IT, HR, Finance & Accounting, Articles, Functions Other, Europe, UK, All Columns,The Legal View: Breaking Up
This article originally appeared in Outsource Magazine Issue #27 Spring 2012 The recent High Court judgment in AstraZeneca (AZ) v IBM (22/11/11), i...
05 April 2012 | Articles, Legal, Global, All Columns,The LSO View
Leah Cooper is Director, Legal Services Outsourcing, for CPA Global, a leading provider of outsourced legal services and intellectual property managem...
15 December 2010 | Articles, Legal, Europe, UK, North America / Caribbean, USA, South/Central Asia, India, Global,The outlook for 2012
A recent report from the MCA (Grace under Pressure: The resilience of management consulting in challenging times) argues that the UK’s consulting indu...
09 January 2012 | Articles, Finance & Accounting, HR, IT, Procurement, Customer Service, Logistics, Legal, Functions Other, Europe, UK, All Columns,The Post-Election Landscape
It’s the greatest British political story of our age – but what does the advent of coalition politics mean for the sourcing space in the UK? With a go...
17 September 2010 | Articles, UK, Europe, Legal, Functions Other, Logistics, Customer Service, Procurement, IT, HR, Finance & Accounting,The Professional Perspective
The impact of the immigration question upon outsourcing is an issue affecting every corner of the outsourcing space – so in addition to our lead featu...
14 December 2010 | Articles, Europe, UK, North America / Caribbean, USA, Latin America, India, Global,The Recruiting Officer
Paul Awcock is Head of HR – Recruitment for Aviva, one of the world’s largest insurers. We spoke with Paul about the advantages – and challenges – of ...
15 December 2010 | Articles, HR, Europe, UK,The View from the Board: Editorial Board Roundtable Winter 2010
Outsource: John, you're hosting, so let's kick off with you: looking generally at the trends for 2011 how different a year do you think its ...
17 December 2010 | Articles, Finance & Accounting, HR, IT, Procurement, Customer Service, Logistics, Legal, Functions Other, Global,Today’s UK Retail IT Outsourcing Outlook
A recent study by the Everest Group revealed that outsourcing in the UK’s IT sector could increase by 600% over the next ten years. The report highlig...
11 February 2011 | Articles, IT, Europe, UK,UK skills gap fuels offshoring
UK employers are struggling to fill vacancies with skilled British workers and are being forced to look to the EU and beyond, according to a new repor...
25 August 2010 | Articles, Europe, UK,UK's Silicon Valley - growing onshoring
In the last week we've seen Prime Minister David Cameron announce plans to redevelop London's East End into a 'Tech City', with th...
17 November 2010 | Articles, IT, Europe, UK, Global, All Columns,Visa fraud puts the spotlight back on outsourcing
At a time when a sustained period of unemployment is proving problematic for organisations all over the world, the news of charges faced by Infosys Te...
09 March 2011 | Articles, Europe, UK, Global, All Columns, North America / Caribbean, USA,Why Santander and New Call Telecom came back to Blighty
As India teeters on the brink of double-digit inflation, Santander and New Call Telecom announce that they are bringing operations back to the UK. Whi...
25 July 2011 | Articles, Customer Service, Europe, UK, South/Central Asia, India, All Columns,Why suppliers should not be held up as outsourcing scapegoats
Of all the rumour and, in some cases, intrigue surrounding outsourcing in the public sector, one of the most interesting has been the recent saga surr...
01 June 2011 | Articles, UK, Global, All Columns,Wisdom and foolishness: public procurement and outsourcing
Despite evidence to the contrary from literature and drama, fools rarely utter wise thoughts. But our common experience is that wise men and women fre...
03 April 2012 | Articles, Procurement, Europe, UK, North America / Caribbean, USA, Global, All Columns,Xchanging shares hit
Shares in UK-based BPO provider Xchanging took a hefty hit this week after the company cautioned that full-year revenues will be “slightly lower” than...
04 August 2010 | Articles, Europe, UK, Global,
Outsource magazine and the ACCA announce an exclusive partnership
