The most recent articles from Computing

GlaxoSmithKline extends SAP contract with Mahindra Satyam

Angelica Mari — 2009-07-09T16:49:00.000Z

Angelica Mari, Computing, Thursday 9 July 2009 at 16:49:00

First significant deal after Tech Mahindra’s takeover of the fraud-hit Indian firm

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has signed a five-year, multimillion-dollar deal with Indian IT service firm Mahindra Satyam for the support of the pharmaceutical giant's SAP-based systems and other critical software worldwide.

This is the first significant deal after the Satyam scandal that led to the firm being acquired by Tech Mahindra, and is an extension of a seven-year relationship which covered the provision of IT application development and support services.

"GSK is delighted to be able to extend its contract for another five years. We look forward to continuing to receive the high level of professionalism and commitment from Satyam and its associates that we have experienced over the past seven years,” said Bill Louv, GSK chief information officer.

Mahindra Satyam’s new chief executive CP Gurnani said the deal reflects “the competitive spirit and resolve of the associates” in the supplier.

“This is a reflection of the fact that we are well on our way to regaining our position as a market leader and we are thankful to GSK for having reposed its faith in us,” said Gurnani.

Read an exclusive Computing interview with Mahindra Satyam’s Gurnani and his hopes for the future here.

How Satyam cleaned up its act

Angelica Mari — 2009-07-09T06:00:00.000Z

Angelica Mari, Computing, Thursday 9 July 2009 at 06:00:00

Chief executive CP Gurnani tells Angelica Mari why Tech Mahindra opted to keep the Satyam brand after it bought the scandal-hit services firm, and explains what the deal means for existing and prospective customers

When Indian IT services supplier Tech Mahindra completed the purchase of rival Satyam last month, the company hoped to close the book on recent financial scandals.

Satyam came near to collapse in January after former chairman Ramalinga Raju admitted to inflating company profits by 50.4bn rupees (£640m) over seven years, causing shares to plummet by more than 60 per cent.

The company has been rebranded as Mahindra Satyam, and former Tech Mahindra head of global operations, CP Gurnani, appointed chief executive. He talked exclusively to Computing about the challenges ahead.

Why did you decide to retain the Satyam brand? Some might say it is damaged goods.

The brand question was also faced by chief executives at companies such as Computer Associates, Converse and Xerox – you have to look at the positives.

Companies are made of people, and even if others may think there have been 10 people involved in the fraud and this means that the whole company has been damaged, in our opinion it has not. We asked customers and employees and some of the prospective clients on their views of the Satyam brand and almost 99 per cent said it is a great company, with a good delivery engine and good people.

We are intelligent enough to know the fraud was localised this is a good company. At the same time there is the issue on delivery and trust and that is why we requested Mahindra if they would allow the augmentation of Satyam’s brand with their name. To us, this was a very critical part where Mahindra became a more resonant part of the new company and we didn’t have to abandon what is good about Satyam.

You bought Satyam without a full examination of the accounts – how did you arrive at a fair value for the company?

We didn’t go into it blindly. There was a fair amount of due diligence done before we acquired the company, with the data that was made available to us. We also met with the employees and did a thorough market survey and appointed an external firm to help us in the process. The acquisition also had to be cleared by three boards - Mahindra, Tech Mahindra and BT Group, which owns a controlling stake of Tech Mahindra.

As far as we are concerned, we knew what the customer and employee assets were, made a projection of what the revenue is likely to be, and took as common sense that there is a fair amount of reconstruction and re-energising to be done. While this will take an effort from our end, we know what this company is really worth.

BT owns more than a third of Tech Mahindra and some observers believe it wants to divest that ownership. Was the Satyam buyout designed to expand the group’s client base in the event BT withdraws its backing- and client relationships – from this joint venture?

Tech Mahindra has already diversified its client base and was also very conscious that BT may divest at some stage and that could create a high-risk perception for some investors, so the majority of the contracts with BT are designed as multi-year deals. All I can say is that this was not the main driver.

The main motivation was that we were very focused on telecom services, which is becoming a integral part of enterprises. Digital convergence is a reality and we do want to offer our services to enterprises, so we believe that Satyam is very complementary to us. We now have an advantage of synergy and collaboration, with no conflict on the customer base. Moreover, Satyam has some incredible differentiators to offer to IT decision makers, such as its business intelligence, engineering services, SAP and Oracle groups, so you need to consider those factors too.

Why not just let Satyam die and cherrypick its clients as all the other major suppliers were doing?

How much can they cherrypick anyway? Since the company has become Tech Mahindra, I haven’t lost any business – in fact, we have added new clients to our portfolio. It is not that rivals picked the clients, it is that Satyam just lost them. Certain companies started getting worried about the governance and the financials of the company.

The customers know the governance is coming and that is being done in many levels, by educating employees and management, as well as creating a feedback mechanism and appointing new external auditors and making sure they do not stay in the same job and are rotated. When auditors and the board becomes friendly, chances are that they will do something dodgy.

Should the Indian government have got involved in a corporate scandal in the way it did?

It is a great thing the government stepped in. This company had no choice and no cash in its balance sheets and the funds were fictitious. There was also no board because they all had to be fired.

That was a transparent and open process led by the brightest and the best in the industry, who should be applauded and become a case study on how governance can be used constructively to allow a company to recover.

If you look back in the results the international people are happy this has been done. The government did not put in money, it just brought in external management and ran the process under the supervision of the supreme court justice to find a new buyer who has the reputation to manage a company this size. It is important to remember that the government had to worry about people’s jobs and the reputation of a firm based out of India and providing services to more than 400 companies worldwide.

What is happening to the FIFA 2010 World Cup contract - recent reports suggested that the technology for the tournament was far from ready?

There are discussions taking place about whether we should go ahead with the 2010 sponsorship or not. FIFA has not approached us formally and we didn’t approach them either. Our belief is that they need all the software that we agreed for them and in terms of branding we still haven’t taken a call on whether we will continue or go back to them and try to renegotiate some of the terms. All IT project delivery is happening as per schedule and FIFA is a delighted customer.

Does the Satyam eight-year ban imposed in December 2008 on IT work for the World Bank carry though to the new entity?

We have been advised to put together a request for the lifting of that sanction. The [argument supporting it] is that we have new owners and new management, which clearly demonstrates we are a new company. We have also reassured the World Bank that the fraudulent people are no longer part of the system and we have meetings planned with them in the next couple of weeks and hopefully they will reconsider our request.

If that request is denied, how will you be able to pitch for work with major bodies when organisations such as the World Bank refuse to work with you?

The point is that corporate frauds are not new. As a company, we were tainted because of certain individuals, who are no longer there, so we are not tainted anymore. Last week, we won a contract with a large European bank and a speciality chemicals firm. It is true that we need to work harder to build the confidence and trust, but I don’t think the World Bank discussion, which is localise,d is impacting the company in any way.

Regardless of the scandal, how has Satyam fared during the recession – like most suppliers, you work with a significant number of financial service companies?

Business has been affacted, not only due to the recession but in the customer losses that we had. However, we have started to win new business and thanks to our consulting resources, customers in the financial services industry understand they get a lot of value from us. Despite the economic recession and the January to April losses, we are still doing alright.

Are you still hiring?

We are not hiring, unless we need any niche skills. We have placed people on a “virtual pool programme”, whereby some of our employees can work from home and as and when we get projects, we call them back to work for us.

Has employee morale dropped as a consequence of the difficult times that Satyam experienced recently?

The spirit of our people is what kept us going. We didn’t really have a future – this was a company that was losing customers, employees and people did not receive salaries. But crisis brings out the best in many people, and that was there and you could see it. We have staff support – they are doing very well and our clients give us really positive soundbites about employee integrity and enthusiasm, even during those tough times.

Will you look to bring in Indian staff into the UK as part of your contracts with clients?

I am able to take a job in a location where a customer is happy that is delivered from. The best interest for the customer is when they believe in a global delivery model, where you pick the delivery centres that are most effective from a process technology and cost perspective. But chances are that IT leaders will prefer using delivery centres in Malaysia or India.

What do you expect to be your main leadership challenges in the years to come?

This is one of the most interesting jobs in the world right now. This was a fraud-ridden company, which panicked and lost a few customers and key employees and now needs to confront the reality and come back and stage a recovery. I am enjoying every minute of this job and am supported by one of the best leadership teams in the industry. And I believe that this company is going to come back as a real shining star.

My focus is to bring our financials in line with the best in the industry. We also need to make our workplaces the happiest and best to work. And it is important that our customers don’t just only view us as the people they have supported through those five months of turmoil, but as a long-term partner able to deliver a value proposition which address some of their own challenges and explore opportunities. If you can compare governance with hygiene, I can assure that we are now clean.

Battle of the cloud-based office productivity suites to get stormier

Dave Bailey — 2009-07-08T15:02:00.000Z

Dave Bailey, Computing, Wednesday 8 July 2009 at 15:02:00

Cisco's hints of cloud-based office productivity apps mean better options for businesses

Networking giant Cisco has clearly been looking for new opportunities to expand: for example, earlier this year it unveiled plans to extend its reach into server hardware. Its recent Cisco Live! 2009 event in San Francisco increased speculation that it is also looking to develop a set of cloud-based office productivity tools – potentially appealing for any firms looking to move away from Microsoft's Office tools.

Cisco’s theme at the event was "the power of collaboration"; chief executive John Chambers' keynote speech concentrated heavily on video systems. "The next phase of innovation will be around collaboration enabled by the network,” said Chambers.

At Cisco Live!, Cisco collaboration software group senior vice president Doug Dennerline hinted that the company would roll out a service that allows firms to share documents through the company's Webex collaboration platform.

Asked whether Cisco would broaden its range and move into general office productivity applications delivered through a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, Dennerline said, "That opportunity exists, we’re looking at lots of assets that we could look to add to Webex Connect – that could include office productivity apps as well."

Dennerline added that Cisco often conducted reviews of the market and that, "strategically that's a direction that we'll be thinking long and hard about."

But would a Cisco-developed office productivity suite, based on its Webex platform, which it acquired in 2007 for $3.2bn (£1.98bn), be a serious challenge?

Datamonitor senior analyst Vuk Trifkovic sees the sense, from Cisco's perspective, in extending its reach into productivity systems.

“I think it's entirely credible, and I'm surprised that it wasn't a far stronger hint, and that Cisco hadn't done this a lot earlier. I don't think anybody could fault them for having an even more aggressive strategy on this front that they have now,” he says.

But not everyone is so convinced that there is a demand for such applications from Cisco.

"[Cisco is] struggling to work out how it competes in a world of Microsofts and Googles, which are pure software companies, when the only asset it has in that field is Webex," says Quocirca service director Bob Tarzey.

If Cisco is to produce a viable alternative to Office, it needs to build on its unified communications expertise, argues Tarzey. "They need to add more value in terms of products around unified communications, like office productivity applications. It also needs to figure out how to deliver these as online services better integrated with Webex."

Such development is likely to take a significant time, says Gartner research VP and distinguished analyst Michael Silver.

"Remember, Google has been competing with a free suite and hasn't made much of a dent. Further, any suite would need to have some compelling feature Microsoft Office does not have and would need to be available all the time, not just with Webex."

One method that could be deployed by Cisco is through an acquisition, something they haven't been shy about doing to shortcut technology development. This is something Datamonitor's Trifkovic said could happen, pointing out as the potential target Zoho, a vendor gaining considerable kudos with its online office productivity offerings.

Datamonitor's Trifkovic believes a Cisco move into cloud-based office productivity applications would be welcomed by IT leaders, as it would mean more choice. However, he adds that it is still early in the evolution of this particular market and that there is a lot of variability in the offerings out there.

“The strategy for very large organisations would be to try to introduce these online productivity suites selectively and to parts of the workforce who could work in a far-more collaborative fashion,” explains Trifkovic, “or perhaps with those types of workers who aren't heavy users of standard office productivity suites – that would be more efficient and economic for enterprises.”

And another threat to Microsoft’s cash cow Office, which currently generates around 25 per cent - approximately $17bn (£10.5bn) - of Microsoft’s total revenue of $65bn (£40), could surface soon if Dennerline's comments on Cisco's long-term strategy bear fruit. Nevertheless, the roadside is littered with pretenders to Microsoft’s throne.

Currently there are few other cloud-based office productivity application vendors, but Trifkovic said the situation could change as Adobe, with its Acrobat.com offering, and Zoho evolve their platforms.

One problem for enterprises could be the lack of interoperability of these cloud-based platforms. Trifkovic says the big question for Microsoft is how it's going to evolve its online Office offering.

In the long term, “it’s about who can offer office productivity applications, but also deal with enterprise worries such as service levels, security, and convenience,” says Trifkovic.

"People tend to live in a browser nowadays, and operating systems are becoming increasingly irrelevant – so where does that leave Microsoft? They also need to move more into the online world or they'll be facing the same problems that Cisco is, running its products in the old-fashioned way," adds Tarzey.

Q&A: Jerry Thompson - BT Business director of business products and online

Dave Bailey — 2009-07-01T16:14:00.000Z

Dave Bailey, Computing, Wednesday 1 July 2009 at 16:14:00

Large corporates are being drawn to managed services as the recession bites deeper

As director of business products and online for BT Business, Jerry Thompson has seen at first hand the impact the recession has had on firms' business and IT plans.

Computing talked to Thompson about the technologies firms are turning to to help them ride out the economic storm.

Computing: What do your customers tell you is their top priority today?

Jerry Thompson: Well, the cry has always been "do more for less", even during the good years. But I've been in this industry over 20 years and I've never seen the problems quite as acute as they are now. It's not "twice as fast at half the cost" every few years, it's seriously taking fixed costs out of the business and finding new ways of doing things.

Does BT see software-as-a-service (SaaS) and cloud computing fitting into this cost-cutting agenda?

There's a number of strategic questions here, and when you go into a recession like we have at the moment, there are clues as to what the world will look like from a structural point of view when we come out of the other side. Everybody has indeed been talking about SaaS and cloud computing, but in essence people weren't doing it, whereas now they're really looking at it quite seriously and saying what does it mean for me?

We're seeing an increasing appetite for trialling this in discrete areas and seeing if it does work. There's a real push towards taking fixed costs and making them into variable ones, recognising that you may take 15-20 per cent of your organisation, but that you may want 15-20 per cent growth in a year or two. However, the financials currently may be inhibiting a massive change and movement towards these technologies at present

Which cloud computing services do you think will take off?

One thing we have noticed that corporates are going for is managing email. Outsourcing email management is not something corporate IT departments considered in the past - smaller companies, absolutely. What we're seeing is an interest - yet to be translated into a huge amount of orders - from North American firms with 15,000-20,000 employees in outsourcing email management to a hosting provider. Two to three years ago this would have been unheard of, and that's a real telling sign because email management is a core service for IT departments and it's quite a complex thing to run.

We're also offering customers SaaS CRM like Salesforce and SugarCRM, certainly for SMEs and mid-market companies, and managing IT support helpdesks.

I think large corporates will increasing look at these kinds of managed services over the next three to four years as a way of addressing IT cost management.

What are customers telling you is their biggest headache in the datacentre?

Power. I sit on Intel's board of advisers and a few years ago they said that the biggest issue will be power. They showed us some data about five years ago, and here we are today with Google building datacentres next to hydroelectric power plants. Power is the most important vulnerability for running datacentres today, and it also focuses attention on the need for having multiple power sources.

What about the market for videoconferencing and telepresence?

We're not seeing a massive adoption of videoconferencing – I wish it was otherwise. For big corporates it's a really useful tool for project work. I've seen research on videoconferencing that says its effectiveness is related to how well you know the person on the other side of the connection. If you know them, and you have a rapport with them, it's 60-80 per cent effective compared to a face-to-face meeting, but over time that figure diminishes. You need to keep the relationship fresh.

ING extends IT infrastructure outsourcing deal

Angelica Mari — 2009-06-30T17:16:00.000Z

Angelica Mari, Computing, Tuesday 30 June 2009 at 17:16:00

Atos Origin will work on the implementation of a simpler IT set-up

Dutch bank ING has awarded a “significant” contract extension to Atos Origin for the implementation and management of its IT infrastructure.

The supplier’s new brief will include increasing the bank’s storage capacity and introducing innovations in its infrastructure, as well as implementing and managing a new, simplified IT set-up.

All data storage related to the workplace environment in the Netherlands and Belgium will also be covered by the vendor and based on its information lifecycle management system portfolio.

Atos Origin had already been working with the bank in activities such as application development, system integration and back-office payment processing.

Earlier this year, it emerged that ING was revising ongoing deals with IT suppliers and cutting 7,000 jobs worldwide to mitigate losses of €2bn (£1.7bn).

The restructuring plan aimed to generate savings in "head office, marketing, the Formula 1 programme, consultancy, third-party staff and the renegotiating of certain contracts with IT vendors", the financial services firm said in a statement at the time.

Phones4U opts for dual supplier outsourcing deal

Angelica Mari — 2009-06-30T15:20:00.000Z

Angelica Mari, Computing, Tuesday 30 June 2009 at 15:20:00

Mobile phone retailer takes Fujitsu and TCS on board to reduce back-office costs

Phones4U has signed an outsourcing deal that will see the mobile phone retailer retain ownership of its hardware while bringing in an external provider to manage the infrastructure.

Under a joint agreement, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) will manage the systems based on Fujitsu blade server technology, while the retailer will retain ownership of IT assets. The aim of the contract is to reduce growing IT costs.

The initiative will cover the firm’s two server rooms, which house its core Siebel retail trading platform, and will see TCS overseeing and managing the project while Fujitsu handles the hardware installation and integration, as well as storage migration.

The new equipment will bring in a hardware structure that supports open systems and also enables a significant reduction in operating costs, said director of IT strategy at Phones4U, Steve Johnson.

“Crucially, the technology means we can dynamically re-use capability for development and testing of new services and gives us scalability for long-term growth,” said Johnson.

The partnership also presents a test for the retailer’s supplier management capabilities, said Phones4U IT managed services director, Steve Taylor.

“The nature of this deal has allowed Phones4U to test our multi-party sourcing model in action,” said Taylor.

“Fujitsu, TCS and a couple of our other partners have worked together in a very effective way through the procurement and the implementation phases of this work. We see this as a prime example of how our sourcing model will work in the future,” he said.

Recession results in outsourcing inertia

Gareth Morgan — 2009-06-26T12:35:00.000Z

Gareth Morgan, Computing, Friday 26 June 2009 at 12:35:00

Complexity of switching outsourcers too much for most firms

Nearly two-thirds of firms intend to stick with their current outsourcing partner, despite the economic downturn, because changing supplier is viewed as both too time consuming and costly.

Law firm Pinsent Masons interviewed 200 business leaders about their outsourcing plans and found the majority (64 per cent) have no plans to look for lower-cost outsourcing partners.

Nevertheless, one in four businesses leaders said they would be renegotiating the terms of existing deals.

And one in ten of those questioned said they were looking at bringing outsourced services back in house.

"Our survey indicates that sourcing has not yet been given the priority that it merits; businesses are concentrating on more traditional measures to save costs. This may impact the ability of business to respond when there is an upturn," said Garfield Smith, partner at Pinsent Masons.

Outsourcing can save money in the downturn

Sanjiv Gossain — 2009-06-25T01:15:00.000Z

Sanjiv Gossain, Computing, Thursday 25 June 2009 at 01:15:00

Firms must turn outsourcing to their advantage and form close working relationships

IT delivery has changed greatly over the past 15 years. When the outsourcing industry began to develop, businesses looked for IT service providers solely to reduce costs. But as firms started to outsource more complex and transformational projects, the long-term business impact became another major driver. Now, as a result of the downturn, the outsourcing industry has to adapt once again as cost shoots back to the top of the agenda.

So what does this mean for IT chiefs and their outsourcing partners? Companies tend to slow down decision-making when cost pressures come to the fore. They re-evaluate and realign their investment from projects that prioritise long-term transformational benefits, to those with immediate cost savings. The ideal scenario, of course, is to plan IT projects that can deliver both.

Some companies have decided to keep projects in-house, so they can maintain tighter control. But outsourcing providers can deliver flexibility in line with demand, something in-house teams may find difficult. Leading service providers combine strategic thinking with cost reduction moving processes offshore to generate immediate savings and transforming them to achieve better performance.

Today, measuring return remains the most important factor when embarking on new IT projects. Service providers should work with firms to establish goals and outline timeframes for their completion. Businesses worried about potential risk can also ask IT providers for a transaction-based pricing model rather than simply committing to work on a project for a certain period of time, this guarantees a set price for a set outcome.

The best service providers will have already adapted to meet the demands of the new world order marrying the traditional priority of cost reduction with the business transformation required to drive performance in the years ahead. Businesses should use the downturn to forge closer, tightly defined relationships that can reap benefits now and in the future.

Sanjiv Gossain is a BCS contributor

Outsourcing and cost control: the Gartner view

2009-06-24T08:00:00.000Z

Computing, Wednesday 24 June 2009 at 08:00:00

Gartner analyst Ian Marriott offers advice and guidance on IT cost control and how it affects an organisation's relationship with outsourcing providers

Click here for more information from Gartner on outsourcing.

IT services sector to avoid the worst of the jobs cull

Dave Bailey — 2009-06-22T17:41:00.000Z

Dave Bailey, Computing, Monday 22 June 2009 at 17:41:00

More than half of business services jobs to go in the next five years, but IT services will grow six per cent, says research

IT services jobs are expected to among the least affected by the downturn over the next couple of years, according to research by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR).

The survey warns that more than half of business services sector jobs in the UK will be cut by 2011, due to the credit crunch and recession.

The worst hit industry will be advertising, but in the IT services sector four per cent of 542,000 jobs will be lost by 2010 before a strong recovery to 573,000 jobs in 2013 – six per cent up compared to today.

The CEBR said the overall business services sector has contributed around one third of all new jobs created and five per cent per year GDP growth since 1997.

According to CEBR managing economist Ben Read, the advertising industry is forecast to shed 10,000 staff by 2013.

Read said the business services sector will find the operating environment for the next five years to be very different compared with the previous five.

"Steep drops in business investment, the collapse of the property market and construction industry, upcoming cuts in public sector spending as well as continued difficulty for firms to find capital imply difficult times ahead for this sector," he said.

Q&A: Stewart Townsend – Sun Startup Essentials EMEA manager

Dave Bailey — 2009-06-22T17:31:00.000Z

Dave Bailey, Computing, Monday 22 June 2009 at 17:31:00

Sun tries to help start-ups shine, with IT advice, training and discounted hosting, software and storage

There is an argument that suggests the current economic uncertainty makes it an ideal time to start up a business. It may be tough to raise the capital necessary to fund a new venture, but there is a huge pool of available talent that could add substantial experience to any startup.

But where money is so tight as to preclude hiring, there are other mechanisms to tap into expertise that may prove invaluable for startups.

Systems vendor Sun established its Startup Essentials programme three years ago, offering to help firms in their quest to be the next Google. Computing recently caught up with Stewart Townsend, who runs Sun's Startup Essentials group in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Computing: What type of IT expertise is the most important for startups?

Stewart Townsend (ST): I can never answer this question properly; I tend to turn it around and say "What can I do to help you? What's beneficial for your business?". What Sun has is the enterprise-class servers that we can discount to start-up prices - similarly with our enterprise software.

How can we use the Sun global brand to grow your business or maybe give you some engineering or technical support, or by the people network that we've grown, introduce you to investors. It's about being a partner – we're trying to set up long-term relationships here, and most companies are more receptive to that and understand that model, rather than Sun just trying to sell them hardware.

Computing: How can you help startups to establish a credible web presence?

(ST): We have hosting partners in the programme and, again, it's a chicken and egg situation. With firms that want to test the market, we talk to our partners in the UK. Currently that's EveryCity and NTT Europe Online.

The conversation with those companies would be along the lines of: "How can we provide a sandbox environment, maybe for no cost for a period of time?" This is necessary first to test the concept in the market while you're growing traffic and revenues, but also in the background to look at the scaling and technology aspects behind it.

When it gets to the point of hard launch and the business has some revenue opportunities that could sustain it, we would move the startup to a cost model, which we'd normally calculate in the initial phase. So when the company got to a certain size, it would cost a certain amount. We would also support the hosting companies in that effort with discounted hardware and marketing support.

Computing: What kind of hardware, storage and application support could you offer that would fit with, say, firms launching a website dependent on credit card transactions?

(ST): In that sort of space, we tend to aim for hardware such as low-end Intel servers, just a bunch of disks (JBOD) or our new Open Storage range. We can support a startup's software stack with our middleware packages and MySQL. We can then talk them through how such applications would scale and how it would affect their licensing costs.

Again, if a firm wants application transactional capabilities, we would also talk to them about the security aspect and see how we could lock it down within Solaris. In that case, we would need to assign an engineer to them, who would look at their business needs and requirements.

Computing: How do the initial conversations with these startups take place–is it a face-to-face meeting?

(ST): A lot of these conversations tend to take place at networking events or conferences. We also have these conversations remotely over Skype or using videoconferencing, because most of these businesses are time-constrained or travel-constrained. I can also get my engineers to contribute online, because a lot of their developers are outsourced and in Eastern European countries or in the Far East. With firms that have grown significantly - for example LastFM – we sit around a table and say, "Right, what do you need right now?".

Computing: When does a startup become a mature business?

(ST): The guidelines in the programme specify that a startup is any company which has been trading six years or fewer and has fewer than 150 employees. Although we also support more mature companies that are changing their business model and need some support. When they get to the end of that six-year time-frame, we tend to look on them as a mature company which could be assigned channel partners.

Computing: How do you profile which open-source packages would fit with startups?

(ST): It depends when we engage with the companies, because a lot of times they have already chosen which route to go down. But again, we get an engineer online to give them an idea of what they can do around open source about reducing licence costs and development time. It's taking the experience of our engineers who have been working with top-end enterprises and passing that down the chain to the startups who might have been badly advised by friends or by looking at online forums. We're passing down 27-plus years of experience with open-source applications – with no costs involved.

Computing: What about the technical advice, how does that work?

(ST): What we have is an email helpline – so if you're stuck or need some technical help, then all you have to do is email a message to a specific alias. This gets forwarded on to all of Sun's engineers globally and they'll pick messages up from the queue. Startups would then be assigned a Sun engineer to work with you and try and come to a solution.

Obviously, we'll concentrate on our own software stack, but where we have specific knowledge related to other non-Sun software, we'll also try and help.

Computing: What type of training can startups sign up for? Are there specific courses for application transaction packages, for example?

(ST): We have web-based, free training, and we've opened up our web-based e-library, and once you sign up you can go and access that. There are different modules in there; for example, there's Java application development, information on Solaris, OpenSolaris, and datacentre management.

What you'll be seeing in the next few quarters is a series of masterclasses coming out. These will be focused on some of the non-IT aspects for startups, such as PR, marketing and sales, how to set up a company, basic stuff like that. We're seeing a lot more people trying to start up businesses because of this the recession. Lots of people have been made redundant and have decided to go after their dreams. They may have worked in a corporate environment, but often lack the skills I mention above.

Satyam rebrands and announces new "corporate values"

Angelica Mari — 2009-06-22T13:57:00.000Z

Angelica Mari, Computing, Monday 22 June 2009 at 13:57:00

“Dignity of the individual” and “good corporate citizenship” underpin the scandal-hit firm’s new ethos

Satyam has announced new corporate values and brand identity following its takeover by fellow Indian IT services firm Tech Mahindra.

The company – now known as Mahindra Satyam – has introduced values such as “dignity of the individual” and “good corporate citizenship” as part of its new ethos, aimed at regaining trust from customers and shareholders.

“As in the past, we will continue to seek long-term success, which is in alignment with our country’s needs. We will do this without compromising ethical business standards,” said the company.

“We will value the individual dignity, uphold the right to express disagreement and respect the time and efforts of others. Through our actions, we will nurture fairness, trust and transparency."

Satyam was sold in April, following a series of events prompted by a massive fraud scandal that put the company under public scrutiny earlier this year.

“Customer centricity, high standards of corporate governance, unimpeachable ethics form the cornerstones of the Mahindra Group,” said the vice chairman and managing director at Satyam’s new parent company, Anand Mahindra.

“This rebranding exercise symbolises an amalgamation of the Mahindra Group’s values with Satyam’s fabled expertise, even as it retains that part of Satyam’s identity which signifies commitment, purpose and proficiency of the organisation and its people.”

Cost control the number one priority for IT

Dave Bailey — 2009-06-19T18:16:00.000Z

Dave Bailey, Computing, Friday 19 June 2009 at 18:16:00

e-Skills UK survey shows firms top priority is costs and chief worry is the strength of the pound

Cost cutting is the number one priority for IT leaders this year, according to research by sector skills council e-Skills UK.

The survey of 2,000 IT managers showed that 61 per cent of companies say reducing costs would have more emphasis over the coming year, compared with just eight per cent who thought there would be less priority. The remaining 31 per cent said there would be no change.

When asked about their levels of concern for a range of business issues during the first quarter of the year, the top three for most medium-to-large firms were the strength of the pound, the cost of supplies and the availability of credit for themselves and consumers. Respondents were relatively unconcerned about availability of skilled IT staff and other labour-related issues.

Nine out of ten employers polled said they were much more likely to look at generic cost assessment or cost-cutting measures than decreasing headcount internally or cutting back on contractors.

And the survey also showed that most firms are shunning new technologies such as cloud computing, open source, software as a service and virtualisation.

The e-skills UK ICT inquiry was carried out during February-March 2009, involving over 2,000 telephone interviews with individuals identified as holding responsibility for IT recruitment/development within their workplace.

Case study: Surrey County Council rolls out a new desktop strategy

Dave Bailey — 2009-06-19T17:08:00.000Z

Dave Bailey, Computing, Friday 19 June 2009 at 17:08:00

Local authority aims to cut energy costs, upgrade legacy kit and support more mobile users with a Citrix-based project

With the public sector expected to be subject to severe cost controls after the next General Election, councils throughout the UK will be looking to cut spending across the board, with IT not exempt from those plans.

At Surrey County Council (SCC), a new desktop strategy has helped take important steps in that direction already.

The local authority needed to address performance issues, reduce power requirements and costs, and support an increase in mobile users, and decided to replace a legacy Windows 2000 environment used by more than half its 6,000 desktops across 300 sites.

SCC provides services to 1.1 million Surrey residents, and its Information Management and Technology (IMT) department delivers IT to 8,000 users. To roll out its new desktop strategy to those workers, 10 per cent of whom were mobile, SCC worked with IT consultancy Centralis.

SCC technical architect Peter Sullivan said that historically the council had Windows 2000 running on all desktop systems with Novell's file-and-print infrastructure at the back-end, which was also being used for application delivery.

“What we found was that that although this worked fine for LAN sites, for remote sites such as fire stations and day care centres we have situated all over the county, it wasn't so good,” said Sullivan.

SCC had developed a Citrix-based solution earlier which delivered good performance and reliability and was suitable for specific users in particular locations. The organisation decided to roll out a new project called Citrix New Horizon to a much wider spread of its employees.

SCC’s network infrastructure management was outsourced to Cable & Wireless, and had network speeds of 256Kbit/s at the low end to up to 100Mbit/s at the top.

“We couldn't afford to put 100Mbit/s links to everyone, so ideally we needed a solution that worked over low bandwidth links,” said Sullivan.

SCC’s remote workers had a limited set of applications, or if they used Novell's XenWorks tools to deliver more applications, Sullivan said they had to wait a long time before all the application files needed were copied over to the local system.

“With Citrix you don't have to do that copying, so it's much faster. Basically our infrastructure wasn't matched up with the bandwidth needs of the applications,” he said.

Rolling out the Citrix New Horizon project could not be done with SCC’s own datacentres - one in the Kingston-upon-Thames headquarters, and one in Guildford - because they were at the limit on power and air conditioning. So the server farm running Citrix New Horizon was hosted at Cable & Wireless's datacentre.

Centralis worked with SCC's IMT department to plan, design and implement the servers capable of delivering core applications to both fat- and thin- client platforms. The system was built on Citrix's XenApp Enterprise Edition and Citrix EdgeSight, although SCC also used bespoke Centralis software and virtual channels for content redirection.

"We have more than 200 virtual servers running on 32 physical boxes, all based on VMware at the Cable & Wireless datacentre, but we’re planning to do a lot more virtualisation ourselves, and we have plans to consolidate hardware in our own datacentres,” said Sullivan.

One of the reasons for implementing Citrix New Horizon was that SCC wanted to roll out SAP’s Social Care solution to employees desktops, but that application did not deliver everything the council wanted, said Sullivan.

"So we didn't roll it out, but by then we'd already set up the Citrix server farm,” he said.

Since SCC’s desktop strategy meant rolling out more of the Citrix system it had developed, that more than compensated for the problems with the SAP Social Care application.

SCC uses Lotus Notes as its email client, shared storage and SAP's enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. The authority can now deliver SAP ERP applications through the server farm. SCC has about 1,500 people using the Citrix New Horizon system, which it intends to grow in the next 12 to 18 months to possibly 4,500 users. And as with a number of public sector councils, SCC also uses SAP for finance, procurement and HR.

SCC is signed up to Government Connect, the public sector secure network, but part of the reason it had trouble achieving certification was due to the original Windows 2000 systems still on some of desktops.

“I expect that the Citrix New Horizon project rollout will alleviate those problems,” said Sullivan.

The Citrix New Horizon Project meant that SCC now has a dynamic datacentre running 205 virtual servers, operating Citrix over VMware in a hosted environment.

“Operating across 300 sites, we also needed a greater degree of flexibility, so centralising all our servers and file storage in one place will improve accessibility and productivity levels," said Sullivan.

For the future, SCC is planning to implement a mobile solution on top of its new platform to try to improve performance for mobile workers, while helping to cut costs.

IT shakeup is just the ticket at Transport for London

Tom Young — 2009-06-18T18:09:00.000Z

Tom Young, Computing, Thursday 18 June 2009 at 18:09:00

Insourcing projects and scrapping costly PCs has paid off handsomely

Transport for London (TfL) will complete an IT overhaul by September that has seen 15 outsourced contracts brought back in-house and desktop costs cut by more than 80 per cent.

Outgoing chief information officer (CIO) Phil Pavitt told delegates at the GC Live conference in London last week that the programme means more “sexy” systems can now be insourced.

Congestion charge and Oyster travel card systems could be operated internally now that TfL’s infrastructure has been improved, he said.

“We now have the ability to make those choices when the contracts come up for renewal,” said Pavitt.

Some parts of the system, such as Oyster readers on station platforms, would always remain outsourced, but TfL has the capability to bring systems such as billing engines in-house should it want to.

When Pavitt took over at TfL he inherited a number of disparate legacy systems, with the underground and bus IT systems entirely separated. All desktops were thick-client and had an average cost of £3,800.

During Pavitt’s two-year IT overhaul, TfL has completed what he claims to be one of the biggest thin-client rollouts in the world, bringing desktop costs down 81 per cent to around £800 per user. TfL has also consolidated 90 datacentres down to just three.

Supplier costs have fallen 41 per cent, and IT staff costs have dropped 20 per cent even though the number of employees has risen, as expensive consultants were replaced with in-house workers.

In three months’ time, Pavitt leaves TfL to take over as CIO at HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), and industry-watchers will be examining his track record for hints of possible changes in strategy at the government department.

Pavitt has a reputation in the industry as a serial insourcer since being at TfL he has brought 15 of 17 pre-existing outsourced contracts back in-house.

Capgemini, BT and Fujitsu - suppliers to HMRC in one of the biggest public sector outsourcing deals in history - will be keenly aware of Pavitt’s track record.

HMRC’s £3bn Aspire contract for infrastructure management, application management and new project work was recently restructured and is now due to run to 2017.

Pavitt said he wanted to avoid a reputation for pursuing insourcing at all costs, but said he ruthlessly questions the value of outsourcing deals as a matter of course.