Computing awards: Outsourcing Project of the Year shortlist

Who will be the winner?

Computing awards for excellence: Outsourcing Project of the Year shortlist

Co-operative Financial Services

Co-operative Financial Services worked with its trade unions on plans to outsource more than 800 staff to supplier Xansa.

The company and unions came to an agreement that allows all transferring staff to enjoy a competitive employment package and opportunities for career progression. The business committed to engaging and communicating with staff, management and stakeholders throughout the process.

A group of representatives was formed to ensure that communications were meeting the needs of affected staff. The representatives were part of the affected group and were able to feed back to the company any issues or questions.

The project has transformed the relationship between the IT department and unions, and the company will work with its recognised unions on any further outsourcing projects.

Credit Suisse

Credit Suisse realigned its investment banking, private banking and asset management operations into an integrated global bank in 2006 and went on to consolidate the IT operations of each business into its global telecommunications network.

Working with BT and Swisscom, Credit Suisse launched the project across 49 countries. A single contract with BT replaced more than 450 contracts with 250 suppliers. The contract with BT is worth £435m and is expected to save the bank £137m during its term.

The project is designed to accommodate significant growth, in line with the bank’s business plan. The project gained industry recognition for a range of features, including a multimillion-pound innovation fund with BT and Swisscom, which will finance the development of new technologies for the bank.

Financial Services Authority

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) found that the introduction of an outsourced model for applications management and applications development improved the quality of project delivery.

The model allows three application development framework suppliers to bid for separate pieces of work at the FSA.

Tata Consultancy Services won the contract for business automation for regulatory transactions, and Xansa runs the applications management project, which will cut the cost of core services by 40 per cent over three years.

The mandatory electronic reporting project, delivered by Capgemini, will simplify submission of data to the watchdog by regulated companies. Significant cost savings will be generated as the project automates a number of manual processes.
The FSA believes the reporting project plays a key role in its commitment to more principles-based regulation.

Rowanmoor Pensions

Rowanmoor Pensions started outsourcing its IT in November 2006, after acquiring James Hay Consultancy through a management buyout three months earlier.

The firm is now saving an estimated £200,000 a year since introducing OnlineOffice, an integrated IT and telephony system offered by its existing provider ADS Portal.
The telephony system went live in April, within budget. The integrated service provides multiple layers of security, ensuring business continuity and data protection.

ADS Portal is responsible for ensuring that Rowanmoor has access to the latest equipment and updates as they become available.

The contract also covers software asset management and helpdesk support, allowing Rowanmoor to focus on its core business.

Service Birmingham

Birmingham Council seconded 500 of its IT staff to create Service Birmingham, a joint venture 32 per cent owned by the council and 68 per cent by supplier Capita.

A £24.5m desktop upgrade has generated annual savings of £350,000 and has cut network management costs by 40 per cent a year.

Since committing to a £1.9m training programme at the start of the partnership, Service Birmingham has provided 1,407 training days to 275 staff. Service Birmingham also pays five per cent into a staff benefit scheme which funds general employee development and charitable work in the community.

To represent the interests of all parties and to ensure that objectives are being delivered, a joint venture board meets once a month and a strategic partnership board meets quarterly.

Birmingham also hopes to win ISO 20000 accreditation for IT service management.

Vodafone

Vodafone UK transferred 438 people to supplier EDS under a seven-year dual-source deal to improve return on the group’s IT investment by outsourcing applications development and maintenance.

The project spanned 13 countries and EDS was chosen to work with the UK, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands and Romania. The single strategic partnership with EDS replaced multiple supplier agreements and is expected to generate cost savings of 25 per cent within three to five years.

Vodafone worked closely with EDS, running a joint workshop in the early stages of planning and establishing joint workstreams.

Integration with the EDS global IT community offers Vodafone employees cross-industry insight and IT expertise. In turn, Vodafone benefits as staff develop their careers and acquire new skills.