Short takes from this week's news
Government agency doubles offshore staff
National Savings & Investments is looking to double its
number of back-office staff working in India from 250 to almost
500. The government agency, which runs savings products for the
treasury, outsourced its back-office functions to Siemens Business
Services in 1999 in a £635m 15-year deal. The offshoring may lead
to "some voluntary redundancies", according to Siemens.
Woolworths trials kiosks at IBM offices
Woolworths is trialling out-of-store internet kiosks in the
South East of England in an extension of its multi-channel
retailing strategy. The first kiosks have gone live at one of IBM's
corporate offices where 5,000 employees will be able to order 7,000
Woolworths products and about 250,000 CDs, DVDs and computer games
using the kiosks.
IBM files subpoenas in dispute over Linux
code
IBM has filed subpoenas demanding information from Microsoft,
Hewlett Packard, Sun Microsystems and BayStar Capital about their
relations with SCO Group as part of its own defence in a
long-running dispute over Linux code. SCO sued IBM in 2003,
claiming that the hardware giant had breached its intellectual
property rights by using SCO's version of Unix code in its
distribution of Linux.
Capita criticised for firing transferred
staff
Records storage staff who have been transferred from the
Department for Work and Pensions to Capita immediately faced
compulsory redundancy, according to a civil service union. The
Public and Commercial Services Union said, "In the past few weeks,
23 staff have transferred, under a Tupe [Transfer of Undertakings
(Protection of Employment)] transfer, from DWP to Capita. Capita
immediately declared a redundancy situation."
American Golf to get real-time sales data
Golf retailer American Golf will have real-time sales data from
the end of March when it completes the integration of its store,
warehouse and head office IT systems. It uses Microsoft
applications for its head office applications, including its
finance system. American Golf had previously only received data
from its tills during overnight data runs.
Government agency doubles offshore staff
National Savings & Investments is looking to double its
number of back-office staff working in India from 250 to almost
500. The government agency, which runs savings products for the
treasury, outsourced its back-office functions to Siemens Business
Services in 1999 in a £635m 15-year deal. The offshoring may lead
to "some voluntary redundancies", according to Siemens.
Woolworths trials kiosks at IBM offices
Woolworths is trialling out-of-store internet kiosks in the
South East of England in an extension of its multi-channel
retailing strategy. The first kiosks have gone live at one of IBM's
corporate offices where 5,000 employees will be able to order 7,000
Woolworths products and about 250,000 CDs, DVDs and computer games
using the kiosks.
IBM files subpoenas in dispute over Linux
code
IBM has filed subpoenas demanding information from Microsoft,
Hewlett Packard, Sun Microsystems and BayStar Capital about their
relations with SCO Group as part of its own defence in a
long-running dispute over Linux code. SCO sued IBM in 2003,
claiming that the hardware giant had breached its intellectual
property rights by using SCO's version of Unix code in its
distribution of Linux.
Capita criticised for firing transferred
staff
Records storage staff who have been transferred from the
Department for Work and Pensions to Capita immediately faced
compulsory redundancy, according to a civil service union. The
Public and Commercial Services Union said, "In the past few weeks,
23 staff have transferred, under a Tupe [Transfer of Undertakings
(Protection of Employment)] transfer, from DWP to Capita. Capita
immediately declared a redundancy situation."
American Golf to get real-time sales data
Golf retailer American Golf will have real-time sales data from
the end of March when it completes the integration of its store,
warehouse and head office IT systems. It uses Microsoft
applications for its head office applications, including its
finance system. American Golf had previously only received data
from its tills during overnight data runs.