IT services and outsourcing

Tech firms risk cashflow issues due to pandemic

Analyst Gartner warns that some tech firms may go bust because of inadequate coronavirus planning, and CIOs will need to reassess IT supplier viability Continue Reading

Coronavirus: Total outsourcing spending collapses in March

IT spending plunged in March, drastically reducing increases that had been expected in the EMEA region Continue Reading

Covid-19 will leave its legacy on global IT services

IT services buying and selling will go through a transformation during the coronavirus crisis Continue Reading

NatWest Bank shutters its app based bank after five months

NatWest is closing its consumer-facing, app-based bank and increasing its focus on mobile business bank Mettle Continue Reading

Coronavirus: Do Indian companies still have an edge in Nordic outsourcing?

Covid-19 lockdowns and social distancing have affected Nordic outsourcing strategies. Do Indian firms still have the upper hand? Continue Reading

Coronavirus: Government under pressure to give limited company IT workers more financial support

IT contractors who provide services through their own limited companies and pay themselves in dividends are largely uncatered for by the goverment's various coronavirus-focused business support packages, and are facing financial difficulties Continue Reading

Coronavirus: Startups raise £663m during lockdown

Investment is significantly higher than at the same time last year, but it is concentrated in very few hands as the total number of deals declines Continue Reading

Nordic CIO interview: Stefan Olowsson, Swedish Social Insurance Agency

Stefan Olowsson, CIO at Sweden’s Försäkringskassan, helps to ensure social security payments run smoothly, which is a balancing act of innovation, data security and reliable delivery Continue Reading

Australian researchers tap cloud to save the Tasmanian devil

Researchers at the University of Sydney are using Amazon Web Services to speed up genomics research in one of Australia’s wildlife conservation programmes Continue Reading

Confidence of UK startups rocked by coronavirus

Firms worry how to keep sales up and secure investment during pandemic Continue Reading

Covid-19 will decimate fintechs, but those that survive will prosper

The coronavirus will wipe out some fintechs, but those that get through it will share in the next growth phase of the industry's development Continue Reading

Funding released to support winners of coronavirus technology challenge

To help support the most vulnerable during the pandemic, NHSX and its partners are testing a range of digital solutions submitted as part of fast-track technology competition Continue Reading

How Vonage is riding the e-commerce wave in Asia

The surge in online sales across Asia has boosted demand for cloud-based communications services as more e-commerce players look to integrate text messaging, voice and video into customer engagement platforms Continue Reading

Australia’s CovidSafe app debuts, source codes to follow

Australia’s contact tracing app has been downloaded more than 1.1 million times, even as privacy concerns linger on Continue Reading

How likely are IT service providers to offer discounts in an unprecedented global recession?

As the global economy slows, businesses are trying to cut costs, with IT services one of the first stops – but what are the chances of a happy outcome? Continue Reading

Nasdaq gives customers real-time data through cloud platform

US stock exchange uses public cloud and APIs to provide investment companies with real-time data on trading activity Continue Reading

Coronavirus: Swedish college implements digital plans early

Work done by a Swedish medical school over the past few years to prepare digital education options is paying off as lockdown forces it to close physical classrooms Continue Reading

More than 80% of UK startups ineligible for public-private coronavirus loans

With the majority of startups left out in the cold, the UK government must now focus on the delivery speed of what is available, according to ecosystem leaders Continue Reading

IR35 private sector reforms: Treasury ignores sub-committee’s plea to delay April 2021 start date

Despite the Finance Bill Sub-Committee claiming it would argue for the IR35 reforms to be delayed even if there were no pandemic, HM Treasury remains committed to revised April 2021 roll-out date Continue Reading

How DBS is reaping the dividends of digital transformation

At DBS Bank, the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak has demonstrated the value of technology and the investments it made over the past decade to modernise its technology stack Continue Reading

Government launches online financial support platform for business

Businesses will be able to use the government’s online support finder tool to discover what sort of financial support is available to them during the Covid-19 pandemic Continue Reading

Coronavirus: Leeds Building Society uses robots to cope with mortgage holiday demand

Building society initiates more automation software to cope with growing demand for mortgage deferrals Continue Reading

Taking robot technology to a New World

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we talk to the technology team behind a project to recreate the voyage of the Mayflower using a fully autonomous ship. We look at how India’s coronavirus lockdown is affecting UK companies that use offshore outsourcing. And we examine the challenges of making edge computing work. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Coronavirus: BPO and IT services delivered from India face big challenges

UK businesses receiving business process outsourcing and IT services from India will face disruption, but IT services from large IT suppliers less so. Continue Reading

IT services company Cognizant warns customers after ‘Maze’ ransomware attack

US IT services company Cognizant alerts customers after the Maze ransomware group launches a cyber attack Continue Reading

UK government announces ‘Future Fund’ to support startups during Covid-19

The startup rescue package includes public-private match funding, which will give the government shares in the enterprises, as well as targeted research and development support Continue Reading

Coronavirus: Pandemic will see consolidation of offshore captive centres

Offshore captive IT operations owned by western businesses will be sold off to raise cash and boost efficiency amid Covid-19 pandemic Continue Reading

Covid-19 will leave its legacy on global IT services

IT services buying and selling will go through a transformation during the coronavirus crisis Continue Reading

Coronavirus: Treasury set to announce startup rescue package

With pressure mounting to aid firms not covered by the existing coronavirus loan scheme, the government has been in talks with industry on how to get support to hard-hit startups Continue Reading

AWS finds growth in Australia amid maturing cloud market

Edge computing, the internet of things and contact centre services are some of the key growth areas for Amazon Web Services in Australia Continue Reading

Coronavirus: Nordic digital educators collaborate with authorities amid pandemic

Nordic education technology startups are supporting education establishments in offering continued education during the Covid-19 crisis Continue Reading

Coronavirus: India eases lockdown restrictions for IT service providers

Indian government allows IT services firms to bring half their staff back to delivery centres Continue Reading

What role will printing play in the post COVID-19 workplace?

COVID-19 has plunged many businesses into a paralysis. The majority are now focused on weathering or surviving the crisis to emerge intact when the new normal arrives. Some of the changes invoked ... Continue Reading

Coronavirus: Indian IT sector takes hit

India’s IT market will see slower growth this year though opportunities abound in artificial intelligence and cyber security Continue Reading

Government urged to delay digital services tax amid coronavirus outbreak

Delaying liabilities for a year could help technology companies already stretched thin by the outbreak of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic, according to TechUK Continue Reading

Coronavirus: Standard Chartered bans employees from Zoom

Standard Chartered is the first bank to have instructed its staff to refrain from using Zoom Continue Reading

Coronavirus: Nordic authorities use tech in fight against Covid-19

Nordic government organisations are working with private technology firms in the region to support their efforts to contain the coronavirus Continue Reading

Australian firms soldier on amid Covid-19 outbreak

From the largest financial institutions to small companies, Aussie firms have been dialling up their use of technology tools to keep their businesses humming during the coronavirus pandemic Continue Reading

Podcast: Ruthlessly prioritise applications during Covid-19

We talk to Alex McMullan, CTO international at Pure Storage, about scaling up storage and compute for remote working and why that means prioritising applications Continue Reading

Inside Alibaba’s NLP labs

Alibaba is among a growing crop of technology companies that are rising to the challenge of solving the toughest problems in natural language processing Continue Reading

How Bolt plans to be more uber than Uber

Overcoming competitors with brand names that have become part of the modern vernacular is a challenge Estonia-based Bolt has set itself as it takes on Uber Continue Reading

Loan charge contractors face double whammy of life-changing repayment demands as past loans recalled

IT contractors already under pressure from HMRC to pay life-changing tax bills relating to their past involvement in loan remuneration schemes now face calls to repay the original loans, too. Computer Weekly investigates Continue Reading

CW Middle East: A quarter of Middle East businesses have no women in IT

Over a quarter of businesses in the Middle East have no women in their IT departments, according to Computer Weekly’s Salary Survey, which has also revealed that 40% of Middle East-based IT professionals would change job for more money. Also in this issue, find out whether China’s public cloud provider, Alibaba, has what it takes to trouble the likes of Amazon Web Services and Microsoft in the infrastructure-as-a-service market. Continue Reading

Multicloud storage 101: Pros, cons, pitfalls and strategies

Not putting all your eggs in one basket can be helpful to an enterprise’s resilience strategy. We look at multicloud storage and the benefits and pitfalls it brings Continue Reading

What next for subpostmasters’ miscarriage of justice appeals?

Computer Weekly looks at the next stages in the process to clear the names of subpostmasters wrongly prosecuted for the crimes of theft and false accounting Continue Reading

The growing stature of open source in APAC

From being users of open source software to contributing their own codes to the community, enterprises in Asia-Pacific are becoming active participants in the open source ecosystem Continue Reading

How APAC firms are coping with the Covid-19 outbreak

The air of change looms large in companies operating in the Asia-Pacific region, with some doing better than others in keeping the lights on amid the coronavirus pandemic Continue Reading

Adapting IT to the new normal

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we talk to four top IT leaders to find out how they are supporting their organisations through the coronavirus crisis. We look at the security best practices recommended by experts to ensure safe remote working for staff. And the CISO of Equifax explains why the firm is moving to public cloud. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Coronavirus: Nordic tech startups face job cuts amid falling sales and a lack of funding

Tech startups based in the Nordic region face difficult decisions as the Covid-19 pandemic leads to falling sales and investment Continue Reading

Coronavirus: BPO and IT services delivered from India face big challenges

UK businesses receiving business process outsourcing and IT services from India will face disruption, but IT services from large IT suppliers less so Continue Reading

Extension of coronavirus loan scheme does little for startups, says Tech Nation

Changes to the government’s coronavirus business loan scheme will do little to alleviate the financial pressure on startups and pre-revenue companies, despite previous warnings from tech industry bodies about the dangers they face Continue Reading

Coronavirus: What does the ‘new normal’ mean for how we work?

Examining the long-term impact of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic on the world of work, security, privacy and networks Continue Reading

What the Court of Appeal referrals mean to those who campaigned for justice for subpostmasters

Former subpostmasters and their supporters describe their feelings after their appeals against convictions – some of which are nearly 20 years old – get sent to the Court of Appeal Continue Reading

Coronavirus: NHSX working on contact tracing app

A contact tracing app to track the spread of infection is being developed, although specific technical details remain scarce Continue Reading

GDS champions cross-functionality approach to cloud adoption in public sector guidance

Extensive research into cloud adoption trends in the public sector by Government Digital Service (GDS) results in guidance detailing how IT leaders can make the most of their off-premise investments Continue Reading

Malaysia’s business continuity planning readiness a mixed bag

Larger Malaysian enterprises have BCP in place, but SMEs lag behind and will find it harder to weather the Covid-19 storm Continue Reading

CDN and cloud suppliers join routing security initiative

Akamai and Amazon Web Services are among a group of cloud and content delivery network providers to participate in a global initiative to address the security threats to internet routing systems Continue Reading

Loan charge MPs secure ‘unanimous’ support for motion to curb policy’s retrospective powers

A motion raised by the Loan Charge All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), aimed at removing all retrospective elements of the controversial tax policy, has secured the “unanimous” support of the House of Commons Continue Reading

Top five compliance concerns for UK business in 2020

We look at the top five legal and regulatory compliance concerns for UK businesses in 2020. It’s a list that includes GDPR, the DPA, PECR, PCI-DSS and the CCPA Continue Reading

Hackathon launched to help fight coronavirus pandemic

Virtual hackathon seeks to develop a suite of applications to help people during the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak through ethically built technology Continue Reading

Insurance company uses artificial intelligence to assess car damage when claims are made

In the latest insurtech development, the UK arm of insurance company Ageas is using artificial intelligence to assess vehicle damage in accidents Continue Reading

Coronavirus: Viability of half of London’s tech startups threatened

Technology startups in London are fighting for their existence, with business plans for the next three months geared towards survival Continue Reading

IR35 reforms: Chancellor slammed for dig at self-employed tax habits during coronavirus briefing

Rishi Sunak under fire for making a veiled reference to self-employed people needing to pay their “fair share of tax” during the government’s daily coronavirus update Continue Reading

Coronavirus: How app developers large and small are working to help fight Covid-19

Computer Weekly looks at how a range of actors are using technology to help mitigate the various impacts caused by the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak Continue Reading

Microsoft targets 5G arena with Affirmed Networks acquisition

IT giant turns sights on telecoms opportunities, bringing expertise of virtualised, cloud-native network software provider into Azure fold Continue Reading

Lorca calls on security scaleups to tackle coronavirus challenge

Lorca innovation programme has launched an open call for its next cohort of cyber security scaleups, with a timely focus on coronavirus challenges Continue Reading

Coronavirus: IT contractors ‘left stranded’ by exclusion from support for self-employed

IT contractors who provide services through their own limited companies will not be able to access government scheme to support self-employed through coronavirus outbreak Continue Reading

Huawei to boost Kunpeng ecosystem in cloud play

Chinese tech giant will shell out $200m this year to build an ecosystem around its Arm-based processor to bolster its position in the cloud computing market Continue Reading

Coronavirus: Chatbot to help Estonians cope during pandemic

Estonian government is using a chatbot developed by local startups to answer the many questions its citizens have about Covid-19 Continue Reading

Smartbox move to Nutanix HCI a catalyst for IT team revamp

Gift supplier reorganises IT team structures as Nutanix hyper-converged infrastructure helps sweep away legacy architecture for hybrid cloud and containerised operations Continue Reading

Coronavirus takes toll on IT spending in Asia

The economic fallout from the Covid-19 outbreak is expected to slash the growth rate of the region’s IT industry to just 1.2% this year Continue Reading

IR35 private sector reforms: Coronavirus prompts calls for fairer deal for self-employed IT workers

ContractorCalculator CEO Dave Chaplin says the deferral of the IR35 reforms should be upgraded to a cancellation, as the response of employers to coronavirus highlights glaring inequalities between treatment of inside IR35 contractors and employees Continue Reading

Workplace misconduct platform reports rise in coronavirus-related racial discrimination

More people are experiencing racial discrimination at work since the spread of Covid-19 Continue Reading

The AWS bucket list: Keep your cloud secure

Misconfigured cloud installations risk billions of records being exposed, damaging organisations’ finances and reputations. Paying attention to securing AWS storage buckets is a simple matter Continue Reading

Seek ditches pagers for cloud service in IT operations

Australian employment marketplace Seek is doing away with pagers in favour of PagerDuty’s cloud-based digital operations platform to scale up its IT operations in Asia and Australia Continue Reading

IT Priorities 2020: ANZ firms to spend more on cyber security

Over half of respondents in Australia and New Zealand plan to invest more in cyber security, especially in key areas such as data loss prevention Continue Reading

Loan charge under review: Cross-party group of MPs slams government inquiry into tax policy

The government’s independent inquiry into the loan charge disguised remuneration policy has been criticised in a report by a cross-party group of MPs for being ‘fundamentally flawed’ Continue Reading

How Oxeva delivered budget analytics with Pure Storage flash NAS

Web hosting provider Oxeva thought the consultants were mistaken and that what suited the web giants for analytics/big data wasn’t necessarily what was needed for enterprise customers Continue Reading

UK facial recognition project to identify hidden faces

A research project being conducted by UK universities in collaboration with the Home Office and Metropolitan Police could produce facial recognition systems that allows users of the technology to identify people with their faces covered Continue Reading

Employment and investment in UK tech sector booms

UK digital tech sector continues rapid growth in 2019, attracting record investment for another year Continue Reading

IR35 private sector reforms: Coronavirus prompts Treasury to delay start date to April 2021

HM Treasury confirms roll-out of IR35 reforms to the private sector will be halted for a year to ease the pressure on businesses in the face of the coronavirus outbreak Continue Reading

UN identifies tech companies working in Occupied Palestinian Territories

United Nations Human Rights Office report names a number of technology companies that could be involved in violating human rights Continue Reading

Want an HPC data center? Colocation could be the answer

Colocation can offer the space, HVAC and security an organization needs to implement high-performance computing and delve deeper into its data. But not every provider is a match. Continue Reading

Malaysia’s digital transformation efforts progress

Malaysian enterprises are taking steps to modernise their infrastructure, but many are still grappling with the lack of niche IT skills in key emerging technologies such as the internet of things Continue Reading

Is your perspective on outsourcing cloudy or clear?

"Wasn't cloud just another name for outsourcing back then?" joked another guest in a recent briefing, as our host explained just how long ago he’d joined his company’s cloud division. We all ... Continue Reading

Budget 2020: Full of promises, but is it enough?

Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s Budget provided plenty of cash for technology and innovation, but has the government done enough to make the tech industry happy? Continue Reading

MSPAlliance: What's next for the managed services industry

In part two of our interview with the CEO of MSPAlliance, we discuss the continued influence of cybersecurity on the managed services industry and the opportunities that lay ahead. Continue Reading

MSPAlliance on a quest to change the managed services industry

In part one of this two-part interview, MSPAlliance CEO Charles Weaver discusses his organization's evolution and its ongoing efforts to professionalize managed services. Continue Reading

CIO interview: Miguel Rio Tinto, Emirates NBD

The Dubai-based banking group’s CIO, Miguel Rio Tinto, talks about its ambitious digital transformation plans Continue Reading

IT Priorities 2020: Benelux organisations and budgets focused on digital transformation

IT leaders in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg expect bigger budgets this year, with spending on digital transformation projects and related technologies being prioritised Continue Reading

CW Europe: Experts examine Dutch government’s IT problems

Technology experts discuss the challenges and potential solutions to the Netherlands government’s IT problems. Also read how Russia’s VTB and Rostelecom are creating a platform to utilise big data technology, and how Spain’s CaixaBank is using AI to help its staff training. Continue Reading

VAT software supplier exposed data of millions

Eight million sales records belonging to UK and EU consumers left exposed due to misconfigured server Continue Reading

Is technology innovation broken?

In this week’s Computer Weekly, despite its reputation for fresh thinking the tech sector is stuck in old ways that prevent true innovation – an expert explains why. Our buyer’s guide examines how networking is affected by the growth of cloud-native applications. And we look at the key tech-related compliance issues for SMEs. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Inside Oracle’s cloud strategy

Oracle may be late to the cloud infrastructure and platform game, but it believes it has what it takes to carve out a bigger slice of the Asia-Pacific’s cloud market Continue Reading

Upcoming conflict minerals regulation does not cover major technology companies

A forthcoming regulation designed to stem the flow of conflict minerals is unlikely to change the behaviour of technology companies because loopholes in the new rules mean they are not covered Continue Reading

How will the 2020 Budget affect the UK tech sector?

Co-founder of crowdfunding app WhatWeWant looks at what the UK's tech sector can expect from the 2020 budget Continue Reading

Google to open new cloud regions in India and Australia

New cloud regions in Delhi and Melbourne underscore Google’s resolve to carve out a bigger slice of Asia-Pacific’s cloud computing market Continue Reading

6 advantages of cloud print services

Quocirca’s Cloud Print Services 2020 report reveals the opportunities for managed print service (MPS) providers and their customers in transitioning to a cloud-based print infrastructure.  The ... Continue Reading

Those who did not play by the rules in Post Office Horizon scandal “should face prosecution”

Telford MP has become a vocal member of the campaign for justice for the subpostmasters who had their lives devastated as a result of being blamed for losses caused by errors in the Post Office’s core retail and accounting system Continue Reading

Biometrics ethics group takes evidence on public-private use of facial recognition

Collaboration between police forces and private entities on facial recognition technology comes under scrutiny by the Home Office’s Biometrics and Forensics Ethics Group Continue Reading