ABN Amro to Outsource 2,300 IT Jobs
The bank had been in discussions with both Hewlett-Packard Co. and IBM about outsourcing its IT infrastructure but is now in talks only with IBM. Bank is in negotiations with Accenture Ltd., IBM and Indian companies Infosys Technologies Ltd., Patni Computer Systems Ltd. and Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. to outsource its application development operations. And also in talks with Infosys and Tata about outsourcing its application maintenance operations.

BT Gives Accenture $127 Training Contract
The contract, renews a previous learning agreement between the two companies and complements the 10-year £306m HR outsourcing contract signed by BT and Accenture in January 2005. The services to be provided under the new contract include technical and safety training around switching, data, transmission and network technologies. In addition, the contract covers the design, development and delivery of sales force and management training programmes for BT employees.

Fifth Third Signs Software Development Deal With Fidelity Information Services
Fifth Third Bancorp has outsourced advance-lending services to Fidelity Information Services. The services would enable Fifth Third greater flexibility in their use of capital, tighter regulatory compliance and expanded capacity.

SAP ito double development staff in India
SAP Labs India does both technology and application development. It is SAP's largest development facility outside Germany. The Bangalore lab is one of SAP's four global labs and is involved in the development of key SAP products, Agassi said. The others are in Palo Alto, California; Walldorf, and Tel-Aviv in Israel.

Wincor Nixdorf to set up ATM manufacturing facility in India
India would act as a regional hub for the company and cater the ATM needs of the neighboring countries. Other countries where Wincor has manufacturing facilities include Shanghai, Brazil, Germany and Singapore, he added. The company is looking at outsourcing and banking solutions to further fuel its growth in the country.

Wachovia selects SimCorp Dimension
SimCorp's investment management system, SimCorp Dimension, will cover accounting for foreign bond and foreign exchange transactions, position and regulatory reporting, processing of pricing information and pay down information for foreign mortgage backed securities

British Gas plans outsourcing jobs to India In its efforts to bolster profit, British Gas, leading energy company, plans to cut 2,000 jobs at sites in Manchester, Oldham and Solihull in the UK and outsource processing of bills, meter readings and other information to India Barclays moves tech jobs to India Barclays is to move its in-house technical support centre from Cheshire, north England to India Rochdale Council to sign 187 M Outsourcing deal Rochdale council is set to award a 15 year outsourcing deal to Agilisys and Mouchel Parkman. John Hancock forges 7-year IT outsourcing pact with CGI For $166 million, John Hancock Life Insurance is outsourcing the management of computer systems to CGI Group Inc. The seven-year deal has provisions for a three-year extension. Stephens Investment Management Group Outsources Back Office to Mellon Mellon Financial Corporation (NYSE: MEL - News) announced that its Investment Manager Solutions group will administer the back office for Stephens Investment Management Group, a division of Stephens Inc., which manages assets for institutional and Stephens Private Client Group customers. Users increasingly demand restructuring of outsourcing deals Restructing of Outsourcing contracts now represents 20% of the value of deals signed in the first six months of 2005, according to the latest half year index published by TPI Outsourcing remains high on CIO agenda The survey of more than 400 UK CIOs and IT directors by recruitment agency Harvey Nash found 81 per cent of respondents now outsource some of their IT, with cost cutting given as one of the main drivers. Survey Shows that Customers Save up to 80% of Costs Using Automated Testing Cognizant Technology Solutions, a leading provider of IT services, today announced the results of a new study that shows that automated software testing can deliver more than 80% cost savings when compared with manual testing. In addition, the survey of Cognizant's clients reveals that test automation can cut execution time by over 90%. A cost of Sarbanes-Oxley: Outsourcing to India Indian outsourcing firms say they are helping with each step of the Sarbanes-Oxley compliance process. They design and manage huge databases needed to keep track of the growing number of receipts, approvals and other bits of paper companies now have to store for years. They write the internal audit reports needed to explain how the systems work. They upgrade their clients' systems and test them. AGF Management sells Unisen back-office unit to Citigroup for $122M AGF Management Ltd. is selling its administration company, Unisen Holdings Inc., to Citigroup for $122 million cash, as Canada's eighth-largest mutual fund company battles to reduce management expense ratios and curb investor redemptions.   IT and Services and BPO Contract Sizes Fall 47% in Q2 2005 Based on figures from Datamonitor's IT Services Contracts Tracker, the average size of contracts announced by IT and BPO services vendors in the second quarter of 005 fell to $56m compared to $106m in the year ago period. This means that average deal size has now declined for four consecutive quarters. Swiss Bank UBS moves back office to India UBS is planning to set up an offshore back office processing center in Hyderabad, India and is expected to be operational within 10 months. Earlier this year HSBC, which already operates four offshore centers in Asia, announced its plan to open a fifth center in Calcutta, India by November, 2005. Other banks, including Goldman Sachs and Bank of America, are also extending and expanding operations. EU Justice ministers ponder data retention Indian outsourcing firms, especially call centers, may be impacted severely if the UK goes ahead with implementation of the controversial EU rules envisaging storage of telecom call and Internet use data for a long period, in the wake of the recent London terrorist attacks. Study Indicates Game Outsourcing On the Rise The most-outsourced skill is art, with 81% of those who outsource saying they used outside agencies for art needs, with programming being the next-most-outsourced skill. Reasons for the increase in outsourcing were cost-effectiveness, cited by 34% of respondents, and capacity, cited by 30%. Procurement offshoring on the rise A nascent yet rapidly growing vertical, procurement outsourcing is slated to emerge as India's successful outsourcing story, said Nasscom. Danka Outsources IT Operations to MCI As part of this $70 million agreement, Danka will transition more than 60 employees to MCI and its application support provider, Titan Technology Partners. As Danka's primary technology provider, MCI will manage all of Danka's core network services, including its IT operations and applications support, wide area network, local area network, IP services, servers, desktops and phone systems, as well as oversee Danka's network of ancillary technology vendors and partners. Lockheed Martin to Manage Online Portal for US Army Lockheed Martin Corp.'s Integrated Systems and Solutions Division in Gaithersburg this month won a $152 million contract to manage the U.S. Army's online network and is to take over in a few weeks. The Army Knowledge Online portal, known by its 1.8 million users.

Blasts: Indian BPOs boost staff for UK rail queries
Call centres in India brought in extra staff and asked some to work overtime to answer a flood of inquiries to Britain's National Rail after a series of deadly bomb blasts hit London's transport network Thursday, officials said.

Accenture plans hiring spree in Asia
Accenture plans to hire up to 30,000 new employees in China, India and the Phillipines over the next three years as it continues to increase the amount of software development and other work done offshore.

Sopra Group finalises the acquisition of Newell & Budge in the UK
A leader in the European consulting and IT services market, Sopra Group has acquired the company Newell & Budge and its Irish and Indian subsidiaries and expects synergies resulting from this acquisition as early as the second half of 2005, especially in the fields of Applications Outsourcing, Testing, Security and ERP Integration.

CSC Signs US$48mn IT Outsourcing Agreement with Raytheon
Under the agreement, CSC will manage the following services: help desk, data center, electronic messaging, desktops, servers, data and voice networks, and staff augmentation in the area of applications development and maintenance.

Nikko Systems and Accenture to offer IT services to capital markets firms in Japan
Under the agreement, NKSOL and Accenture will establish joint sales and support teams to market and implement a portfolio of capital markets solutions based on the two companies' service offerings. The solutions include front- and back-office securities trading systems, mutual fund sales systems, and data management services.

Atos Origin signs UK financial services contract with Britannic
The deal will see Atos Origin provide data centre and printing services to support Britannic's closed-book life-assurance business, the size of which is about to be boosted to 6 million policies by its merger with Resolution Life Group

ACS Acquires LiveBridge, Inc., Expands Customer Care Capabilities
ACS will expand its customer care service offerings in the finance and telecommunications industries through this acquisition. By adding LiveBridge's operational centers in Canada, India, and Argentina, ACS will extend its global capabilities and expand operations in those countries

African countries set sights on BPO market The bulk of Africa's BPO activity is presently concentrated in two areas -- the southern and northern regions of the continent, though countries throughout the continent, such as Ghana and Senegal, are also trying to build up BPO activity. Gecis to acquire U.S.-based Creditek Gecis (formerly GE Capital International Services) will acquire the New Jersey-based Creditek Corporation, which has strength in order-to-cash cycle and enterprise receivables management. Pomeroy wins $150M services contract Under the contract, Pomeroy will provide technology services ranging from application development to database management for 'a global leader in information technology business solutions.' The company was not named. Integreon Expands its Knowledge services Integreon, a leader in knowledge, content and document services outsourcing, today announced the acquisition of Brahmy Solutions, a Knowledge Services outsourcing company located in the UK and India. Wipro, H-P in alliance HP has decided to strengthen its alliance with Wipro by extending the system integration partnership to HP's entire portfolio of HP open view suite of software,' Tata Consultancy Q1 profit up 23% TCS, which leads rivals such as Infosys Technologies Ltd. and Wipro Ltd. in India's $17.2 billion software exports industry, posted a net profit of 6.19 billion rupees ($142 million) in April to June, against 5.05 billion a year ago, according to US accounting standards. Infosys Q1 profit up 37% Infosys Technologies posted a 37 percent jump in quarterly profits, marginally missing its forecast, but slightly raised its guidance for the rest of the year, as it continues to add new clients. Q1 operating margins were down at 32 per cent against the last quarter's 33.5 per cent. Net margins stood at 25.17 per cent against the last quarter's 25.83 per cent. MphasiS-BFL net profit falls 4.5% in Q1 It service provider MphasiS-BFL group’s consolidated net profit for the first quarter ended June 30, ’05 slipped to Rs 33.7 crore against Rs 35.3 crore a year ago, a fall of 4.5%. Infosys arm on a hiring spree Infosys Consulting plans to hire 1,000 professionals in China and 400 in the US and Europe.