News: Parseq secures data centre contract

Rotherham-headquartered business process and technology specialist, Parseq, has secured a disaster recovery contract with banking sector software provider, Intelligent Environments.

Based at Hellaby, Parseq specialises in mobile and online banking software and technology-led outsourcing services. As well as processing over 75,000 items of correspondence a day, Parseq has a 12,000 sq ft data centre that opened in 2011.

Intelligent Environments is a provider of innovative mobile and online solutions for financial services organisations. Its software enables secure financial applications on mobiles, tablets and desktops for the likes of Lloyds Banking Group and Telefonica (O2).

Having signed a two-year IT disaster recovery and resilience deal for the management of its own data, Parseq will back up Intelligent Environments' server in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, with a direct point-to-point link to a server at its facilities in Rotherham.

In the event of the primary server crashing, Parseq's server will automatically take over using the most up to date information from files which are backed up hourly, weekly, monthly and yearly.

Phil Baker, client services manager at Parseq, said: "Disaster recovery is vital for service providers such as Intelligent Environments as it safeguards their company assets and provides them with confidence that if a server should crash operation can continue without disruption.

"Understandably they want to know their data is supported by a robust infrastructure. Parseq has a high security facility in Rotherham with ISO 27001 certification for information security management."

The purpose built site meets international banking standards and is flood proof, earthquake proof and benefits from 24/7 security and back-up generators.

Parseq website

Images: Parseq

Read more...

News: Premier Foods extends Capgemini outsourcing contract

Premier Foods, the UK's largest food producer, has once again renewed its long-term IT outsourcing alliance with Capgemini UK plc in a new contract worth an estimated £9m for the five-year period 2014-2019.

The contract covers the Premier Foods IT infrastructure including data centre and technical support for all core business systems.

Systems supported involve hardware at Capgemini data centres in Rotherham and Bristol, with additional support from the company's infrastructure management command centre in Krakow, Poland, and from a Capgemini development centre in Mumbai, India.

Under the contract Capgemini will continue to support the IT infrastructure that underpins the many famous Premier Foods brands such as Hovis, Ambrosia, Mr Kipling, Sharwood's, Batchelors, Quorn, Loyd Grossman, Oxo, Bisto and many others.

Phil McCallum, Director of IT & Infrastructure at Premier Foods, said: "We have built up a very effective working relationship with Capgemini over a number of years.

"The degree of trust and confidence between our two businesses has continued to grow, and I am therefore delighted that Capgemini has been able to offer us a technically and commercially attractive proposition reaching right through to 2019."

Avril Francis, Senior Account Executive at Capgemini UK plc, added: "Our client management and service delivery teams have consistently risen to the challenge of anticipating and meeting Premier Foods' evolving needs, and of demonstrating their commitment to continuous improvement and real collaboration.

"It is great news that their efforts have been rewarded with this important new contract."

Capgemini website

Read more...

News: Documetric chief named as a finalist in prestigious entrepreneur awards

Rami Cassis, the chief executive of Rotherham business process outsourcing (BPO) provider, Documetric, has been named as a as regional finalist in Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year awards 2010.

One of eight finalists in Yorkshire, and 113 in the country, he will compete at the regional award event in June. Regional winners will go on to vie for the title Ernst & Young "UK Overall Entrepreneur Of The Year" 2010 – currently held by Michael Spencer, Chief Executive of ICAP plc – at a ceremony held in London in October.

Sponsored by Credit Suisse, Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year celebrates people who build and lead successful, growing and dynamic businesses; recognising them through regional, national and global awards programmes in more than 135 cities in 50 countries.

Rami Cassis founded Documetric in 2007 through a management buy-out of the data services division of Atos Origin, a leading European IT outsourcer. Before heading Atos Origin's UK division, Rami worked for consulting group KPMG and Schlumberger Oilfield Services.

Hellaby-based Documetric, specialises in payment processing and transactional services. The firm's revenues have increased from £2m to £11m since it was established, and last year they secured a £2m investment from the Capital for Enterprise (CfE) fund to enable further growth.

Documetric processes up to 30,000 envelopes every day and utilising a range of cheque processing and scanning machines to process the payments, they process over 40 million payments a year.

Richard Hall, partner and UK Entrepreneur Of The Year leader at Ernst & Young, said: "Entrepreneur Of The Year recognises and rewards the people behind many of the world's most innovative businesses.

"More than ever, this year's finalists have shown their ability to adapt to market conditions, to forge ahead by seizing opportunities and taking market share in the toughest of times.

"They have maintained their vision for growth and pursued it, increased their focus on customer satisfaction and loyalty, expanded into new segments and geographical markets and engaged their employees using greater communication and transparency.

"Such trailblazers will drive the recovery and provide confidence throughout the world's markets. Governments around the world, not just in Britain, need to promote an open economy to stimulate innovation. Today's entrepreneurs depend on global capital, production, talent, and customers. If we put up borders, we go backwards."

Documetric website
Rotherham

Read more...

News: Capgemini secures Virgin Trains deal

Virgin Trains has renewed its mainframe-to-desktop IT outsourcing contract with Capgemini UK plc in a multi-million pound contract for the three-year period to 2013.

Capgemini will manage the entire IT infrastructure that supports core business-critical systems at Virgin Trains, including financial and key operational systems such as train and crew scheduling and rostering, and the catering management system. The systems are based on over 100 Virgin Trains network servers that are now located in two Capgemini secure data centres in Rotherham.

The contract also includes desktop and laptop management and support services for approximately 1,000 Virgin Trains staff at 42 locations across the UK, based on a dedicated team at a Capgemini service centre in Inverness.

Francis Jellings, Head of IT at Virgin Trains, said: "We continue to be impressed by the quality of the Capgemini people working with us and by their ability to work in full collaboration with our own teams. They have an excellent appreciation of our business and IT needs and I am pleased that we are to work with them for a further three years."

David Corr, Account Director for Virgin Trains at Capgemini UK, said: "We have constantly applied a policy of continuous improvement to all aspects of our work for Virgin Trains, with advances in technology and service levels, and we are naturally delighted that our efforts have been rewarded with a further contract period."

Capgemini website
Rotherham

Read more...

News: Documetric secures £2m investment

Documetric, the business process outsourcing (BPO) provider based in Rotherham, has secured a £2m investment from the Capital for Enterprise (CfE) fund to enable further growth.

The deal was led by venture capital firm Maven Capital Partners, a joint manager of the £75m CfE fund, a Government backed initiative launched earlier this year to help small businesses that are struggling to secure funding because of the credit crunch.

Hellaby-based Documetric, which specialises in payment processing and transactional services, will use the investment to continue its growth and development plans. The firm's revenues have increased from £2m to £11m since it was established in 2007.

Richard Arden, finance director at Documetric, said: "This investment will facilitate further organic growth by Documetric and is an attractive alternative to private equity.

"The efficient delivery of our outsourcing services is key to generating significant savings to our clients and we have a significant pipeline that has partly been driven by clients looking to rapidly cut costs in their operations."

Andrew Craig, partner at Maven, said: "Documetric is a high quality BPO with an impressive blue chip client base.

"The senior management team led by Rami Cassis have exciting plans for the business and Maven is delighted to be able to provide this investment from the CFE Fund to help the team achieve their strategic vision."

Documetric already executes payment for approximately 7.5% of the UK workforce.

Documetric website
Maven CP website
Capital for Enterprise website
Rotherham

Read more...

News: Corus goes with Capgemini for £26m IT refresh

Steelmaker Corus has signed a £26 million agreement for Capgemini to refresh and manage its IT systems for the next five years. The deal involves moving the on-site existing IBM and Fujitsu mainframe services to Capgemini’s datacentres in Bristol and Rotherham as part of its bid to reduce mainframe running costs and improve service levels. Corus has already been using Capgemini for 10 years to manage its IT infrastructure, and the IT services firm will continue to support core process activities at the company’s main UK manufacturing sites including Rotherham. These processes include production, supply chain, stockholding, purchasing, sales ordering and invoicing activities. Capgemini will provide on shore service management using its UK staff, and will offshore operational management to Poland and technical support to India.
Computer World UK article

Rotherham

Read more...

News: Capgemini secures IT outsourcing deal

Workplace assessment and psychometric testing group SHL has signed a six-year IT outsourcing deal worth £23m with Capgemini UK. The deal involves utilising Capgemini's secure data centre in Bristol. User and technical support will be moved to Capgemini’s service centres in Katowice, Poland and Mumbai, India respectively, with back-up support from Rotherham in Yorkshire. Capgemini secured the deal by creating the best mix of resources from their global network of facilities.
Capgemini website
Computerworld UK article

Read more...