No more posts to this site

As you will have read, our upgraded website www.TechMarketView.com is now LIVE.
This now incorporates our own 'Blogger' CMS system so we will be making no further posts here.

If you want to continue to enjoy Hotviews from TechMarketView, it is still free but only available from our website.

If you have this Blogger site on your RSS feed, I strong suggest you delete it and replace it with the RSS feed you can find on www.TechMarketView.com .

You can sign up for our free HotViews dail email on www.TechMarketView.com too.

Bye Bye and hope to see you again 'in another place' soon!

Things slowly improving for in-line Parity

(By Philip Carnelley, 13 Nov 09, 09:00) IT staffing agency and project solutions provider Parity has issued an IMS saying that trading, 5 months into its second half, has been in line with expectations. It saw “no material change” in conditions. As in its first half, the company is managing to largely maintain revenue and profitability in its primary resourcing division – not an easy feat for an ITSA – and is focusing on diversifying its client base. Its small SI group (c 16% of revenues, around £22m last year), which has been rather struggling – down 13% in the first half – has seen sales ‘improve’. It is also slowly improving profitability, in part due to increasing sub-contracting of work to its new Indian partner, Sonata (see Parity switches offshore partners). Across both divisions, the company says that even short-term visibility of revenues is low, and it does not expect any “near-term strengthening of the markets in which it operates.”

Steria UK revenues drop 15% in Q3

(By Tola Sargeant, Thursday 12th November, 2009, 19:00) Steria’s revenues were €372.9m in Q3, 9.1% down on the same quarter in 2008 on a like-for-like basis. The main culprit was the UK where quarterly revenues dropped by an alarming 15% on an organic basis to €141.7m. Apparently the decline in the UK was mostly due to the delay in the start-up of a number of contracts and a lower than expected level of discretionary spending.

The good news for the UK business, however, is that the company expects positive organic growth in Q4 as the delayed contracts begin. New orders in the UK remained strong in Q3, thanks to wins such as those at the IPCC (see Steria to handle police complaints) and the UK passport office BPO deal (see Steria wins BPO side of CSC’s passport contract), leading to a book to bill ratio of 1.18. This may not be enough to take the UK into positive growth territory for the full year – in the first nine months of FY09 UK revenues declined by 6.5% (organic) to €462m.

For the company as a whole, it’s actually the managed services and business process outsourcing business that is finding it toughest going. Organic revenues in the business unit were down 9.2% in the first nine months of FY09 to €429.3m. By comparison, the Consulting and Systems Integration business only saw a 1.6% drop in revenues in the same period to €749.0m.

BT and CSC bear the cost of delays to NHS IT deals

(By Tola Sargeant, Thursday 12th Nov. 2009, 17:30) I’m grateful to Leo King at Computerworld (see NHS IT project delays cost BT & CSC) for drawing my attention to yesterday’s written parliamentary answers which reveal that the Local Service Providers (LSPs) implementing the National Programme for IT in the NHS (NPfIT) at a local level – now just BT and CSC - have so far been paid less than a quarter of the £5b their contracts were originally projected to cost.

In London, up to 31 Mar ’09 – five years into a ten year contract - BT had received just £326m out of total projected lifetime costs for its contract of £1.0b. While in total, £784m of an anticipated cost of £3.0b had been paid to LSPs responsible for the North East, East, North West & West Midlands regions (£110m of that went to former LSP Accenture, the rest to CSC). The statement also reveals that Fujitsu, former LSP for the South of England, had received £133m by the end of March from a contract that should have been worth £1.1bn.

There is no great surprise in these figures: the suppliers are supposed to be paid on the delivery of working systems and the LSP part of the programme is running several years late. But it does emphasize just how important it is for the two remaining LSPs to meet the crucial deadlines set by the NHS (see November NHS IT deadline draws near for BT and CSC) and ramp up deployment in 2010. It might also make it more tempting for a cash-strapped government to try to claw back some of the funding by curtailing the programme. Taxpayers will, however, welcome the news that for once they’re not bearing the cost of delays.

TechMarketView website upgrade

We are delighted to announce a major upgrade to the TechMarketView website (http://www.techmarketview.com/ (Note - same address as before) This will be live on Monday 16th Nov. 09.

TechMarketView LLP update

TechMarketView only launched its first research programme in April this year but already we have around 40 Foundation Service clients including the top ranking companies in each of the sectors we cover – HP (IT services), Microsoft (Software) and BT (Telcomms). Indeed, companies responsible for around half of the UK’s SITS revenues are now TechMarketView Foundation Service clients.

HotViews is firmly established on the UK scene. The email is sent to thousands everyday and is viewed by around 10,000 people every month. It’s also a major comment source for key media like the FT, the Times and BusinessWeek.

And, of course, we have been adding to our team. It’s not just Richard and Anthony anymore. Puni Rajah is our Client Services Director. Philip Carnelley is our Software Research Director and Tola Sargeant is our Research Director with special responsibility for the Public Sector. More new joiners to be announced very soon!

TechMarketView is about to get even better!

On Monday we launch HotViewsExtra. Each morning HotViews will continue to carry our immediate views on the events of the moment. But, when we have been to the analyst briefings, talked to the CEO or have a more considered view, we will put this exclusively on HotViewsExtra. This is only available to TechMarketView Foundation Service clients who can either access it via the website or request a second HotViewsExtra email which will be sent at around 4.00pm each day.

HotViews, HotViewsExtra and our rapidly growing range of research reports (MarketViews, CompanyViews, IndustryViews, OffshoreViews, SoftwareViews and AnalystViews) now form a superb and fully searchable archive library. So if you want up to date information on a particular company or topic the TechMarketView archive should be your first port of call.

HotViews will continue to be free – but clearly TechMarketView Foundation Service clients get an even more enhanced service!

From Monday we are also enabling Comments on HotViews items. We already get loads of comments. If you still want these to be ‘not for publication’ then send them to us as normal via comments@techmarketview.com. But if you want to share your views with 10,000 others – then post away on HotViews! They will be ‘moderated’ though to avoid the junk and libel actions!

You will notice loads of other changes on the website – like a freely available TechMarketView News section and greatly enhanced Product and Services descriptions.

For our Banner advertisers

HotViews really is one of the best ways of getting to the CXOs of the UK SITS sector – indeed anyone senior with ‘skin in the game’. We have revamped our banner advertisements so even on the email they have live hyperlinks to your very own website. Please contact us (PRajah@TechMarketView.com) if you are interested in using our banner ads.

For TechMarketView Foundation Service clients only

Our TechMarketView Foundation Service clients have been asking us to change to a more industry standard ‘email address + password’ way of access. From Monday your old Username and Password will no longer work.

By Monday every TechMarketView Foundation Service client will have been emailed their new ‘email address + password’. For our larger clients with many people accessing the site, your Company Administrator has not only been given their ‘email address + password’ but this enables them to setup multiple user ‘email address + password’. On Monday, if you haven’t received your ‘email address + password’ from your Company Administrator, please contact them (not us) in the first instance. You will be able to request to receive the HotViews AND HotViewsExtra emails from your account profile on the new website.

Of course, we’d be happy to help if you have any problems. Email Puni on PRajah@TechMarketView.com.

Thankyou, once again, to all our many supporters. ENJOY!

Extended decision making hurts IDOX

(By Tola Sargeant, Thursday 12th Nov. ’09, 09:40) IDOX, a supplier of software and services to the UK public sector, has revealed that revenues and profits will be lower than expected for the year to 31 Oct. ‘09. EBITDA is now expected to be about 9% below market forecasts.

Delays to procurements and a shift towards longer term managed services and maintenance contracts have impacted 2009 revenue recognition. But IDOX claims demand in the local government markets remains strong with high levels of tender activity as local authorities remain under pressure to reduce costs and improve services, which bodes well for 2010.

As to the recruitment side of the business, like its peers IDOX has seen permanent placements suffer as a result of the recession but contract recruitment remain broadly stable. There are however, signs that permanent recruitment is beginning to recover according to the company.

CSC reports a 'solid' Q2

(By Tola Sargeant, Thursday 12th November 2009, 09:15) CSC has published what it describes as a ‘solid’ set of Q2 results. Revenues are down almost 5% on the previous year’s quarter at $4.0b (Q209 $4.2b) and EPS came in at $1.4, above the financial analysts’ consensus estimate of $1.35 (but down almost 50% on Q209 because that quarter included net tax benefits of $2.27 from the resolution of tax audits). Overall, cash flow, operating income and margins all improved sequentially and year on year.

The North America Public Sector business is driving any growth with revenues up 8.5% from the previous year at $1.62b. Managed Services Sector revenue was down 12.5% (7.4% in constant currency) at $1.58b, but management claim new business activity in this line of business is now strong as businesses look to outsourcing to cut costs. Unsurprisingly, demand for short term IT consulting projects remains subdued and Business Solutions and Services revenue was $0.86b, down 10.7% (7.5%cc).

As usual, CSC provided very little granularity on the performance of the business geographically other than commenting on the analyst call that in Europe most larger locations are doing pretty well apart from Germany, which is ‘a bit weak’. We’ll have to wait for more detail on how the UK is holding up although there was plenty of talk on the analyst call about CSC’s NHS contracts. The company appeared positive about the outlook for the c£3b of deals, describing the go-live of iSoft’s Lorenzo Regional Care at NHS Bury earlier this month as a ‘major turning point’. While we agree it is an important achievement, the real test will be the next milestone - getting Lorenzo working smoothly in Morecambe Bay, a much more complex acute Trust, by next March. Even iSoft’s UK-based MD Adrian Stevens admitted to me earlier this week that Morecambe Bay was going to be the real challenge. If it is successful - and there are no major changes to the National Programme for IT in the NHS as a result of a change of government - then CSC’s UK performance should get a boost in 2010.