Source: www.vnunet.com

Iain Thomson-Barclays Bank has confirmed that it intends to offshore many sections of its IT operations over the next three years.

As many as 1,800 UK ships could be shipped overseas, and while some will be offered to UK employees the company was giving no idea of terms and conditions.

“Some roles will move offshore and colleagues will have the opportunity to apply for these roles and relocate,” it said in a statement.

“As far as possible, we will manage the reduction in headcount by reducing the number of contractors and temps we employ. Where permanent staff are affected, working with Unite, we have put in place significant support to help them find another role, either in Barclays, or externally.”

Early indications are that the bank will be using the long lead time to reduce the need for redundancies and to make job cuts through natural wastage. Unite says it expects fewer than 50 jobs to go via redundancy.

The move mirrors that taken by Lloyds TSB last year and is part of the steady growth of outsourcing for cost savings purposes, despite evidence that such moves are not popular with customers.

Source: www.bizjournals.com

Alliance Data Systems Corp. has agreed to sell its utility services business to the global outsourcing firm Vertex.

The utility services line of Dallas-based Alliance Data (NYSE: ADS) will be combined with Vertex, creating a service provider with 2,500 employees at 18 centers in the United States and Canada. Alliance Data’s utility services platform currently has 900 employees.

Alliance Data’s experience in application maintenance, hosting, systems integration and customer information systems is what made the deal attractive, Vertex said.

Vertex is acquiring the unit for $50 million cash, a company spokesperson said Tuesday. The deal is expected to be finalized in the third quarter.

Alliance Data Systems previously had announced that it planned to off-load its utility services business to focus more heavily on other parts of its business. The company offers clients transaction-based loyalty and marketing solutions to assist with sales efforts.

Vertex was founded in the mid-1990s as a subsidiary of the British utilities provider United Utilities Plc. The company has 9,000 employees serving customers in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada and India.