Oil and gas industry professionals in Asia Pacific lead the industry in the use of social media and collaboration tools at work, reports a recent Microsoft Corp. and Accenture survey, with three out of four respondents from that region saying social media tools improve their work performance. 

 

The Microsoft and Accenture “Oil & Gas Collaboration Survey 2010” – that polled 275 professionals from the Americas, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific – found that industry workers in Asia-Pacific significantly led other regions in the business use of social media tools such as instant messaging, video conferencing, social networking sites, mobile phone text messaging, video or photo sharing and the use of blogs and micro-blogs, sometimes surpassing their peers in other regions by margins of 10 to one. In fact, 37 percent of Asia-Pacific respondents stated social media is “very valuable” for work collaboration.

 

“Asia-Pacific, with its rapidly growing demand for energy, will set the oil agenda of the future, so driving increased productivity, enhanced collaboration and more efficient operations is of top importance in this region,” said Dr. Ali Ferling, Microsoft manager of worldwide oil and gas industries. “Oil and gas professionals in Asia-Pacific clearly have their sights set on adopting the newest technologies to help them keep up with the growing demand for energy.”

 

Drive to locate information in EMEA

 

Over one-third of Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) respondents reported they spend more time in collaboration this year than last. Sixty-two percent of them, however, said that collaboration was often hindered by the inability to find exact resources, including people and information. Three out of four EMEA professionals said social media was valuable for business, and over half reported using social media primarily as a search tool, with many more in EMEA choosing to use wikis for business purposes than any other region.

 

Americas adjust to changing workforce

 

When asked where they see the most value in social media for collaboration, the top answer of workers in the Americas was “documenting and transferring knowledge.” This response tracks with the 61 percent of all respondents who said that “scarcity of skills/talent due to shrinking or aging workforce” is the global industry trend most often driving their need to collaborate. However, 40 percent of respondents from the Americas said they are not currently using any public or company social media tools in the workplace. While half of respondents from all regions said their companies were on board but not widely implementing social media at this time, one in four from the Americas said their companies were not open to the adoption and implementation of these tools, a higher response than from Asia-Pacific (14 percent) and EMEA (17 percent).

 

James Arnott, Accenture senior executive in Energy industry group’s consulting practice, said, “Companies slow to embrace collaboration technologies are missing strategic opportunities to leverage tools to drive workforce utilization and improved business and operational performance. The high rate of usage in emerging markets reflects those companies’ rapid adoption of new technologies to provide differentiated levels of workforce, operations and business performance – this is creating new levels of competitiveness. The key finding that individuals, work groups and teams around the world are driving the use of collaboration tools within their company is indicative of the widespread need for knowledge-sharing and improved productivity through collaboration. It also highlights the increasing use of technology to support a critical shortage of skills and experience within the oil and gas industry.”

 

Three out of four professionals in all regions cited complex projects as the largest workplace factor driving collaboration, with 21 percent from the Americas saying they use social media to manage capital projects. Beyond that, geographic responses varied: Americas felt strong pressure to push for innovation to stay competitive (35 percent), while Asia-Pacific (43 percent) and EMEA (34 percent) said the new tools help them meet the demand for frequent or detailed reporting to management.

 

Overall survey results reveal that nearly 75 percent of oil and gas professionals worldwide see value in using social media and collaboration tools at work – an 83 percent jump from responses one year ago.

Sybase Software (India) Pvt. Ltd. (Sybase India), the Indian subsidiary of Sybase, Inc., an industry leader in enterprise and mobile software and Wipro Infotech, the India and Middle East IT Business of Wipro Ltd and a leading provider of IT and business transformation services, today announced a partnership to extend SAP applications to a variety of mobile device types. With these solutions, SAP customers will be able to securely access their business-critical enterprise applications while on the move.

Sybase and SAP are jointly delivering co-developed solutions for extending SAP CRM and SAP Business Suite to mobile devices. SAP customers will now be able to leverage Wipro’s SAP implementation skills to customize these Sybase® Mobile Solutions for SAP, in addition to developing custom mobile applications for other SAP modules such as SRM SCM, PLM, etc. that will be directed towards areas like mobile services, mobile sales, time and travel approvals, workflows, warehouse management, asset management, etc. Wipro’s solutions will be based on Sybase® Unwired Platform (SUP), a mobile enterprise application platform that provides systems integrators, independent software vendors, and enterprise developers with the ability to easily develop, deploy and manage mobile applications. This comprehensive, yet flexible mobility infrastructure will enable enterprises to implement, manage and expand their mobile computing initiatives in a coherent, streamlined and cost-effective manner. Mobile solutions created using the Unwired Platform enable mobile workers to access business critical data anytime, from anywhere, leading to a positive impact on productivity and revenue.

Mr. Sunil Jose, Managing Director, India & Sub-continent, Sybase Software (India) Pvt. Ltd. said, “The Sybase & Wipro partnership will offer Wipro’s SAP customers, applications on the go. SUP supports a wide variety of popular mobile platforms. This enables true mobility for a large section of employees and not just top or middle management. Through this, SAP’s customers will be able to create an information edge by optimizing and enhancing the infrastructure they already own, linking valuable data resources in place, and securely delivering information anytime, anywhere.”

Commenting on the partnership, Sairaman Jagannathan, Vice President, Business Solutions Division,Wipro said, “ Building on our SAP partnership, this partnership with Sybase demonstrates a strong synergy between our companies as we share a common goal of providing businesses easy access to valuable information contained within enterprise applications. As Sybase’s implementation partner, we will bring in tight integration with a wide range of mobile environments to ensure secure and real-time access to information. Wipro chose Sybase as a strategic partner based on the strength of its mobile enterprise application platform  and rich expertise and proven leadership in the enterprise mobility space.”

As part of this joint initiative,  Wipro will set up  a Center of Excellence at its research Center, Sangam, in Bangalore, where customers will be able to experience the various mobile applications developed by Wipro to mobilize SAP. This Centre of Excellence will also be used to develop newer industry frameworks that can be used across different customer verticals.

Mr. Sunil Jose further added, “Sybase is in the best position to support the movement away from siloed mobile applications to the mass adoption of mobility across the entire enterprise. With the growing number of end users and device types to the demand for real time access to information, our enterprise mobility platform is unrivaled in the industry. We believe our position in Gartner’s leader quadrant is a further validation of the significant advancements made to our Sybase® Unwired Platform and success in building out our partnership ecosystem”.
 
Recently, Gartner, Inc. positioned Sybase in the Leaders quadrant in its Magic Quadrant for Mobile Enterprise Application Platforms (MEAP) report, authored by William Clark and Michael King (December 2009). “We believe that more than 95% of organizations will be choosing MEAP or packaged mobile application vendors as their primary mobile development platforms through 2012,” states the Gartner report. “From 2010 through 2013, the number of enterprises choosing multichannel MEAP vendors will rise 10% annually.”

Valueshore Spain, the Government-backed group of IT outsourcing consultancies, has today announced the launch of its outsourcing partner selection service which will help businesses identify the right partner to enable them to take advantage of the innovation and cost-savings available as a result of outsourcing IT projects to Spain. The service, which has been developed by a combination of both global and local IT consultancies, includes organising site visits, providing legal support and offering independent quality control during the course of the outsourcing project. 

Spain is fast becoming a leading IT outsourcing hub. Wage costs are approximately half those of the UK, and it has a number of key advantages over other nearshore and farshore destinations. The region’s geographical affinity to the UK means companies do not experience the problems of cross-timezone business, which can make communication and management impossible and travel expensive and slow. Furthermore, as EU protectionism increases outsourcing within the EU is sometimes the only option if companies do not want to contravene certain legislation in areas such as data protection.  In addition, there are no delays waiting for visas if staff need to work in both the UK and in Spain. Staff can also travel back and forth in the same day at a moments notice because of the excellent travel connections. Furthermore, the region has a long history of business and IT excellence. The top three business schools in Spain are listed as top ten worldwide by many sources. There is also no skills shortage with almost 20% of Spanish graduates aged 25-64 holding IT degrees, compared to 10% or less in any other European outsourcing destination. Furthermore, with all of these graduates having studied for their degrees using English language textbooks the standards of English are high. 

Euan Davis, principal analyst at Forrester Research, who compiled a recent report on nearshoring to Spain, said: “Our interviews when compiling the report revealed the attractiveness of Spain as a destination for IT service delivery. Firms rate Spain highly for the skill of its people, the strength of its technology infrastructure, its nearshore location, and its ability to scale. Although firms hire companies rather than countries, our interviews show that Spain offers the ingredients to make a nearshore strategy a success with competitive differentiators around its large skilled IT labour pool, industrialized software factories and domain expertise – particular in financial services, retail and utilities.”

Daniel Naoum, co-founder of Valueshore Spain, added: “If a business is outsourcing IT, it’s vital that the chosen region can offer something others cannot. There is little point outsourcing to a country with no proven track record in IT innovation.  Spain’s IT is ahead of other regions in many ways – for example government services have been online for over two years whereas most countries are only in the early stages of projects like these. On top of this, Spain isn’t saddled with legacy systems which enabled the country to leapfrog many others in Europe.  Particularly in areas such as banking – Spain is home four of the top five European banks in terms of cost income efficiency ratios and this is  largely down to our approach to IT. Spanish IT staff have a proven record in delivering innovative, successful IT projects on time and on budget. The likes of IBM, Accenture and Barclays are already taking advantage with IT hubs in the region. Our goal is to make this kind of success available to everyone.”

Capgemini has been certified by SAP AG as a provider of solution implementation based on the Run SAP methodology. Capgemini will incorporate the methodology into its implementation standards.

Run SAP is a phased methodology based on world-class knowledge. It is designed to provide best-practice procedures, content, services, training and tools for end-to-end solution operations, along with a standardized and proven implementation method. The Run SAP methodology focuses on application management, business process operations, and administration of SAP solutions. The methodology describes how support should be implemented across the lifecycle design, set-up, operations and optimization. In addition, with its best-practice documents for solution operations, it describes how to implement end-to-end solution operations for different SAP software-based business processes.

Capgemini also has been certified by SAP AG as a global provider of application management services after recent audits in North America, India and Spain. The certification reinforces Capgemini’s new service line, Application Lifecycle Management, which the Group recently launched to help clients manage the entire lifecycle of applications from development to maintenance, including testing, implementation and optimization.

Infosys Technologies Limited said that it will design and implement the Research Informatics System (RISe) at Elan Pharmaceuticals, Inc, a leading biotechnology company, to accelerate discovery research using a path-breaking co-creation engagement model that leverages Infosys’ existing intellectual property in this field.

"We are confident that partnering and collaborating with Infosys will create a comprehensive informatics platform for our discovery research needs," said Ajay Shah, Director – Research Informatics, Elan Pharmaceuticals. "We selected Infosys after a competitive Proof-of-Concept phase during which they fully established their credentials and investments in this changing field of discovery research, and demonstrated flexibility and maturity in terms of rapid application development using Agile and Scrum methodologies. With Infosys’ solution and engagement model, Elan will be able to lower costs for scientific operation and facilitate innovation.

As Elan’s informatics system, RISe will leverage Infosys’ Scientific Innovation Solution for knowledge collaboration. Novel ways to unlock disparate data spread across in-house research labs and other commercial or public sources will be presented to scientists in context of their research needs. This will result in, among other things, a customized registry, and inventory and a workflow management system for biological entities.

Elan and its research partners could realize significant gains in research productivity by focused and efficient selection of candidate drugs or biologics with the new RISe. Linking silos of heterogeneous data will not only contribute to a more effective selection process of biologics but could also reduce time to validate them clinically. Furthermore, the new system will reduce time spent on registering and experimenting with bio-entities, increase collaboration, and reduce chances of downstream failure.

Future versions of the software may enable integration of RISe with electronic lab notebook and analytical dashboards which will enable more efficient research knowledge management.

The co-creation engagement model enables Infosys to retain ownership of co-developed IP as part of the implementation. Relevant components of this reference implementation can be reused or repurposed by Infosys to deliver faster business benefits at other Life Sciences organizations.

"Elan’s vision to create a scalable research informatics system for scientists to collaborate better, dovetails perfectly with our investments in solutions that improve scientific innovation and our efforts to streamline discovery research," said R Arun Kumar, head of Infosys’ Global Life Sciences Practice, Infosys Technologies.

Colleagues from across the IT industry are teaming up to support leading overseas aid agency CARE International by taking part in the annual CARE IT 3 Peaks Challenge on 12-13 June.

Once again, the challenge will see teams from across the IT sector taking on the three highest peaks in Scotland (Ben Nevis, 1,334m), England (Scafell Pike, 978m) and Wales (Snowdon, 1,085m) all in the target time of 24 hours. The event offers corporate teams a fantastic teambuilding and networking opportunity, with a well deserved dinner and awards following the challenge.

CARE’S WORK

CARE is currently assisting the people of Haiti following the devastating earthquake on 12^th January. This was the worst earthquake in the region for 200 hundred years, affecting 3 million people- a third of the population. An estimated 70,000 have died, with fears this could rise to 200,000.

CARE responded to the disaster immediately. The organisation has 133 staff based in Haiti, and has sent shelter and logistics specialists and a gender-based violence advisor to assist the response effort.

CARE began distributing aid within days, including water purification tablets, meals, high-energy biscuits, mattresses, hygiene kits, tarpaulins, mosquito nets, jerry cans and kitchen sets. CARE is working alongside other NGOs as members of the DEC (Disaster Emergency Committee), to ensure aid reaches the right places. CARE is already making plans for its post-disaster assistance in Haiti to last at least three years.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

CARE Challenge Manager, Neil Munro, says “People are often moved by poverty and suffering they see on the news, but it’s difficult to know how to help. The CARE IT 3 Peaks Challenge offers people in the IT industry the opportunity to turn their good will into concrete results, supporting CARE’s work not just in Haiti but in over 70 poor countries worldwide. It’s a chance to challenge yourself and challenge poverty.”

Funds raised will directly support CARE’s work. Ninety pence per pound raised for CARE goes to support poverty fighting programmes overseas- making every bead of sweat worthwhile!

If you and your colleagues want to take on a challenge with the added benefits of teambuilding, networking and tremendous fun, all for a good cause, visit www.carechallenge.org.uk/IT or call the CARE Challenge team on 020 7934 9470.

Wipro Technologies, the global IT services business of Wipro Limited, announced that it has been awarded the Most Outstanding Alliance Partner of the Year Award from the Software and Solutions group at HP during HP’s annual Asia-Pacific & Japan Partners @World Cup, held recently in Guangzhou City, China.

The HP Software and Solutions Most Outstanding Alliance Partner of the Year award for Asia-Pacific and Japan recognizes one partner for its success in helping HP’s customers optimize the business outcomes of IT. Wipro has delivered strong performance in the Asia-Pacific and Japan region. Wipro’s delivery capability and close collaboration with HP has helped them bag the largest Quality Control software deal in Japan and the largest Software as a Service (SaaS) deal in the Asia-Pacific and Japan region.

This is the third time in the last five years that Wipro Technologies has been recognized by HP Software and Solutions.

Speaking on this occasion, Sr. Vice President and Global head for Wipro Testing services Gangadharaiah C.P said, “We are excited to receive this award from HP Software and Solutions for 2009. This award validates the fact that alliance with HP is successfully delivering collaborative innovation through best-of-breed solutions and addressing the evolving customer’s needs by positioning new SaaS Models in the Industry today.”

“Customers benefit from faster time to market as a result of the HP and Wipro combination,” said Brad Kern, vice president, Worldwide Alliances, Software and Solutions, HP. “Wipro’s vast number of trained testing services professionals combined with HP applications testing products helps deliver this advantage.”

Wipro and HP Software & Solutions are global partners for more than 5 years now. Wipro Testing Services has been working strategically with HP around its entire portfolio of Test Lifecycle Management Tools, which also includes developing new Solutions for Joint Go-To-Market and delivering enhanced customer value through newer business models like SaaS. HP’s testing tools have further strengthened Wipro’s Testing-As-A-Service (TaaS) offering.

Wipro Technologies, the global IT services business of Wipro Limited, has joined the Open Handset Alliance, extending its device development and service Integration expertise around Android – an open mobile phone software stack.
 
The Open Handset Alliance (OHA) is a partnership of more than 60 global mobile industry leaders working together to accelerate innovation and offer consumers an enhanced mobile experience. Wipro will now enable its customers in conceptualizing and creating devices on the Android platform along with providing differentiating solutions and applications translating to faster time-to-market for the clients.

Wipro is currently engaged with a number of Handset Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), Telecom Carriers, Semiconductor companies, Consumer Electronics and Automotive companies on multiple Android based product developments. “Joining the Open Handset Alliance will help us turn around Android based products and solutions faster with rich feature-sets,” said Nagamani Murthy, Vice President of the Mobile, Automotive and Consumer Electronics Group, Wipro Technologies. “With most device vendors now releasing Android based phones, we foresee an impressive growth on this platform. The Open Handset Alliance membership will enable us to satisfy the strong customer demand,” she added.

Wipro has been focusing on developing differentiated applications on the Android platform along with testing frameworks. The IT major has had a strong Linux background augmented by robust in-house training and proof-of-concepts. These investments have enabled Wipro to help its customers in releasing Android based products in the market.

Wipro offers wide spectrum of mobile platform expertise ranging from development on industry standards and customer proprietary platforms, device engineering to Application/UI development expertise. Wipro works closely with leading mobile semiconductor players and has also supported many leading Tier 1 OEMs across the world in building complete phone software.

Wipro is the world’s largest third party product engineering services provider and was recently rated as the #1 R&D Service Provider globally by leading analyst firm, Zinnov based on an overall rating spanning across factors like financial strength, business models, innovation & expertise, people strength and operations.

As companies prepare for the economic recovery, many are poised to enter 2010 with renewed interest in improving their HR technology systems, processes and organizational structures, according to experts at Watson Wyatt, a leading global consulting firm.

“In the current economy, organizations will keep a watchful eye on their spending as they analyze their investments in HR technology,” said Steve Hitzeman, national leader for technology and administration solutions consulting at Watson Wyatt. “Employers are likely to continue or even increase their cost-savings initiatives by taking steps to globalize and streamline the HR function, scrutinize their vendor relationships and strengthen their service levels.” 

Watson Wyatt HR technology experts identify these emerging themes for 2010:

Scrutinizing vendor relationships and sourcing options. Employers with vendor contracts that are up for renewal will evaluate whether they have received optimal value from those relationships. For example, employers that aren’t satisfied with their HR business process outsourcing might decide whether to stay in their contracts next year, or revert to outsourcing to multiple vendors with specialized services.

“Rather than place all of their eggs in one basket, many companies will migrate to a blended, co-sourced service delivery model,” said Dan Vander Hey, senior technology consultant at Watson Wyatt.

As disenchantment with the time requirement and expense of platform hosting and technology upgrades grows, Watson Wyatt experts also expect many employers will continue to embrace software-as-a-service (SaaS) options. These options help reduce costs by providing access to software via an external provider.

Globalizing the HR function. A growing number of multinational organizations are expected to focus on standardizing their HR processes, organizational structure and systems, such as payroll, across borders. 

“In an increasingly global workplace, employers will be challenged to strike a balance between having consistent standards for their HR technology and processes across the different countries they operate in, while not losing sight of region-specific issues,” Hitzeman said.

Investing in a consumer-grade experience for workers. Companies will grow more comfortable with Web-based, consumer-oriented applications that convey HR information through interactive and self-service tools. Many will look to technology to boost employee collaboration and lower costs by expanding the use of social media or leveraging their portals.

“The recession spurred many employers to assess their technology capabilities and priorities,” said Hitzeman. “In the coming year, tight budgets and cautious spending will compel many companies to look for a strong business case that justifies taking action.”

Atos Origin, an international IT services company, has been certified by SAP AG as a provider of solution implementation based on the Run SAP methodology, the company said. Atos Origin is among the first Global SAP partners to be certified in the Run SAP methodology and will incorporate the methodology into its implementation standards.

“By adopting the Run SAP methodology into our own implementation standards, we are going beyond the vision of implementing the solutions required by our customers,” said Paul Bray, senior vice president and global head of SAP solutions at Atos Origin. “We are now providing our customers the proven methodology for managing their SAP applications through end-to-end solution operations standards. This will empower our customers to manage their SAP applications more efficiently and at a lower cost.”

Run SAP methodology is a phased methodology based on world-class knowledge. It provides best-practice procedures, content, services, training and tools for end-to-end solution operations, along with a standardized and proven implementation method. The Run SAP methodology focuses on application management, business process operations, and administration of SAP solutions. The methodology describes how support should be implemented across the lifecycle design, set-up, operations and optimization. In addition, with its best-practice documents for solution operations, it describes how to implement end-to-end solution operations for different SAP software-based business processes.

“We applaud Atos Origin’s achievement as a global SAP services partner certified in the Run SAP methodology,” said Dr. Uwe Hommel, executive vice president of Active Global Support at SAP AG. “By adopting the end-to-end solution operations standards provided by the Run SAP methodology, Atos Origin will deliver to its customers a higher level of effectiveness and efficiency.”

Run SAP is an integral part of SAP Enterprise Support services, a holistic support model designed to enable continuous improvement and successful solution operations at lower risk and cost.

SAP customers will realize the benefits of operating with the end-to-end standards. SAP standards for solution operations are a prerequisite for the continuous improvement of SAP solution operations. Not only do they enable automation, reducing the cost of operations, but also improved traceability and an audit trail, helping companies to achieve cost efficiency, quality assurance and compliance enablement.