Industry news

General Motors is looking to insource IT services by hiring 10,000 IT workers worldwide over the next five years.

The car manufacturer is looking to end its use of outsourcers, which it had previously used to run its global IT infrastructure.

GM CIO, Randy Mott, commented: “We plan to rebalance the employment model over the next three years so that the majority of our IT work is done by GM employees focused on extending new capabilities that further enable our business”.

Swiss based management consulting firm Lodestone, has been purchased for $349 million by Infosys. The move will increase Infosys’ workforce, adding 750 consultants to its rosters.

The move comes as the Indian based software company seeks to expand into other markets including consulting.

The acquisition will also help to increase the company’s customer base, adding 200 consulting customers to the company.

Ryanair’s bid to buy a 24.9 percent stake of Stansted airport could be stopped by the European Competition Commission.

The Competition Commission had indicated in an earlier investigation over BAA’s market dominance, that airlines should only be allowed to hold a tiny percentage of any airport that was later sold.

A challenge from the European Competition Commission would be the second time that the airline has been investigated, with a probe initiated after Ryanair’s bid for Aer Lingus.

BT will save Surrey County Council £750,000 on a yearly basis as it consolidates the council’s public services onto one network.

Up to 40 LAN and WAN networks currently employed by council departments will be replaced with one PSN network.

The seven year contract, according to Denise Le Gal, the cabinet member for change and efficiency at Surrey County Council will, “save the county council alone up to £5.25m over the seven-year contract.”

The Northern Grid for learning has suffered from severe broadband service disruption.

Issues became apparent over the last few days as children returned to schools, BT had took on a £8.3 million contract in July to provide broadband services to the non-for-profit group.

The cause of the disruption has yet to be identified with BT having individually checked both the core network and individual networks, with no faults found.

A statement released by Northern Grid said that: “Despite these tests and intense scrutiny, we know that the experience of internet browsing for most schools has been poor, although a number of sites reported improvements from early afternoon”.

Chinese computer giant has bought Brazilian based CCE in stock and cash worth $148 million.

The acquisition will allow Lenovo to expand into Brazil which represents a developing digital marketplace.

Lenovo CEO Yuanqing Yang, said that the move will more than double the companies PC market share in Brazil: “CCE's management, who will become an essential part of our Brazilian operations, know the Brazilian consumer and will immediately help us establish a strong retail presence."

A survey of a 100 heads of IT and UK businesses including global leaders has found that only 5 percent of respondents regarded Google as a credible enterprise market supplier.

David Roberts, executive director of The Corporate IT Forum which carried out the survey, said: “If Google is to make serious headway in the corporate market, it will need to change its approach".

Roberts continued by saying that: "The Forum’s research highlights speed, collaboration and development of new products as the key benefits of using Google's products and services. However, there are several issues, or perceived issues, holding back corporate users – mainly Google’s ‘missing features’ when compared with mainstream offerings such as Microsoft.”

China are set to invest a trillion yuan on a series of infrastructure projects in a bid to reinvigorate the economy.

The news has seen Asian stock markets soar as industries react to the investment.

Projects announced so far include transport systems, water treatment plants and waterways. The main Chinese share index reacted to the news with a rise of 3.7 percent.

Amazon will create 2,000 new jobs buy opening three new distribution centers in the UK.

New roles will be created in management, HR, and IT services, and 3,000 temporary jobs will be created over the Christmas period.

Christopher North, managing director at Amazon said: "We have created thousands of jobs in the UK over the last few years and are delighted to announce that we plan to create thousands more in the next 24 months.

Sainsbury’s have moved to enhance their communications services in order to modernise supply chain services and technology.

The new system has been procured from Wesupply and IBM and allows suppliers to have internet access to the supply chain.

The new system is expected to increase invoicing accuracy and provide increased control to users.