Search through our UKHotViews and UKHotViewExtra articles plus complete research reports
After a pretty ghastly spring quarter for tech stocks, the summer months were full of sun, with every one of the major tech indices up. Indeed, all three of the main UK IT indices (IT, Hardware, SCS) and the Techmark 100, hit their highest quarter-end levels for some six years!
It was also the biggest quarter for ‘comings and goings’ for UK listed software and IT services companies on the London Stock Exchange for over two years, including four trade sales, two buy-outs, once crash-and-burn, and one shift from the main market to AIM.
Don’t be the only kid on the block who doesn’t know this stuff! TechMarketView Foundation Service clients can download the latest edition of IndustryViews Quoted Sector right now!
Posted by HotViews Editor at '08:05'
VC investment in UK/Irish tech companies slumped dramatically in Q3, according to the latest data from Ascendant. Only £134m was invested in the quarter, down 40% yoy and almost 30% lower than in Q2. However, deal volumes were up compared to Q2, but clearly on lower average transaction values. Software investments totalled some £20m, but the clear leader was the Internet/Wireless sector (£51m), followed by Cleantech (£25m). We will cover the UK software deals and the investment scene in more detail in the next issue of IndustryViews Private Equity.
Posted by Anthony Miller at '06:42'
In February when we last compiled our forecasts for the UK public sector SITS market, Labour was still in power and the UK was three months from a General Election. Since then the coalition Government (Conservative and Liberal Democrats) has taken Office and is taking swift action to tackle the national deficit. All aspects of UK government operations are impacted including ICT.
TechMarketView’s latest forecasts for the sector reflect the actions taken by the new government and reveal four consecutive years of decline in the UK public sector SITS market in real terms. Our latest report - ‘UK public sector SITS market: impact of a new government’ - identifies which areas of the market will be most affected and highlights where suppliers should look for growth opportunities. It is essential reading for any SITS suppliers trying to define their strategic approach to a rapidly changing marketplace.
Posted by HotViews Editor at '08:06' - Tagged: publicsector centralgovernment localgovernment markettrends defence education health
Its been another busy period for TechMarketView in the Press – mainly centred around the CSR. Before the review was published, Research Director, Georgina O’Toole contributed to a debate initiated by research undertaken by ComRes on behalf of VMWare on the effects of the CSR on public sector IT spend. This was taken up by a raft of publications like Computerworld, UKAuthority and many others. Readers can download the full report from smartsavingsideas.com.
Indeed TechMarketView’s comments on the public sector IT spending cuts were widely used eg commenting on the PwC report in Computerworld , CIO UK and NetworkWorld. Then on the CSR itself in CRN, ContractorUK etc.
Of course, the best place to read TechMarketView’s incisive analysis of the recently announced government spending reviews is right here from our own research. Foundation Clients can download our full analysis here.
Posted by HotViews Editor at '14:31'
The wait is finally over. The Chancellor has delivered Spending Review 2010, with the headline news that central government will have to deliver nearly £6b a year in savings by 2014-15 rather than the £3b previously announced.
The Spending Review, which lays out the government’s spending plans for the next four years, reveals that administration budgets across the whole of Whitehall and its Arms Length Bodies will be cut by 34% on average. Some departments, including BIS and DCMS, will have to slash admin costs by 40% or more. Reductions in spending on back office functions and the abolition of quangos will play an important part in delivering these savings. Central government will be smaller as a result with the public sector headcount expected to fall by 490k over four years (although it’s not clear whether this includes staff transferred to the private sector through outsourcing).
Contract renegotiations with suppliers, central procurement of commodities, stronger supplier management, reductions in spending on IT and consulting, cutting quangos and increased use of outsourcing and shared services all have a role to play in achieving these unprecedented savings.
As expected, central government comes off worst from the Review but local government is also in for some serious belt-tightening. On average, councils will see their central government funding cut by 26% but their budgets are expected to decrease by ‘just’ 14% once council tax receipts are taken into account. In contrast, health and schools are relatively well-protected but that doesn’t necessarily mean SITS spending is too.
For our considered analysis of the Spending Review, highlighting the areas of investment and opportunity for SITS suppliers, TMV Foundation Service subscribers can read more on UKHotViewsExtra.
Posted by Tola Sargeant at '08:20' - Tagged: publicsector
We’ve made some improvements to the TechMarketView.com website and email delivery. Most are ‘behind the scenes’ but the new features you might notice are:
Daily email index
The HotViews daily email now has a ‘live’ index of the items covered. Just click on the story and you are taken straight there. By the way, to return to the top of the email, just press the ‘Home’ button on your keyboard, or ‘T’ on your Blackberry or the equivalent key on any other device.
We introduced this feature as our daily Hotviews is getting longer with more posts. Remember the real value of TechMarketViews is the fantastic HotViews archive that we are building – now over 3000 items. Only Foundation Service Clients have access to that archive as the Hotviews stories disappear from the website within days.
Clients find the archive on companies or topics of huge value – but it’s only available to Foundation Service clients.
New search
For our Foundation Service Clients, we have improved the search facility. You can now search on a phrase like More for Less or a company name with multiple words like Micro Focus. Sounds small but the advantages are huge!
Easier to subscribe to HotViews
We’ve made it easier to subscribe to HotViews as you will see on our website. The Subscribe box is now difficult to miss! If you don't currently get the daily email, please sign up. Please also recommend us to your friends and colleagues! They will be in good company - around 10,000 senior execs interested in the UK SITS scene now check in to HotViews.
Posted by HotViews Editor at '18:06'
We are delighted to announce that John O’Brien joins TechMarketView today as Research Director for Business Process Outsourcing (BPO). John is a respected industry analyst with ten years’ experience, and is widely known for his commentary on the UK IT services market and his in depth knowledge of the BPO sector.
Before joining TechMarketView, John was the lead analyst for Ovum’s UK IT Services research with overall responsibility for UK IT services and BPO vendor analyses, market forecasts and related UK-focused research. Before this he worked alongside our very own Georgina O’Toole and Tola Sargeant in public sector research. You can see more about John here.
John will greatly extend our analysis and commentary on the UK software and IT services scene ahead of the launch early next year of BPOViews, a new research programme from TechMarketView which will cover market trends, financial performance and corporate activity in the UK BPO market. We will be introducing John to TechMarketView clients personally just as soon as we can, but meanwhile watch out for John’s commentary on UKHotViews very soon.
Posted by HotViews Editor at '06:14'
