Tag: Deloitte

Security bosses focus on cloud

Posted on September 6, 2022 by - News

Enterprise security leaders in the UK are focused on cloud security, building up resilience against threats and aligning cybersecurity strategies with overall business goals.

A new research report The 2022 ISG Provider Lens Cybersecurity report from Information Services Group (ISG) claims cloud security is an enterprise manager’s top priority.

The growing use of cloud models such as infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and platform-as-a-service (PaaS) is forcing companies to adapt their cybersecurity approaches, with a focus on holistic resilience that requires more communication and training for employees and outside stakeholders, the report says.

19 Oracle companies bust $15.4 billion from cloud

Posted on May 23, 2022 by - News

Gartner’s 2022 Magic Quadrant For Oracle Cloud Application Services show that 19 Companies Generate $15.4 billion between them

Big G said that demand for Oracle Cloud application services continues to increase as total annual cloud revenue for the company currently stands at over $11 billion, growing at a double-digit clip year after year.

A big chunk of the cash in Oracle cloud sales growth accruing for many large channel partners including the likes of Accenture, Deloitte, PwC, and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), according to Gartner’s new 2022 Magic Quadrant for Oracle Cloud Application Services, Worldwide.

Just 19 vendors who made Gartner’s Magic Quadrant cleaned up earning $15.4 billion in total revenue from Oracle cloud application services last year, up from $12.5 billion year over year.

Enterprises spend more on cloud than traditional IT

Posted on March 28, 2022 by - News

Enterprise IT spending on public cloud computing will overtake spending on traditional IT in 2025, according to research by Gartner.

This rapid shift in buying habits, driven in part by the COVID-19 pandemic, has seen widespread adoption of cloud-based infrastructures, applications and business process services. In fact, Gartner says almost two-thirds (65.9 percent) of spending on application software will be directed toward cloud technologies in 2025, up from 57.7 percent in 2022.

There is a shedload of pressure for suppliers to come up with viable options.  Gartner vice president Michael Warrilow said: “Technology and service providers that fail to adapt to the pace of cloud shift face increasing risk of becoming obsolete or, at best, being relegated to low-growth markets.”

Public cloud services are expected to exceed $480 billion this year. Much of the optimism for this growth is based on the big cloud suppliers’ strategy towards industry clouds, virtualised cloud solutions based on increasing sophistication and integration of services. Last year, all three suppliers announced industry cloud strategies.

Outsystems and Deloitte build cloudy centre of excellence

Posted on September 30, 2021 by - News

OutSystems is working with Deloitte Consulting to build a Centre of Excellence (COE) focused on providing cloud-based industry solutions using Amazon Web Services (AWS).

The idea is that Deloitte, OutSystems, and AWS will hatch out new enterprise applications for customers.

The Centre of Excellence is European wide and so far has been tapped into by Red Cross Netherlands. The Red Cross used it to build new applications for volunteer management and coordination. The three organisations let the Red Cross to scale operations amid increased demand and rapidly changing needs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Government names suppliers for Technology Services 3

Posted on July 14, 2021 by - News

The list of awarded suppliers for the £2 billion public sector framework Technology Services 3 has been published

For those who came in late Technology Services 3, allows public sector bodies to “procure information and communication technology services.”  The framework is divided into eight different lots including technology strategy and service design, transition and transformation, a range of operational services lots and service integration and management.

The biggest winners were the suppliers to have been named to all eight lots which were Accenture, Cancom, Capgemini, Deloitte, Insight, KPMG and Telent.

Cyber security providers benefit from EU and local regulations

Posted on November 2, 2020 by - News

Enterprises in the UK are looking to cyber security providers to help them comply with European Union and local regulations, and protect data as employees work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report published today by Information Services Group (ISG).

The 2020 ISG Provider Lens Cyber Security – Solutions & Services Report, for the UK finds enterprises in the country counting on cyber security providers to help them comply with UK privacy and cyber security rules passed as the country separates from the European Union. At the same time, U.K. companies must continue to comply with E.U. data privacy regulations because of the country’s economic connections to continental Europe.

Jan Erik Aase, director and global leader, ISG Provider Lens Research said that UK enterprises are prioritising cyber security as most business processes have gone digital.

EXANTE stops serving cookies from its website

Posted on September 10, 2020 by - News

International Investment firm EXANTE is removing unnecessary cookies from its website; leading the way for privacy protection and making the internet safer for its users.

Accountancy firm Deloitte says in its Building Consumer Trust report that companies who are willing to give their clients sufficient guarantees that their personal data is going to be dealt with ethically will have a significant advantage.

Whilst other websites typically use third-party solutions (based on cookies) to collect and process visitor data, which can lead to multiple vulnerabilities, EXANTE  only collects the minimum data required in order to help its users. Users can browse the website without revealing their identity. EXANTE will only ask for information when the user chooses to sign-up and register to use the platform or other services which require the user’s information – putting the decision in their hands.

EXANTE’s web analytics service provider, Matomo, ensures that IP anonymisation is implemented by default. This means that each new visitor IP address is stored with the last components removed to protect users’ privacy.

Brexit is worrying customers

Posted on July 10, 2019 by - News

Chief financial officers and tech startup leaders are being more cautious, and the reason is Brexit and the trade war between the US and China.

According to the latest Deloitte CFO survey, 83 percent of those surveyed thought that the UK business environment would deteriorate as a result of leaving the EU.

Only four percent of CFOs felt that this was an excellent time to take risks, which is the lowest level since 2008.

Deloitte chief economist Ian Stewart said: “Events in the last three years, and recent news suggesting the economy shrank in the second quarter, have added to worries about the impact of Brexit. This is not solely a question of the long-term outlook. Brexit has not happened, but it is acting as a drag on corporate sentiment and spending,” he said.

Beta distribution goes the way of Betamax

Posted on December 17, 2018 by - News

Beta Distribution has crased owing £36 million according to a recently filed administrator’s report.

Deloitte was appointed as administrator for the failing distributer in October, and it declared that Beta did not have enough money to cover debts owed to unsecured creditors.

“We do not think that the companies have sufficient property to enable a distribution to be made to unsecured creditors,” the letter said.

Beta reported a £186 million turnover in its last financial year ending 31 March 2017  but owed over £14 million to trade creditors, and three million to the tax man.

Beta Distribution calls in administrators

Posted on October 18, 2018 by - News

Troubled Beta Distribution has gone into administration.

Deloitte has confirmed that Clare Boardman and Richard Hawes, restructuring partners at the company, have been appointed as joint administrators of the £180 million revenue outfit.

Boardman said that Beta had been experiencing increasing competition in the consumables market and this has placed it under a degree of liquidity pressure.

“It is a large importer of products from Europe and has, amongst other pressures, experienced issues with foreign exchange rates. Despite interest from a number of parties, no sale of the overall business was achieved and the directors took the decision to place the business into an insolvency process”, she said.

For its financial year ending 31 March 2017, London-based Beta saw turnover of £186 million and net profit of £950,000, but last month extended its current accounting period.

This is the third big distribution bankruptcy in as many years following the collapse of Steljes in 2016 and Entatech in 2017. In fact Entatech was nearly bought by Beta at one point.

Deloitte stressed that the outfit’s Belgian arm, Beta Distribution BV, is not subject to any insolvency process and continues to trade, .

 

UK businesses will splash out on AI

Posted on November 22, 2017 by - News

robby the robotA new study by beancounters at Deloitte predicts that 85 percent of UK businesses will have invested in artificial intelligence (AI) by 2020.

Deloitte researched over 51 UK companies and found that over half of respondents plan to invest over £10 million in AI over the next three years – with 30 percent saying they will have spent £10 million by the end of the year.

Deloitte UK digital transformation leader Paul Thompson said: “AI will have a profound impact on the future of work.

“Our view is that human and machine intelligence complement each other, and that AI should not simply be seen as a substitute. Humans working with AI will achieve better outcomes than AI alone, and UK businesses need to get this particular balance right.”

So far only 22 percent of organisations said they had not yet invested any money in AI, with just one third expecting to spend more than £1 million this year.

Deloitte said these figures are an indication that organisations are testing AI rather than skippin straight to large deployments.

More than 77 percent of leaders expect AI to disrupt their industries, but only eight percent expect AI to replace human activity in their businesses.

Redcentric is a mess but it claims to have a plan

Posted on December 29, 2016 by - News

cunning-planManaged services outfit Redcentric appears to be in a total mess but thinks it has a plan to get itself out of trouble.

Last month the outfit fessed up to multi-year accounting errors which meant it overstated net assets by at least £10 million and its net debt was nearer to £30 million. CFO Tim Coleman was “placed” on “garden leave with immediate effect.”

Redcentric delayed interim results for the half year ended 30 September until Deloitte and law firm Navarro could do a “forensic review” of its numbers. The results show that things were much worse than expected and the cumulative overstatement of net assets and profits after tax up to the half-way stage of this fiscal year was £20.8 million. To make matters worse more than a quarter of this arose in the six months of this financial year. The remaining £14.9m related to the years up to 31 March 2016.

Normally you could not lose that much money unless it was being taken by a bloke with a gun aided by a bloke outside with the motor running.  However, the report ruled out theft.

“The misstatements are attributable to profit overstatement over several years with revenues being overstated and costs understated in broadly equal proportions,” the firm told the London Stock Exchange.

Net debt turned out to be “materially higher than was originally reported” and was £37.8 million at the end of March and £34.4 million at the end of September.

Redcentric said the net debt in those periods was “not representative” because creditors had been “significantly stretched at those dates”. The average net debt position over the past eight months to the end of last month was £42 million.

Redcentric has recalculated historic banking covenants and has received waivers such that it remains compliant with the Ts&Cs. This will aid changes to billing and credit control management systems and processes, and the continued restructuring of the finance department.

The delayed half-year numbers to September will be reported before the end of the calendar year, and Redcentric forecast sales to be £53m and EBITDA £9.1m.

Redcentric’s share price almost halved last month when the news first broke of the financial errors; they recovered somewhat in the interim and were down nearly five per cent today.

Beware fake presidents

Posted on December 31, 2015 by - News

Screen-Shot-2015-03-23-at-7.21.27-PMBeancounters at Deloitte arewarning companies against a ‘fake president’ scam which apparently is rather convincing and has claimed several reseller scalps.

According to a Deloitte press release, the scam works by convincing an employee of a company to make an emergency bank transfer to a third party under the guise of paying off a company debt, sealing a contract or making a deposit.

Deloitte’s said: “We wish to draw the attention of our clients and suppliers to a wave of frauds affecting many companies at the moment. We recommend our clients and suppliers to stay vigilant.

“These type of frauds are created by well-organised criminal organisations with a complete knowledge regarding the market, structure and customers of the companies they are attacking,” it added. “This knowledge is used to give them all necessary arguments to convince their victim and act in the wanted direction,”.

The scam gets its name from the fact that the fraudsters impersonate a group executive such as the president, CEO or CFO or a trusted partner such as lawyers, auditors, accountants of the company.

They contact a specific employee’s company by reaching a manager or any employee by phone (imitating a voice) or emails (using the company signature), requesting an urgent bank transfer to a foreign bank account.

The transfer is then done manually using a direct phone call or fax to a bank. They usuallu use the victim’s company procedures for urgent business transactions.

Deloitte said there were several ways to avoid falling victim to this scam, including making all staff aware of the issue, and ensuring they respect standard working procedures.
It was important to verify the legitimacy of the request by calling back the person using the contact information stored in the contacts and not use the phone numbers the scammers give you.

It seems to us that it is just a more personal version of the Nigerian scam, but apparently it is a lot more successful, presumably because it is done over the phone by someone who sounds like they could be the real deal.

Robots will steal UK jobs

Posted on November 10, 2014 by - News

Oxford's own Bridge of Sighs, pic Mike MageePeople in the UK will have more time to watch daytime TV if the result of a survey by an Oxford University team of scientists in conjunction with Deloitte is to be believed.

According to the survey, 35 percent of UK jobs and 30 percent of jobs in London look set to be taken over by automatons or by automated processes. London employers say advances in technology will be the most important reason for job losses.

And if you’re unlucky enough to be earning less than £30,000 a year, your job is five times more likely to be replaced.

While 73 percent of London businesses plan to increase their headcounts, 84 percent of those firms say skills of employees will have to change to include digital know-how, management and creativity.

Over 36 percent of London businesses will invest in bigger properties, the survey said.