Friday 28th February, 2014

The outsourcing giant Serco has appointed current Aggreko boss Rupert Soames as chief executive, causing Aggreko shares to drop 3.7% this morning. He replaces Chris Hyman, who stepped down after 11 years at the company in October 2013.

Serco said that it intends to rebuild its damaged reputation after an investigation found that it, and their rival G4S, had charged for work that was not carried out - including charging for the tagging of dead prisoners, or those still in prison.

Thursday 27th February, 2014

If last year was all about finding alternative methods of greasing the wheels of the supply chain, the signs are that this year will be focused on a sharpening of the detail, and making that happen smoother, faster - all the way down the chain. And today Taulia have announced that its new product, Taulia Enhanced Discounting will  go a long way to doing just that.

Wednesday 26^th February, 2014

Since Tradeshift started in May 2010, the company has grown and developed at a pace across Europe and the US, and now a new partnership is set to see them expand into the Asian marketplace. The company has raised $75 million in venture funding from Scentan Ventures, based in Singapore.

Tuesday 25th February, 2014

A new report into Global Economic Crime by PwC has revealed that fraud, corruption, accounting fraud and cybercrime continues to be a major problem for organisations of all sizes, and across all sectors. However, the company points out that the real issue is the threat economic crime poses to business processes.

With over 5,000 global respondents, the survey is focused not only on breaking down the facts, figures, trends and regions, but also on analysing how and where it may be affecting business. Procurement fraud accounted for almost 30% of the economic crime reported, with accounting fraud amounting to 22%.

53% of respondents expressed concern over the effect of bribery and corruption on the business, and with that accounting for 27% of all economic crime, it seems they're right to do so.

Monday 24th February, 2014

Lincolnshire County Council have recommend that Serco be awarded the five year contract to take over its support and customer services, in a deal worth £71m. The deal is likely to affect around 400 staff when the current 15 year relationship with Mouchel comes to an end next year. The new contract follows a 12 month procurement campaign with Serco, Agilsys and BT competing for the deal.