Monday 3rd June, 2013

News that the bribery laws introduced in 2011 may be relaxed has caused concern and confusion. The laws were intended to promote a transparent method of working, free from corruption and were deliberately kept flexible in order to prevent any undue stifling of business activity.

Friday 31st May, 2013

The Forum of Private Business has said new data published yesterday has shown another clear decline in bank lending for the first quarter of the year. Data also suggests business community still lacking in confidence of economy

Thursday 30th May, 2013

Smart process applications (SPAs) are a new category of software that focus on collaborative business activities and processes which have largely been untouched by earlier generations of software focused on automating transactional processes. Their objective is to make people more productive participants in a business process, enabling organisations to enhance the customer experience, improve revenue generation, and increase margins. In a separate commissioned study Forrester Consulting estimated that the information intensive SPA markets will grow at almost a 60% compound annual growth rate to $3.9 billion in 2016.

Wednesday 29th May, 2013

Supply chain finance (SCF) has continued to exhibit strong growth in the last two years, according to latest research from Demica, which reveals average annual SCF growth rates between 30% and 40% at major international banks, as reported in Finextra. The SCF market - in which transaction banks provide top corporates with short-term financing to pay suppliers - is expected to continue to expand strongly to the end of the decade, although the pace of growth will moderate to 20-30% per annum by 2015, and 10% per annum by 2020.

Tuesday 28th May, 2013

The neighbouring councils of London Borough of Sutton and the Royal Borough of Kingston have announced a joint venture which they say will save around £4m over the next four years. The two councils intend to share information and communication technology systems and plan to work together to establish more cost effective ICT investment. The councils also state that new jobs will be generated by the arrangement.