Dunion is reported by Public Finance noting a 25% rise in the past year in appeals made to his office about cases, and said his successor needs greater powers. He wants ministers to extend, by ­statutory instrument, FoI coverage to bodies  such as the Confederation of Scottish Local Authorities, the Scottish Law Society, the chief police officers’ group and housing associations. Some UK equivalents are covered by FoI, with ministers at Westminster consulting on more.

Scottish ministers resist this but did accept Dunion's recommendation to make it easier to prosecute bodies that destroy information sought under an FoI request. He also wants powers to take evidence on oath.

Dunion believed cash shortages were having an increasing impact on Scotland’s culture of transparency. The volume of appeals on issues  relating to employment or finance had soared in the past year from 14% to 25%. A disturbingly large proportion’ of the appeals reflected inadequate responses to FoI requests.

EUROPE & IT OUTSOURCING

Ciklum, the Danish IT outsourcing company specialising in nearshore software development in East Europe, presented a general review of the most thought-provoking predictions for the European IT Outsourcing Industry in 2012.

  Reported by SupplyChainDigital  it opened with the fact that 2011 has seen both an extensive use of ITO services in traditional niches such as IT and telecom, and a rapid penetration of ITO into innovative lucrative niches as digital media, mobile computing, online gaming and others.


Lack of domestic resources boosts outsourcing
Recent European ITO research conducted by IT Sourcing Europe reports lack of domestic resources and slow time to market as among key 2012 factors to influence corporate sourcing decisions. The latest Report on the European STEM  (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) skills by Business Europe generally supports IT Sourcing Europe’s findings.

Germany was lacking around 88,000 employees with ICT skills in 2011, 77% of Austrian companies reported difficulties in recruiting talent in the technology field in 2010. Pan-Europe the estimated shortage of qualified ICT staff is expected to reach almost 400,000 jobs by 2015.



Near-shoring attracts West European companies

IT Sourcing Europe’s latest surveys of the European non-outsourcers demonstrate that in most of the EU countries companies would transfer their IT support / development nearshore rather than offshore if they make such a decision in the near future. 



ITO service providers need innovative business models

According to IT Sourcing Europe’s research, a cumulative of 56% of today’s in-house development companies admitted that innovative engagement models were very or somewhat important determinants in their future choice of the ITO partners.
Offering this ITO providers will fix some of the most critical issues that faced the 2011 European ITO buyers as insufficient communication, hidden agenda and delayed delivery.



As innovative models as Own Agile Development Team show up, the entire outsourcing concept will  likely change: ITO buyers be able to in-source innovation and technology expertise while outsourcing processes, enhancing and update their in-house knowledge and capabilities and nurturing their own pool of highly motivated and loyal cross-border IT staff.  ITO buyers will finally be rid of the concerns related to the loss of managerial control of own IT projects (which is the case in many traditional project-based ITO models).



Cloud buzz dies out


According to CIO.com’s predictions, IT leaders will be looking more critically at the risks and value of cloud-sourcing in 2012. It is expected that more rigid firm policies on cloud regulation will be developed, and companies willing to cloud-source their solutions will scrutinise the privacy laws in the countries to house the data.

This will undoubtedly force Central and Eastern European near-shoring hubs to considerably revise and modify their existing data safety laws, but it will not happen in the foreseeable future as if by magic. That being said, no major progress towards cloud-sourcing will be seen throughout 2012.

5.

Progressive ITO takes over infrastructure out-sourcing

Central and Eastern European ITO providers focused on winning the market share rather than “skimming the cream” off short-term Service Level Agreements will be building strong infrastructure capabilities in order to move beyond application development and maintenance work.

2012 will see more EU companies setting up their IT departments near-shore with ITO providers able to offer the EU-level IT infrastructure and a mutually beneficial networking with other clients. ITO providers acting as separate High-Tech parks and/or customer-specific Innovation Labs will have a better chance to win clients in 2012 than their “old school” competitors.
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Increased back-sourcing activity More than 10% (cumulative) of the EU IT outsourcers polled report back-sourcing (bringing outsourced operations back in-house or to a different service provider onshore and/or nearshore) their operations in 2011, according to the “Pan-European IT Outsourcing Intelligence Report 2011.”

In 2012, more companies go this route in search of more transparent pricing options, better access to resources and mature engagement models. This suggests that the European ITO service providers should watch for back-sourcing companies as they can be a good addition to their client portfolio.