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> GENERAL INTEREST

According to Statistics Canada, the composite leading index of the Canadian economy rose 0.2 percent in June following a 0.8 percent decline in May.

Statistics Canada also reported that employment rose for the third consecutive month, up 28,000 in June. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 7.4% as the number of people participating in the labour market increased. Over the past 12 months, employment has grown by 238,000 (+1.4%).

ACSESS reported that the Canadian staffing index – a measure of temporary staffing in Canada – rose five points in June to a reading of 90. “Although the Staffing Index remains below the pre-recession 100 level, it is continuing along an encouraging trajectory,” said ACSESS President Bryan Toffey. “ACSESS members are reporting anecdotally that temporary assignments are lengthening, more employers are hiring permanent employees with the assistance of staffing companies, and there is a return to the traditional and predictable seasonal fluctuations in temporary hours – all signs of stability and cautious optimism in the Canadian employment market.”

The US Conference Board’s employment trends index edged up to a reading of 100.0 in June, up from May’s revised figure of 99.5. The June figure is up 5.4 percent from a year ago.

U.S. real gross domestic product rose at an annual rate of 1.3 percent in the second quarter of 2011, according to the advance estimate released by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. However, first-quarter GDP growth was revised down to only 0.4 percent from a previous estimate of 1.9 percent.

The number of job vacancies in the US IT sector has surged +28% year-on-year as businesses ramp up investment in technology and kick-start projects put on hold during the recession, according to research conducted for the Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo).

The latest Quarterly Economic Survey (QES), published by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), suggests that economic growth in the UK remains weak. The survey results, combining 6,600 responses from businesses across the UK, are likely to have been negatively affected by the reduced number of working days in Q2 2011. While the second quarter results are more positive than those in the first quarter, they highlight the threats still facing the economy.

The number of new professional job opportunities in the Irish market did not fluctuate significantly from May 2011 (8,283) to June 2011 (8,250). However, the level of jobs available in June 2011 was considerably higher (46%) than for the same month last year (5,669), according to the latest Irish Employment Monitor published by professional recruitment consultancy Morgan McKinley (subsidiary of Premier Group).

Labour demand increased in the private sector in most European Union (EU) countries, according to the July 2011 edition of the European Vacancy Monitor, published by the European Commission (EC).

The Greek unemployment rate in April 2011 was 15.8% compared with 11.9% in April 2010 and 16.2% in March 2011, according to the latest Labour Force Survey published by the Hellenic Statistical Authority.

Germany’s unemployment was down by -247,000 individuals in July 2011 to 2.939 million when compared to July 2010, according to the latest statistics published today by the Federal Labour Agency (BA). Month-on-month unemployment was up by +46,000 individuals or by +0.1 percentage points to 7%. BA Board Member, Heinrich Alt, commented “the positive development in the labour market has continued in July 2011. Unemployment is only up month-on-month because of seasonal reasons. Demand for workers continues to be high.”

The number of category A (Unemployed) job seekers, in France, registered with job centres in June 2011 was up by +1.3% or +33,600 individuals to 2,720,400 compared with the previous month. Compared with June 2010, it was up by +1.5%, according to the latest data published by DARES on behalf of the official government job centres (Pôle Emploi).

Android is now well ahead of Apple’s iOS for iPhone in the race for market share in mobile operating systems. Android’s total U.S. share for June came in at 39%, compared to 28% for Apple, according to data compiled by market watcher Nielsen. RIM’s BlackBerry OS was in third place with 20% of the market. Android’s gains appeared mostly to come at the expense of RIM. Android’s share was up 8.3%, compared to April, while RIM’s share fell 13%. iOS’s share was up 7.6% over the same period.

> COMPANY NEWS

Cisco will cut about 6,500 jobs as part of an effort to focus its business and reduce operating expenses by US$1 billion per year. The layoffs will eliminate about nine per cent of Cisco’s regular, full-time workforce. In the ranks of vice-president and above, Cisco said it will cut 15 per cent of employees. The cuts will be made across all functions in the company. Of the 6,500 employees, 2,100 will take early retirement under a voluntary program announced in April.

The hacker group Anonymous claims it has stolen information from government contractor Booz Allen Hamilton that it says will help it hack into resources of other contractors and security consultants. The theft was part of a larger operation that yielded 90,000 military emails and password that the group posted on The Pirate Bay.

Google rolled out its new social networking tool Google+, which seems to be receiving positive early reviews and a sense of anticipation about its potential.

Aaron Swartz, co-founder of popular social sharing site Reddit, was indicted on charges of stealing millions of documents from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Swartz left Reddit in 2007.

RIM announced an 11% workforce reduction, eliminating 2,000 jobs worldwide in an effort to save money in the increasingly competitive smartphone and tablet market. RIM currently has about 19,000 employees across its operations, much of it in southwestern Ontario where the company started.

Logitech International is shutting down its Mississauga office, the lone Canadian location of the recently beleaguered maker of computer mice, webcams, keyboards and other peripherals.

IBM won a $665 Million outsourcing deal With Manulife. The multinational insurer will hand off server, security, disaster recovery, and other critical IT operations to Big Blue.

> MERGER & ACQUISITION ACTIVITY

Twitter Inc. has acquired yet another small start-up with its purchase of San Francisco-based social analytics firm BackType. The company, which lets publishers and media organizations use an API to search and track their brand recognition on a variety of social media sites, was created by University of Toronto students Chris Golda and Mike Montano in 2008. One of BackType’s products, BackTweet, is specifically geared at giving customers insight into the reach of their tweets and how they convert to Web traffic, sales and other KPIs.

Looking to bolster the breadth of its insurance technology offerings, Accenture announced it has entered an agreement to acquire policy administration software provider Duck Creek Technologies. Accenture says the deal, terms of which were not disclosed, will complement Accenture Software’s existing software stack and enable it to offer the P&C insurance market a full spectrum of capabilities from product configuration and policy management, to underwriting, billing, rating and claims management.

Google has snapped up smartphone-based loyalty card developer Punchd. With Punchd, every time you buy something from a participating store that’s part of a customer loyalty program – like buy five cups of coffee, get one free – you get to scan a QR code behind the counter. The Punchd app keeps track of how many times you’ve gotten your virtual punchcard and alerts the user when they get their freebie. Groupon competitor Google Offers is going live soon, representing the search giant’s play for the local commerce market. And if Google can come up with a smart integration, Punchd could complement the upcoming Google Wallet NFC payment system.

Dell is acquiring Force10 Networks as it aims to move into networking. Dell said it will wrap Force10′s networking gear into its data center portfolio, which features servers, storage and services. The big picture here is that servers, storage and networking are increasingly being bundled together. Force10 has almost $200 million in annual revenue. Dell characterized the Force10 purchase in the same mold as Compellent and EqualLogic. The plan is to take the technology and products and move it through Dell’s sales channels.

Anyone that has printed out PDFs, signed them and scanned or faxed the document somewhere may rejoice over Adobe’s acquisition of EchoSign, a startup that provides electronic signature technology. Adobe plans to take EchoSign’s technology and integrate it in its document exchange services. The general idea here is that enterprises will be able to swap documents for review and approval easily. EchoSign has three million users or so and will ultimately be integrated into Adobe’s services such as SendNow, FormsCentral and CreatePDF. EchoSign’s offers a subscription service to businesses to automate and track signatures and approvals while centralizing storage. There are also interfaces to plug into Salesforce and NetSuite.

Randstad, the world’s second-largest staffing firm, is paying $771 million for SFN Group Inc., the world’s 13th-largest staffing firm. Randstad posted revenue of €14.18 billion (US$18.79 billion) in 2010, according to its annual report. It had 521,300 staffing employees and 3,085 branches and 1,110 on-premise sites. Based in the Netherlands, Randstad operates in 43 countries. SFN, based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., posted revenue of $2.05 billion in 2010. It has a network of approximately 560 locations in the U.S. and Canada, according to its annual report. Its operations include temporary staffing (both professional and commercial), direct hire, managed service provider service and recruitment process outsourcing. Much of SFN’s revenue comes from the U.S. with 4 percent coming from Canada. SFN employs more than 170,000 people annually. Its brands include Technisource, Tatum, The Mergis Group, Todays Office Professionals, SourceRight Solutions and Spherion Staffing Services. The combined Randstad and SFN would have 1,044 branches and 5,390 internal employees.

Adecco Group, the world’s largest staffing firm, plans to acquire New York-based outplacement firm Drake Beam Morin Inc. The deal gives Drake Beam Morin an enterprise value of €149 million (US$211.6 million), and the transaction is expected to close in the third quarter.

South African solution provider Dimension Data has given its global cloud computing strategy a kick-start with the acquisition of OpSource, an enterprise cloud services provider. Based in Santa Clara, Calif. with 150 staff spread between the U.S., Ireland and India, OpSource is a hosting services provider that also helps companies resell cloud hosting services across geographies through its Cloud Partner Ecosystem. The company began a push deeper into the Canadian market last month through a partnership with Tenzing Managed IT Services.

Xchange Technology Group has been making more growth efforts in recent years with several acquisitions, including two this June. In mid-June, Xchange finalized a deal to acquire German company Livingston Electronic Services GmbH, a short-term rental solution provider. Then on June 27, the group announced that BlueRange Technology, its subsidiary, had acquired the majority of Mainline Information Systems Canada’s IBM portfolio, excluding its System z and mainframe related assets. BlueRange ranked no. 66 on CDN’s Top 100 Solution Providers list in 2010, up from no. 82 the previous year. “We’ve been on a fairly aggressive growth plan for the past few years,” said Jeff McFarlane, president and chief executive officer of Xchange. It started on this path four years ago when it acquired Vernon Computer Source, according to McFarlane. After acquiring U.K.-based Hamilton Rentals Ltd. in January, Livingston was the next biggest competition in the European marketplace. “Their single biggest competitor in U.K. was Livingston,” he said. Livingston was then a prime acquisition target.

> PRIMARY SOURCES:

IT World Canada – http://www.itworldcanada.com
Ottawa Business Journal – http://www.ottawabusinessjournal.com
ZDNet – http://www.zdnet.com
Canada IT – http://www.canadait.com
Monitor – http://www.monitortoday.com