 | Delegation from the Bulgarian Gov't visited @gdsteam. V Interested in digital leaders. Thx @paul_clarke for the pic twitter.com/Abs_GDS/status… |
Sunday, 24 February 2013
Untitled 1
Untitled 1
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| Delegation from the Bulgarian Gov't visited @gdsteam. V Interested in digital leaders. Thx @paul_clarke for the pic twitter.com/Abs_GDS/status… |
Tuesday, 19 February 2013
Personality cult at GDS?
| Excited about having the Swedish Insurance Agency visit GDS today, with Martha! #socialmedia and #digitalservices! twitter.com/Abs_GDS/status… |
Personality cult at GDS?
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| Excited about having the Swedish Insurance Agency visit GDS today, with Martha! #socialmedia and #digitalservices! twitter.com/Abs_GDS/status… |
Thursday, 14 February 2013
Skyscape – would you invest £4 million? Thousands haven't.
There are other cloud computing suppliers than Skyscape.
Some of them comparatively well-established.
What is Whitehall doing?
How did the Cabinet Office and the Government Procurement Service
manage to give G-Cloud accreditation to Skyscape?
And how did the MOD, HMRC and GDS
decide that Skyscape is a safe home for our data?
And how did the MOD, HMRC and GDS
decide that Skyscape is a safe home for our data?
Skyscape's first accounts appeared on the Companies House website today.
Is Mr Jeremy Robin Sanders still in ultimate control of the company?
Yes.
Except that it's become a bit indirect. He set up a company called Virtual Infrastructure Group Ltd (VIG) in June 2012. Then in October 2012 he transferred all his Skyscape shares into VIG. So VIG controls Skyscape. But Mr Sanders controls VIG.
How is Skyscape financed?
Not by equity, that's for sure. VIG has
Mr Sanders lent some money to Skyscape and the balance outstanding at 31 March 2012 was £93,333. But that's not a lot to fund an operation meant to be able to support the Government Digital Service (GDS), HMRC and MOD contracts let to Skyscape. So what other money is there available?
Answer, in November 2012 – well after getting the GDS and HMRC contracts – a loan note financing exercise was launched. £12 million-worth on offer, of which £8 million-worth had been subscribed for by 7 February 2013, the date on which the Skyscape accounts were signed by Mr Sanders and the auditors, Grant Thornton.
Who are these subscribers/investors? We don't know.
What we do know is that, as set out in the Particulars of a mortgage or charge filed with Companies House on 14 November 2012, if Skyscape goes into receivership or administration or ..., then the noteholders get all the assets, which may include GDS's data (our data), HMRC's data (our data) and the MOD's data (our data).
And who's managing the loan notes? That's the other thing we know. Jeffrey Paul Thomas (15 active companies to his name and 45 inactive ones).
Who?
You remember Jeffrey. He's the man who once held some shares in Skyscape but transferred them to Jeremy. He's the man at ARK Continuity, the data centre specialist, with the Rt Hon The Baroness Manningham-Buller on board, funded by Real Estate Venture Capital Partners LLP (RevCap).
The business review in the Skyscape accounts makes it clear that Skyscape was set up explicitly as a speculative venture designed to exploit changes in UK government IT procurement, particularly G-Cloud, the move to cloud computing.
How's it going?
By 31 March 2012 Skyscape had sales of £44,416 which cost them £327,320 and they'd spent £956,965 on administration. There's no detailed P&L in the accounts, but there is a balance sheet showing negative net assets of £1,240,833.
A bit precarious. Just what you'd expect from a speculative venture. It might come right. You never know. Bit worrying that they couldn't get all the notes away, prospective investors not overly impressed.
Still, there's Whitehall in the background. They could make Skyscape a success. As long as Skyscape is well enough managed actually to cope with a lot of contracts.
And there's Cisco and VMware and EMC and QinetiQ in the background, the Skyscape Cloud Alliance. Skyscape is their Trojan horse. They'll extend their credit terms for a while yet but their patience won't be infinite.
G-Cloud, on which Skyscape largely depends – that's one of the Principal Risks And Uncertainties listed in the accounts – released some sales data last week. It's very early days yet. But between April and December 2012 G-Cloud sold just under £6 million of services. Emergn Ltd got 24% of those sales, BJSS 14% and Ninian 9%. 50 suppliers on the list, everyone else is an also-ran so far, including Skyscape with 2%.
Patience. Tested.
And remember. At some stage, G-Cloud may admit the big boys, Amazon and Google.
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(NB DMossEsq is absolutely not licensed to give investment advice.)
Skyscape – would you invest £4 million? Thousands haven't.
There are other cloud computing suppliers than Skyscape.
Some of them comparatively well-established.
What is Whitehall doing?
How did the Cabinet Office and the Government Procurement Service
manage to give G-Cloud accreditation to Skyscape?
And how did the MOD, HMRC and GDS
decide that Skyscape is a safe home for our data?
And how did the MOD, HMRC and GDS
decide that Skyscape is a safe home for our data?
Skyscape's first accounts appeared on the Companies House website today.
Is Mr Jeremy Robin Sanders still in ultimate control of the company?
Yes.
Except that it's become a bit indirect. He set up a company called Virtual Infrastructure Group Ltd (VIG) in June 2012. Then in October 2012 he transferred all his Skyscape shares into VIG. So VIG controls Skyscape. But Mr Sanders controls VIG.
How is Skyscape financed?
Not by equity, that's for sure. VIG has
Tuesday, 12 February 2013
2e2 – are there any lessons for the new skyscape of government computing?
2e2 Group Limited
Annual Report & Accounts 2011
• Established for over 10 years
• In the top 20 of UK Software and IT Services providers
• 2,000 employees with 1,200 technical consultants
• 17 offices in 5 countries
• Trusted IT advisor and partner to corporate and enterprise customers
• Agile and innovative approach
• Track record of delivering business benefits and reducing costs through transformational IT solutions
• High-level partnerships with the leading IT vendors
• Business-orientated approach and solutions design
• Named as the “Cloud expert” by the Financial Times
• Deep skills in data centre, unified communications, application consulting, cyber security, and managed services
2e2. What is it?Annual Report & Accounts 2011
• Established for over 10 years
• In the top 20 of UK Software and IT Services providers
• 2,000 employees with 1,200 technical consultants
• 17 offices in 5 countries
• Trusted IT advisor and partner to corporate and enterprise customers
• Agile and innovative approach
• Track record of delivering business benefits and reducing costs through transformational IT solutions
• High-level partnerships with the leading IT vendors
• Business-orientated approach and solutions design
• Named as the “Cloud expert” by the Financial Times
• Deep skills in data centre, unified communications, application consulting, cyber security, and managed services
Let 2e2 speak for themselves:
With glowing customer references from Linklaters, the London Borough of Newham, the London Borough of Waltham Forest, Menzies, Three, Bridgend County Borough Council, the Sussex Partmership NHS Foundation Trust, Allianz, Telefonica O2, McAfee, G4S and Orbit Housing, ...
2e2 is an ICT Lifecycle Services Provider; an agile, customer-focused provider of end-to-end next generation IT services. The company creates innovative solutions that transform business processes, reduce infrastructure costs and enhance performance – 'creating business advantage' for its customers. 2e2 focuses on solutions and managed services for medium and large private and public sector organisations, delivered on premises, in the cloud, hosted, as a managed service or as a hybrid. 2e2 has worked with many companies within the telecommunications, media, healthcare, retail, transport, public, financial services and professional services sectors.
2e2's annual accounts show a turnover of £396 million in 2011, a small loss of £11 million and net assets of £67 million, ...
all audited by Ernst & Young, who signed the accounts on 30 March 2012.
The accounts were submitted to Companies House (CH) on 24 September 2012 and the next entry on the CH website is 4 February 2013, Notice of Administrator's Appointment.
There's a big, strong board of directors – Graham Love (formerly chief executive of QinetiQ), Nick grossman (NCR), Frédéric Chauffier (énarque, Managing Partner of Duke Street), Simon Burt (KPMG), Matthew Collins (Morgan Grenfell, Merrill Lynch), Terry Burt (NCR), John Loveland (ICL, Wang, Nixdorf, Siemens), Mark McVeigh (NCR) ...
on 30 March 2012 the Directors' Report says that they have no reason not to use the going concern basis for the preparation of the accounts ...
Ernst & Young agree that the accounts give a true and fair view of the state of the undertaking ...
and next thing you know, they're in administration.
In short order, David Bicknell does a good summary of the problems faced as a result of 2e2's failure by five London NHS trusts responsible for the health of 1.27 million people ...
the G-Cloud team offers to help ...
Anthony Miller, managing partner at analyst house TechMarketView, says: "This is actually good news for 2e2’s beleaguered customers" (really?) ...
and Memset offers to help.
This is the hurly-burly of capitalism. It is a good thing.
Is there any sign, in 2e2's published accounts, of the problems to come?
That is, in case they ever publish any, what should we look out for in Skyscape's accounts?
2e2 – are there any lessons for the new skyscape of government computing?
2e2 Group Limited
Annual Report & Accounts 2011
• Established for over 10 years
• In the top 20 of UK Software and IT Services providers
• 2,000 employees with 1,200 technical consultants
• 17 offices in 5 countries
• Trusted IT advisor and partner to corporate and enterprise customers
• Agile and innovative approach
• Track record of delivering business benefits and reducing costs through transformational IT solutions
• High-level partnerships with the leading IT vendors
• Business-orientated approach and solutions design
• Named as the “Cloud expert” by the Financial Times
• Deep skills in data centre, unified communications, application consulting, cyber security, and managed services
2e2. What is it?Annual Report & Accounts 2011
• Established for over 10 years
• In the top 20 of UK Software and IT Services providers
• 2,000 employees with 1,200 technical consultants
• 17 offices in 5 countries
• Trusted IT advisor and partner to corporate and enterprise customers
• Agile and innovative approach
• Track record of delivering business benefits and reducing costs through transformational IT solutions
• High-level partnerships with the leading IT vendors
• Business-orientated approach and solutions design
• Named as the “Cloud expert” by the Financial Times
• Deep skills in data centre, unified communications, application consulting, cyber security, and managed services
Let 2e2 speak for themselves:
With glowing customer references from Linklaters, the London Borough of Newham, the London Borough of Waltham Forest, Menzies, Three, Bridgend County Borough Council, the Sussex Partmership NHS Foundation Trust, Allianz, Telefonica O2, McAfee, G4S and Orbit Housing, ...
2e2 is an ICT Lifecycle Services Provider; an agile, customer-focused provider of end-to-end next generation IT services. The company creates innovative solutions that transform business processes, reduce infrastructure costs and enhance performance – 'creating business advantage' for its customers. 2e2 focuses on solutions and managed services for medium and large private and public sector organisations, delivered on premises, in the cloud, hosted, as a managed service or as a hybrid. 2e2 has worked with many companies within the telecommunications, media, healthcare, retail, transport, public, financial services and professional services sectors.
2e2's annual accounts show a turnover of £396 million in 2011, a small loss of £11 million and net assets of £67 million, ...
all audited by Ernst & Young, who signed the accounts on 30 March 2012.
The accounts were submitted to Companies House (CH) on 24 September 2012 and the next entry on the CH website is 4 February 2013, Notice of Administrator's Appointment.
Andrew Dilnot and the cost of social control
Last seen around these parts Andrew Dilnot, chairman of the UK Statistics Authority, told the BBC that his plan to cap social care costs at £35,000 was "not about protecting people's inheritances" but giving people "control over their lives at a time when they're vulnerable and need that control". Predictably enough, the legislation proposed to implement the cap does no such thing. It couldn't. If the state is paying the balance of your care costs over £35,000 then it's the state which is in control. Not you.
Dilnot v., one mood only, imperative (imprecation) Don't! (esp. of hopeless Whitehall policy). Overtones of irrationality/stupidity/ignorance (q.v.), e.g. logically inconsistent arguments in support of hopeless Whitehall policy. Overtones of deceitfulness (q.v.), e.g. proponent of hopeless Whitehall policy is too intelligent not to realise that the supporting arguments are inconsistent. Normal usage – the attempt to promote/preserve honest political debate (q.v.) by a speaker who knows full well that the attempt is just as hopeless as the Whitehall policy. Example: "if you think the solution to excessive borrowing is to borrow more, Dilnot!".
Needless to say, it is HM Treasury which will gain control. Them, and local Councils.
According to the Telegraph, Mr Dilnot has maintained his divorce from the natural use of English. Following the announcement of the new social care cost proposals ...
Readers are advised to carry on being terrified.
... he described the current system as a “complete disaster” and said the new measures would mean that “for the first time you don’t have to be terrified of the consequences of needing care”.
Andrew Dilnot and the cost of social control
Last seen around these parts Andrew Dilnot, chairman of the UK Statistics Authority, told the BBC that his plan to cap social care costs at £35,000 was "not about protecting people's inheritances" but giving people "control over their lives at a time when they're vulnerable and need that control". Predictably enough, the legislation proposed to implement the cap does no such thing. It couldn't. If the state is paying the balance of your care costs over £35,000 then it's the state which is in control. Not you.
Dilnot v., one mood only, imperative (imprecation) Don't! (esp. of hopeless Whitehall policy). Overtones of irrationality/stupidity/ignorance (q.v.), e.g. logically inconsistent arguments in support of hopeless Whitehall policy. Overtones of deceitfulness (q.v.), e.g. proponent of hopeless Whitehall policy is too intelligent not to realise that the supporting arguments are inconsistent. Normal usage – the attempt to promote/preserve honest political debate (q.v.) by a speaker who knows full well that the attempt is just as hopeless as the Whitehall policy. Example: "if you think the solution to excessive borrowing is to borrow more, Dilnot!".
Needless to say, it is HM Treasury which will gain control. Them, and local Councils.
According to the Telegraph, Mr Dilnot has maintained his divorce from the natural use of English. Following the announcement of the new social care cost proposals ...
Readers are advised to carry on being terrified.
... he described the current system as a “complete disaster” and said the new measures would mean that “for the first time you don’t have to be terrified of the consequences of needing care”.