2009 July 22 « Brodies TechBlog

Archive for July 22nd, 2009

Big fines make big news

Published July 22, 2009 Data Protection Leave a Comment

More data security headlines today with the FSA’s announcement that it is fining three HSBC group companies over £3 million in total for failing to operate adequate systems and controls to protect customer information. I saw this initially on a newsfeed beaming out from the screen in a client reception area.

This illustrates my point from Friday. Fines of this magnitude, attracting this level of media attention, are what will (eventually) force behavioural and attitude change. What greater incentive to avoid a repeat performance than a seven figure fine and headline coverage from the BBC?

The plot thickened further today with the Information Commissioner’s Office reportedly now citing next April as the likely start date for its fining powers, but still no confirmation of this from the Ministry of Justice. Watch this space..

Eleanor

New Article about Deflation in Supplier Management Magazine

Published July 22, 2009 Contract Law , In the Media Leave a Comment

I have an article in Supply Management magazine this week.

Supply Management is the journal for the Chartered Institute of Purchase and Supply (the trade body for procurement professionals).

The ariticle is about deflation and the effect on long term contracts with indexation clauses. Here is the “speed read” version:-

RPI has been negative for the last couple of months.
Many long term IT contracts have clauses under which any ongoing price, e.g. for maintenance, are linked to an inflation index such as RPI, RPIX, CPI. Similarly many outsourcing contracts have indexation clauses.
Typically these are to protect the supplier against the risk of inflation.
Often these are “upwards only”, i.e. the price can only go up. But this is not always the case.
Arguably purchasers could use any “up or down” indexation clauses to reduce the contract price.
Not all inflationary indexes are negative at the moment. RPIX (RPI excluding mortgage interest) and AEI are still positive. This shows the importance of selecting the right index at the time of contracting.

Here is a link to the article.

Douglas