Can you use a balanced scorecard in an outsourcing deal? | Article
Dear Expert: Question: Can you use a balanced scorecard in an outsourcing deal? Answer: Leonard White, Everest Group.
Archive for March, 2001
March 1, 2001 | 0 comments | Read More
Planning for an Outsourcing Evaluation | Article
An outsourcing evaluation should follow a disciplined, managerial approach from planning through negotiation and implementation, to ongoing management of the relationship.
March 1, 2001 | 0 comments | Read More
In the Pink | Article
PinkElephant is a Dutch ASP headquartered at Zoetermeer. The ASP is a PinkRoccade nv company, one of the most successful traditional IT outsourcing vendors in Holland. And that’s exactly how the ASP market is developing in Europe. The quick starting, independent American startup is the slow moving elephant in Europe, according to Leon Fock, business unit director. PinkRoccade nv was formed in 1950 as the Mechanical Administration, which was part of the central government of the Netherlands. Every 20 years the IT outsourcing vendor has reinvented itself. In the 1970s the department morphed into the Government Computer Center. In 1990 the department became a public limited liability company as part of a privatization move.
March 1, 2001 | 0 comments | Read More
What skills must be present in the executive team that manages the ongoing outsourcing relationship? | Article
Question: What skills must be present in the executive team that manages the ongoing outsourcing relationship? Answer: from Wendell Jones, Outsourcing Center Analyst
March 1, 2001 | 0 comments | Read More
Virginia COMPETEs for the Common Good | Article
Government Competes with Private Sector on Level Playing Field Today, as local and state governments struggle to provide services to an ever-growing, ever-demanding public despite inadequate financial resources, outsourcing and privatization of government functions is becoming more and more of an issue. Taxpayers expect their governments to deliver products and services commensurate — at least in their own minds — with what they pay in taxes. In the Commonwealth of Virginia, a unique organization works to ensure its citizens get the most for their tax dollars. The 15-person Commonwealth Competition Council, created by the Virginia Legislature as part of the Virginia Competition Act of 1995, is proving that there is a better and less costly way to serve its citizens. The Competition Council, whose members hail from government, academia and the private sector, was mandated to research and recommend ways in which state government can reduce the size and scope of its activity, as well as investigate h
March 1, 2001 | 0 comments | Read More
Taking the Chaos Out of Government Outsourcing | Article
For government agencies across the United States, the ability to deliver services to their citizenry is being sorely taxed (no pun intended). Budgets are being strained beyond limit. Quality — and quantity — of services is deteriorating. And the varieties of the prevailing political climate can wreak havoc on long-range planning and consistent and coordinated operational systems. Add to this the fact that many government agencies’ entire existing infrastructure for delivering services is suffering from such maladies as outdated technology, a stagnant work force and the typical bureaucratic red tape that is government’s calling card, and you have a recipe for guaranteed underachievement.
March 1, 2001 | 0 comments | Read More
From Hamstrung to Power | Article
Italy — its name brings to mind the pungent parmesan and garlic odors, magnificent golden treasures in the cathedrals and palaces, crowded canals of Venice and mysteries of Pompeii. The nation holds many charms for tourists. Part of the culture of this historic land is endurance and pride. Those characteristics carry over into the business arena. There are people who created their businesses from nothing, and they have worked all their lives in those businesses. They are not open to change, says Stefano Valentini, an outsourcing consultant in Rome. He explains that Italy has a lot of small (under 50 employees) and medium (under 250) companies and that 80% of production comes from these companies. Although many executives even in the United States are just coming to grips with it, the fact is that a company can’t be good at doing everything. An attitude of mistrust and not wanting to let go of control of business processes only results in being hamstrung — as crippling as cutting the tendons at the ham
March 1, 2001 | 0 comments | Read More
Supply Chain Management | Article
Nestle is Quick to Adopt EProcurement In the world of Web, companies have to be quick to survive. No one understands that better than Nestle S.A., the world’s largest food company. Today executives have come to realize their customers’ satisfaction — or dissatisfaction — was linked to the performance of their supply chain. Bernard Teiling, assistant vice president of business process integration for Nestle S.A., which is based in Vevey, Switzerland, says supply chain management (SCM) is both a source of competitive advantage and a lever for profit margin. Even though the complexity and the cost of SCM has continually increased over the last two decades, companies must be proficient in this process. If you are not good at SCM, someone else will be, says Teiling. Nestle defines SCM as the two-way management of the flow of goods, services and information from suppliers to manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, stores — to the end user. SCM is especially critical for the food industry becaus
March 1, 2001 | 0 comments | Read More
Finance and Accounting Outsourcing | Article
Companies know that there is a next level of speed, ease of use and cost savings that must occur for them to remain competitive.
March 1, 2001 | 0 comments | Read More
How to Minimize Risks When Entering the Wireless World | Article
People are doing wireless today without having thought about it first, and now they have some real problems, states John Stehman, principal analyst with the Robert Frances Group. They can’t even support all the devices they have out there. They have five to seven different devices and the help desk doesn’t even know what some of them are. Wireless technologies are still experimental, and Thomas Tunstall, Ph.D. with KPMG Consulting, believes it’s difficult to know which applications will catch on and which providers will be successful. Wireless technology is changing, coverage is changing, and providers and pricing are changing. Users are trying to decide if applications will have value. To enter this world requires a strategy built on flexibility and minimizing risk; both are best accomplished by outsourcing.
March 1, 2001 | 0 comments | Read More
Wireless: To Be or Not To Be | Article
Wireless scares people, says Adam Braunstein, senior research analyst with the Robert Frances Group. The concept that you can get anything anywhere is easy to understand and sounds great, and what company wouldn’t want to give those capabilities to its staff and customers where appropriate? The problem is that the application is extremely difficult. There are several warring technologies out there, Braunstein explains, and the wireless carriers are having huge difficulties. Financial institutions and the healthcare industry are the early adopters of wireless technology. It’s also an ideal solution for a mobile sales force, traveling executives, field technicians, logistics and other processes. The media has touted the enormous benefits for companies to adopt this technology as an extension of access to the Internet while, at the same time, making a lot of noise about the immaturity of the technology and its failures in addressing business applications and user needs.
March 1, 2001 | 0 comments | Read More
The Reasonings of CEOs and CIOs | Article
Difficult business problems require solutions that are based on sound reasonings. The Internet and new economy have so drastically changed the way business is done that today’s top execs must focus on how to change their companies. Change is necessary as technology and markets evolve, despite whether a company is competing successfully or losing market share. Long-range plans keep getting shorter and shorter, and the need for risk management in such an environment is increasingly recognized as a competency. Most organizations now are a hybrid of some internal departments or divisions and some alliances with outsourcers for various business processes. Why do so many chief executive officers (CEOs) and chief information officers (CIOs) turn to outsourcing as a strategy to achieve their business objectives? Upon what reasoning do they base these decisions? Adam Braunstein, senior research analyst with the Robert Frances Group, whose clients are the top echelon of Fortune…
March 1, 2001 | 0 comments | Read More
You Can’t Be Good At Everything | Article
United Parcel Service (UPS) delivers three million packages a day. While the delivery company had no trouble managing its enormous fleet of brown trucks and the location of its packages, it had difficulty capturing the billing data on those packages. It took 14 days before the company had the billing criteria for any package, information necessary to begin the accounts receivable process. Two weeks is a long time to be without its hard earned cash.
March 1, 2001 | 0 comments | Read More
Fly Like an Eagle | Article
As human genome mapping starts to produce results and new drugs are developed to eradicate or control some of life’s most significant challenges, the spotlight will be on pharmaceutical companies. Time to market will drive their efforts. But the pharmaceutical industry is highly regulated, so their innovative development efforts will require tight management and control, along with certain levels of configuration management and maturity models (CMM). Outsourcers such as MERANT provide powerful solutions that will allow them to fly like eagles. Keith White, MERANT’s vice president and general manager, explains that 70% of development projects fail and 90% of them are over budget and behind schedule. The challenges are obvious for, as he points out, When you have to develop a product that has to fit in to a million different environments, the risks and time and resources required to get them deployed and to maintain and manage them is expensive.
March 1, 2001 | 0 comments | Read More
The Future of Contract Manufacturing | Article
The Future of Contract Manufacturing In the food business over the last decade, innovation and new product introduction has been the key driver. Brand names no longer command the same premium they used to. Steinberg points to recent market shares for new candy bars, snack foods and specialty cereals that have come and gone as evidence that new product life cycles often are very short. This means the innovation engine has to be cranked up pretty high, he says. So most food companies have invested heavily in plants, equipment and process technology over the last decade. According to Steinberg, a growing number of food companies now have too much specialized and inflexible technology that often was designed to make a product that may not be as competitive now as it once was. To become competitive, many consistently over the last decade have been asked to take money out of the supply chain. Profitability has come from continuous cost cutting, rather than top-line growth. Innovation, after all, is difficult; and i
March 1, 2001 | 0 comments | Read More
If the Shoe Fits | Article
Building for Future Competition and Growth Dramatic technological changes now regularly unsettle our ways of doing business, and this trend promises to wreak even more havoc in the future as technological advances occur even more quickly. Future organizational success already depends on strategies to make companies more agile in their ability to change so that their competitors don’t pass them by. Where will your company be five years from now? Successful companies will have evolved to operate in fresh new, more effective ways. Motivational speaker and author, John L. Mason, advises people that if the shoe fits, they shouldn’t wear it, for they are not allowing room for growth. Companies that don’t change but continue to operate as they do today will become eccentric, for growth and success require change. To stay in the game, executives must decide to stop doing things the way they have always been done, realizing that organizations have limitations and can’t be good at everything. To
March 1, 2001 | 0 comments | Read More
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