Research & Insight

Monthly archives: May, 2001

An ASP Plays Doctor with Database Health

Outsourcing Center, Beth Ellyn Rosenthal, Senior Writer

dbDoctor has reengineered the database monitoring process for Oracle and Sun Microsystems systems. ‘Databases touch each and every facet of your business. When they go down, all hell breaks loose and losses immediately start to accumulate,’ says Michael Misheff, vice president, sales and marketing, for dbDoctor.

Prepared to Answer

Chris Pryer, Business Writer

Customer service is a term that rolls easily off the tongue of almost every corporate mogul you hear interviewed or quoted these days. They talk about the fierce competition they face in their chosen industry and that the distinguishing factor that separates the leaders in their field from the also-rans is how they service their customers after the sale. In the remote environment of eCommerce, it can be particularly difficult to maintain a satisfying relationship between the buyer and seller, whether it’s B2C or B2B. This has spawned a whole new generation of companies that specialize in helping other companies manage interaction with their customers over the Internet. Ziptone is such a company.

What Happened to LeapSource?

Outsourcing Center, Beth Ellyn Rosenthal, Senior Writer

What Happened to LeapSource? – With $65 million in its checkbook, LeapSource opened it doors in September, 1999. The pure play business process outsourcing (BPO) provider closed those doors in March, 2001.\x0d\x0aWhat happened? And what does it mean for BPO outsourcing?

Outsourcing:

Outsourcing Center, Beth Ellyn Rosenthal, Senior Writer

Outsourcing providers offer a richer and more varied career path than companies whose employees work in departments that support the core business. When EDS completes an outsourcing contract, it manages the IT department of the buyer’s firm.

Risky Business

Chris Pryer, Business Writer

The issue of how liability is addressed in an outsourcing agreement is very real. The ultimate goal of any outsourcing arrangement is mutual satisfaction. The outsourcing entity hopes to acquire a higher level of performance in a particular aspect of its business that was not attainable in the past and be cost effective while doing so. The outsourcer leverages its expertise and economies of scale in the hopes of meeting the client’s expectationss and making a profit in the process. But it doesn’t always work out that way.

HR Moves to Self-Serve

Outsourcing Center, Beth Ellyn Rosenthal, Senior Writer

SynHRgy HR Technologies, an HR outsourcing vendor in Houston, Texas, monitored the usage of its 500,000 participants last fall. Sixty-five percent of the enrollees used the Web or its interactive voice response (IVR) system in lieu of talking to a live representative, reports Kraig Koester, Midwest regional director for SynHRgy. He points out the outsourcing vendor’s 35 clients range from high tech companies who couldn’t live without their Palm Pilots to unionized heavy industry whose employees work with their hands not computers.

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