This is a case study on the landmark financial turnaround of University of Pennsylvania Health System. UPHS had the largest medical outsourcing initiative of 2000 and was the first multiple-function outsourcing done by a hospital in such a short period of time (seven processes in 10 months). Includes 16 best practice recommendations.
Outsourcing relationships have a better chance for success if they have an internal champion who believes in the cause. Find out what you need to know.
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.
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? – 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?
Exult and PricewaterhouseCoopers: Two BPO Vendors Who Are Doing Things Right – Much that LeapSource did wrong, its colleague at Exult did right, says Marc Pramuk, senior industry analyst for IDC in Framingham, Massachusetts.
Maximizing the Benefits of Economies of Scale – Economies of scale are the holy grail of outsourcing. Certainly, scale is the most easily understood leverage point in outsourcing. The optimal use of infrastructure and the experience and expertise around a process are what generates the power of economies of scale. Outsourcing is often the only way many buyers can take advantage of this business benefit.
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.
An Interview With Deborah Kops – Location, location, location is the number one rule of commercial real estate. For corporations worried about their bottom lines, the cardinal concern for their real estate should be process, process, process.
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.
How can companies shorten cycle time when the underlying technology takes forever to iron out the kinks and building new facilities can take months if not years? Shrinking cycle time is one of the key benefits of outsourcing. In fact, it may be the most significant. Outsourcing compresses cycle time because buyers are able to use someone else’s process — a process that’s already been tested and tweaked and now is a template for success.
Reducing cycle time is a powerful business strategy. Here are two examples from the newspaper industry that demonstrate how outsourcing was the only way these companies could take advantage of a great opportunity.
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.
Clark explains that, prior to Rockwood, he was selling an insurance product called employment practices liability (EPL), whereby companies can be insured for wrongful termination, sexual harassment and discrimination. These acts were considered to be uninsurable before 1992 because they were things people did on purpose. But the laws changed, and Clark set about creating awareness that there was an insurance product available for these exposures. Even as he sought ways to promote EPL, he was also trying to reduce the risk of writing a company that would turn out to have bad employment practices.
CH2M Hill is an international engineering company that serves municipal governments in the areas of water and wastewater management, energy, telecommunication, environment and nuclear management, transportation, industrial facilities, and a host of umbrella services. To say that CH2M Hill is adept at managing risks is like saying monkeys are adept at climbing trees. Neither could survive if they weren’t.
Many people don’t believe you can put the words ‘good will’ and ‘tax collection’ in the same sentence. There is a natural tension there. But in the city of New Haven, CT, there has been a breakthrough that should serve as a model for cities all over the country that are struggling to collect delinquent real estate taxes. In 1994 New Haven’s property tax collection rate was languishing at around 86 percent. Since privatizing the collection of delinquent taxes, it has improved to 94 percent for last year’s collection and is expected to exceed 96 percent this year.
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