This paper discusses the reasons why companies are interested in information outsourcing (theory) and how it can be made to work for the benefits of companies and individual information developers (the practice).
There are certain times when a confluence of events can create an environment like no other. The moon in the seventh sky, or Jupiter aligning with Mars, for instance. In today’s fast-paced and constantly evolving business world, successful companies must be vigilant and nimble in order to respond quickly and take advantage of such favorable conditions when they present themselves. If these companies don’t possess the necessary resources in-house to accomplish their business objectives, they collaborate with another company who does.
Any company doing business on a global scale knows what a hassle supply chain management can be. Everything from procurement to receiving becomes a difficult task when multiple currencies, customs departments and logistics are considered. And it’s that difficulty that drove Hong Kong-based global logistics management company, United States Consolidation (USC), Ltd., to look to an outsourcing supplier to ease the pain of supply chain management (SCM).
In any vendor relationship, you can let the vendor manage you and direct you, but I’m not sure that you will get full satisfaction and have your full expectationss met. Companies have to understand what they are expecting and actually make decisions based on that, advises Vickie Pettee, Manager, Global Compensation and Benefits for Nokia.
Outsourcing was the right course for Meadowbrook Golf. The Lakeland, Florida company owns, leases or manages 100 golf courses in 16 states; during the summer the employee roster swells to 3,500. Payroll and tax filing took two days to complete every pay period.
With supply shortages creating a surge in natural gas prices and deregulation jacking up electricity costs, big power users found their energy costs soaring this year. The bills did go up at AT&T, but not by the magnitude of other corporate users.
It all started with deregulation. Outsourcing the entire process fuels savings.
Farmland Industries, located in Kansas City, Missouri, is the largest co-op agribusiness cooperative in the U.S. In addition to the brand Farmland Foods, the company makes nitrogen- and phosphate-based fertilizers. Because the company uses a tremendous amount of natural gas, it has its own risk management operation. Its energy traders evaluate the price situation, working with various commodity traders, and then take futures positions in the natural gas commodity market.
Providing good service to your customers is vital no matter what type of business you’re running. But for managers in the food services industry, where increased competition has led to the challenge of staff retention and higher customer expectationss, supplying a good service becomes increasingly tough.
In the world of packaged software, upgrades usually happen about once a year, sometimes less, and those upgrades are usually pretty extensive. But in the world of an application service provider (ASP), one of the benefits of offering a centrally located application is the ability to upgrade more frequently. And because upgrades can be performed without disturbing a user’s systems, they can be done on a more direct, incremental basis.
Neither rain nor snow… You know the adage about the reliability of the U.S. postal system. Today we might transfer that goal concept: Neither viruses, nor bandwidth nor disk space will stop email! — at least not for organizations that depend on it as their primary communication vehicle.
National retailers face a challenge when they enter the professional services sector. In the area of medicine, many customers view multiple location clinics with apprehension. They conjure up images of inexperienced, overworked and underpaid interns dispensing medical solutions on an assembly line.
In the spring of 2000 as the tech market was softening, the manufacturer of computer memory and networking hardware saw sales falling. Executives felt the critical need to rejuvenate their relationships with resellers and create more user demand for the company’s networking products.
California’s skyrocketing energy costs and energy price volatility all across the U.S. have turned the spotlight on energy costs, and that’s a good thing for energy management outsourcing providers.
Has this happened to you? You receive a letter in the mail describing a special promotion. You visit the Web site and notice the details are different. You visit the store and no one there knows anything about the vaunted promotion. Frustrated, you call the toll free customer service number and the person who answers the phone is clueless, too.
This spring I had lunch with one of our clients, a national retail chain. The chief financial officer, the chief information officer and the executive vice president for human resources (HR) gave me a list of 20 business processes they wanted to shed that weren’t part of their core competency. Read about how they did it.
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