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.
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.
Application Service Providers (ASPs) attracted more attention than anything else in outsourcing in 2000. Kirk Krappe, senior vice president of products and markets for Corio, Inc., one of the industry’s pioneers and leading ASPs, predicts even more incredible growth in this arena for 2001.(outsourcing, asp)
In 1998 Bill Miller was in the hardware storage business. His specialty was oil firms. He’d make a sales call and hear the complaints. Clients were tired of buying hardware. They were frustrated by the complexity of the software. And they were pulling their hair out trying to fill positions given today’s IT labor shortage. Many were spending more time searching for data storage solutions than they did searching for oil.
Plainfield’s Town Council decided to use Competitive Government Strategies, Inc. as its consultant for the procurement process. They had seen its president’s success when he had implemented in earlier years the privatization of the operation and maintenance of the Indianapolis sewer utility and the utility billings. Plainfield wanted to take a similar approach…
When government agencies first started outsourcing, cost was the sole consideration. Over the last decade, however, cost is losing its market share as a reason to outsource, observes Adrian Moore, director of privatization and government reform for the Reason Public Policy Institute, a government think tank in Los Angeles, California.
Clients come to us and say, ‘Get me up and running in the global economy.’ They know they don’t have the infrastructure, processes or people to do this in-house, so they turn to outsourcing, according to Maurice Rodriguez, manager of business development for LeapSource, a Phoenix, Arizona financial services Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) supplier. The BPO provides back office processing capabilities for its clients and delivers real time financial indicators to management….
The Every Woman’s Company needed 30 top salespeople nationwide for the roll out of its financial seminars for women. The company signed Erin Brockovich (the real person, not Julia Roberts) as its spokesperson. But the company found out quickly putting together a sales force was as easy as, well, as battling a big California polluter.
However, global competition on the Internet is forcing them to change their views. These new pressures are compelling them to look at alternatives. Outsourcing is becoming the favorite vehicle to remain competitive in the new economy….
Executives who know how to fix computer code but also understand the IRS code are the people who run reSOURCE Partner associates (rSP), an ASP supplier in Columbus, Ohio. The two-year-old firm, which specializes in both the technical and the business side of applications, provides complete application hosting, application management and business process outsourcing using PeopleSoft’s Human Resources and Financial applications. (The firm selected PeopleSoft after an extensive one-year search in 1996.).
Both Clark Air Force Base and Subic Bay Naval Station needed cutting edge telecommunication to stay battle ready. Telecomm equipment was cutting edge. When the U.S. military pulled out in 1992, the telecommunication equipment stayed.
I predict the burgeoning growth of the Applications Service Providers (ASP) will transform outsourcing in all four corners of the globe. For the first time, outsourcing is within reach of more than just the major ballplayers. Even the little league teams can now afford to play. The ASP revolution is modifying who can use software, how it is used and the way it is sold. ASPs may even be able to force the software prices down.
The biggest impact on outsourcing this year will be the scarcity of technical skills. So says Bob Evans, vice president and general manager, outsourcing, at Unisys. Every resource within organizations has been focused on old technology while working out Y2k compliance difficulties…
Mention J.P. Morgan and outsourcing these days, and the first image that comes to mind is the much-publicized Pinnacle Alliance.
Both customers and vendors will be taking a close look at their outsourcing activities in 1999, according to Michael Palma, research analyst for Dataquest…
For Unisys Corp., outsourcing is a business embedded in a product company.
Outsourcing Buzz Blog Outsourcing Alert