Best Integrated Relationship: Brunswick Outdoor Group and ACS. The relationship between Brunswick Outdoor Group, a division of Brunswick Corporation, and Affiliated Computer Service (ACS) began slowly in 1995 with a contract for ACS to take over the data center of Zebco, a Brunswick Outdoor company.
Best Niche Deal: Merrill Lynch and AT&T Solutions. Merrill Lynch and AT&T Solutions could give lessons in how to make a niche deal work. Merrill Lynch had specific network needs, so they turned to the vendor dominating that segment of the industry.
Most Improved Relationship: TransAlta and Digital Equipment Corporation. In 1995, TransAlta, a privately owned Canadian electrical utility company, and Digital Equipment Corporation were involved in an outsourcing relationship that was headed south in a hurry.
As the industry continues to move from cost-based to value-based outsourcing, technology trends that leverage network over premise infrastructure will offer new opportunities in business processes and functions.
By the year 2002, over 50 percent of everything that is spent externally on IT services will be expended around e-business activities. That’s part of the e-business explosion predicted by Doug Elix, general manager for IBM Global Services.
The burgeoning demand for increased flexibility and information exchange is driving a marketplace move to networking, according to Rick Roscitt, president and CEO of AT&T Solutions.
Specialization, once primarily the domain of physicians and attorneys, is spilling over into other fields in the ’90s. CPAs specialize. Writers specialize–even some dog groomers specialize in certain breeds. IT is no exception.
If it’s not broken, don’t fix it. Hyatt Hotel Corporation put a new spin on that old adage in 1996 by ‘fixing’ the company’s well-functioning IT organization before it broke. The result is an outsourcing agreement that continues to deliver Hyatt’s high standards of customer service while providing the resources to plan for the future.
This relationship is recognized based on Textron’s perspective that it has allowed them to aggressively pursue acquisitions and achieve the most favorable worldwide pricing.
It’s a growth industry that has not yet hit its stride. For instance, in the IT and customer care field, the breadth of what firms are now considering and are in fact outsourcing has grown so dramatically over the last year that it has become an accepted business style.
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