Two big banks in England needed to upgrade their check clearing operations. But they didn’t want to invest in the process due to falling volumes. Outsourcing helped them gain access to new technology as well as lower costs.
Find out the strategy Pennsylvania used to redirect State employees’ talents to more value-add processes and the political minefields encountered along the way.
From Vision to Victory – In August 1999, Pennsylvania signed an outsourcing agreement with Unisys for the operation of its mainframe and a number of its midrange computer systems. Curt Haines, Director of the Bureau of Consolidated Computer Services in the Governor’s Office of Administration for the Commonwealth, says they selected Unisys because it was clearly a premier company relative to mainframe computers. He points out that IBM is a major subcontractor for Unisys in this outsourcing agreement but that Unisys is the prime vendor and has ultimate responsibility to make sure it works.
Long before the Internet, the travel industry has been in the forefront of computer automation. As far back as the 1970s, airlines that couldn’t harness technology effectively crashed and burned. (Pan Am and Eastern, for example.) But because of the complex nature of booking ocean liners, cruising has been the last bastion for manual bookings, according to David Anderson, vice president of technology for GoCruiseDirect.com, a Miami, Florida company.
Unisys and First Travel Corporation: This is fascinating example of how an international IT company moved into BPO outsourcing. Outsourcing its back office gave First Travelcorp two strategic advantages: marketing muscle and cost flexibility. First, Travelcorp could provide new, sought after services for its corporate clients, which provided a competitive edge. The result: Travelcorp landed new clients, the biggest it has ever had. And it was able to turn a fixed cost into a variable one, boosting the bottom line.
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…
In the early 1990s Pacific Bell decided to undergo a makeover. The staff at Pacific Bell determined that the particular suite of services the company was using for corporate support were going to be rewritten and put on another platform.
Unisys’ has the ability to implement and operate an entire IT (Information technology) process, but it also has the skills to provide expertise in the smaller functions within the operation. Mainframe services is one of several niches that Unisys provides its customers that prefer to selectively outsource.
There are many reasons for a company to choose outsourcing, but usually not included among them are averting natural disasters. Well, it is now safe to add it to the list. Unisys’ service center in Eagan, Minnesota is equipped to the hilt with IT (information technology) security…
An employee who finds out by way of the rumor mill that their job is being outsourced isn’t going to feel to good about their employer or the company their job is transitioning to, says Bob Evans, vice president and general manager of Unisys Outsourcing.
The travel agency industry is extremely large in North America, says John Haville, managing director of Unisys Travel Alliance Services (TAS). The $150 billion industry is used for more than 80 percent of all the airline’s bookings, as a channeled distributor.
One of the largest travel agencies in the United States, First Travelcorp out of Raleigh, N.C., began searching for someone to come in and operate some of its back office activities during the mid-90s.
The objective of transition management is three-fold. One, to ensure that there is no disruption to your business. Two, to hand off responsibilities at a specific time. Three, to make sure the transition is smooth and orderly.
Fast response to customers is essential to the success of United HealthCare, the second largest managed care company in the U.S., outsourcing.
For Unisys Corp., outsourcing is a business embedded in a product company.
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