Business Challenge Archives

Equity Creates ‘Sticky’ Outsourcing Deals

Outsourcing Center, Beth Ellyn Rosenthal, Senior Writer

Information technology is moving from legacy information into a commodity. This inexorable shift is altering the nature of the relationship between buyer and supplier. That has been a pretty big change in the market last year, says Bob Chaffin, contract manager of IS for General Motors Corp. in Detroit, Michigan. Today, vendors must differentiate themselves in the marketplace and create an important distinction between their value added abilities and the commodity they are selling…

Sorting Through the Rubble

Outsourcing Center, Kathleen Goolsby, Senior Writer

New vendors around every corner. Mega deals. Dead dotcoms. And even some fallout from Y2K. They littered the year 2000 battlegrounds in the outsourcing arena. Gartner Dataquest’s Bruce Caldwell, senior analyst-outsourcing, recently completed reports and forecasts from his company’s surveys of end user wants and needs in the world of IT. He says the turmoil in the IT services marketplace this past year was a factor in a dip in the IT services revenue that had been forecasted for 2000.

ASPs Ready for a Consolidation

Outsourcing Center, Beth Ellyn Rosenthal, Senior Writer

Application service providers (ASP) arrived en masse on the outsourcing scene last year and then proceeded to solidify their place in the marketplace. That was the major happening in the outsourcing world in 2000, according to Dean Davison, vice president at Meta Group, an IT advisory and research firm in Stanford, Connecticut…

2001: An Ecommerce Odyssey

Outsourcing Center, Beth Ellyn Rosenthal, Senior Writer

This year will be the year of ecommerce outsourcing. But the seeds were sown last year, according to Richard Raysman, a partner at Brown Raysman Millstein Felder & Steiner LLP, a law firm in New York City specializing in outsourcing. Last year startups popped up and new ecommerce companies gained market share. Raysman mentions i2, Commerce One and Ariba as three relative newcomers that last year proved they could be enormously successful in the ecommerce arena…

Time to Renegotiate

Outsourcing Center, Beth Ellyn Rosenthal, Senior Writer

From 1992 to 1994, many major corporations signed 10-year outsourcing contracts. The end of the tunnel is in sight, but now, the world is much different with the rise of the Internet. Robert Zahler, a partner with Shaw Pittman in Washington, D.C., says many of these buyers are beginning to gear up and decide what to do in this new business environment. They are wrestling with the choice of renegotiating with their current suppliers or putting the contract out for a competitive bid…

An Insider’s View of the Future for ASPs

Outsourcing Center, Kathleen Goolsby, Senior Writer

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)

Producing The Nation’s Paychecks On Time

Outsourcing Center, Beth Ellyn Rosenthal, Senior Writer

If you are a salaried employee in the Netherlands, there’s a 50-50 chance that Pink Roccade produces your paycheck. If we are one day late, there’s a big economic problem, says Hans Kateman, communication manager for Pink Roccade, an IT outsourcing supplier in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands.

When the Government Comes Calling

Raymond Angus

This question is important to the solvency of any organization, but it is crucial to those companies doing business with the federal government, says George Phares, President of Strategic Direction Resource, Inc. For seven years, Phares’ company, based in Houston, Texas; has specialized in auditing human resources for federal contractors. Why, you may ask, do human resources need auditing? Because once a year, each federal contractor is required to file a compliance report with the government…

Technology Expedites Refund Process

Linda Bryza

Access specializes in marketing telecommunication audits to medium to large national businesses and government entities. The company also offers utility and energy services targeted to a California base. Access is the exclusive representative for nationally recognized companies in each of these fields. The simplicity and value of outsourcing an audit – the prospect of saving 10-30% on a company’s telecommunication costs with no upfront fees and minimal staff time involvement, make going forward with one an easy decision…

13 Big Mistakes to Avoid

Outsourcing Center, Beth Ellyn Rosenthal, Senior Writer

Bill Bierce is in the catbird seat when it comes to watching outsourcing agreements go south. The founder of Bierce & Kenerson, P.C., a New York law firm specializing in outsourcing and technology law, has devised a lucky list of how to raise the odds on outsourcing success…

Research & Insight