Mobility | Outsourcing Center

Wireless: To Be or Not To Be | Article

Outsourcing Center, Kathleen Goolsby, Senior Writer

Wireless scares people, says Adam Braunstein, senior research analyst with the Robert Frances Group. The concept that you can get anything anywhere is easy to understand and sounds great, and what company wouldn’t want to give those capabilities to its staff and customers where appropriate? The problem is that the application is extremely difficult. There are several warring technologies out there, Braunstein explains, and the wireless carriers are having huge difficulties. Financial institutions and the healthcare industry are the early adopters of wireless technology. It’s also an ideal solution for a mobile sales force, traveling executives, field technicians, logistics and other processes. The media has touted the enormous benefits for companies to adopt this technology as an extension of access to the Internet while, at the same time, making a lot of noise about the immaturity of the technology and its failures in addressing business applications and user needs.

Flooded with Possibilities | Article

Outsourcing Center, Kathleen Goolsby, Senior Writer

No doubt, you’ve seen the ads with the cupped hands ready to cradle your life. With the accompanying slogan, You’re in good hands with Allstate, one would naturally assume that customer satisfaction is a high priority with this insurance company. When it comes to outsourcing, though, you can bet that Allstate is in the good hands of its supplier, EDS. Larry Moser, Senior Marketing Manager at Allstate and Product Manager for its flood and mobile home lines, recalls that a decision was made in 1986 that Allstate would join the Write Your Own Flood Insurance Program. He says the company subsequently looked at its processing operation and realized that writing flood was a lot different from its other lines (auto, life, property) and decided to explore what opportunities there might be for the processing of the flood business.

IT Vendor as Change Agent | Article

Outsourcing Center, Beth Ellyn Rosenthal, Senior Writer

Buyers are interested in transformation, says Joe Ragusa, vice president, Transformational Outsourcing for IBM Global Services, based in Somers, New York. They see outsourcing vendors as change agents who can provide the skills, processes and technology they need to enter the brave new economy. IT is enabling, adds Ragusa. The Web has created some strange bedfellows. Heated competitors are now working together in business-to-business (B2B) exchanges…

Outsourcing’s New Risks | Article

Outsourcing Center, Beth Ellyn Rosenthal, Senior Writer

Academic: Professor James Brian Quinn Outsourcing’s New Risks By Beth Ellyn Rosenthal Today, the greatest risk in outsourcing is to not outsource. So says James Brian Quinn, William and Josephine Buchanan Professor of Management emeritus at Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth in Hanover, New Hampshire. Without outsourcing, companies can’t keep up, observes Quinn. The second biggest risk today is to keep innovation in-house, continues the professor. He calls the idea of assigning all corporate innovation in-house a macho shibboleth. Today, the most successful companies use outsourcing for innovation. He cites Dell Computer and Cisco Systems as leaders in their fields who rely on their suppliers to do the development work.

A Global Objective – Profitability and Efficiency | Article

Chris Pryer, Business Writer

With the global business climate changing, and shrinking somewhat due to the Internet, business process outsourcers (BPO) such as Raytheon Training find themselves filling in a vacuum.

Underwriting a Successful Result | Article

Outsourcing Center, Beth Ellyn Rosenthal, Senior Writer

Before homebuyers can complete the transaction to purchase a home, they must demonstrate they have also arranged for homeowners insurance. Up until now, the process for obtaining that coverage was almost as arduous as finding the house in the first place…..

E-Procurement Evolving in Europe | Article

Outsourcing Center, Beth Ellyn Rosenthal, Senior Writer

Vincenzo Marino worked for a company that used robots on an automobile industry assembly line. There, he watched as workers sat idle while the plant waited for a crucial part that someone had forgotten to order. Every time you make a mistake, the company loses time and money, observes Marino. In 1989 Marino left to join Unitec, an outsourcing supplier specializing in supply chain management and logistics. The company has two offices in Europe, one in Augsburg, Germany, the other in Saubaudia, Italy. Marino, the CEO, was determined to improve the process….

E-voking E-commerce E-mmediately | Article

Outsourcing Center, Beth Ellyn Rosenthal, Senior Writer

Companies today realize that if they want to stay in business they will have to enter the e-commerce fray. Specifically, they must embrace Internet Protocol (IP) based technologies. If you want to be in business, you need to be in e-business, says Elena Christopher, senior analyst at Gartner DataQuest in Egham, England…….

BPO Expanding the Telecom Industry

Outsourcing Center, Beth Ellyn Rosenthal, Senior Writer

Responding to the need to address simultaneous and often rapid changes in the business environment, Nortel Networks a global leader in telephony, data, e-Business, and wireless solutions for the Internet has turned to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) for business process outsourcing (BPO) services.

Extending the Reach of Outsourcing | Article

Outsourcing Center, Kathleen Goolsby, Senior Writer

As the outsourcing industry heads into 1999, Richard Raysman, an attorney with the New York firm of Brown Raysman Millstein Felder and Steiner LLP, expects to see not only larger transactions, but an expansion of the services being outsourced.

➤

Let’s talk more

Consult Form

"*" indicates required fields