Outsourcing Center, Kathleen Goolsby, Senior Writer
Even a Fortune 500 company can fail. All it takes is a decision to invest dollars, time and people in the latest and greatest technological wonder. Sure, an Internet-driven world demands that executives quickly take advantage of innovations that technology promises will give them a competitive edge. But they can reap the benefits without incurring the risks or investment.
Outsourcing Center, Beth Ellyn Rosenthal, Senior Writer
Exult, a human resources (HR) outsourcing vendor, faced a dilemma that is becoming increasingly common in the business process outsourcing (BPO) world. Exult’s global 550 customers are outsourcing their HR operations to the Irvine, California pure play provider. Currently, Exult has HR 18 processes in its Web-based e HR offering. One of those offerings is international assignment services. Exult offers this expatriation service but lacked the technology for it.
Outsourcing Center, Kathleen Goolsby, Senior Writer
An enormous impact on a company’s profitability comes from its procurement or purchasing process. Some companies are starting to recognize the impact, but most — particularly midsize or small companies — still treat this important process as though it’s unimportant. But, like the fairytale Cinderella, someone needs to do the onerous chores around the castle. Particularly in lean times when an economy is slowing, executives must pay more attention to the possibility of saving millions of dollars in this area.
Outsourcing Center, Kathleen Goolsby, Senior Writer
Difficult business problems require solutions that are based on sound reasonings. The Internet and new economy have so drastically changed the way business is done that today’s top execs must focus on how to change their companies. Change is necessary as technology and markets evolve, despite whether a company is competing successfully or losing market share. Long-range plans keep getting shorter and shorter, and the need for risk management in such an environment is increasingly recognized as a competency. Most organizations now are a hybrid of some internal departments or divisions and some alliances with outsourcers for various business processes. Why do so many chief executive officers (CEOs) and chief information officers (CIOs) turn to outsourcing as a strategy to achieve their business objectives? Upon what reasoning do they base these decisions? Adam Braunstein, senior research analyst with the Robert Frances Group, whose clients are the top echelon of Fortune…
Outsourcing Center, Kathleen Goolsby, Senior Writer
As human genome mapping starts to produce results and new drugs are developed to eradicate or control some of life’s most significant challenges, the spotlight will be on pharmaceutical companies. Time to market will drive their efforts. But the pharmaceutical industry is highly regulated, so their innovative development efforts will require tight management and control, along with certain levels of configuration management and maturity models (CMM). Outsourcers such as MERANT provide powerful solutions that will allow them to fly like eagles. Keith White, MERANT’s vice president and general manager, explains that 70% of development projects fail and 90% of them are over budget and behind schedule. The challenges are obvious for, as he points out, When you have to develop a product that has to fit in to a million different environments, the risks and time and resources required to get them deployed and to maintain and manage them is expensive.
Outsourcing Center, Beth Ellyn Rosenthal, Senior Writer
pin outs often have a difficult time transforming themselves from an in-house division to a BPO provider. Understanding the location of dangerous shoals helps prevent ship wrecks and increases the odds of survival.
Outsourcing Center, Beth Ellyn Rosenthal, Senior Writer
Web-enabled applications have made the BPO offering irresistible. Outsourcing typical BPO functions like finance and accounting or human resources continues to gain popularity because outsourcing helps companies reduce their risk. The outsourcing vendor is an expert in the field, so it can do a better job than the in-house folks who aren’t as up-to-date on the latest.
Outsourcing Center, Kathleen Goolsby, Senior Writer
Johnson & Johnson is the largest and most diversified healthcare company in the world. It manufactures world-renowned health care products and provides related services to consumers and pharmaceutical markets, selling products in more than 175 countries. With more than 190 operating companies in 51 nations, the company has more than 99,000 employees worldwide. It’s a human resources migraine, to be sure!
Outsourcing Center, Kathleen Goolsby, Senior Writer
Imagine that you own a retail gas store and the cash register goes down. You can’t sell gas or Twinkies. Now imagine, just for a moment, that you own over 1700 retail gas stores where this could happen. ARCO, a West Coast gasoline refiner and retailer, actually owns that many gas stores and a large convenience store network. Downtime can be disastrous, so ARCO outsourced its point-of-sale terminals to outsourcer, Getronics. When the Getronics help desk receives a call from one of the retail outlets, the staff diagnoses whether the fix will require a technician. If so, they must obtain the needed part from a depot, dispatch a technician to the site to install the part, and have it up and running within four hours from the time the call was placed — no matter how remote the location might be. It’s truly an extraordinary feat in logistics.
Outsourcing Center, Kathleen Goolsby, Senior Writer
Johnson & Johnson, the largest and most diversified healthcare company in the world. Deutsche Bank, one of the world’s leading investment banks. Boeing Company, a leader in the aerospace industry. Glaxo Wellcome, Inc., a leading research pharmaceutical firm. Rohm and Haas, a specialty chemical company. BP Amoco. Nokia. CNA Insurance. And PSEG, an electric and gas holding company in 13 countries. The roster of satisfied customers of outsourcer, Hewitt Associates, is a Who’s Who of leading world-class companies. Each of those companies recognizes the role their employees play in making their companies successful. They also recognize that their ability to recruit and retain high-caliber employees depends heavily on the benefits programs and quality of human resources services extended to employees.
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