Outsourcing Center, Bruce McCracken, Business Writer
To paraphrase Mark Twain, the demise of ASPs has been greatly exaggerated. They are experiencing a remarkable resurgence, as enterprises small and large embrace their offerings. And one ASP, salesforce.com, just went public with the highest first-day price rise so far this year.
Outsourcing Center, Beth Ellyn Rosenthal, Senior Writer
An executive of Business Engine, a software applications development firm, shares three secrets to successful software development using an Indian provider.
Outsourcing Center, Kathleen Goolsby, Senior Writer
No other firms have exactly the same residential services model as ServiceMaster, but the company competes with a myriad of local-market, mom-and-pop operations. It’s a highly competitive market that allows almost no tolerance for cost increases – including the 15% yearly rise in the company’s healthcare benefits costs. So ServiceMaster decided in 2003 to change tactics for its employees’ health and welfare benefits administration.
Outsourcing Center, Kathleen Goolsby, Senior Writer
A few years ago, the typical 7-Eleven® store had a myriad of electronic devices that were not connected. For example, cash registers were not linked to the fuel pumps, which forced clerks to manually enter fuel sales into the registers, slowing the process and missing impulse sales. The situation prevented 7-Eleven from maximizing its profitability. Nor could the store managers effectively manage inventory; there was no way to know with certainty which items were moving well and which ones were simply taking up space. Shelf space in a small store is at such a premium that allowing five or 10 items to sit unsold for a week affects the bottom line.
Outsourcing Center, Kathleen Goolsby, Senior Writer
When Geographic Data Technology wanted to enter a new market, it turned to outsourcing to obtain the necessary resources. Its highly collaborative relationship with RMSI changed the buyer’s business processes so it could compete in the new market. The result: outcomes far greater than they imagined.
Outsourcing Center, Kathleen Goolsby, Senior Writer
Although trust grows over time and successful outsourcing alliances evolve to become even more beneficial for both parties, the true foundation for success lies in the hands of buyers when they begin seeking a services provider. That spot in time when a buyer determines its objectives (the outcomes it wants to pay a provider to produce) and then matches its provider selection criteria to those aims is crucial to outsourcing success. Microsoft definitely demonstrated how to do it when it selected VMC Consulting for testing and other IT support services for the Xbox® video game system from Microsoft.
Outsourcing Center, Kathleen Goolsby, Senior Writer
Things were going well for Entergy and its IT provider, SAIC; but they wanted their relationship to grow and produce more value. So they jointly funded an 18-month relationship health check-up. It was an eye-opener, and they subsequently renegotiated their deal to make it even better.
Outsourcing Center, Kathleen Goolsby, Senior Writer
CompuCom Systems’ SLA-driven outsourcing services have improved E&J Gallo Winery’s IT functions so dramatically that the winery is currently ranked in the Information 500 as the number one IS shop in its industry and the number three overall among all industries
Outsourcing Center, Kathleen Goolsby, Senior Writer
This winning relationship broke our awards scoring records and is undoubtedly one of the world’s most outstanding examples of outsourcing at its best. Owens & Minor outsourced its IT to Perot Systems, and O&M now commands the leading position in its marketplace. But that’s not all. The level of openness and honesty between these two companies is rare in outsourcing. So is their risk-reward structure — and the outcomes they’ve achieved together.
Outsourcing Center, Kathleen Goolsby, Senior Writer
The city of Minneapolis knew that outsourcing its IT functions and assets to Unisys would enable them to focus on value-added services for internal users and external customers, but there were huge obstacles in front of an outsourcing initiative. So they first researched both successful and failed outsourcing deals to determine what they needed to do upfront to ensure their success.
"*" indicates required fields