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, Kathleen Goolsby, Senior Writer
Born in August 1999, TrustData Solutions Corporation has already matured enough to take giant steps in the eSecurity arena. HIPAA experts agree TrustData’s solutions are probably the most advanced technology today for allowing companies to enable HIPAA compliance.
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
Striving to be competitive involves tremendous risks. The timing must be right, and the resources must be available. It’s costly, and the return on investment might be low. In fact, the entire effort might fail. And someone will be held accountable.
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, Beth Ellyn Rosenthal, Senior Writer
The MG sport car is its history. The MG Salute car is its future. The M.G. Rover Group decided to outsource so it could introduce its new models faster.
Outsourcing Center, Beth Ellyn Rosenthal, Senior Writer
PinkElephant is a Dutch ASP headquartered at Zoetermeer. The ASP is a PinkRoccade nv company, one of the most successful traditional IT outsourcing vendors in Holland. And that’s exactly how the ASP market is developing in Europe. The quick starting, independent American startup is the slow moving elephant in Europe, according to Leon Fock, business unit director. PinkRoccade nv was formed in 1950 as the Mechanical Administration, which was part of the central government of the Netherlands. Every 20 years the IT outsourcing vendor has reinvented itself. In the 1970s the department morphed into the Government Computer Center. In 1990 the department became a public limited liability company as part of a privatization move.
Chris Pryer, Business Writer
For government agencies across the United States, the ability to deliver services to their citizenry is being sorely taxed (no pun intended). Budgets are being strained beyond limit. Quality — and quantity — of services is deteriorating. And the varieties of the prevailing political climate can wreak havoc on long-range planning and consistent and coordinated operational systems. Add to this the fact that many government agencies’ entire existing infrastructure for delivering services is suffering from such maladies as outdated technology, a stagnant work force and the typical bureaucratic red tape that is government’s calling card, and you have a recipe for guaranteed underachievement.
Outsourcing Center, Kathleen Goolsby, Senior Writer
People are doing wireless today without having thought about it first, and now they have some real problems, states John Stehman, principal analyst with the Robert Frances Group. They can’t even support all the devices they have out there. They have five to seven different devices and the help desk doesn’t even know what some of them are. Wireless technologies are still experimental, and Thomas Tunstall, Ph.D. with KPMG Consulting, believes it’s difficult to know which applications will catch on and which providers will be successful. Wireless technology is changing, coverage is changing, and providers and pricing are changing. Users are trying to decide if applications will have value. To enter this world requires a strategy built on flexibility and minimizing risk; both are best accomplished by outsourcing.
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.
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