Outsourcing Center, Beth Ellyn Rosenthal, Senior Writer
Buyer Beware: Nine Ways to Protect Your Interests – Outsourcing experts have seen the good, the bad and the ugly. Here are nine rules of the road to increase the odds of outsourcing success.
Outsourcing Center, Kathleen Goolsby, Senior Writer
From Vision to Victory – In August 1999, Pennsylvania signed an outsourcing agreement with Unisys for the operation of its mainframe and a number of its midrange computer systems. Curt Haines, Director of the Bureau of Consolidated Computer Services in the Governor’s Office of Administration for the Commonwealth, says they selected Unisys because it was clearly a premier company relative to mainframe computers. He points out that IBM is a major subcontractor for Unisys in this outsourcing agreement but that Unisys is the prime vendor and has ultimate responsibility to make sure it works.
Outsourcing Center, Kathleen Goolsby, Senior Writer
The Whole Kit and Caboodle – In round figures, the outsourcing contract between the U.S. Treasury and its supplier, Wang Government Services (a Getronics company) will be over $100 million over the life of the ten-year contract. Like the old kit and caboodle American saying, Treasury omitted nothing – it has outsourced the management of its entire infrastructure.
Outsourcing Center, Kathleen Goolsby, Senior Writer
Judicial Middle Ground – A goal to realign resources to be more client-centered led to outsourcing at Justice Canada, the federal Department of Justice that is the attorney general for Canada. Linda Holmes, Director of Informatic Services and Technology Division of the Information Management Branch (IMB) for Justice Canada, says that IMB decided to establish a front office function, where the focus would be on the business of law and how technology can enable the department to do that business better. Budget constraints, however, were no help in establishing this business analyst/architect design function. The solution was to shift employees into this new core area and then outsource the day-to-day operations.
Outsourcing Center, Beth Ellyn Rosenthal, Senior Writer
Dental offices in Great Britain often are equipped with the newest technology to make dental care as painless as possible. However, dentists were waiting a painfully long time to get paid by the Dental Practice Board (DPB), a governmental agency covering England and Wales.
Chris Pryer, Business Writer
The issue of how liability is addressed in an outsourcing agreement is very real. The ultimate goal of any outsourcing arrangement is mutual satisfaction. The outsourcing entity hopes to acquire a higher level of performance in a particular aspect of its business that was not attainable in the past and be cost effective while doing so. The outsourcer leverages its expertise and economies of scale in the hopes of meeting the client’s expectationss and making a profit in the process. But it doesn’t always work out that way.
Chris Pryer, Business Writer
CH2M Hill is an international engineering company that serves municipal governments in the areas of water and wastewater management, energy, telecommunication, environment and nuclear management, transportation, industrial facilities, and a host of umbrella services. To say that CH2M Hill is adept at managing risks is like saying monkeys are adept at climbing trees. Neither could survive if they weren’t.
Chris Pryer, Business Writer
Many people don’t believe you can put the words ‘good will’ and ‘tax collection’ in the same sentence. There is a natural tension there. But in the city of New Haven, CT, there has been a breakthrough that should serve as a model for cities all over the country that are struggling to collect delinquent real estate taxes. In 1994 New Haven’s property tax collection rate was languishing at around 86 percent. Since privatizing the collection of delinquent taxes, it has improved to 94 percent for last year’s collection and is expected to exceed 96 percent this year.
Outsourcing Center, Kathleen Goolsby, Senior Writer
Quickly growing. Unlimited potential. Unpredictable. Each of these words conveys the business environment in Russia today. Global executives eye developments in the world’s largest country and speculate on each aspect of the emerging business scene.
Chris Pryer, Business Writer
Few assets owned and maintained by the government illicit as much passion from taxpayers as the condition of paved roads. But even as the need for more and wider thoroughfares goes largely ignored due to shrinking budgets and changing political climates, state and local governments across the nation also are finding it increasingly difficult to maintain preexisting transportation infrastructure. And it doesn’t stop there. The management of buildings, building-maintenance equipment, real estate, vehicles, office equipment, etc., is becoming a burden governments are discovering is more than they can bear. As a remedy, many are turning to asset management outsourcing.
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