Manufacturing & Hi-tech Archives

From Vision to Victory

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.

Can an External Service Provider Really Do This Better Than We Can?

Dr. Wendell Jones

Critics of outsourcing often rest their opinions on assumptions that internal functions should be able to do what outsourcing vendors do if the internal organization applied good management practices and worked smarter and harder. Sometimes this may be true, but in other instances it is not.

Judicial Middle Ground

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.

Can One Size Fit All?

Chris Pryer, Business Writer

MERANT ASaP Revolutionizes the ASP Model – MERANT ASaP provides the complex development tools utilized by software developers to create eBusiness applications. Via the Internet, MERANT allows distributed software development teams the ability to share a single, hosted resource that can store software code and track and archive all changes during the development process. And because their tools are Web-enabled, the a in ASaP, according to Keith White, MERANT’s V.P. and general manager of ASP, is a play on words with an emphasis on the speed of delivery, that we’re able to deliver solutions . . . immediately. A sort of ASP ASAP.

Hays Sinks Its Teeth Into Document Processing

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.

Swan Saga

Outsourcing Center, Kathleen Goolsby, Senior Writer

When CNA Insurance, a business-to-business property and casualty insurer, paddled fast but still encountered a weight that kept it from soaring toward its goals, it hired the wings of Hewitt Associates as its human resources outsourcer in 1998 and really took off.

Deciding What to Outsource

Dr. Wendell Jones

Outsourcing relationships have a better chance for success if they have an internal champion who believes in the cause. Find out what you need to know.

Prepared to Answer

Chris Pryer, Business Writer

Customer service is a term that rolls easily off the tongue of almost every corporate mogul you hear interviewed or quoted these days. They talk about the fierce competition they face in their chosen industry and that the distinguishing factor that separates the leaders in their field from the also-rans is how they service their customers after the sale. In the remote environment of eCommerce, it can be particularly difficult to maintain a satisfying relationship between the buyer and seller, whether it’s B2C or B2B. This has spawned a whole new generation of companies that specialize in helping other companies manage interaction with their customers over the Internet. Ziptone is such a company.

What Happened to LeapSource?

Outsourcing Center, Beth Ellyn Rosenthal, Senior Writer

What Happened to LeapSource? – With $65 million in its checkbook, LeapSource opened it doors in September, 1999. The pure play business process outsourcing (BPO) provider closed those doors in March, 2001.\x0d\x0aWhat happened? And what does it mean for BPO outsourcing?

Outsourcing:

Outsourcing Center, Beth Ellyn Rosenthal, Senior Writer

Outsourcing providers offer a richer and more varied career path than companies whose employees work in departments that support the core business. When EDS completes an outsourcing contract, it manages the IT department of the buyer’s firm.

Research & Insight

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