Five Tips for Vendors
George Atis, Chairman, Outsourcing and Technology practice groups, McMillan Binch LLP
George Atis provides some pointers for vendors that should go a long way towards impressing buyers and expediting the closure of a deal.
Research & Insight
Time to Market
The Big Picture
Outsourcing Center, Kathleen Goolsby, Senior Writer
Solutions for Public and Private eMarketplaces “Major multinational companies will buy software solutions,” says James Hatcher, vice president of business development for ECNet. “But when you go to the supplier base, only 10 percent of them will buy software. So what do you do with the rest of the guys? An eMarketplace needs to scale …
As Safe as Fort Knox
Outsourcing Center, Kathleen Goolsby, Senior Writer
Ruesch specializes in business-to-business cross-border payments, basically supplying various payment instruments and foreign currencies for companies that need to pay their bills in various countries around the world.
Nobody Does It Better
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.
How to Get Ready for HIPAA
Outsourcing Center, Kathleen Goolsby, Senior Writer
From the moment of his 1999 signature approving two-thirds of the proposed HIPAA regulations, President Clinton tossed the healthcare industry a hot potato. So now the industry is forced to start changing the way it was doing business.
Business Risk
Outsourcing Center, Beth Ellyn Rosenthal, Senior Writer
The biggest risks for businesses are they take too long to change, they do the wrong thing or they don’t do their job well, says Michel Janssen, chief operating officer of the Outsourcing Center. Outsourcing can mitigate much of that business risk by sharing the risks as well as the gains with the outsourcing supplier. Outsourcing supplies you with someone who is totally focused on your success, continues Janssen.
Defusing Capital Risk
Outsourcing Center, Beth Ellyn Rosenthal, Senior Writer
Last month Bill Gates, the chairman of Microsoft, was giving a presentation to stock analysts when the ground shook. No, it wasn’t the power of the newest version of Microsoft Office he was displaying. At that moment Seattle, Washington was hit by a massive earthquake which caused billions of dollars in property damage.\x0d\x0a\x0d\x0aProperty owners prescient enough to have purchased earthquake insurance are now rebuilding with the funds they received from their insurance policies. The insurance companies have enough cash on hand to pay off their policy holders because they know how to underwrite risk.
Capital Risk
Outsourcing Center, Beth Ellyn Rosenthal, Senior Writer
Outsourcing means never having to buy the stuff yourself. Or even know what to buy.\x0d\x0aOne of the major benefits of outsourcing is the vendor makes sizable capital investment in assets that buyers need but do not want to purchase. Making the wrong decision can be very costly. So is the job of keeping up in a changing world.
The Current Challenges of eProcurement
Outsourcing Center, Beth Ellyn Rosenthal, Senior Writer
In the current real world of eProcurement, linking the computer systems of buyer and suppliers is just one of the challenges facing eProcurement. Getting employees to use the procurement tools already in place is another. And reengineering the process is a third. Overcoming these difficulties -which are widely agreed upon as inhibiting the ongoing development of eProcurement – is the focus of a dedicated procurement outsourcing team at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)’s Business Process Outsourcing group.
Road Warriors
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.