outsourcing - News, Features, and Slideshows

Features

• How to manage outsourcers after the contract's ink is dry

  When the global trade association SEMI experienced a big revenue decline last year and had to cut staff, CIO Gil McInnes turned to outsourcing.

• IT Outsourcing Consultants: Same Great Advice, New Low Price

  The economic downturn has taken its toll on the IT services industry, and consequently, on the consultancies that swelled to support corporate outsourcing efforts in better days. Over the last two years, everyone--from the IT outsourcing arms of the biggest general business advisories (the KPMGs and Accentures, for instance) to the consulting divisions of IT service providers (the IBMs and HPs) to the leading outsourcing-specific consultancies (the TPIs and Alsbridges)--has been hit with layoffs, consolidation and upheaval.

• Company Saves Millions By Ending IT Outsourcing Deal

  In the realm of IT outsourcing, disengaging from a multi-year, multi-million dollar agreement can be so difficult and costly for customers that it makes a Trump divorce seem like a tea party. But that's exactly what Kellwood did last year, despite the upheaval the company anticipated from ending its 13-year IT outsourcing arrangement with EDS.

• Outsourcing Ruling Against EDS Gives Customers Power

  In what could be an important decision for the IT outsourcing industry and its customers, a London court recently ruled that EDS (now part of Hewlett-Packard) must pay damages to a former outsourcing customer for failing to live up to its sales pitch.

• IT Outsourcing: Why It Pays to Appraise Your Contract

  Everyone knows a good outsourcing relationship needs to be actively managed. So does a good IT outsourcing contract.

• Outsourcing Problems? Middle Management May Be to Blame

  Middle management just isn't what it used to be. The old definition of a middle manager--those senior staff in charge of overseeing the details of day-to-day management and reporting to top management--is too narrow, says Leslie Willcocks, Professor of Technology Work and Globalization at the London School of Economics (LSE) and head of its Outsourcing Unit.

• Outsourcing information security

  The need to keep information secure is not a recent development. To satisfy this need, most organisations construct a list of security requirements based on common sense. This has proven fairly effective with simple and well understood media such as pen and paper. As information management (and its security) has become more complex in nature, the likelihood of a gap in that common sense list of requirements has increased.

• Outsourcing: Crippling Mistakes IT Departments Make

  Researchers at the University of Tennessee have studied a variety of outsourcing deals-from IT and back-office work to manufacturing and logistics-and identified the most common mistakes organizations make when partnering with an external provider.

• Outsourcing Advisors: 6 Tips for Selecting Right One

  When it's time to outsource, selecting the right outsourcing advisor may be the single most important decision you make-one that sets up your future relationship with an IT services provider for success or failure. Given that IT outsourcing transactions are complex and vendors are savvy at setting them up to their advantage, solid sourcing advice from a third party can help to level the inherently uneven playing field, particularly for less experienced IT services buyers.

• CRM Team Staffing - Inside or Out?

  In the good old days of CRM, the software ran on your servers and needed heavy customization to really work with the rest of your business. The staffing decisions were pretty straightforward: There might be implementation consultants, but the system needed an ongoing team of your own staff. In one of these classic on-premise implementations I came across just last year, the CRM "permanent staff" was 1 development/operational person for every 100 users.

• 10 Outsourcing Trends to Watch in 2010

  It was a long year of intense ups and downs in the IT outsourcing industry. Consolidation among vendors and interest in remote infrastructure management increased, while overall outsourcing demand and IT services pricing decreased.

• IT Outsourcing: Avoid Multi-Sourcing's Costly Trap

  Multisourcing, or spreading work among several service providers, can offer many advantages to IT shops, from competitive pricing and increased flexibility to access to a deeper pool of talent. But working with multiple vendors can also mean exit costs are multiplied if the arrangement doesn't work out, warns Bob Mathers, principal consultant with Compass Management Consulting.

• Outsourcing Prices Likely to Drop in 2010, But at What Cost?

  Outsourcing prices dropped overall in 2009, and industry watchers expect the downward trend to continue next year. It's not just the global economic slowdown that's sending IT service prices south, it is also the increased use of offshoring, pricing pressure from customers, and a reduction in vendors' services.

• IT Outsourcing: Legal Mistakes That Can Cost You Big

  Good legal counsel can be worth every penny when putting together an outsourcing deal. But those legal fees can add up quickly if you're not careful. Worse yet, some common mistakes customers make when working with an outsourcing attorney can prove costly not only during contracting and negotiations but over the life of the deal.

• 7 Ways an Outsourcing Advisor Can Save You Money

  When it comes to the outsourcing process, going it alone is one way to cut costs. But working with an experienced outsourcing advisor may save you money during the procurement process and down the road.