IT Outsourcing
Giga, 3/25/03: Demand More Than Design Documentation From IT
Robert McNeill
Is it normal to expect a design document to be included by an IT services vendor when outsourcing Web servers to a third party? Is it normal to expect a written document on how a vendor plans to implement a given technology, etc.? As we go to ask for these items, we’re viewed by our business units as difficult and trying to stall progress. Can you define a set of standard items we should expect when working with a third party?
In terms of documentation, you should expect the following from an outsourcer/systems integrator: …
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ZDNet, 3/26/03: Gartner casts doubts on IT outsourcing
By Ed Frauenheim
Half of information technology outsourcing projects will be considered unsuccessful in 2003 because they have not delivered the expected value, according to a new report from market research firm Gartner.
The growing practice of IT outsourcing involves a company hiring another to handle tasks such as managing a data center or handling tech support questions. Gartner suggested that external service providers should do a better job of communicating with clients and accommodating their issues. The parties involved in an outsourcing contract should commit to regularly scheduled formal meetings to review progress, said Linda Cohen, managing vice president for Gartner.
"Failing to do this, the relationship can be seriously compromised because corrections are not made in a timely fashion," Cohen said in a statement released Monday.
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Giga, 3/25/03: Opportunities Exist for Selective Offshore Desktop Outsourcing
Robert McNeill
Should Wipro Technologies be considered for desktop outsourcing in the US?
The success of the stand-alone offshore outsourcers (Wipro, TCS, Satyam, Patni) moving from their application maintenance/development outsourcing and call center business process outsourcing (BPO) relationships into the desktop outsourcing market in the United States and Europe will be slow. Wipro Technologies has defined this market for future growth but as of yet, it has no US client references and should not be considered a short-list prime contractor in comparison to the established vendors such as Unisys, HP, IBM, SBS and Compucom.
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Giga, 3/17/03: IT Outsourcing: Alleviate Fear of Dependence With Control
Richard Peynot
We hesitate to outsource our IT because we fear dependence on one outsourcer. Could dividing IT among several outsourcers reduce dependence?
Among the reasons that slow down or block a decision to outsource, the risk of dependence is mentioned first y most companies. But dividing enterprise applications into several groups and turning to several outsourcers is not the right answer. Indeed, the resulting situation would be even more complex, without evolving dependence questions. Companies need to control and measure their providers. All the procedures, service-level expectations and means such as monitoring tools should be mentioned and clearly described in the outsourcing contract — an often missed or neglected point.
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Help Desk
Giga, 3/25/03: IT Help Desk Software Will Only Meet Basic Requirements for Supporting External Customers
John Ragsdale
Can we leverage our IT help desk software implementation to support our external customers as well?
You can manage IT help desk trouble ticketing using customer relationship management (CRM) software designed for external customers with a minimum of customizations, but IT help desk tools should not be used for external customer support unless the functional requirements are for basic incident tracking and there are no plans for enterprise CRM (marketing, sales, service) down the road.
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Microsoft
TechWeb, 3/26/03: Windows 2000 Security Flaw Worse Than First Thought
By Gregg Keizer, TechWeb News
A Microsoft security flaw announced last week is much more serious than initially thought, several security companies have said.
It's important that businesses apply a new patch to all Windows 2000 systems, advisories state -- not just those running Microsoft's IIS Web server software.
According to a white paper available on NGSSoftware's Web site, the flaw, which first was thought accessible only through the WebDAV (World Wide Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning) component of the IIS 5.0 Web server software running on Windows 2000, actually opens non-server systems to attack. And those exploitations can come from numerous other "attack vectors," or approaches.
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SearchWin2000, 3/20/03: Economy, new VP drove System Center strategy
By Margie Semilof, Senior News Writer
LAS VEGAS -- If you want to win the hearts and minds of enterprise IT managers, it helps to have a solid management story. Microsoft needed a better plan than the one it was pitching to its customers. So last year, the company hired a management guru who re-examined the company's products across the board. Microsoft also shifted product plans and people within its organization.
With some fanfare, Microsoft has rolled back the curtains on a new vision, which includes plans for an autonomic computing initiative and the integration of its three main manageability platforms. Don't expect big changes anytime soon, but the effort does show that Microsoft the company is certainly taking Windows management more seriously than before. David Hamilton, director of product management for the Windows management business group at Microsoft, discussed some of the changes this week at the Microsoft Management Summit.
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Press Release, 3/18/03: Microsoft Announces Dynamic Systems Initiative
Software Architecture Provides Cornerstone for an Industry Effort to Help Customers Manage IT Complexity, Reduce Costs and Increase Business Agility
REDMOND, Wash. -- March 18, 2003 --Microsoft Corp. today announced the Dynamic Systems Initiative (DSI). This initiative unifies hardware, software and service vendors around a software architecture that enables customers to harness the power of industry-standard hardware, and brings simplicity, automation and flexibility to IT operations. The new breed of dynamic systems enabled by this software promises to streamline IT operations and lower costs for the enterprise datacenter and make datacenter capabilities accessible to a much broader array of businesses. The unifying software architecture centers on a System Definition Model (SDM) that provides a common contract between development, deployment and operations across the IT life cycle. Microsoft will begin delivering on this initiative with Windows® Server 2003. Support for the architecture and SDM also can be expected in future releases of the Visual Studio® developer tools, Microsoft® server applications and management solutions.
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The Next Big Thing
Infoworld, 3/26/03: Gartner ITxpo: Top 10 strategic technologies
Analysts outline emerging technologies ripe with opportunity
By Cathleen Moore
San Diego -- Although the economic slump has paralyzed most IT spending budgets, innovation continues to plug along, bringing opportunity for savvy enterprises that are willing to embrace strategic technologies at the right time.
Here at the Gartner Symposium ITxpo Tuesday, Gartner drilled down into 10 technologies poised to mature in the next 18 to 36 months and examined how they can offer companies significant strategic advantage if adopted for the right reasons and at the appropriate time, according to Carl Claunch, vice president and director of research at Gartner.
IM rides atop the list, offering enterprises powerful real-time communication capabilities along with bolstered productivity. Specifically, the presence awareness functionality in IM yields the most benefit, according to Claunch. "The presence capability is the most powerful part of instant messaging," he said. "It gives you a sense of who is there and available so you can be more productive."
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