Outsourcing
Giga, 5/7/03: Who Makes the Decision to Outsource IT?
Richard Peynot
In companies, who makes the decision to outsource IT? CEO, CIO or others?
The decision to outsource IT may come from top managers (CEO, CFO, etc.) who are seeking cost savings, IT budget reductions or higher IT delivery and service quality. Also, it may be a suggestion made by the CIO who faces difficulties with delivery, quality, budgets, etc., when he/she is autonomous enough to search out solutions for IT optimization. Depending on the origin of the demand or suggestion, different scenarios apply, but in all cases the decision must be made on a proven return on investment (ROI) based on a business case; there are many people to convince, and consensus and synergy to obtain.
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Forrestor, 4/03: Can Outsourcers Really Transform IT?
By Christine Ferrusi Ross
IT outsourcing lowers costs but often fails to provide additional value-added enhancements. We evaluated the transformational capabilities of 13 outsourcers, and most had good skills that clients need to tap into.
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Gartner, 5/6/03: Selecting an Outsourcer: Relationships Are Key to SMBs
Many small and midsize businesses have overcome their concerns about outsourcing. For many, however, finding the right service provider is still a challenge.
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Giga, 4/30/03: Offshore Outsourcing Governance
Stephanie Moore
How should we manage our offshore relationships? How do other companies do this?
Few companies today have a central organization dedicated to managing offshore vendor relationships. While many companies have multiple offshore relationships with multiple vendors within different business units or groups, individual project owners often have no visibility on offshore relationships other than their own and don’t have access to existing internal knowledge, experience, standards, processes, best practices, evaluation metrics, service-level agreements (SLAs), master services agreements (MSAs) or contracts. This results in increased overhead costs and risk and an inability to leverage vendor relationships.
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IT Management
Computerworld, 5/8/03: Forrester: Dissatisfied business execs frequently clash with IT
By THOMAS HOFFMAN
A third of the 437 business executives surveyed recently by Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research Inc. are dissatisfied with the performance of their IT departments.
The survey also found that the dissatisfied group was more likely to fight with IT departments for control of IT initiatives, felt that their companies lag in the adoption of emerging technologies such as content management and supply chain management systems, and face higher IT project failure rates than peers who are happy with their IT shops, said Meredith Child, a Forrester analyst and co-author of the report.
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Contact Centers
Giga, 5/5/03: Market Overview 2003: Contact Center Applications
Elizabeth Herrell
Companies are at a pivotal crossroads in managing their contact centers and realize that many customers form their impression of a company through its contact centers. Despite investments in contact center applications, many organizations have not gained anticipated benefits and report declining customer satisfaction. However, not investing in contact center applications and adopting a strategy of business as usual often result in spiraling costs and further declines in service. To remain competitive, it is essential for companies to evaluate their current operations and define requirements for increasing customer value while also containing expenses. As an initial step in upgrading current operations, companies must align their business objectives with their contact centers and review internal processes prior to investing in new applications that will improve the customer’s experience.
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Hewlett Packard
Infoworld, 5/9/03: HP vision short on experience
Adaptive Enterprise plays catch-up with IBM
By Mark Jones, Stacy Cowley, Robert McMillan
Hewlett-Packard calls it the Adaptive Enterprise, but in reality it's an elaborate strategy that's long on business process re-engineering vision and short on real-world experience.
The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company has found itself in the uncomfortable position of recasting technology strategies already articulated ad nauseam by competitors including IBM and Sun, critics observed.
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Microsoft
Giga, 4/25/03: Microsoft SMS: Filling in the Gaps
David Friedlander
We are planning to deploy Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 to manage our client environment. Should we plan to invest in any third-party tools to supplement SMS?
Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 will provide robust Windows platform management functionality. However, it lacks broad platform support — even for older Windows platforms — as well as strong migration, recovery and asset management functionality. Enterprise local area network (LAN), desktop and mobile systems management will typically require additional tools, particularly for heterogeneous environments.
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Mobile
Computerworld, 5/8/03: T-Mobile bundles Wi-Fi charges with voice services
By Tom Krazit
Existing T-Mobile USA Inc. customers will be able to have charges for unlimited monthly Wi-Fi access included in their voice services bills, the company said Thursday.
The $19.95 bill for unlimited monthly access to T-Mobile's network of hot spots at venues such as Starbucks Corp.'s coffee shops and Borders Group Inc. bookstores will appear alongside existing customers' standard voice charges, said Bryan Zidar, a T-Mobile spokesman. Previously, T-Mobile's Wi-Fi customers had to pay their Wi-Fi bills via credit card each month, whether or not they were also voice customers.
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Optimism
Fortune, 5/8/03: A Bubble-Era VC Is Itching to Get Started Again
Fred Wilson, the co-founder of Flatiron Partners, thinks he knows the way to make money in tech these days.
By David Kirkpatrick
Fred Wilson was perhaps the most visible New York-based venture capitalist in the heady days of the Internet bubble. He was a VC before the frenzy, and he remains one. Wilson and I sat down to lunch this week and he talked about what's happening with Internet companies and where tech investing is going.
Wilson co-founded Flatiron Partners back in 1996 with Jerry Colonna, who had previously been a superstar journalist at Information Week. Flatiron started as a joint venture of Chase and Softbank, but eventually turned into a sole arm of J.P. Morgan Chase. The investment bank did well with Flatiron overall-it put in a total of $500 million and took out $1.6 billion. Flatiron's biggest hit was Geocities, whose sale to Yahoo yielded Flatiron a $400 million gain. Other financial successes included IP-telephony carrier ITXC, Vertical One, and Yoyodyne. On the other hand Flatiron also invested in Kozmo.com-a notorious, embarrassing, and expensive disaster.
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