outsourcing

Features

• Analysis: Massive layoffs at HP make for IT outsourcing identity crisis

  By Stephanie Overby | 24 May, 2012 19:14

  It's been more than three years since HP acquired IT services provider EDS, and the long-term direction of its bigger - if not better - outsourcing business is no more clear than it was on the day the deal closed.

• From IT to ET: Cloud, consumerisation, and the next wave of IT transformation

  By Johna Till Johnson | 23 April, 2012 21:32

  IT as we know it is over.

• Don't mess with Texas: Lessons from IT outsourcing disasters

  By Stephanie Overby | 05 August, 2010 05:04

  Two weeks ago, the CIO of Texas penned a seven-page letter outlining the chronic failures of the state's nearly four-year outsourcing relationship - a deal the Texas governor had briefly suspended in 2008 citing service delivery problems that he said put the state's agencies in danger.

• IT Outsourcing Activity Remains Sluggish in 2010

  By Stephanie Overby | 23 July, 2010 00:59

  The outlook for the IT outsourcing market is not unlike the outlook for the economy as a whole: It's "unusually uncertain," to use U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's words.

• How IT Outsourcing Customers Can Test Cloud Computing

  By Stephanie Overby | 20 April, 2010 06:08

  Aspects of cloud computing have been available to-and rejected by-IT outsourcing customers for years, from hosted applications to on-demand hardware support. But as the breadth of the cloud has expanded to include a growing number of software-, platforms- and infrastructure-as-a-service offerings that can be quickly deployed as needed with low management overhead and little vendor interaction, the temptation to move away from traditional IT services provisioning is mounting.

• Cloud Computing Shakes Up Traditional IT Outsourcing

  By Stephanie Overby | 12 April, 2010 05:44

  For all the vagaries of IT services, traditional IT outsourcing has always been quite tangible--servers, data centers, networks, specifications, man-hours, lines of code. The rise of cloud computing, however, is changing all of that with flexible, asset-free IT services available on an as-needed basis for more aspects of enterprise technology.

• Outsourcing: Prepare Now for Anti-Offshoring Laws

  By Stephanie Overby | 18 March, 2010 07:22

  Whether any future U.S. jobs bills will contain anti-offshoring measures remains up in the air. But outsourcing customers don't have to wait to protect themselves from potential protectionist legislation.

• Outsourcing Prices Still Headed Down in 2010

  By Stephanie Overby | 10 March, 2010 07:39

  Two major trends led to lower prices for outsourced IT services last year--the global economic downturn and the uptick in remote infrastructure management (RIM) adoption.

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

  By Mary Brandel | 09 March, 2010 07:29

  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

  By Stephanie Overby | 01 March, 2010 05:23

  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

  By Stephanie Overby | 19 February, 2010 08:05

  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

  By Stephanie Overby | 11 February, 2010 07:03

  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

  By Stephanie Overby | 09 February, 2010 06:30

  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

  By Stephanie Overby | 04 February, 2010 07:30

  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

  By Simon Burson | 28 January, 2010 07:24

  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.