Daily Archives: December 20, 2010

HP Inks $1.4 Billion Outsourcing Deal With German Utility E.ON

 

Talk about an early holiday present: HP (NYSE:HPQ) on Wednesday inked a five-year, $1.4 billion infrastructure outsourcing services contract with German utilities giant E.ON, under which HP will oversee data center and workplace services for about 80,000 employees.

HP will also take on the role of integrator, working with E.ON’s existing technology partners to ensure that deployments run smoothly, and more than 1,100 of E.ON’s 88,000 employees will move over to HP next April to assist in this effort. E.ON already purchases technology equipment, support services and managed print services from HP.

HP, of course, is comfortable playing the integrator role because it’s intimately acquainted with the challenges of doing business with the world’s largest companies.

"HP’s experience in managing complex outsourcing engagements and leading the management of multi-supplier environments will enable E.ON to focus on delivering better business results and drive growth," Jan Zadak, senior vice president of HP’s EMEA Enterprise Business, said in a statement.

HP’s data center services, part of its Infrastructure Technology Outsourcing portfolio, include archiving and compliance, application hosting, managed mainframe, server and storage management and Web hosting. HP’s workplace services include asset management, client virtualization, managed print, service desk, site support, mobile workplace, server and software management.

Much of HP’s services delivery capabilities come from its 2008 acquisition of global integrator EDS, which HP bought in order to compete on more equal footing with IBM. At the time, EDS was one of the largest vendor-independent outsourced services companies in the world, and a key integration partner of both HP and IBM.

In August 2009, rumors surfaced that HP was considering selling off of shutting down portions of its outsourcing business, including parts of its EDS business. HP CEO Mark Hurd had reportedly been looking at scaling back HP’s low-margin business process outsourcing business, sources familiar with the matter said at the time.

Source: www.crn.com/news/data-center/228800670/hp-inks-1-4-billion-outsourcing-deal-with-german-utility-e-on.htm;jsessionid=QndAReqSgcViaUWiSd+WWQ**.ecappj02

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Cloud is changing the future of outsourcing: 1000 organizations have spoken

 

Today’s CIO is under constant pressure to drive out cost, without impacting business performance. And if tomorrow’s CIO can deliver real business value beyond smart cost-management, then he or she will succeed – and should remain gainfully employed after they’ve stripped out whatever operational cost they can.

Our study blatantly shows CIOs are caught up in an aggressive cycle of providing services to the business that are cheaper to run, faster to access, and more relevant to driving productivity and growth. Gone are the days when CIOs demanded their shareholders underpin massive technology investments in ERP and infrastructure.  Those investments have been made, and most CEOs intend never again to make capital outlays of that ilk on technology.

Enter the Cloud. This is driving a new inflection point in the provisioning of business services, that goes far beyond straightforward outsourcing.

So why is Cloud the future?

Simply-put, many of today’s large businesses have already squeezed much of the obvious cost out of their IT departments by having their lower-end support and development needs replaced or supplemented with offshore-based services, while offloading the costly burden of clunky, unnecessary IT hardware to third party IT infrastructure service providers.

For many large business that have maximized their cost-savings potential with outsourcing, Cloud computing gives CEOs hope that another inflection point is upon us, that will not only take out that next 20-30% of cost, but also empower their business functions to access best-in-class services.  The potential to slim down the IT department to a "CIO and a crack team of IT service managers" is becoming very real for the sourcing-savvy organization.  However, the challenge for the large organization to move to the Cloud is far more cumbersome than most smaller business, which we discussed so vibrantly here.

For the small-to-medum business, Cloud is already pretty much here – and has been for a while.  You can access nearly all packaged applications in the Cloud and have a service provider deliver you the services you need via a shared-service utility model.  You already have your Ultimates, ADPs, Netsuites, SFDCs and the like processing your pay checks, doing your benefits enrollments, managing your customer and employee data, hosting your accounts etc. in the Cloud – and you can choose how many staff to keep inhouse to service those functions for you, versus having them provisioned by third-party service providers.

Unfortunately, for many of the large businesses using complex ERP apps that are wrenched into all sorts of back-end databases, they are faced with some significant capital investments to find their way to a Cloud-ready environment.  And it simply doesn’t suit many of the Cloud-unfriendly software providers to have their clients move to a model that will save them money.  The onus is moving to the service providers to build services that can take organizations on a journey of business change and technology change, which we discuss further here.

Our study shows the momentum towards the Cloud is well under way

Firstly, both IT and Business leaders already plan to devote a significant portion of their IT budgets to investing in Cloud.  While business executives are understandably bullish, it’s significant that a third of IT executives already see at least 10-20% of their budgets going into Cloud services in the medium-term:

Secondly, the impetus behind Cloud is coming from the top-down.  As awareness of Cloud across business leaders increases, so does the pressure on the CIO to develop a Cloud roadmap for their organization.  The industry advisors and providers of Cloud see half the CIOs with whom they interact, showing a very strong interest in Cloud, with the less senior IT professionals showing less enthusiasm:

The Bottom-line:  CIOs need to broaden their skills beyond provisioning outsourcing delivery and Cloud fits the bill

CIOs need to be seen as innovators, constantly embracing IT delivery models that provide the business with faster, cheaper and more relevant business applications.  Many have had to become the conduits for IT outsourcing over recent years, as business leaders demanded cheaper IT provision.  The same is happening with Cloud, as more evidence of faster, cheaper, more relevant business services materializes.

Source: www.horsesforsources.com/cloud-is-the-future-121910/comment-page-1

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Software Outsourcing

 

Software outsourcing is a job contract awarded by a contracting party from a country to a company having a team of human resource with a definite skill set sitting in another country. On completion of the proposed job the software is shipped to the clients organization.

The need to rapidly complete large development projects has cause many organizations in recent years to consider outsourcing work rather than perform development in-house. A major reason for doing this is the reduction in costs that can be achieved, compared to those incurred if the work is executed in their own IT department. Development time can also be shortened, especially if the company does not already have the skills required to undertake the project. Thus offshore software development has seen tremendous growth in the last few years. Offshore outsourcing provides the ability to hold skilled overseas staff at a small part of the human resource cost which is elating to several entrepreneurs.

So the key to success of a offshore software project is the smooth flow of communication between the offshore vendor and the onshore client. Continuous constructive dialogue between the two sides is not limited to verbal communication, but is aggressively pursued in writing, meetings and conferences. So local presence of the offshore vendor can be a huge advantage for the client though it might cost the client more.The client should be very careful about the project budget. Proper budget forecast includes vendor rates, risk involvement, scope of change in the project specification and vendor resource matrix. The financial terms should also be decided and agreed upon beforehand. Both the parties should maintain adequate transparency in order to achieve successful completion of the work.

Further, offshore development requires a methodology quite different from local development. For example, an onsite development team can resolve critical issues by meeting in a conference room. When teams are diverse, you have to create a process that automatically keeps everyone in the loop.

So many companies are gradually setting up their own offshore development centers. Though it is not always a feasible solution to small or medium enterprises. They can consider the option is of taking a stake (in the form of equity partnership or acquisition or merger) in an existing offshore company with an impressive employee retention rate and a stellar track record, ensuring quality management and a loyal workforce.

Provided you adhere to process and ensure accurate and prompt completion of projects, there is a significant savings from moving work offshore. The hardest part to quantify is the ability to get something done quickly and getting it to market ahead of your competition. For others with the time to learn the culture and establish relationships, the need to have at their bidding a full-fledged offshore team, and the money to invest, starting their own offshore center makes sense.

Source: www.articleclick.com/Article/Software-Outsourcing/998214

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Benefits of IT Outsourcing

 

Lot of talk is being done about IT Outsourcing these days. IT Outsourcing has become very important component of most IT industries. Companies are allowing workers from all over the world to pool resources on projects at one point. It takes months or years to complete the particular project. Almost everything in computer can be outsourced now.

You may want to cut costs and maximize your revenue. You may want to get access to specialized talents and services for your work. You may want to focus more on your main IT business. You may want to save some money, time and infrastructure of your IT business.
If your thinking is identical to any or all of the above points, you might be interested in IT Outsourcing.

Most obvious and biggest heads up of outsourcing is cost cutting. Outsourcing provides the cost cutting option for small or middle class business to survive in a cutthroat and ruthless global economy. Outsourcing does more than cost cutting for small or large business. It also allows an industry to increase efficiency in its operations by removing bottle necks that might otherwise soak up costly in-house capital. A company can outsource all work and activities with small selection of employees who has more skilled and talented instead of offering whole departments, sales, etc.

Taking outsourcing services to countries such as India can provide you the way to cost-effective services. Same type of services, with the same quality or even more sometimes are offered in India for a much cheaper cost! This cost-advantage is increasing the number of services which are being offered to India. Services like IT, SEO, call centers can save your 60% of cost if they outsourced from India. So now the conclusion is to getting high quality service at a cost effective prices is main benefit of outsourcing. If you want to read the benefits of outsourcing then start outsourcing.

Another benefit of outsourcing is seeing a big boost in your level of work quality, productivity, business performance and value and much more. Outsourcing can help you to increase your benefits in almost every aspect of your business. If you are able to pay money, you will get some good companies to outsource your project. Giving the project to right company can give you relief. Do not need to worry about your business because someone else or some other company is working for you and their duty is to make you satisfy.

Right definition of Outsourcing is, it is a creation of our direct communication and a global economy. Companies which do not have enough resources or they need to obtain those resources can now outsource almost all task they need to a third party anywhere in the world.

Source: www.articleclick.com/Article/Benefits-of-IT-Outsourcing/1336089

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IT Outsourcing for Cost Effective IT Solutions

 

There have always been agreements and disagreements over the idea of outsourcing one’s IT Support to the IT Firms. While some consider IT outsourcing a deft expedient, the others think that it is expensive and delivers sub standard output. To those who believe in the latter, some of the appropriate reasons as to why one should outsource IT Solutions are listed below. On perusing these, one could easily understand the benefits of IT Solutions outsourcing over doing it in-house.

Starting with the primary reason, Cost effectiveness, which simply asserts that by outsourcing IT Solutions one can lay hands on affordable IT support that is otherwise hard to embrace. Hiring a full fledged in-house IT team is certainly not economical, as it involves the recruitment cost, maintenance cost and compensation cost thereafter. By outsourcing IT solutions, one can let go off these mounting costs and can acquire specialized IT solutions at imperceptible cost. Outsourcing saves companies from spending money on various unnecessary heads like hiring IT professionals, imparting them training, providing them resources and infrastructure etc. Thus, it is certainly a wise alternative to go for.

The other vital reason for IT Support Outsourcing is Quality of output. IT Firms that take up outsourcing work are specialized and house expert IT Professionals. These firms adopt scientific techniques to hire the best of IT experts, provide them timely training so that they keep pace with the new in the Technology world, offer them hefty compensation and other benefits, so that they produce the most significant and unparalleled output. Therefore, outsourcing work to them is indeed a guarantee of best and quality output.

IT outsourcing is a boon for non IT companies. Because of the nature of their work, IT companies can hire IT teams but for non IT companies who do not often come across IT related issues, as their line of business is non technical, hiring a full fledged IT team for IT issues that come up less than often is certainly not a wise option. With evolving technology, non IT companies are also growing increasingly automated so as to make their work simple, but their IT needs restrict to basic IT solutions for which they can easily resort to IT outsourcing. This will save them from spending money on maintaining IT team and also help them in getting their work done efficiently and impeccably.

The specialized IT Firms are also considered favorable as they provide need based 24/7 IT services to the companies. Companies can reach out to these IT firms as and when they come across any IT related issue, and pay them on monthly and hourly basis. This saves them huge money which they can utilize in other fruitful means. Thus, saying this that IT Outsourcing is a boon for smart and modern day companies, is certainly not an exaggeration and truly an unmatched expedient to look at.

Source: www.articleclick.com/Article/IT-Outsourcing-for-Cost-Effective-IT-Solutions/1430653

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Choose the good IT outsourcing company

 

If you are searching for good IT outsourcing company then you have to believe some of the business functions. Though cost is an important factor, but still there are various essential points’ lies to define the characteristics of a good outsourcing company. When you are searching for the right kind of company first consider the price analysis. You must see what you are getting for what you are paying. Must check the experience of the company before handling any work. Because the expertise hands of a company can easily understand the nature of your company and can work according to it. Like this there are various areas to discuss before selecting an outsourcing company, such as:

Communication

Maintain an open relationship for proper contacts with the company is a crucial business point. When you are giving a work, then you always want to be in touch 24X7 to bit the competitive IT world with on time finish work. Have a transparent relationship with the company and its partner network for better and effective communication.

Size and Growth

It is necessary for an IT outsourcing company to expand its size and growth for maintaining the growth of the company. Stable functions and developing services are the sign of the right growth of a company because growth of the company is leading towards the developmental productions and accomplishments such as stable increase in revenue, jobs, branches and countries.

Customer References

The strength and ability of an IT outsourcing company can be recognized through its customer’s references. Clientele review is important for a company’s reputation. The success of the outsourcing company lies with success of customer’s company. Better the service, better the clientele company image. So to know the truth about a company you can check through their’s customer’s words.

Organizational Competencies

Every company is struggling to prove the qualitative strength in organizational strengths. We can say in other language, going through competencies certifies the excellence of a company. You can search the recognition of an outsourcing company through its press releases, articles, blogs and other published write-ups. The published accomplishments prove the publicity of the company and help you to put your trust vote on it. When you didn’t find any public recognition for that company then simply don’t believe all the words of that IT outsourcing company.

Source: www.articleclick.com/Article/Choose-the-good-IT-outsourcing-company/1545516

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