Sourcing and Vendor Relationships Executive Report Abstracts

2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001| 2000

2007 | Volume 7
Outsourcing Success: Unique, Shifting, and Hard to Copy (Vol. 8, No. 8)

This Executive Report by Dr. Sara Cullen provides a new conceptualization of IT outsourcing (ITO) success from the client's perspective based on results from three surveys conducted during 1994-2000, a review of previous research, data from 49 cases, and data from seven additional in-depth cases. The key conclusions reveal that success is idiosyncratic and moving -- no single organization seeks exactly the same things as another from their outsourcing deals. And these goals vary over time. Replicating another organization's deal is unlikely to give you the success that you want -- you must design your deal to match your unique goals, needs, and constraints. Success is an individual journey; similar decisions made by different organizations yield different results based on the organization's competency.

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Negotiation Planning: Plan to Get Sustainable Results (Vol. 8, No. 7)

Negotiation can be a very important step in securing an outsourcing deal that yields sustainable long-term results. Even if there isn't a major negotiation at the time of signing an outsourcing deal, if you are a contract manager, you are probably negotiating with someone every day within the service provider or within your own organization. This Executive Report by Dr. Sara Cullen explores the planning stages of negotiation regarding outsourcing contracts through 10 major steps, divided into four key sections. The purpose of this type of careful planning is to ensure you reach sustainable solutions that work in the interests of both parties.

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Building a Methodology 101: Boosting Sourcing Management Performance (Vol. 8, No. 6)

Organizations that are serious about sourcing might consider building a planning, decision-making, and execution methodology to boost internal management performance and total value creation from sourcing initiatives. While the idea of creating a methodology from nothing might seem intimidating at first, the construction process is not as hard as it sounds. This Executive Report outlines the broad principles behind constructing a methodology that, if followed correctly, will inject discipline, clarity, and sophistication into the process of managing sourcing initiatives. The report also attempts to persuade readers that the heavy lifting is worth the effort.

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Preparing for the Next Generation (Vol. 8, No. 5)

It is inevitable that your outsourcing contract will end one day. The end of the contract represents the completion of the current outsourcing lifecycle and the start of the next generation. The final phase of the outsourcing lifecycle is where planning for the next generation begins, where the future options are decided upon, and where the past and future are assessed in order to go forward in an improved position -- faster, better, and cheaper. This Executive Report by Sara Cullen takes you through the considerations involved in ending your current deal and beginning the next generation.

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Doing Business with India (Vol. 8, No. 4)

India will soon replace China as the most populated country in the world, and its economic power is just beginning to be felt on a global scale. This Executive Report by Kari Heistad and Anjali Bhatia presents an overview of the economic, communication, and cultural issues that impact how organizations conduct business in India.

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The New Global Sourcing: Ascending the Value Chain (Vol. 8, No. 3)

Sourcing is quickly moving up the value chain from the outsourcing and offshoring of "plain vanilla" processes such as those found in IT, tech support, HR administration, and inbound customer service calls to much more strategic activities such as R&D, product development, and logistics. Successful organizations create value and achieve a level of performance that otherwise would not have been possible had the processes remained under their control. How can your organization begin the process of understanding the nature of strategic sourcing and the issues and risks associated with it? This Executive Report by John Berry offers a baseline.

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Offshoring IT: Making It a Success (Vol. 8, No. 2)

Enterprises are now offshoring many of their IT activities, and this looks to be a trend that will continue. Though offshoring has become a critical component of many businesses and has several benefits, it also poses additional challenges and risks, and achieving success in offshoring is not automatic. This Executive Report by Mohan Babu K and San Murugesan presents considerations, strategies, and practices that will help you make your IT offshoring activities a success.

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The Governance Charter: Managing the Outsourcing Arrangement (Vol. 8, No. 1)

A signed contract alone does not guarantee a successful outsourcing arrangement. This Executive Report by Dr. Sara Cullen shows you how to prepare a governance charter, a key document in promoting good governance of a contract. It walks you through each element of the governance charter and provides an example on which you can base your own version.

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2006 | Volume 7
Moving to a Value-Based Vendor Relationship (Vol. 7, No. 12)

Third-party costs make up the majority of most IT budgets. In order to get the biggest bang for our company's buck, this Executive Report by Sheleen Quish argues that a value-based model is necessary. A value-based model focuses on vendor relationships and partnerships, including how to develop and maintain them.

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Outsourcing and Offshoring: The Irish Marketplace (Vol. 7, No. 11)

The Irish outsourcing marketplace has shifted from purely IT infrastructure manufacturing to a more knowledge-centric, value-added model. The genesis of this change can be traced to a proactive approach taken by the Irish government during the last decade. The aim of the government is to foster the economic growth of Ireland through high-value business process outsourcing and, ultimately, to differentiate the country from the pack of challengers that is rapidly emerging to contest offshoring and outsourcing opportunities.

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An Environment for IT Excellence: Sourcing Your Best Stuff from Within (Vol. 7, No. 10)

Is your IT function operating as an internal business? If not, why not? In this Executive Report by David N. Rasmussen, find out the answers to these and many other questions concerning how to build a best-in-class IT internal business unit for your company. Today's CIO needs to think and behave as a business executive first and a technology manager second. Learn how to create an environment where employees are able to motivate themselves to excel on their commitments to your clients.

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Competitive Bidding: Getting the Right Deal with the Right Supplier (Vol. 7, No. 9)

Most organizations use market forces to achieve the lowest price with the best supplier for their requirements through a competitive bidding process. This Executive Report by Sara Cullen shows you how to prepare and facilitate the competitive bidding process by describing the common stages, how to prepare the request for proposal, and how to facilitate the market's understanding of your requirements.

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Balancing Competition and Collaboration in Vendor Negotiations (Vol. 7, No. 8)

Determining what approach to take and how far to push in a negotiation is a complex endeavor. This Executive Report by Moshe Cohen presents principles and skills to help you find the best balance in your negotiations with partners and suppliers. The report focuses on designing an approach based on the relative value of the relationship and of the desired outcome of the negotiation and offers a framework and skills for building collaborative relationships with the other party without giving in on your tangible outcomes.

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Understanding Business Process Offshoring Risks from a Lifecycle Perspective (Vol. 7, No. 7)

Risk mitigation is essentially the flip side of planning more thoroughly and effectively and making better decisions. You need look no further to see the truth in this than business process offshoring. Offshoring presents real value-creation potential but exists within a hive of risks. One way to understanding those risks is to map them to the offshoring lifecycle. This is the basis for establishing a methodological approach to risk analysis for every offshoring initiative.

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Collaboration Issues in Vendor Relations (Vol. 7, No. 6)

The continued development of business process outsourcing has combined with emerging processes and technologies to create a model for a new kind of modular firm that is capable of meeting today's demands for real-time flexibility. The first step in this type of reorganization is implementing collaborative strategies in vendor relationships. This Executive Report by Brian J. Dooley examines the growth and development of these newer collaborative vendor strategies; discusses the issues and benefits involved in implementing this type of strategy; lays out a plan for creating a collaborative organization; and provides four case studies that demonstrate how collaborative tools helped provide solutions to vendor problems.

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Service-Level Agreements: Articulating What Will Make a Successful Deal (Vol. 7, No. 5)

The service-level agreement (SLA) is a critical element in the suite of contractual and governing documents that surround any outsourcing deal. The SLA defines the responsibilities of each party, the services and reports to be provided, what successful service is and is not, and what will be done about it -- which are all critical to the success of your deal. This Executive Report by Sara Cullen shows you how to prepare a good SLA and provides an example for you to retain.

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Risk Analysis for Agile Outsourcing (Vol. 7, No. 4)

Offshore outsourcing and agile software development are two parallel trends in the IT industry that promise to lower the costs of software development. This Executive Report by Mark Choate analyzes these trends and argues that the risks associated with offshore outsourcing are not adequately considered. I'll show the relative value of the cost savings associated with each approach once risk is factored in, revealing that offshore projects are often much less beneficial to the bottom line than is commonly believed.

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Getting on Offshoring's Case (Vol. 7, No. 3)

In this Executive Report by John Berry, an old management tool undergoes renewal. The tried-and-true business case takes on added importance in business process offshoring projects because its decision support role expands into critical operational guidance throughout the entire offshoring lifecycle.

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Disaster Recovery and Security Issues in Outsourcing (Vol. 7, No. 2)

As security and disaster recovery concerns become ever more closely intertwined, attention to crisis planning has become imperative. Outsourcing magnifies these concerns even further. As more and more critical business processes are handled by external service providers, guarantees must be sought to ensure business continuity in the event that outsourcers fail or must be relied upon for recovery.

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Creating a Global Delivery Model for Your Sourcing Initiatives (Vol. 7, No. 1)

A global sourcing delivery model can provide a new vision to the organizational culture that motivates employees and sourcing partners to produce results. This Executive Report offers a comprehensive account of such a practical model. This model employs resources, technology, and processes in a consistent way to optimize the benefits of sourcing. It can facilitate effective delivery of solutions on time and within budget.

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2005 | Volume 6
The Contract Scorecard (Vol. 6, No. 12)

Outsourcing is not an end goal; it is a way to achieve any number of objectives. Since outsourcing is rarely reversible and can consume a large part of the budget, the ability to drive and demonstrate outcomes is crucial. As detailed in this Executive Report by Sara Cullen, the contract scorecard is a useful technique to define, drive, and track the overall success of the deal.

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IT Offshore Outsourcing: The Elephant in the Room (Vol. 6, No. 11)

The intense debate on offshore outsourcing has produced many passionate supporters and opponents. But while the debate rages, offshoring is rapidly growing and has now become so critical in the global workforce that it can no longer be ignored. This Executive Report by E.M. Bennatan analyzes the data from a recent Cutter survey on IT offshoring and provides IT policy makers with the information they need to make strategic decisions for their business.

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The Sourcing Market in India (Vol. 6, No. 10)

This Executive Report by Mark Kobayashi-Hillary analyzes the sourcing market in India, initially examining the present significance of the international market in outsourced services and then how India compares to other regions. The report concludes with a review of knowledge process outsourcing, the most important development in Indian offshoring at present, and includes case studies from the cutting edge of remote services.

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Outsourcing and Knowledge Management (Vol. 6, No. 9)

The knowledge problem is the latest cloud beginning to hang over the outsourcing phenomenon. As organizations outsource more functions and become more lean and specialized, they must be careful not to lose too much of their individual and organizational knowledge. This Executive Report by Ken Orr asks, with regard to knowledge management: what is the tipping point at which outsourcing becomes counterproductive?

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The Role of XP/Agile in Sourcing-Related IT Litigation (Vol. 6, No. 8)

With Extreme Programming (XP) and various agile development processes becoming increasingly popular, more and more IT organizations are requiring the use of such processes in their sourcing contracts with systems integrators, consulting firms, and other vendors. While these methodologies offer important benefits, they also carry some significant risks -- not the least of which is that client IT organizations often fail to quantify and articulate their expectations of XP/agile processes in their vendor contracts. This Executive Report by Edward Yourdon examines this issue and reviews the results of a recent Cutter Consortium survey that aimed to determine how IT organizations view and enforce XP/agile processes and whether they proceed with litigation efforts when XP/agile expectations fail.

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The Sourcing Market in Latin America (Vol. 6, No. 7)

The Latin American sourcing market appears to be set for major growth. As companies diversify their outsourcing solutions and as the ever growing need for Spanish-language services meets up with cheap Latin labor and vast improvements in infrastructure, near and mid-source markets are now migrating south of the US border.

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Offshoring Value Delivery Framework (Vol. 6, No. 6)

This Executive Report by John Berry offers organizations guidance and a methodological structure for all the challenges and decisions they encounter on the way to offshoring business processes. The Offshoring Value Delivery Framework is a structured, repeatable methodology that companies can operationalize to improve the quality of decisions and therefore the amount of value achieved from any offshoring initiative.

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Outsourcing Outlook: Trends to Watch (Vol. 6, No. 5)

For the most part, the past year was one of incremental progress in outsourcing, with a few key business process and technology breakthroughs adding some excitement to the industry. This Executive Report by John Harney examines the developments in outsourcing during the past year and presents some trends to watch in the coming months.

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Myths of Outsourcing (Vol. 6, No. 4)

As organizations use outsourcing to manage numerous factors ranging from cost containment to capacity management, it's clear that the use of sourcing as both a tactical and strategic tool is not a short-term phenomenon. Time and experience have led to the accumulated outsourcing lore, which is based on a mix of opinions, facts, and urban myths. This Executive Report by Thomas M. Cagley, Jr. aims to help separate fact from fiction.

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Vendor Management Offices (Vol. 6, No. 3)

The growth and expansion of outsourcing into an increasing number of areas has created a more complex environment with multiple vendors and multiple contracts. Successfully managing all of this information and these relationships is no easy task. This Executive Report by Brian J. Dooley focuses on establishing a vendor management office (VMO) to centralize the management of an organization's numerous outsourcing engagements.

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Managing Your Sourcing Relationships Right (Vol. 6, No. 2)

If your sourcing partner is failing to deliver effective results, then you are likely experiencing the challenges of sourcing relationship management. What should you do to make the sourcing relationship work for you? How do you establish the right sourcing relationship or improve an existing one? This Executive Report by Dr. Tushar K. Hazra addresses these questions first by presenting seven principles to follow and then by sharing the lessons learned from applying these principles in practice.

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Backsourcing: Why, When, and How to Do It (Vol. 6, No. 1)

Several high-profile companies have recently reexamined their outsourcing arrangements and are bringing IT functions back inhouse, causing other organizations to follow suit. This Executive Report by Jeff Kaplan explains this new backsourcing trend, offers advice to determine whether this action is the right path for your organization, and provides guidelines to follow if you do choose to implement this process in your company.

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2004 | Volume 5
Proven Practices for IT Offshore Outsourcing (Vol. 5, No. 12)

As the global sourcing of IT development continues to increase, firms struggle to maintain quality while pursuing the labor arbitrage available offshore. Based on more than 100 interviews with participants from US firms, their offshore suppliers, and their legal and intermediary firms, this Executive Report by Joseph W. Rottman and Mary C. Lacity presents 28 lessons for shortening the offshore learning curve and effectively engaging offshore vendors.

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What You Need to Know About Negotiating Software Deals (Vol. 5, No. 11)

Negotiating software deals is the latest buzz; you must be aware, however, that negotiating a deal to license software is different from negotiating other agreements. In this Executive Report, the second in a series by Ditka Reiner and Mary Welch, you will learn how a lifecycle approach to software negotiations can land your organization the best quality software for the best possible price.

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What Offshoring Vendors Forget to Tell You (Vol. 5, No. 10)

On the surface, the choice to embark on an offshore outsourcing strategy can be an easy call given the anticipated cost reductions and increases in quality and productivity. But there's much more to the decision. This Executive Report by Mark Kobayashi-Hillary helps you look beyond the much-heralded benefits of going offshore.

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The New World of ASPs (Vol. 5, No. 9)

After suffering growing pains over the past several years, the ASP industry is now alive and robust, despite earlier not-so-rosy industry predictions. This Executive Report by John Harney explores the trends in the current ASP world and discusses what potential customers need to know when considering a deal with an ASP.

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Utility Computing: A Reality Check and Prescription for Success (Vol. 5, No. 8)

The movement toward utility computing is clearly on the rise. The potential benefits of utility computing -- greater operating efficiencies and more innovative operations -- make it an idea that enterprises cannot afford to dismiss. This Executive Report by Jeff Kaplan offers a primer on what utility computing really is, the available technologies, and how to successfully implement it in your organization.

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What You Need to Know About Software Licensing (Vol. 5, No. 7)

When it's time to buy software, what are your buying options? What are the terms and conditions you need to know -- and that must be in a licensing agreement -- before your organization makes its financial commitment? This Executive Report by Ditka Reiner and Mary Welch answers these critical questions.

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Developing a Global Sourcing Strategy (Vol. 5, No. 6)

The global economy has indeed arrived and with it, some golden opportunities and perplexing problems for IT organizations. This Executive Report by Ian Hayes examines the role a global sourcing strategy can play in IT and outlines a set of best practices for creating and executing such a strategy.

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A Recipe for Outsourcing Success (Vol. 5, No. 5)

It's no surprise that many companies have warmed up to the idea of outsourcing IT functions. But take it from a CIO: to make it work, you have to plan outsourcing right and instill effective vendor management practices. This Executive Report by Charlton Monsanto focuses on the best ways to plan for and manage IT outsourcing arrangements, as well as how to best manage your vendors.

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Distributed Agile Development and the Death of Distance (Vol. 5, No. 4)

For many companies, the rapid growth in outsourcing, especially offshore outsourcing of development work, opens the door to a host of problems that come with having a far-flung development environment. If you practice -- or want to practice -- agile software development, this Executive Report by Matthew Simons offers ideas on how to narrow the gap between the home office and your partners around the globe.

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The Agile IT Executive and Outsourcing (Vol. 5, No. 3)

The ever-increasing speed of business requires today's CIOs to have a command of information that they can draw upon to make quick and sound decisions. Often, these decisions involve whether to outsource and, if so, what to outsource in terms of IT applications. This Executive Report by Michael C. Mah shows how the agile IT executive employs a combination of skills in software measurement and effective negotiation to create productive and rewarding outsourcing relationships.

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Transforming Indirect Procurement Spend: A Case Study (Vol. 5, No. 2)

Over the past several years, cost-cutting pressures have forced organizations to endure much pain. This Executive Report by Dr. Mary Lacity, Dr. Leslie Willcocks, and David Feeny offers a strong alternative for CIOs and other senior executives in helping their organizations control spending.

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Offshore Outsourcing: Strategies, Processes, and Responsibilities (Part II in a Series) (Vol. 5, No. 1)

While outsourcing has increased over the past decade, offshore outsourcing has lately grown at an accelerated pace. Organizations in developed countries around the world are outsourcing a variety of functions to foreign countries. This Executive Report by Dr. Wendell Jones, the second in a two-part series, offers you insight and advice on offshore supplier strategies, the steps that lead to an effective contract, and the processes that both sides should employ to successfully manage the relationship.

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2003 | Volume 4
Six Strategies for Leveraging Your IT Investments (Vol. 4, No. 6)

Procuring technology products and services is a critical factor in an IT organization achieving its goals. In this Executive Report by Bart Perkins and Scott Knell, you will learn six strategies for successfully leveraging IT procurement, beginning with a portfolio approach to developing a sourcing strategy in order to manage the IT portfolio.

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Searching for Maturity: The Impact of CMM on Outsourced Software Development (Vol. 4, No. 5)

What benefits can a high-maturity software development organization provide an outsourcing customer? This Executive Report David Herron looks to answer that question as it examines the impact of high-maturity software practices as defined by the Capability Maturity Model®. The report also examines at the benefits of a high-maturity organization, how these benefits match up with the strategic business drivers of customers, and the insights an IT organization can gain by taking advantage of the high-maturity capabilities of an outsourcing provider.

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Offshore Outsourcing: Trends, Pitfalls, and Practices (Part I in a Series) (Vol. 4, No. 4)

The allure of offshore outsourcing is just too enticing for companies to ignore. Organizations are drawn by short-term cost reductions and the long-term promise of greater staffing flexibility and overall business agility. But because outsourcing involves several potential pitfalls and a number of critical success factors, the decision to outsource should not be made lightly. This is the first of two Executive Reports by Dr. Wendell Jones on offshore and nearshore outsourcing. Part I focuses on the origins and trends, traces the evolution of IT and business process outsourcing from their origins to the dominating global model, examines the forces driving global sourcing, and discusses the factors critical for offshoring success.

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Divorce and Reconciliation Strategies in Outsourcing (Vol. 4, No. 3)

The rapid growth in outsourcing -- especially of IT functions -- has spawned its share of cost savings and increased efficiency. On the other side, however, there have been a number of outsourcing failures that have created their share of dissatisfaction. In this Executive Report by Brian J. Dooley, learn what you must do to ensure an amicable "divorce" from your outsourcing supplier and how to mend a strained relationship.

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Using Tools to Manage Sourcing (Vol. 4, No. 2)

A significant movement is afoot to implement integrated systems to help manage all facets of a sourcing relationship, from contract management to collaboration between sourcing teams and end users to real-time monitoring of a vendor's service delivery performance. A new generation of automated tools is enabling both clients and vendors to improve the usefulness, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness of their outsourcing relationships.

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Building Value Chain Capabilities (Vol. 4, No. 1)

As more companies try to improve value chain capabilities with cooperative relationships, they're finding that three interrelated management decisions and actions spell success: motivating managers and employees to commit to and support the organizational change process; deciding which non-critical functions should be candidates for cooperative relationships; and determining whether those relationships should come in the form of an alliance, a partnership, or an outsourcing arrangement. In this Executive Report, Dr. Wendell Jones describes, in full detail, the actions required to strengthen a company's value chain in these three areas.

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2002 | Volume 3
Competitive Supplier Strategies for the Global Marketplace (Vol. 3, No. 4)

"As the pace of the global economy quickens, companies are searching for innovative ways to rapidly access information in foreign countries, enter new country markets, gain new sources of revenue, and increase productivity. Success means speed -- time to solution, time to market, and time to profit," writes author and Cutter Consortium Senior Consultant Wendell Jones. In this Executive Report, Dr. Jones presents an overview of the forces that are changing the competitive business landscape and examines competitive supplier strategies from mergers and acquisitions to cross-border outsourcing. The advantages, drawbacks, and implications are also discussed.

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Twenty Customer and Supplier Lessons on IT Sourcing (Vol. 3, No. 3)

This report provides an in-depth look at all of your outsourcing options - including total outsourcing, total insourcing, and selective outsourcing. Get the help you need to meet all of your outsourcing goals!

From an initial focus on cost reduction, IT outsourcing has become a complementary, routine mode of managing IT. Based on our own estimates, global market revenues will be US $150 billion by 2004, with 30%-35% of most large organizations' IT budgets managed by outsourcing arrangements. The question is no longer: "Should we outsource IT?"; it is now: "How do we exploit the ever-maturing external IT services market to achieve significant, strategic business leverage?" For customers, the answer lies in learning how to assess the contribution of their IT portfolios for current and future business value, continually monitor and evaluate market options, craft optimal contracts, and successfully manage supplier relationships. Based on 10 years of research in 543 companies, the report presents 16 lessons for customers and four for suppliers.

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ASPs, XSPs, and Web Services: Hybrid Solutions for Application Integration, Replication, and Aggregation (Vol. 3, No. 2)

Although application service providers (ASPs) and Web service providers may compete on certain fronts, they will more often cooperate in providing customer solutions. This report defines ASPs and Web services, categorizes the different types of each, outlines their inherent benefits, and suggests how each will best be used and deployed in hybrid solutions.

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Maintaining Alignment When Sourcing (Vol. 3, No. 1)

This Executive Report by Ian Hayes addresses the topic of maintaining business-IT alignment in outsourcing engagements. It considers what alignment means in an outsourcing engagement, offers guidelines for checking the health of alignment, and suggests tools for maintaining alignment. The Executive Report, writes Hayes, "describes some of the most common alignment issues that plague outsourcing engagements, gives recommendations for turning around misaligned engagements and advises companies on how to build a self-aligning engagement from the start."

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2001 | Volume 2
Metrics and Benchmarking: Negotiating Outsource Service Levels (Vol. 2, No. 6)

This report, by metrics expert Michael Mah, is written for organizations that are considering outsourcing or have already outsourced. It's designed to provide an overview of IT metrics and their role in establishing meaningful and well-aligned service levels, both before a contract is signed and after. It addresses setting initial expectations, establishing a metrics baseline, measuring improvement targets year over year, and the role that measurement plays with regard to negotiation and relationship management.

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Strategic Sourcing (Vol. 2, No. 5)

Writes author Wendell Jones, "To compete successfully, enterprises need new ways of aligning the business with IT and IT with the business direction. Most companies cannot do it all for themselves, and no single service provider can do it all. So, how can companies get what they need when they need it? The same way they get power, water, gas, light, telephone, and television -- by relying on outside resources provided by a network of alliance partnerships with other companies and strategic sourcing relationships with service providers and suppliers."

This Executive Report explores the benefits of strategic sourcing, which involves a very different mindset than that of traditional, cost-driven outsourcing. It details what companies must do to gain business advantage and improved business-IT alignment through the use of strategic sourcing.

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Outsourcing in the Real World: Stories from the Front Line (Vol. 2, No. 4)

Have you ever wondered if you could find out how companies are really doing with outsourcing? To answer that question, the authors of this executive report created a list of we-always-wanted-to-know questions and conducted individual, face-to-face interviews with a select list of people who are involved in outsourcing. The four panelists who shared their insight, experiences, and expertise are experienced individuals who have been extensively involved with outsourcing, including a senior manager with a large retail company, a senior consultant for a strategic technology management consulting firm, a strategic sourcing manager responsible for corporate sourcing, and a vendor representative for a company that provides supplemental staff and is a key provider of outsourcing development projects.

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Relationship Management: A Stakeholder Perpective (Vol. 2, No. 3)

Write authors Mary Lacity and Leslie Willcocks, "As a precursor to outsourcing success, senior executives must help enable effective IT. This requires senior executives to identify the IT vision as well as current and future core IT activities, provide a visible champion role for IT-enabled business initiatives, hire exceptional talent to man core IT roles, and empower stakeholders to successfully execute important IT activities. It is important for senior executives to understand the stakeholders involved in IT outsourcing, the nature and basis of relationships among stakeholders, and the stakeholder goals and activities during the six phases of IT outsourcing." In this Executive Report, the authors outline these six phases and report on their extensive research into the nature and variety of stakeholder relationships.

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Vendor Evaluation (Vol. 2, No. 2)

This Executive Report examines the importance of employing an effective evaluation model to consider vendors vying to become an organization's outsourcing partner. Writes author Norris Overton, "All too often, the process of evaluating vendor responses to an outsourcing request for proposal (RFP) is viewed as a single step in the outsourcing process. The reality is that vendor evaluation must be an intricate part of the entire process."

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Outsourcing Development Projects (Vol. 2, No. 1)

Writes author Ian Hayes, "When it comes to development projects, most IT organizations have hired consulting firms to perform some aspect of the work. Whether building an application from scratch, integrating applications across diverse platforms, or designing and building a Web site, consulting firms have assisted countless IT organizations in their development efforts. However, if you asked an IT organization whether it engages in development outsourcing, the answer would likely be no. Why the discrepancy?"

There are compelling reasons to classify these development engagements as a form of outsourcing and to apply some of the more traditional outsourcing techniques to their negotiation and management. This Executive Report discusses when to consider development outsourcing, the types of development outsourcing services available, selecting a development outsourcing partner, and managing the development effort.

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2000 | Volume 1
The Change Agent and the Outsourcing Process (Vol. 1, No. 11)

Businesses that survive and thrive in today's global economy do not question the necessity of change. Rather, they ask how change will be managed. To remain competitive, modern businesses must control how rapidly change will occur, along with how and by whom change will be controlled. Will carefully planned, controlled change boost a small company to global status? Will failure to embrace the modern business climate relegate a company to the dustbin of history? Will rapid, uncontrolled change send a once-promising startup into bankruptcy?

As the project manager for the change, change agents must address the impact that change will have on the entire organization or business process. Outsourcing projects can involve redefining organizational structures, redesigning material and workflow, changing organizational relationships, and redefining job descriptions for managers, staff, and line personnel. It is clear that technology and business process changes in an organization can have a far-reaching impact on the organization or business, crossing organizational/process boundaries, impacting personnel roles and responsibilities, and potentially impacting the customer. The change agent must have the knowledge and skill to positively manage all these areas of change.

Moving Beyond Traditional Dispute Resolution (Vol. 1, No. 10)

This report invites companies to reexamine how they approach dispute resolution when outsourcing. Says author William Zucker, "Because the context in which dispute resolution occurs is often acrimonious, dispute resolution clauses are generally boilerplate provisions, viewed as a necessary evil, rather than a potential benefit. Yet conflict management is at the heart of the collaborative process. Nowhere is that more true than in outsourcing, which combines personnel from different organizations and asks them to work together."

People Issues in Outsourcing (Vol. 1, No. 9)

Writes author Dwayne Phillips, "Outsourcing involves business decisions, financial considerations, strategic direction, and so on -- but don't forget, it also involves people. And it is the people who will either make outsourcing work or cause it to flounder. Think about it: management is just a group of people in the role of managers. The "organization" everyone talks about is made up of people. Individuals cannot hide behind their job titles or roles when dealing with other people; that will only upset everyone and ruin their collective efforts. The truth is, no one succeeds in outsourcing unless everyone succeeds."

Planning and Managing Service Levels (Vol. 1, No. 8)

Every company knows when it is receiving good service, but it is often difficult to express what constitutes good service -- to define it in quantifiable terms and manage it to consistent levels. This Executive Report considers the topic of service throughout all of the phases of the outsourcing lifecycle. Each phase has its own set of management issues, challenges, and techniques that can be used to deal with service issues.

Says author Ian Hayes, "The best advice for any company that is considering entering into an outsourcing relationship, or that is in the midst of one right now, is "prepare yourself." A company that prepares itself adequately through proper planning, correctly sets its expectations, and adopts a flexible and open frame of mind will be able to deal with and resolve the inevitable service issues that may arise."

Offshore Outsourcing: The Indian Alternative (Vol. 1, No. 7)

Says author Marty McCaffrey, "Today, India points with pride to the fact that more than 220 US Fortune 1000 companies are doing business with Indian software service companies. But even with this many companies actively involved in offshore outsourcing, there is a general lack of accurate and detailed information available to those considering outsourcing to India." The report discusses many of the considerations, both technical and nontechnical, that should be taken into account when evaluating outsourcing offshore to Indian companies. The Indian offshore outsourcing industry is maturing, offering significant benefits to companies willing to take on the unique challenges required.

The ASP Option (Vol. 1, No. 6)

This report, written by Senior Consultant Chris Pickering, takes a broad look at the emerging ASP market, beginning with the definition of an ASP and including what applications ASPs offer, what types of companies are becoming ASPs, costs and pricing, business models, application architecture, infrastructure models, the state of the APS market, and the benefits and risks involved with using an ASP.

Sourcing and Vendor Relationships Executive Report Abstracts