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How healthy are your IT Service Contracts? Some years ago, I attended a security seminar at which it was revealed that more than 90% of those companies who did not record security breaches reported that they had no problems. Of course it is easy to assume that you have no problems if you never monitor, [...]
Continue readingBusinesses that lack their own IT departments will find that they will be unable to streamline their work flow and increase the efficiency at which they work. This, luckily, can be remedied simply by choosing to create their own in-house IT department, or to choose to outsource to an outside IT firm. So when you [...]
Continue readingWhen considering sourcing alternatives for IT services, buyers must make a fundamental decision on structure. Do you want a single provider or multiple providers? Both have their pros and cons. Neither of the approaches is wrong. But each presents unique challenges, both in operations and in provider management. When IT outsourcing initially evolved, very few [...]
Continue readingOne of the questions that continue to hound buyers and providers of outsourcing is how to mitigate the risk of failure. This is despite a longer history of outsourcing than you would suspect—outsourcing can be traced back to the Industrial Revolution. For 150 years, until 1900, industry in Europe outsourced its requirements. Functions like accounting [...]
Continue readingOutsourcing is not a new or alien phenomenon. Almost every organization outsources some aspect of its business. A paint company may outsource the manufacture of its paint cans; a mobile network may outsource its billing activity; a hospitality chain may outsource medical waste disposal; an auto manufacturer may outsource servicing; and an IT company may [...]
Continue readingLead generation and marketing are closely knit. In fact, it can be said that businesses nowadays do marketing to generate leads. For IT companies, however, marketing and lead generation can be two different things. Why? That is because IT firms that mainly cater to the needs of other businesses will not much benefit from creating [...]
Continue readingGoing by the change of events and recent developments, there are enough indications that 2013 will perhaps be a better year for the information technology (IT) outsourcing services industry, compared with the previous year. However, a clear-cut recovery could elude the industry until the second half of 2013. Global clients usually finalise their IT budget [...]
Continue readingSearching for a great outsourcing company when trying to find a virtual assistant online can be a daunting task; just type in “outsource” or “virtual assistant” with your search engine and you’ll get hundreds, if not thousands, of answers in reply to your query. So, how would you sift through all these options for your [...]
Continue readingOutsourcing in a Post-Recession World The current economic crisis in Western Europe and the US has adversely affected nearly all industries globally. The financial crisis resulting from the subprime crisis in the US has forced companies and even entire countries to adopt austerity measures in order to keep costs/debts down to improve on the bottom [...]
Continue readingIt can take enormous effort to get an IT Contract negotiated, agreed and signed off by all parties. So perhaps it is not surprising that many organisations – both customers and suppliers – have a tendency to congratulate themselves on their achievement; breathe a sigh of relief; and stick the documents in a drawer until [...]
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