Dec 21, 2009
Market Service: Global Business and Outsourcing Services
Proving Value, Establishing Trust: Assessing Oracle's Services and Support Strategy
Dana Stiffler
Oracle has strengthened and focused its services and support business in recent years. For a publicly held software company, this means focus, automation, and innovation while aligning more closely with the product side of the house, with pricing and delivery models gradually shifting toward software as a service and the cloud.
Sep 22, 2009
Market Service: Global Business and Outsourcing Services
Texas Two-Step: Dell To Acquire Perot Systems, Expand Portfolio for U.S. Small and Midsize Enterprises
Dana Stiffler, C.J. Wehlage
Dell's acquisition of Perot Systems greatly expands its services portfolio, making it a more formidable competitor against HP and IBM in the U.S. SMB market. To be competitive in other markets and on a global scale, Dell will need to make additional acquisitions.
Sep 18, 2009
Market Service: Global Business and Outsourcing Services
The Top 25 SAP Service Providers
Dana Stiffler
The SAP services market has a lot of runway left. Even as the core commoditizes and goes offshore, the market is still worth well over $100B, and growing at high single-digit rates annually. The very largest SAP service providers-the top nine-are longtime standard bearers of global IT services, but things get considerably cloudy beyond that with the increased influence of the Indian players and the arrival of several Latin American upstarts.
Aug 19, 2009
Market Service: Global Business and Outsourcing Services
Forget Outsourcing: As Cognizant and Invensys Team Up, It's About Co-Learning
Phil Fersht, Bill Polk
The industry's next growth phase is unlikely to be dominated by the mega-mergers of the past. Instead, service providers will move into partnership engagements with clients where specific IP and industry process competence can be developed. The new partnership between Cognizant and Invensys is a great example of this shift.
Jul 23, 2009
Market Service: Global Business and Outsourcing Services
State of the Outsourcing Industry in Mid-2009: Activity To Resume With a More Cautious and Global Focus
Phil Fersht, Dana Stiffler
In past recessions, enterprises have increased both IT and business process outsourcing (BPO) initiatives to drive out cost. But that hasn't been the case during the last nine months of severe economic downturn. Most enterprises have put outsourcing plans on the back burner while they tackle fundamental issues, including contemplating their very survival.
Jun 10, 2009
Market Service: Global Business and Outsourcing Services
The 2009 Supply Management BPO Landscape: Short-Term Body-Shopping Trumps Business Transformation
Phil Fersht, Mickey North Rizza
Supply management business process outsourcing has been red hot in recent years. The market grew 30% in one year, driven by procurement and strategic sourcing services being offshored to India in record numbers. However, because of the short-term mentality of companies jumping into engagements for the sake of short-term cost savings, this growth is not sustainable. Many of the companies have a long road ahead if they want to follow through with process optimization and make future efficiencies.
May 21, 2009
Market Service: Global Business and Outsourcing Services
Gauging the Potential of IBM's Business Analytics and Optimization Initiative
Dana Stiffler, John Hagerty
What if you could bring the brain power of the team behind IBM's Deep Blue computing initiative inside your company? Applying Kasparov-crushing analytics to the supply chain, customer data, and product development is the hook behind the company's newest service line, Business Analytics and Optimization (BAO). Is launching a new service under current market conditions ill-advised, or is IBM getting out in front of an information services monster market?
May 20, 2009
Market Service: Global Business and Outsourcing Services
Globalizing the Business Is the Key to Outsourcing
Phil Fersht
While some firms find it hard to make radical decisions in a downturn, others are clearly seeing how critical it is to operate as a global business. Outsourcing doesn't provide all the immediate answers, but it does help create the vehicle for clients to become more nimble and capable at a worldwide level.
Apr 27, 2009
Market Service: Global Business and Outsourcing Services
SaaS and BPO Providers Should Work Together To Create Business Utility Services
Phil Fersht, Dana Stiffler, Dennis Gaughan
Software as a service (SaaS) creates a business utility service that is revolutionizing the software and outsourcing industries. At the same time, AMR Research has seen strong uptake in the adoption of business process outsourcing (BPO) services, which often suffer from the lack of low-cost application delivery and common business processes and standards. Is software as a service the answer to solving the issues with business process outsourcing? The following article discusses how BPO and SaaS delivery models can come together to deliver a real low-cost business utility.
Mar 23, 2009
Market Service: Global Business and Outsourcing Services
Consulting and Outsourcing Services Deal Review Data: Retail Weakens, Life Sciences Coming on Strong
Dana Stiffler, Phil Fersht
Inquiries from buyers seeking service provider assistance on projects, application support, and outsourcing in 2008 hummed along right up until the end. Here we review the shape of 2008's activity by company size, industry, initiative scope, and the functional or technology area addressed.