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The A to Z of Outsourcing

White Paper | Category:   Strategy & Business Case  IT Infrastructure & Applications  Outsourcing

Outsourcing has attracted a lot of attention over the past few years. At times, the logistics of outsourcing can seem complex but, the basic idea of outsourcing is of course very simple – reap the benefits of having a specialist do a specific job for less money than it would cost for you to do it yourself. However, when it comes time to setting up the right outsourcing agreement, you may be overwhelmed with the complex and bewildering array of outsourcing terms and jargon.

As a result, we at Alsbridge wrote this outsourcing guide to help anyone involved in outsourcing understand the main terminology. The "A to Z of Outsourcing" isn't intended to be an exhaustive manual, but rather it is a guide to help you understand common outsourcing terms and concepts. If you don't know your ARC's from your Earnback, this outsourcing overview is definitely for you.

We've tried to make this outsourcing guide comprehensive without creating an encyclopedia. However if there's anything you would like to know which isn't included, or which isn't clear, feel free to contact ALsbridge, we'd be delighted to hear from you. Our goal is to make understanding outsourcing as easy and simple as possible so you can gain the most benefit from your deals.

Cloud Computing: The Oregon Trail of Today

White Paper | Category:   Strategy & Business Case  Cloud Computing  Cloud Sourcing

Currently, many brave pioneers are starting on their journey towards the Cloud but, to safely and successfully make the voyage they must carefully plan each step, anticipating the unexpected along the way. Before heading 'Cloudward,' these pioneers must decide:

• Are we qualified to make the Cloud journey?
• If so, what route should we take?
• What provisions are necessary to make the trip successful?
• And finally, why is the journey to the Cloud more important than the destination?

Strategies to Reduce Network Costs in a Rapidly Changing Environment

White Paper | Category:   Strategy & Business Case  Benchmarking  Network Services...

The cost of an organization's telecommunications network services (voice, data and wireless), typically accounts for three to six percent of overhead and can average more than two percent of total revenue. In addition, telecom network services spend is increasing. Industry forecasts predict enterprise businesses' spend on IT and telecom will increase 3.7 percent in 2012 over 2011.

The current level of cost coupled with the anticipated increase makes controlling total network services spend a top-level imperative for all IT leaders, requiring them to scrutinize telecom costs and seek out every option for savings. Over the past 10 years, working with hundreds of clients, Alsbridge has learned a thing or two about managing network services spend. We've identified several trends and management strategies to help IT leaders rein in runaway network costs.

Alsbridge expects the market to continue to experience the following trends for the near-term:

• Vendor Side
• Full Service providers will continue to be difficult to negotiate with on pricing and contract Terms and Conditions as they flex their market power and continue to focus on trying to maintain their market share and revenue streams as they adjust to new market conditions and an overall shift in mindshare and CAPEX from the enterprise to the wireless and consumer markets. As a result, contract pricing and Terms and Conditions will begin to be a real differentiator between Full Service and Business Wire-Line providers.
• Layoffs will continue at Full Services companies, making retention of quality FTEs increasingly difficult.
• Vendor consolidation will continue, while integration issues also plague the market.
• The Business Wire-Line space will experience more activity, including increasing financial stability, driving better scale and service.
• Network services pricing will continue to decline year-over-year.
• The gap between the lowest price point for a particular service and the average price for that same service will widen.

7 Things to Know About Migrating to the Cloud

eNews | Category:   Strategy & Business Case  Cloud Computing  Cloud Sourcing

There are significant benefits to adopting a cloud sourcing strategy. Economic viability is seen by many companies as a front-runner in making the determination to move forward with cloud sourcing.

While shifting from a CAPEX to an OPEX model is justification enough for some, there are seven not-so-common factors you should consider before adopting a cloud sourcing strategy, including:

1. Understand your current outsourcing relationships - Be conscious of the effect adopting a cloud sourcing strategy may have on your current provider relationship as that level of change could potentially be seen as a bad thing.

2. Determine gaps in support - Is your current service management operation able to cope with adding more vendors with various SLAs into the matrix?

3. Focus on the right services - Focus on commodity and niche services in the short term (these are considered the low hanging fruit within IT)

4. Examine current cost models - Most cloud vendors base their cost models on a consumption basis, so for test and development workloads, where the load is actually hours per week/month, the cost is significantly less

5. Determine the right delivery model - Focus on private cloud or virtual data centers

6. Identify commodity hardware - In most cases, migrating the workload from old to new hardware is simple, fast, and extremely reliable.

7. Conduct an employee current skills assessment - Adopting a cloud sourcing strategy will stress the existing enterprise architecture teams, and vendor management organizations to a great degree

This article covers, in detail, those seven not-so-common factors to consider before adopting a cloud sourcing strategy.

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