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Shared Services: The Next Step

White Paper | Category:   Strategy & Business Case  Transition & Governance  IT Infrastructure & Applications...

Shared services organizations (SSOs) are measured based on the perceived or derived value from the output of their operations. SSOs believed to be on the forefront of providing maximum value to their customers exhibit many common characteristics during their evolution to maturity that others seeking to improve their current organizations can learn and use to their benefit.

This white paper will discuss the typical evolutionary path seen in these valuable organizations, review the techniques and best practices they are employing, describe some of the organizational models being used and offer tips for your SSO regardless of where it stands.

3 Steps to a Faster, Better, Lower Cost IT Benchmark

White Paper | Category:   Benchmarking  IT Infrastructure & Applications  Outsourcing

It is important for IT leaders to have access to current market information in order to make informed business decisions on how to run their department and buy the products and services they need. Benchmarking is one of the best means to deliver such information, but has traditionally been an expensive, time consuming and painful endeavor. Not anymore!

ProBenchmark is able to deliver a faster, better IT benchmark at a fraction of the cost due to an innovative approach to using mathematical algorithms and automation in benchmarking , providing results in weeks as opposed to months. The mathematical algorithm is driven by a parametric modeling engine linked to a proprietary database with thousands of data points updated quarterly to reflect current market realities with results that are consistent and reliable.

This service offering has transformed the IT market by making information more readily available thereby creating a more efficient market and changing the way companies buy IT. Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) that currently cannot afford a benchmark will be able to buy one, and larger companies that currently benchmark will do so more regularly.
ProBenchmark delivers a benchmark that is:

• Faster - 3 week IT benchmark
• Better - Exact scenario modeling
• Lower cost - 70% below current market rates

Drafting ITO Contracts in the Cloud

White Paper | Category:   Strategy & Business Case  Negotiations / Renegotiations  Cloud Computing...

Alsbridge predicts Cloud-based delivery of applications will account for half of the market within 5 years and outsourcing e-mail as a service will be routine within 2 years.

The key to all successful outsourcing relationships is the quality and flexibility of the commercial agreement between the customer and the supplier. An IT outsourcing contract can be anything from a highly complex and weighty document to a shorter ‘consumer’ style arrangement, but either way it is crucial to all outsourcing relationships as it provides the legal framework between the organizations involved.

As with contracting for traditional ITO services, a detailed understanding of service provision and delivery is vital before entering into Cloud-based contractual commitments.

However, as contracting for services in the Cloud becomes the new standard, it will require a different set of contracting principles and a new basis for customer and supplier relationships. It is a case of adapt or die; those slowest to market will be left behind.

An IT outsourcing contract must stand the test of time, which means that it continues to meet both parties’ expectations during the lifetime of the ITO contract, not just at the start or key milestones.

This paper defines the key principles for what constitutes a ‘good’ contract and deal management organization in the current outsourcing landscape, and addresses the key challenges for ITO contracts in the future Cloud-based, on-demand IT and business services environment.

Alsbridge’s Top 12 Cloud Predictions for 2012

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

Cloud sourcing is a dynamic aspect of the IT industry that is revolutionizing the IT services market. Alsbridge's expert cloud sourcing advisors predict 2012 will be a year of both opportunity and destruction for providers and enterprises in the cloud.

Top 12 Cloud Predictions for 2012:

1. There are massive opportunities to bring cloud features into the enterprise and there have been increasingly more providers with tooling to help make that a reality. But, it is also going to be a year where consolidation across enterprise cloud vendors will increasingly occur. If the vendor competes in a crowded solution space, short term survival means being acquired, or going public. Only a sliver of vendors are positioned to survive as stand-alone providers.
2. Cloud projects for top-line revenue growth; +50% by 2014 (SaaS and BPaaS particularly) sponsored by business line or functional managers will accelerate over the next 18 months as business perceives IT to be too busy to meet demands for expansions and experimentation.
3. Security concerns will continue into 2012 and will be the main impediment to adopting public and hybrid cloud solutions by enterprises. There will be a re-examination of the differentiation between business requirements and business policies to refine information security requirements.
4. Cloud support for social networking mobile app access and enterprise collaboration will continue to accelerate (like business driven top line revenue project), over the next 2 years. Grassroots knowledge [content] sharing adoption will ramp up with double to triple digit pace year-over-year and thus on-demand options will be the flavored delivery method. Legacy corporate intranets will be molded into this new information ecosystem.

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