Getting to the right price. If not the primary objective, it’s certainly one of the more important goals of any customer who has ever outsourced a piece of their operation. While striving for the lowest price possible, in order for the transaction – and long term relationship – to be…
Change is hard. Big change is harder. And big change in big companies is extremely hard. So it is not surprising that when it comes to large outsourcings, the amount of change can be a deal-killer. The friction costs of outsourcing can result in hurdles that are just too high…
The U.S. Department of Defense, General Services Administration and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have issued a proposal to amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) implementing Executive Order 13495 , which will require government contractors that take over service work from other companies to offer jobs to certain…
A key finding in the Trustwave 2012 Global Security Report is that in 76% of data breach investigations a third party responsible for system support, development and/or maintenance of business environments introduced the security deficiencies. This should concern any company that outsources the processing, storage or transmission of personally identifiable…
Starting on 26 May 2012 the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”) will begin enforcing sweeping changes to the EU cookie law put in place 12 months ago. By way of reminder, following a change to the EU’s Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive (the “E-Privacy Directive”) back in 2011, the rules…
In previous blogs in September/October 2011 (Supplier Selection; Contract Negotiations; Relationship Management) I offered practical tips on how to manage and mitigate some of the risks that arise throughout the life cycle of a typical outsourcing. These risks may arise during the supplier selection process, in the course of contract…
An effective pricing model is a foundational component for long-term success in an outsourcing relationship. Success or failure in a relationship can often be traced in part to the wisdom, or lack thereof, of the pricing model. A good pricing model will create predictability while serving to align interests, allocate…
Back in 1999 Kevin Ashton, the British technology pioneer and cofounder of Auto-ID Center at MIT (creators of the global standard system for radio-frequency identification (RFID)), coined the term, the Internet of Things, to describe “uniquely identifiable objects (things) and their virtual representations in an internet-like structure.” Put simply, the…
India’s recent demand for European Union designation as a data secure country (see our blog) has brought the issue into the spotlight. Here we take a closer look at those nations which have achieved EU recognition and the benefits of doing so. Article 25.1 of the Data Protection Directive (in…
ZDNet blogger, Michael Krigsman, reported recently that nearly 70% of IT projects fail in some important way: An eye-popping number! There can be endless debate on the actual failure rate of IT projects – the answer most likely depends on the criteria used to define “failure” – but a couple…