vendor management - News, Features, and Slideshows

News

• Multi-billion dollar mega-deals end in breakup

  Ten years ago in IT, Y2K had come and gone without catastrophe, security chiefs were grappling with the ILOVEYOU virus, and the dotcom bubble was bursting. But in the IT services industry, the year 2000 was notable for another reason - it was the year of the giant outsourcing deal.
  A total of 24 IT outsourcing mega deals (multi-year contracts worth a billion dollars or more) were signed that year - more than the industry had seen before or since. All told, they were worth more than US$54 billion, according to outsourcing consultancy TPI. They included the EDS-US Navy contract worth $6.9 billion, the Bank of Scotland's $1 billion deal with IBM Global Services, and the $3 billion IT services contract between Nortel Networks and CSC.

• Theta Systems introduces new leadership

  Interim CEO of Theta Systems, Rob Lee, has secured tenure in the role, and the company has made a number of other key appointments.
  Lee is the company’s former sales manager and has filled the CEO position since the sudden death of CEO and chairman Steve Saunders in January.

• How the vendors are placed in Supercity ICT

  Documents appear to confirm that IT vendors with strong existing installations in Auckland councils are in the box seat to become ICT suppliers to the new Auckland Council, which takes charge of the city on November 1.
  Auckland Regional Council's group manager of ICT, John Holley, recommended last October that the Auckland Transition Agency should use systems that are already in use within the councils or systems selected as part of a recent tender, to deliver both strategic and tactical IT services on Day One of the Supercity.

• Top planning requirements for private cloud deployments

  Virtualisation is understood as one of the key building blocks for private clouds. As a dynamic technology that enables IT organisations to reinvent how they think about management, it has the potential to make some things easier or make all things harder. Silo buying, heterogeneity, politics, poor integrations, and immature management tools can inhibit virtualisation's full value.
  IT leadership must address these challenges in order to set the stage for private cloud deployments, which many pundits forecast as the foundation for business growth in the next decade. Based on many customer conversations, we have compiled the top eight requirements for successful deployments of private clouds. These considerations enable IT to deliver business growth and contain costs, getting more from people, processes, and technologies.

• Landmark ruling Against HP's EDS gives customers new power

  In what could be an important decision for the IT outsourcing industry and its customers, a London court recently ruled that EDS ( now part of Hewlett-Packard) must pay damages to a former outsourcing customer for failing to live up to its sales pitch.
  British Sky Broadcasting (BskyB) had signed a £48 million outsourcing contract with EDS to build a customer service system in 2000, but terminated the deal early in 2002 after what it said was "woeful" performance by the IT service provider. BSkyB alleged deceit, negligent misrepresentation and breach of contract by EDS.

• Ten cloud trends for 2010

  This year, it is expected many companies will stop talking about cloud computing and finally do something about it. This is where we will see the uptake of cloud services.
  As New Year business plans were drawn up, cost effective, time efficient and sustainable options were a high priority, making cloud computing a serious contender for IT services. Enterprises can expect the following:

• Crippling mistakes IT departments make in outsourcing

  Researchers at the University of Tennessee have studied a variety of outsourcing deals - from IT and back-office work to manufacturing and logistics - and identified the most common mistakes organisations make when partnering with an external provider.
  The research reveals that outsourcing customers commit a variety of sins, and the most pervasive missteps can be traced to one simple fact: You get what you pay for, says UT lead researcher and supply chain consultant Kate Vitasek. Or more accurately, in the context of outsourcing, you get what you contract for.

• Gartner buying AMR Research in US$64 million deal

  Gartner announced it is buying AMR Research for US$64 million, in the latest acquisition by the giant IT research firm. The deal is expected to be completed this month.
  AMR is known for its emphasis on supply chain management. It has roughly 40 analysts and 45 sales representatives, and is on track to gross US$40 million this year, according to Gartner.

• Australian Taxation Office axes long-standing IT supplier

  The Australian Taxation Office has cut a A$60 million chunk out of the long-standing mammoth technology contracts it has held with outsourcing firm EDS .
  The outsourcer, which has been recently rebranded as HP Enterprise Services, has been axed from a shortlist of five service providers to provide desktop services, under the Tax Office's End User Computing (EUC) services bundle.

• The fixed price is not right

  Imagine a CRM consulting project with inadequately specified requirements, no clear internal project manager, and ill-defined success criteria. Your consultant bids it on a time and materials (T&M) basis. You're in a rush, no time for a detailed RFP - you know the consultant can do the job, but you need a budgetary number to get approval. We've all been through this drill: somebody brilliant suggests that this has to be fixed price, it'll be easier to get project approval and manage to conclusion that way. You know, just like it would be when buying servers.
  But you're not buying servers: you're buying services. While 80 percent of CRM projects are formulaic and could be bid as a "standard project," the other 80 percent of the project work is not only a one-off, but an unknown. Nobody actually knows the requirements, or the ramifications of "something simple," or the shape of your data, or the tricky parts of external interfaces. You may think you're signing up for a three-hour tour, but you're on the way to Gilligan's Island.

• Upbeat Intel sales lead road to recovery

  A brighter than expected outlook from Intel, the world's largest maker of computer chips, has fuelled hopes that personal computer manufacturers can avoid an annual sales dip for the first time since the dotcom crash of 2001.
  Research firm Gartner was predicting a drop of almost 12 per cent in unit sales back in March, after consumer and business demand ground to a halt in the wake of the global financial crisis.

• New country manager for Dell

  Mike Hill, a former executive strategist at Virtuoso Group and ex-HP enterprise sales director, has become country manager at Dell.
  The PC maker has been seeking a country lead following the promotion of Deborah Harrigan to the role of general manager of its SME organisation for Australia and New Zealand.

• Doing business with Jennifer Moxon, IBM

  Name: Jennifer Moxon
  Company: IBM New Zealand

• Gen-i, Axon dominate among Microsoft award finalists

  Large integrators Gen-i and Axon have taken finalist spots in a number of categories in this year's local Microsoft Partner Awards, for which nearly 100 entries were received from more than 30 partner firms.
  Gen-i has taken seven finalist places, including Business Productivity: Enterprise Content Management Solution of the Year, Business Productivity: Portals and Collaboration Solution of the Year, Core Infrastructure Solution of the Year and Reseller of the Year. Axon is a finalist in the Business Productivity: Unified Communications Solution of the Year category, Deployment Partner of the Year, and the Partnering Award, and staff members Geoff Clow and Nigel Burn have won places in the Solutions Star of the Year category.

• Consolidating vendor relationships is key

  Making the right business decisions in a recession is crucial for CIOs, says Datacraft Asia chief operating office Dilip Kumar.
  Based in Singapore, Kumar was in New Zealand recently to open the company’s new office in Auckland central.