Staying Afloat When Going Offshore
Knowing the risks of offshore outsourcing will help you avoid shoals along the way.
Content: Article | Author: William Bierce | Source: Optimize Magazine | Subjects: Best Practices, Outsourcing / BPO
Michael E. Raynor and Daniel Littmann
Historically, the critical interfaces for IT have existed with the functional departments. Key business processes such as finance, human resources, and marketing weren’t standard between companies and, in many cases, weren’t even standardized within an enterprise. In such an operational environment, business-process automation software was often custom-built to bridge the gap between the IT infrastructure and the rigid business-process architecture. It made sense to keep … [ Read more ]
Content: Quotation | Source: Optimize Magazine | Subjects: IT / Technology / E-Business, Outsourcing / BPO
New Rules For Team Building
New research disproves some long-held assumptions about what works best when it comes to teamwork.
Content: Article | Author: J. Richard Hackman | Source: Optimize Magazine | Subject: Organizational Behavior | Industry: Manufacturing
The Human-Adaptation Pyramid
The Hidden Human Resource: Shareholder Value
Human-resources executives have long argued that superior people-management practices can significantly improve a company’s bottom line. But hard numbers detailing how best to motivate and reward the people on your team and in your company were tough to find.
In search of this kind of data, Watson Wyatt Worldwide, a global human-capital consulting firm, explored and correlated the HR practices and financial fortunes of 750 companies … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Authors: Bruce Pfau, Ira Kay | Source: Optimize Magazine | Subjects: Best Practices, Human Resources
Why Tech Falls Short Of Expectations
Market forces have caused IT spending to far outstrip returns-but changing bad corporate habits can turn the tide.
Content: Article | Author: Amir Hartman | Source: Optimize Magazine | Subject: IT / Technology / E-Business
The Invisible Advantage
Measuring and managing your company’s intangible assets can lead to a clearer view of corporate value.
Content: Article | Authors: Jon Low, Pam Cohen Kalafut | Source: Optimize Magazine | Subjects: Best Practices, Management
What Are Your Customers Worth?
Not all customers are created equal. You need to know their lifetime value, then compare the cost of acquiring, serving, and keeping them.
Content: Article | Authors: Donald R. Lehmann, Sunil Gupta | Source: Optimize Magazine | Subjects: Management, Marketing / Sales
The Metanational Advantage
It’s up to CIOs to drive IT beyond national borders.
Editor’s Note: though ostensibly an article about international management, in fact the bulk of this article addresses knowledge management in the context of a global business environment. It offers a good model of 4 components of knowledge.
Content: Article | Authors: F.P. dos Santos, Peter J. Williamson, Yves Doz | Source: Optimize Magazine | Subjects: International, Knowledge Management
Netting A Profit
“Last fall, Robert Litan of the Brookings Institution and I, along with a team of researchers at Momentum Research Group, set out to examine and quantify how the Internet has affected productivity and profitability. To what extent, we wondered, did Internet investments contribute to the revenue growth of the companies that launched them, and to what extent did they contribute to cost reduction? Which Internet … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Author: Hal R. Varian | Source: Optimize Magazine | Subjects: Economics, IT / Technology / E-Business
Jeremy Hope and Robin Fraser
Gaming the numbers is squeezing the life and spirit out of many companies and their employees. It’s a mentality that says, “Do what I said last January, no matter what.”
Content: Quotation | Source: Optimize Magazine | Subjects: Finance, Organizational Behavior
High-Octane Software
Forward-looking CIOs are finding ways to leverage systems without falling into the trap of legacy integration. Integration itself isn’t a solution-and indeed, if misapplied, it creates new problems.
Content: Article | Author: Nathaniel Palmer | Source: Optimize Magazine | Subject: IT / Technology / E-Business
Do The Math
By transforming the IT organization into an internal service company, CIOs can show measurable value to the business.
Content: Article | Authors: Audrey Apfel, Colleen Young | Source: Optimize Magazine | Subjects: IT / Technology / E-Business, Management
P-Cycle: life cycle of an idea within an organization
The IT Productivity Gap
The problem with IT workers is that their output can’t be measured in isolation. Without larger organizational changes, IT gains won’t measure up.
Content: Article | Author: Erik Brynjolfsson | Source: Optimize Magazine | Subjects: IT / Technology / E-Business, Management
Adaptive Pricing Comes Into Focus
If there’s anything harder than deciding what to outsource, it’s negotiating a fair price.
In the past, fixed-price or cost-plus pricing models were an adequate, if imprecise, way to compensate outsourcers. But today’s competitive marketplace offers CIOs new alternatives that add flexibility and agility to these relationships. Indexed pricing, gain sharing, and capacity or utility pricing promise a stronger correlation between business results and IT-resource consumption. … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Authors: Edward Hansen, Sol Irvine | Source: Optimize Magazine | Subjects: IT / Technology / E-Business, Outsourcing / BPO
Anatomy of a Strategic Sourcing Solution
A Formula For Sustained Success
Eight management practices distinguish the 5% of companies that consistently outperform the market.
Editor’s Note: see related article, “4+2 = Sustained Business Success” at
Content: Article | Authors: Bruce Roberson, Nitin Nohria, William Joyce | Source: Optimize Magazine | Subjects: Best Practices, Management
Why Is Growth So Hard?
Cutting expenses is painful, but straightforward; finding a strategy to grow your business is much more difficult
Content: Article | Authors: Geoffrey A. Moore, Richard Moran | Source: Optimize Magazine | Subject: Management