Outsourcing contracts under control

Due diligence doesn’t stop on the ‘go live’ date of an outsourcing agreement. So how do you keep the relationship working? Download our free podcast here. more

WAN prices - down to earth

FastView WAN is a new benchmarking service from Maturity. It maps the current level of market prices for WAN connectivity and is tailored specifically to the client's individual requirements. more

Service Desk Outsourcing

There is more to differentiate service desk outsourcing providers than the potential for reducing cost. It is critical to compare the services offered if one is to weigh up the options effectively. more

Market Price Benchmarking

Benchmarking plays an increasingly important role in the management of IT, and market price benchmarking in particular is becoming more and more significant in line with the growing trend towards outsourcing. A new reference book explores market price benchmarking and... more

Entscheiderforum Outsourcing 2010

Maturity will be taking part in "Entscheiderforum Outsourcing" in Bad Homburg on 8 and 9 September, 2010. The event's motto will be "Business Strategy – Flexibility – Added Value Networks". more

Outsourcing - made-to-measure SLAs

Service levels represent the performance required for supplier service delivery against which the performance of those external service providers can be measured. If they are not set out at the right level, this can result in additional cost and compromises over... more

Is ERP outsourcing viable?

Outsourcing the business applications is attracting increasing interest in IT organisations. The step is not, however, always worthwhile – an optimally structured and highly efficient internal IT department can absolutely offer the same service as a provider at a lower... more

Trends in IT sourcing: Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is not so much a trend as a phenomenon. For a long time now, the idea of purchasing IT services from an external data centre via the internet has been covered in the trade press – the leap to the general press was even made at the recent CeBIT trade... more

Retained organisation success factors

When concluding an outsourcing agreement it is not just the range, quality and costs of the outsourced services which are important. One of the main factors for the success of an outsourcing agreement is the control of the service provider by the customer’s personnel. more

IT services from the factory

The offer is a tempting one – buying IT services from a factory at lower cost with uniform quality and including higher security. However, the benefits will not arrive automatically just because industrial processes have replaced manual labour. Customer companies will... more

Controlling new tenders

Companies are speculating that costs will be reduced when they issue new tenders for outsourcing contracts. We highlight the phases of the process and point out what customers must watch for. more

Is outsourcing really economical?

The regular checking of market prices and arranging of escalator clauses has become standard practice where newlynegotiated outsourcing contracts are concerned. Nowadays the mistakes are made elsewhere and the potential for conflict between companies and service... more

HR outsourcing – opportunity or risk?

Germany is the latest country to experience the gradual arrival of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) to its shores, and it is in human resources that outsourcing is having the most impact. Customers and service providers alike are taking advantage of the major... more

Of applications and expenses

Relocating running applications to a service provider is the pinnacle of outsourcing. One of the challenges thrown up by this is to determine the operational expenses of the various applications so that a fair, flexible contract can be concluded. A benchmark can help... more

Questions to: Dr Jörg Raaymann

Dr Jörg Raaymann, CIO of the Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen (Helaba), is a proponent of outsourcing. In a brief interview with Maturity he gives a summary of his reasons. more

IT benchmark - Helaba

Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen (Helaba) is outsourcing the care of its PC workstation systems (desktop management) to an IT service provider. CIO Dr Jörg Raaymann and his team have invested a great deal of time and energy in preparing the agreement. Maturity has been... more

Green procurement

Along with water, electricity has always been the best example of a classic commodity, an exchangeable product which is available every where with no massive quality differences. Electricity has always flowed out of a socket and therefore not worth discussion. This... more

In the dark about SAP costs?

SAP is designed to control the efficiency of business processes – so far, so good. But who is supposed to control the effective use of SAP? Although no company can survive any longer without the ERP solutions from SAP, complaints about the lack of cost transparency are... more

Trends in outsourcing: SaaS

SaaS was one of the trends of the software industry in 2007 – software being offered and charged as a service, hence the abbreviation: Software as a Service. This removes the need to buy the software and install it locally. Software houses have for some years been... more

Questions to: Dr Veronika Simons

on the meaning and purpose of benchmarking and the terms for outsourcing contracts

As chairperson of the Delta Lloyd Holding, Dr. Veronika Simons is, amongst other things, in charge of IT. Delta Lloyd is an integrated financial services group of companies focussing... more