IT outsourcing – the retained organisation
21.10.2011 Medianet
It’s not only the relevant service providers that hope to gain a lot from IT outsourcing. Potential customers, too, hope for decreasing costs, a regular inflow of innovations from the service provider and less work in daily IT practice. Generally, their hopes are not without reason, but in most cases what is expected in return is underestimated. To ensure a successful partnership, the IT provider must be controlled and monitored professionally. This task is performed by the so-called retained organisation, which is generally composed of customer executives and employees. The Austrian economics newspaper Medianet points out the most important best practices together with Maturity.
Download the Medianet article on the retained organisation (German text, PDF file)
ITSM – Teamwork in the social Web
09.08.2011 IT-Director
In IT service management (ITSM), Web 2.0 functions like chats and wikis not only improve cooperation among end users, but also with the IT help desk. In an article, the "IT-Director" magazine asks about the areas in which classical IT structures and modern solutions for teamwork interfere with or support one another. Maturity consultant Karsten Tampier was interviewed for the article.
Link to the article ITSM and web 2.0 (in German)
Link to the interview with Karsten Tampier (in German)
Optimising IT – The customer’s point of view
25.06.2011 CIO
IT metrics tend to be hard facts – storage is measured in TB, costs in GBP, human resources in FTEs. Joerg Peschke, Head of IT operations at the health insurance company KKH-Allianz, calls for subjective ratings to be taken into account. The German CIO magazine finds out why it is essential to know end users’ perceptions.
Link to the CIO article Kundenbefragungen in der IT
Comparing IT – Benchmarking ITIL processes at the BA
12.05.2011 CIO
Service provider T-Systems has standardised and automated the IT operating processes of the German Bundesagentur für Arbeit (BA), or Federal Employment Agency. The largest public authority in Germany runs over 170,000 networked workplaces and 11,500 servers in more than 1,900 facilities. In a benchmark project, Maturity examined the results of IT modernisation of the ITIL processes for Change, Problem and Service Level Management. The peer group consisted of eight European companies, primarily from the insurance sector. An article published by the German CIO magazine provides some more details on this project.
Link to the CIO article Maturity-Benchmark bei der BA
Outsourcing - No left out in the rain
21.06.2010 IT-Director
Enterprises like to fall back on outsourcing to cut the costs of IT. As soon as the contract runs out, an important decision has to be made, i.e. keep the partner, change partners or remember your own strengths. In this phase, benchmarking has proven to be a tried and tested means of assessing all options in detail and of making the ideal choice. The "IT-Director" journal reports on users who have undertaken a benchmark test on outsourcing as an umbrella to shield them from the rain, so to speak.
Link to the IT-Director article Nicht im Regen stehen
Best Practices: Service desk
28.05.2010 Computerwoche
Calling the service desk as the personal interface between IT and users stands and falls with the quality of its staff and its underlying concept. In the German magazine Computerwoche, Maturity consultant Stefan Braune has put together the most frequently asked questions and answers on quality and quantity and on boosting the efficiency and effectiveness of IT support.
Link to the Computerwoche article Der ideale Service Desk
Controlling the service provider properly
07.05.2010 CIO
When services are outsourced, the customer's retained organisation plays a crucial role. That is to say, it must check and control the service provider. On behalf of the "CIO" magazine, Hubert Buchmann, the managing director of Maturity, reports on the fact that whether or not an agreement is going to be successful is determined at four neuralgic points.
Link to the CIO article Erfolgsfaktoren für die Retained Organisation
ERP applications – internal operation vs. outsourcing
03.05.2010 Computerwoche
Outsourcing of ERP applications is meeting with increasing interest in small to medium firms also. But the promised cost advantages do not always appear – an optimally positioned internal IT department can often offer the same service at lower cost. Maturity consultant Timo Kopp contrasts current figures from the benchmark database and shows that it is up to IT managers themselves to determine whether outsourcing is cheaper than internal operation.
Link to the Computerwoche article ERP-Kosten im Vergleich
Popular mistakes when contracting external services
29.04.2010 Computerworld.ch
Complex IT sourcing offers many opportunities to make mistakes. This concerns not only the legal pitfalls, but above all also soft factors that can put a strain on a partnership. Contrary to an IT service provided internally, omissions become particularly clearly apparent when services are contracted externally and the consequences attain a quite different importance. In an article for "Computerworld Schweiz", Maturity consultant Timo Kopp highlights the stumbling blocks that both customers and service providers put in each others' way in complex outsourcing projects – and how to deal with them.
Link to the Computerworld article Stolpersteine in Outsourcing-Projekten
When cost control makes the IT ill
27.04.2010 Computerwoche
IT budgets in the past two years have dropped almost everywhere. What does this mean for a CIO's ability to act and how does he deal with it? "Computerwoche" picked up on this subject in a cover story and pointed out ways of meaningfully curtailing costs without IT having to go hungry. Hubert Buchmann, managing director of Maturity, takes up the cudgels for benchmarking.
Link to the Computerwoche article: Abspecken bis zum Hungertod?
Outsourcing services under control
20.11.2009 Computerworld.ch
In an ideal world, neither during nor after the term of an outsourcing agreement is there ever any friction between the customer and the contractor. In all other worlds, service levels have been established, which – summarised in a service level agreement (SLA) – define all services or a process to be provided. Such service level agreements are beneficial for both partners of a service agreement because they form the basis for claims and they govern how both partners work together. On the one hand, the SLA protects the provider against exaggerated claims by the customer and, on the other hand, the client can use it to monitor and control service provision by the provider. Formulation of the SLA prior to conclusion of an agreement is therefore an important success criterion because leeway for interpretation and thus for escalation of a dispute repeatedly manifests itself during its term. Maturity consultant Kai Nowak describes the basis of good service levels in the Swiss publication Computerworld.
Download the article as a PDF file
Re-tendering an outsourcing contract
23.10.2009 Computerworld.ch
Users hope to arrive at lower prices through a Request for Proposal, which forces IT service providers to undercut one another. However, a new Request for Proposal and the transition to another provider is not as trivial as it is often made out to be. In every phase of the project – from the RFP through due diligence to the transition – resources are tied on both sides of the negotiation table. Moreover, users run the risk of committing errors that force up the overall costs in the course of the partnership. In the Swiss IT publication Computerworld, Timo Kopp of Maturity described the Request for Proposal process and explained the stumbling blocks.
Download the PDF file containing the Computerworld article IT-Verträge neu verhandeln (Re-tendering an outsourcing contract)
Constructive saving with IT benchmarks
20.10.2009 InformationWeek
Many enterprises save on IT, and have been doing so not only since the latest economic crisis broke out. In the upper scale of medium-sized companies and in corporations, benchmark projects have established themselves to make it possible to recognise the right and the wrong ends of saving. By means of key performance indicators based on standardised algorithms, IT services can be presented understandably and diverse IT organisations, services and processes can be contrasted. The result of this benchmarking process is a precise definition of where an enterprise stands in terms of the dimensions of costs, benefit, complexity and quality.
In the "InformationWeek" journal, Maturity founder Hubert Buchmann shows how internal IT and externally provided IT services can be optimised with an IT benchmark test.
To the IT benchmark article in InformationWeek 10/2009
Keeping control
20.10.2009 Medianet
The economic crisis and rising pressure on IT budgets are calling upon IT and business to move closer together. Ultimately, efficiency and effectiveness can only be improved in an interplay. The situation is often different in reality, though. In the Austrian economics newspaper Medianet, Sylvia Tomek writes how IT managers play their roles as builders of bridges to functional departments in view of time pressures and overstepping of budgets.
Download the Medianet article "Keeping control" as a PDF file (in German)
Best Practices: The Outsourcing RFP
20.08.2009 Computerwoche
Many enterprises are exploiting the economic crisis to put pressure on their outsourcing partners to obtain better terms and conditions. The most elegant and easiest method of improving the price/performance ratio is a benchmarking clause anchored in the contract to ensure that prices are adjusted to current market levels at certain intervals.
Users also hope to arrive at lower prices through a Request for Proposal, which forces IT service providers to undercut one another. However, a new Request for Proposal and the transition to another provider is not as trivial as it is often made out to be. In every phase of the project – from the RFP through due diligence to the transition – resources are tied on both sides of the negotiation table. Moreover, users run the risk of committing errors that force up the overall costs in the course of the partnership. In the German IT publication Computerwoche, Timo Kopp of Maturity described the Request for Proposal process and explained the stumbling blocks.
To the PDF file containing the Computerwoche article Neuauschreibungen sind nicht trivial (New Requests for Proposal are not Trivial)
User help desk (UHD) cost drivers
19.08.2009 SearchDataCenter.de
The user help desk (UHD) is the basis for efficient user support. Operation of a UHD is generally monitored by means of service levels. This applies to the internal help desk and to outsourced support facilities alike. Karsten Tampier has published an article on the IT Web site "SearchDataCenter" about the most important service levels and also discusses the critical cost drivers in the operation of a UHD.
To the SearchDataCenter article: User Help Desk cost drivers
CW-Benchmark - E-Mail mailbox
20.07.2009 Computerwoche
When it comes to possible uses, the e-mail quite clearly excels over the letter. This is because e-mail also includes the address book, the calendar and To Do functions. In business, mainly two e-mail solutions are in use, Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes. Maturity's benchmarking specialists have combed through their database and compared the costs of classical letter products against e-mail (in this area, Exchange and Lotus Notes are so close to one another that it was possible to consider them jointly). The result: an e-mail mailbox costs an average of € 8.92 per month, including anti-spam and anti-virus measures. And how much do you pay for your electronic mail?
To the Maturity e-mail mailbox benchmark in Computerwoche
CW-Benchmark - HR Outsourcing
14.05.2009 Computerwoche
As many enterprises no longer consider personnel management to be part of their core business, decision-makers are increasingly thinking of outsourcing their HR departments. But what does outsourcing actually cost? Maturity's benchmarking specialists have combed through their database and can give you an answer. According to them, external providers charge an average of € 6.47 per salary statement and month for the outsourced services "hosting SAP R/3 HR server and application operations", "application support" and "print output of salary statements" for a volume of around 8,500 statements per month.
To the Maturity HR Outsourcing benchmark in Computerwoche
ITIL – the limited standard
13.03.2009 Computerworld.ch
As a guide for structured and systematic IT service management, in the past years ITIL has quite rightly been high up on many CIOs' agenda. Without a doubt, the framework contributed towards ensuring that IT was able to continuously enhance its professionalism. But not all persons responsible for IT are satisfied with the partly rigid corset that the ITIL framework forces them into.
Moreover, the effort involved is hardly worth it for many small and medium firms because processes, employees and technologies have to be prepared for the new organisation and the transformation in the enterprise is grave.
What is more, there are deficits in the framework that are painfully missed, especially in large user organisations. Nevertheless, by no means does ITIL claim to cover all areas of IT management completely. Meanwhile, in view of past years’ hype, those responsible for IT should not fall prey to the belief that orientation to the widespread standard alone promises comprehensive process management. Unfortunately, standardisation often also signifies the 'lowest common denominator', which automatically creates gaps. The most important of these are outlined below.
Goto Computerworld.ch
Download the PDF-File
It pays to compare
19.02.2009 Supply Management
How can you ensure that your IT outsourcer is giving you value for money? Benchmark the service it provides, says Jeremy Smith in "Supply Management".
One of the most significant issues when outsourcing IT services is how to ensure you’re getting value for money once you’ve handed over the work. The fact that the service changes and IT commodities reduce in cost over time means it is difficult to ascertain value at any time after signature. ‘Feelings’ may tell us the service might not be value for money but if independent objective data is available it is far easier to demonstrate what is being delivered and manage relationships accordingly.
One way to obtain independent assessment is to undertake regular tenders. However, that is resource-intensive and will quickly alienate other outsourcers if it becomes clear the intention is to gain competitive pricing and not to move to a new provider.Also, it is not necessarily the case that prices gained from such a process are sustainable or would be any more valid after transition than the existing outsourcer’s prices. A more appropriate approach is to use a clause included in most outsourcing contracts that enables the client to undertake an independent benchmarking exercise.
You can request the entire article as a PDF file via Email for free if you send us your contact details.
Visit the Homepage of Supply Management
CW-Benchmark - Storage costs
11.02.2009 Computerwoche
Information in the professional environment is often critical to success and is therefore kept in high-availability storage systems. Services encompass central storage area networks (SAN) in the data centre including the necessary connections and also problem response and troubleshooting by first level support. The costs vary depending on the degree of failsafe operation. According to data gathered by the benchmarking specialist Maturity, economy storage on a redundantly designed SAN unit with disk space mirrored on the basis of Raid 5 costs an average of € 2.83 per gigabyte and month. Data can be lost in a disaster because mirrored data resides in the same data centre. Premium equipment consisting of highly redundant SAN units with SRDF (Symmetrix Remote Data Facility) disk space mirrored on the basis of Raid 1 costs € 5.78 per GB and month.
To the Maturity Storage Benchmark in Computerwoche
Think before cutting IT costs
23.01.2009 Medianet
Especially in an economic crisis, managers like to fall back on standard recipes that are easy to implement and have allegedly proven themselves in prior phases of weakness. Therefore, what would be more obvious in the current recession than to determine all costs and to lump them all together? As far as IT expenditure goes, however, this is a tricky business. Although a rigorous cut may look good on the next balance sheet, in the medium term it may jeopardise the survival of an enterprise. Ultimately, a large proportion of IT expenditure accounts for operation of the systems to ensure that "the lights won't go out".
Those who open the wrong vein here run the risk of damaging the enterprise's competitiveness. After all, it would no longer be possible to do without the value-added share held by IT in the central processes of many organisations. Therefore, austerity measures must be aimed at protecting economically necessary IT expenditure and at trimming the dispensable part. That sounds easier than it actually is.
Goto Medianet.at
CW-Benchmark - LAN operation
05.01.2009 Computerwoche
This CW benchmark test compares the costs of LAN ports. The study only includes the active LAN ports, i.e. only those ports where a network-enabled terminal device is connected. But LAN is not necessarily always the same. A subdivision into office and data centre LAN makes sense to arrive at an informative comparison. The office LAN networks PC and laptop workplaces and printers. The data centre LAN warrants connection in the data centre and, accordingly, the requirements for the processes here are very much higher. The hardware equipment of LAN devices such as routers and switches is also more complex in the data centre. Therefore, local area networking in the data centre is inevitably more expensive.
An evaluation by the benchmarking specialist Maturity also elucidates this. Accordingly, the monthly costs for operation of the data centre LAN amount to € 25.60 for each active port. Maintenance of a networking port in the office accounts for less than a sixth of that. According to Maturity, every month an active office LAN port costs € 3.90 on average. The data includes hardware and software for the network components and the associated support service (initial installation and configuration of network components, their maintenance including installation of hot fixes, patches and release changes, and also second level support and monitoring including capacity and performance management).
To the Maturity LAN operation benchmark in Computerwoche
Strategically optimising IT costs
17.12.2008 SearchDataCenter
Often, IT costs are compared by means of benchmarking and are then optimised with the lawnmower, so to speak. This is seldom preceded by a strategy comparison. Enterprises therefore miss the opportunity to effectively reduce IT costs.
Enterprises regularly ask themselves how high their IT costs are and whether the price is adequate for the performance. Classically, a benchmarking order is placed with an external service provider to review the status quo and to find approaches towards optimising, i.e. reducing, effort. In this approach, a partial area that is the subject of criticism is often chosen. Traditional candidates for these investigations are, for example, desktop costs, the cost and effort of server provision or special groups of applications. The approach has established itself, but this does not mean that it also makes sense in all cases.
With this kind of "optimisation", the enterprise's strategy is neglected more often than not. According to experience, an integrated approach that unites strategy and benchmarking offers a far greater chance to effectively reduce IT costs.
Goto SearchDataCenter
Cost discipline in SAP environments
11.11.2008 Computerwoche
Increasing maintenance charges for SAP systems are boosting the pressure on IT coordinators and controllers. But enterprises can respond to this to ensure that costs do not get out of hand.
The solutions from SAP and associated services account for between 30 and 50 percent of all IT expenditure by German enterprises, estimates Karsten Tampier, a benchmarking consultant from Maturity Consulting. He says that most firms are lacking transparency about whether these investments pay out or whether they are wasting money at this point. To determine actual costs, enterprises traditionally make use of the "costs per user". Mind you, this reference variable is subject to immense fluctuations depending on the system landscape. "It cannot be used to achieve the intended transparency of SAP costs, though", says Tampier.
The advice given by the benchmarking specialist is that you have to systematically analyse all services provided by SAP and determine the actual cost drivers if you want to know whether your SAP costs are too high. To this end, users should consider and assess all levels of an SAP landscape: these include the infrastructure, the basis, application management and the service desk. The result should be as complete a picture as possible of the relevance of the business processes, the support by the SAP software, the benefit and capacity utilisation of the individual modules and the maturity of the application and the quality requirements.
Goto Computerwoche
Brief jump start for SLAs
08.07.2008 Computerwoche
Service level agreements (SLAs) crucially influence the success and failure of an outsourcing project. Painstaking work in advance is worth the effort.
Klaus-Dieter Fahlbusch, Director Consulting at Maturity Consulting GmbH: the fewer SLA details are defined in advance, the more leeway there is for disputes after conclusion of the agreement.
The automobile manufacturers have found a good solution for combining standard components so that they result in an individual product. With the aid of a configurator on their Web sites, customers can put together cars entirely to suit their own tastes. Up to now, there has neither been a standardised layout not a "configurator" for designing SLAs. The background is that SLAs are ultimately determined by the customer and every client has different demands on the IT services or processes to be outsourced. The aim of an SLA is to find a common denominator for an individual service agreement. Without this agreement, it is difficult to efficiently settle conflicts and regularly occurring discussions during and after the term of an agreement. The fewer details are defined in advance, the more leeway there is for disputes after conclusion of the agreement. An example: which contracting party has to take care of any required special fonts for word processing applications within the scope of a desktop outsourcing agreement if this has not be laid down in advance?
Productivity in Server Management
Computerwoche-Benchmark
The current CW benchmark touches the heart of every data centre. It asks how complex server support is. This time, the answer doesn't lead to a classical cost calculation based on euros and cents. Unusually, when it comes to server costs, the sector orients itself to key performance indicators. Typical metrics are SAPS (SAP Application Performance Standard), tpmC (transactions per minute – Version C) and Specint (Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation). If no agreement has been reached on a performance unit, this soon leads to poor cost comparisons.
Such a comparison is not necessarily required for a consideration of productivity. This is because server have the same need for attention in terms of care and maintenance, regardless of their performance capability. For a Windows and Linux environment, the Maturity database shows that a full-time IT specialist (FTE = Full Time Equivalent) supports an average of 48 servers. This encompasses the first installation of the operating system, database and middleware, maintenance of these components including installing hot fixes, patches and release changes and also second level support and monitoring, including capacity and performance management. Virtualisation improves the support quota considerably. In virtualised Windows and Linux environments, a full-time specialist supports an average of 63 logical systems.
Consultants' Fees
16.05.2008 Computerwoche
Within the scope of its regular survey of IT costs, COMPUTERWOCHE has now launched a discussion of consultants' fees. Users pay an average of 130 euros per hour for a salaried senior consultant. For this, customers can expect an expert who independently and responsibly resolves complex and conceptual problems applying special technical knowledge. He is sometimes also entrusted with project management tasks. The price is based on an eight-hour working day. Travel expenses and taxes, for example value added tax, are charged separately. Freelances with a similar profile cost less.
(For comparison: users in Germany currently pay 91 euros per hour for consultants who are entrusted with tasks of a middle level of complexity and who independently work on stipulated tasks in IT projects. Advanced consultants, who resolve problems under their own responsibility, cost an average of 116 euros. A project manager charges an average of 164 euros per hour for his economic and technical responsibility in projects with complex tasks and specific requirements. (All information was taken from the database of the benchmarking specialist Maturity.)
Cut costs!
11.03.2008 medianet
Market researchers are saying that the trends towards personnel outsourcing is increasing. medianet guest author Thomas Karg analyses what savings can be achieved and how to avoid paying too much to the service provider. Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is gradually also gathering momentum in Austria.
Is 95 Euros a Month Reasonable?
20.01.2008 Computerwoche
(CW Benchmark) What may and what should IT cost? COMPUTERWOCHE tells you what prices providers are charging. Tell us what you pay and you will find out what other users are spending.
On average, users in Germany pay 95 euros a month for the operation of one single workplace. This is what Maturity's consultants found out within the scope of their benchmarking projects. This includes all work-related software solutions (for example the Office package, Winzip, Adobe Acrobat, mail client, etc.) as well as support services (assistance for users within the scope of a user help desk) and regular updates of the applications supported. The amount also includes hardware procurement and regular replacement of equipment.
The calculation is based on an IT environment with about 5,000 workplaces. To establish comparability, service levels were scaled to as standard a measure as possible, namely the user help desk resolves ten percent of support queries within four hours (VIP services). The poorest service category concerns about 30 percent of all cases. These are concluded in a maximum of 24 hours. Service levels do not include central server services, for example for mail operation, file sharing or software distribution.
Hubert Buchmann, a director at Maturity, expects further PC operation savings, if at all, in process optimisation. When it comes to software and hardware, the possibilities have been largely exhausted thanks to discounts and pooling of purchases. "Centralisation, for example in PC support, has not yet ended, though", explains the expert. "In particular in off-site services, that is to say, in the case of help desk and remote services, costs can still be cut by relocating to low-wage countries." (jha)
Outsourcing 2.0: Cleverly Tied-Up Service Packages
18.12.2007 Computerwoche.de
Only those who have a choice know how to appreciate a good relationship. According to this motto, MLP Finanzdienstleistungen AG decided to extend its outsourcing relationship with Hewlett-Packard (HP) and to simultaneously make it more flexible: instead of outsourcing its IT services en bloc, the company situated in Wiesloch near Heidelberg tied up individual packages that it can pass on, if necessary, to other IT service providers. Thanks to support from the Munich-based benchmarking specialist Maturity, it also achieved "clear" savings according to CIO Klaus Strumberger.
Benchmark Test as Part of Contract Management
Symposion Publishing 2006
Benchmarking assumes an important role in IT and is put to diverse uses. Besides comparing costs and prices of IT services, it is also used for contract reviews to analyse their structure and risks or to scrutinise service descriptions and charging models.
Monitoring is Mandatory for Outsourcing
20.09.2006 Computerwoche
Outsourcing agreements should be reviewed on a regular basis. It is not enough to compare market prices.The trend towards outsourcing of IT services is unbroken. Nevertheless, during the course of operation many companies ask themselves whether they are not paying their service provider too much.
The Best as the Yardstick
05.08.2006 Süddeutsche Zeitung
"What are they doing with all that money?" Many a financial board member will ask himself the same question when pondering his company's IT costs. Larger companies spend between two and ten percent of their revenue on the upkeep and expansion of their information technology, i.e. their networks, PC equipment and databases, for example. But, apart from the computer specialists, hardly anyone can understand whether or not the money is being put to good use. This is why management increasingly asks an external service provider to shine a light into the IT jungle and to find out how efficient the company's IT structure is.
Offshoring Reaches the SAP Market
02.09.2005 Computerwoche
On a daily basis, we read of management problems, mishaps and project problems when it comes to offshoring. Nevertheless, studies are forecasting a great future for outsourcing of IT services to low-wage countries. According to the Deutsche Bank and Bitkom "Offshoring Report 2005", up to now German companies have continued to relocate clearly fewer projects and processes to lower-cost countries and American and English companies, for example.
Gartner's Competition is Taking Shape
26.08.2005 Computerwoche
In future, Forrester will be competing against the market leader Gartner With the assistance of the benchmarking specialist Maturity. Forrester's competitor took over the Meta Group in April 2005, thus proving to be a beneficiary of the consolidation in the business with market research and advisory services. "There is a growing market of orders calling for both research and benchmarking", concedes Markus Walter, sales director with Forrester Research. "Users are spoilt", agrees Thomas Karg, managing director of Maturity Consulting GmbH in Munich. "They want more from a benchmarking provider than just a gathering of actual data in comparison with other enterprises. They also want an analysis of the current vendor landscape from a recognised research company."
Forrester and Maturity Become Partners
13.06.2005 FAZ
The American market research company Forrester Inc. from Cambridge (Massachusetts) and the German Maturity Holding GmbH, Munich, have signed a partnership agreement. Forrester and Maturity want to offer their customers joint aids to decision-making in relation to all information technology (IT) issues, with Maturity contributing its special benchmarking knowledge to this partnership, i.e. objective comparison data about the influence of IT on business.
Errors in Outsourcing Take Late Revenge
29.04.2005 Computerwoche
For the transition of operation during an outsourcing project, it is hardly worthwhile for user companies to build up extensive know-how. The preparation phase lasts from only a few months to a maximum of one and a half years, but sets the course for cooperation with an IT service provider lasting several years. Overall, the environment for external consultants is ideal because, for a limited time, they can make their energy and experience available to user companies wishing to outsource.
Offshoring Does Not Save Money
04.2005 Computerwoche
From the financial point of view, relocating IT services to a low-wage country does not make any sense. It is nevertheless worthwhile taking a look at Eastern Europe - because of the quality there.
German companies are taking the step towards relocating their IT services abroad for one reason only: they want to save money. But many projects do not stand up to this claim after they have been subjected to extensive controlling. On paper, vendors offer savings of 20 percent and more. But even if they keep their promise, the overall costs of a project remain high.
On a Lead in the PC Park
12.02.2005 manager magazin
Those who outsource their IT and think they've got rid of all their problems are really mistaken. Only good preparation and tight control achieve success.
Gartner Takes Over the Meta Group
07.01.2005 Computerwoche
By taking over the clearly smaller Meta Group, Gartner is consolidating the market of international IT market research and consulting companies. The purchase price amounts to 162 million dollars in cash, which is equivalent to an uplift of more than 50 percent on top of Meta's share price. It is said that Dale Kutnick, Meta's founder and a shareholder, had been in favour of selling. He had, however, also been considering taking over the company himself with the aid of investors and of reprivatising it, if necessary.
Offshoring Success Rate in Terms of Costs is Low
12.2004 Computer Zeitung
For months now, the subject of offshoring has been a permanent topic of conversation in IT departments in Germany. Above all offers from so-called near-shore countries like Poland and the Czech Republic are meeting with interest. Caution is advised, however, because many such projects fail.
The Struggle for In-House IT
16.05.2004 FAZ
Some connoisseurs of the sector are critically commenting on the transfer of large parts of or possibly complete computer infrastructure to external service providers. Not only Michael Dell, chairman of the board of the eponymous computer manufacturing company from Texas, and Henning Kagermann, the head of the German software house SAP, recently questioned excessive outsourcing of information technology (IT) to third parties in comments made to this newspaper.
Consulting - Useful Comparisons
05.2004 Wirtschaft IHK München
When Thomas Karg and Hubert Buchmann launched the IT (information technology) consultancy Maturity Consulting GmbH in October 2001, the IT sector had already been waning for some months. Sales revenue and profit were collapsing and the consulting sector also painfully got to feel the brunt of the slack period. Maturity nevertheless achieved a brilliant start and was able to rapidly win over a large number of renowned customers.
Dubious Offshoring Escapades
03.03.2004 Financial Times
Fleeing from Germany: to cut costs, increasing numbers of enterprises are outsourcing IT services to low-wage countries. But so-called offshoring does not always achieved the success that had been hoped for - often it is only the participating consultancies that earn anything.
"Both Partners Profit!"
12.2003 Keynotes
Outsourcing potential is huge: in the next five years, it is expected that business to the tune of 300 billion dollars will be outsourced. But technical perfection is not enough: only a small number of service providers have the necessary entrepreneurial creativity.
Aid to Decision-Making for Managers
9.12.2003 Handelsblatt
Outsourcing is not the panacea it is often claimed to be. Although some sectors are still outsourcing their departments and are even forcing the pace of this development, outsourcing of parts of an operation entail high risks for managers. Specialists take a good look at IT service providers.
Strategic IT Management
Symposion Publishing GmbH, Ed. 1., November 2003
"Strategy is an economy of forces", is the claim that was made by Carl von Clausewitz, a great Prussian general, whose thoughts about the essence of strategic thinking achieved worldwide fame. This sentence is only too true: goals are achieved through the most effective use of your resources. This applies also and in particular to the use of information technology (IT). Why this realisation is so difficult to implement in practical dealings with IT and what methods now exist for simultaneously defining the most thrifty and most effective use of technology is the subject of this chapter.
Measuring, Comparing and Improving
12.2003 Computerwoche Fokus
By Kai Nowak*: the price/performance ratio of IT is nowadays considered critically in many enterprises. Such criticism is only constructive, though, if it is based on informative data and sound comparisons.
Service Quality to Choice
10.2003 CIO
The IT department of Deutsche Post has arranged three-level service level agreements (SLAs) with its service providers. Now, the parcel services' user departments have to decide whether they want to have - and pay for - service in bronze, silver or gold.
Decent Savings Can Often be Achieved with the Company Network
21.10.2003 Financial Times
Enterprises like to cut costs when the economy is on the decline. Gardena, Europe's largest manufacturer of gardening equipment, therefore had its group information technology scrutinised. This was done by the consultancy Maturity and achieved fast success. "We were able to cut our costs by one million euros“, says Gardena financial chief Erich Schefold.
Benchmarking Calls for the Courage to be Honest
19.09.2003 Computerwoche
The market of IT benchmarking specialists is small, but users can save a lot of money with their methods - if they want. Nevertheless, IT coordinators are often reluctant to carry out the tests. The benchmarking specialists are therefore tapping new sources of revenue with additional consulting services.
Consultancy Maturity Opens an Office in Zurich
17.09.2003 netzwoche
The Munich-based Maturity Consulting GmbH opened a branch office in Zurich on 5 September. Christian Hauser is the director of the provider of IT cost-effectiveness analyses, and is assisted by a further employee.
What is Wrong with the Balanced Scorecard
12.09.2003 Computerwoche
For most board members and directors, a company's own IT is no more than a "black box". Nothing works without IT. Everybody knows that, but nobody can specifically say what it does for the actual purpose of the business, how costs have evolved for what reasons and whether it could not all be had at a lower price.
Death of a Theory
10.09.2003 Financial Times Deutschland
German enterprises spend billions on their IT and yet it is no seldom occurrence for them to lose track of it. Considered a wonder weapon, the Balanced Scorecard is supported to put things straight. True to the motto of "you can't manage what you can't measure", enterprise strategy is translated to a balanced scorecard system that is supported to map development during operation holistically and nevertheless in detail. A nice theory.
Let's Get Down to Work!
06.2003 CIO
Virtual consolidation of server, storage and network capacities to be able to respond faster and at lower cost to business requirements: HP, IBM and Sun offer such concepts under the names of "Utility Data Center", "Autonomic Computing" and "N1". It is still more about visions than about products, but CIOs should already start rethinking their IT strategies..
IT Bosses are Getting Their Own Lobby
16.05.2003 Computerwoche
With the CIO Forum Deutschland e.V., the erstwhile manager of the "Gartner Executive Program", Wolfgang Franklin, is endeavouring to achieve a practically oriented encounter of CIOs and consultants, among other things. The founding member Dietmar Lummitsch, the CIO of TÜV Süddeutschland, is also hoping it will become a professional association for IT managers.
"The PC is Reaching its Limits of Growth"
09.05.2003 Computerwoche
Before the crisis, the PC was held to be the mainspring of progress and growth of the entire IT sector. Although corporate IT would still be inconceivable without the desktop computer, despite all gloomy predictions, it has been degraded in the meantime to the status of a lacklustre work resource.
How to Cut IT Costs
04.04.2003 Handelsblatt
Today, large companies spend between one and ten percent of their revenue on their IT. For many financial board members, though, their own IT is a black box, and they have no choice but to rely on their IT specialists. In turn, the specialists are under pressure to justify themselves because they are supposed to cut costs and boost performance at the same time. This is why those responsible for finances and IT focus equally on three core issues:
Optimising Expenditure
27.09.2002 VDI nachrichten
IT procurement is expensive. To avoid throwing money out of the window, it is worthwhile to take a look at other companies.
How much IT does my company need? What is obligatory or at least nice to have, and what is complete nonsense? In view of the new and even more powerful servers, computers and program concepts cropping up on a daily basis, responsible CIOs (chief information officers) are quickly becoming confused. Millions are involved. Every year, enterprises spend between 2 % and 10 % of their revenue on computer systems.
Getting Away from Mediocrity
09.2002 CIO
In times of scarce funds, a comparison with other enterprises is an effective means of cutting costs fast and at the same time improving the performance of IT. CIOs can build lasting IT controlling on the basis of the results.
Monster in the Basement: The Only Thing You Can Do is Pray
11.07.2002 Computerwoche
Mainframes were long held to be hopelessly outdated technology. Client servers, Java, UNIX: everything was en vogue as long as it was not related to the mainframe. But the monsters in the basement have not only returned now that mainframes have become Internet-enabled - the only thing is that there is no one around who can tame them.
The IT Sector is Betting on New Growth through Small and Medium Businesses
28.06.2002 Die Welt
Berlin - 2001 was an incredibly poor year for information technology (IT). This is because money for IT investments - personal computers, servers, software and service - is now being spent more cautiously than in the hot phase of the Internet boom. That was a little less than three years ago and created a situation in which enterprises invested in setting up electronic divisions without any consideration of losses and to some extent, for example to get onto the market as quickly as possible, placed their bets on their own developments, for example in software.
Costs of Information Technology are Often 20 Percent Too High
16.05.2002 FAZ
A presence in the worldwide data network is increasingly frequently being scrutinised by cost controllers. "In the euphoria of the last years, nobody really did any serious negotiating, but Internet applications had to be above all completed quickly", says Thomas Karg, the managing director of Maturity Consulting. The costs were not so important.
Does Living It Up Have to be a Sin?
11.03.2002 Computerwoche
MUNICH (jm) - Return on Investment (RoI) is an item in the balance sheets of projects that enterprises hold in high esteem, for understandable reasons. But tunnel-vision concentration on the costs is not always helpful. You can also control an IT project like a share portfolio.