FT special report on outsourcing issues.

(FT login required to read these articles, access limited to 10 articles per month)
Outsourcing enables IT companies to increase flexibility, harness new skills and cut costs.

Outsourcing: The business model that keeps on giving.

Model that works even in turbulent times
Paul Taylor introduces a focus on outsourcing – used for flexibility, to harness new skills and cut costs.

Security: Internet is industry Achilles heel
There is confusion between cloud computing providers and clients about who is responsible for security, says Maija Palmer.

Industry trends: Standardisation is the way to save
Providers look for work that is scalable and repeatable. They avoid complexity and systems that need customising, discovers Jane Bird.

Business case: First, ask 'why are we doing this?'
Only well run IT functions should be delegated, finds Charles Batchelor.

Service location: Governments vie for work in offshoring beauty parade
The leaders of large outsourcing companies are shopping for locations in a buyer's market, says Jessica Twentyman.

150 new jobs at SouthWestern. Focus on BPO

SouthWestern to invest €3.5m in R& D with Enterprise Ireland Support (links).

SouthWestern has bases in Ireland and Poland. HQ is located at the West Cork Business & Technology Park, Clonakilty, Co. Cork. Service offerings surround Customer Relationship Management, Finance & HR, Public Sector and Financial Services. (more info)

A study of Apple and Google mobile phone application developers

Following on from a recent CITO seminar at UCD presented by Prof. Debra Howcroft, based on a study by Birgitta Bergvall-Kåreborn (event notice link).

http://media.falf.se/2011/05/Bergvall-m-fl.pdf

An important study into a nascent industry sector. Of particular interest is the pull towards casualisation of the work of software production, driven in part no doubt from the lower economic rewards (drive down in software price) of mobile apps. The growth of apps as an industry sector is notionally built on the idea that apps may become components of a service, a service that someone will pay for, either the customer for the good or another say for marketing/ad-ware etc that seeks to access the producer's customers. The economics is of course one aspect; the personal and social impact is another important facet and is ultimately the main the focus of this paper.

Outsourcing expansion from Ireland

I.T. Alliance invests €750,000 in cloud infrastructure: http://www.siliconrepublic.com/strategy/item/21765-i-t-alliance-invests-750/


Major growth in IT outsourcing predicted (Joe Peppard produced report...)
http://www.siliconrepublic.com/business/item/22042-major-growth-in-it-outsourc

Gilt Groupe Establishes International HQ in Ireland... will locate its International HQ and Software Development Centre in Dublin. Its Customer Support Centre will be operational in Limerick by September.
http://www.gilt.com/careers/tech/category/ireland/about-ireland/

A Patent on the Outsourcing Process for Maintenance? You Cannot Be Serious!

Have a look at this and make up your own mind. Seriously, is this an innovation? Is it non-obvious? Is it an invention? Is there no prior art?

www.google.com/patents

And don't ignore China

And if anyone thought I'd been ignoring China in the cases and theory sessions, believe me, China is to be reckoned with. China is not India, it is very very different, and the Sparkfun blog illustrates for me how and why. China is all about things, hardware and manufacture. It reminds me of my impressions of Japan in the 90's, the clustering and volumes of business in Denki-Towns in Osaka and Tokyo and anywhere else (trans. Electric town: a commercial area dedicated to electronics and high tech, e.g. Akihabara, Tokyo)

Anyway, read Nate's Return to Shenzhen to get a feel for what it's like.
http://www.sparkfun.com/2

Shared Services Discussion - ServiceFrame

Class discussion with Daniel Berman. 12/April/2011

Daniel Berman is a founder and Head of Product Development for ServiceFrame, a SaaS based provider of sourcing governance software. Daniel is a Science graduate of Trinity College, and worked for a number of consulting and technology businesses before founding ServiceFrame in 2009, including PwC, AOL Technologies, Accenture and Palladium. During this time he worked in Software Development, Systems Integration and Outsourcing. Daniel is an Authorised Evaluator for eSCM - a Sourcing Capability Model for IT enabled Sourcing.

ServiceFrame's web-based software monitors the outsourcing or shared services contracts that companies have with external service providers for functions such as IT, human resources or finance. Organisations can use the software to measure these agreements on an ongoing basis against several criteria, including cost or quality of service. ServiceFrame claims its software significantly reduces the manual effort involved in collecting and assessing governance information, allowing companies to spend more time on managing the relationships with suppliers more effectively.

Notes:

• ServiceFrame (www.serviceframe.com)
• ServiceFrame material on YouTube
• Article in the Irish Times (irishtimes.com Friday April 8th, 2011)