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Outsourcing Advisory Services
Technology Outsourcing
Outsourcing technology functions has enabled the world's best companies to maintain or enhance their competitiveness in an increasingly challenging marketplace. By leveraging the skill sets, core competencies and cost effectiveness of third party technology providers, companies have strategically utilized technology outsourcing as a tool to increase their technological flexibility, enhance the services they receive through greater functional accountability, and decrease their technology costs through utilization of vendor economies of scale.
Many of these transactions have also disappointed, with many companies not realizing the expected savings or service enhancements. The difference almost always seems to hinge on the manner in which the deal is constructed on the front end and the specific expertise utilized to help guide these companies through the process - from on-shore/off-shore assessments, to organizational readiness, to RFP production and contract negotiation, and finally to vendor transition and management.
We help clients manage the end-to-end technology outsourcing process. One of our key differentiators is that we understand the outsourcing process as well as the business implications and underlying technologies being outsourced. Through our combination of technical and business expertise, we offer our clients a broad and deep set of services focused on managing the complexity of the business justification, vendor selection, contract negotiations, and outsourcing transition through proven approaches and methodologies. We offer technology outsourcing assessment, vendor selection, negotiation, and transition services in the following technology areas:
Application Development & Maintenance
We provide management and technical expertise in various Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) models to enable our clients to successfully outsource the development, deployment and maintenance of applications. From application scope definition to design, development, testing, cutover, implementation and support, we offer the following technology outsourcing-related services:
- Strategic assessment of the applicability of, readiness for, and benefits to be gained by utilizing an on-shore, off-shore, or near-shore application development, maintenance and support model
- Development of processes for communication, development, testing, release management, and overall project management for the selected model
- Identification of established competencies, resource profiles and criteria for identifying qualified, skilled technical resources to execute the model
- Development of Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
- Definition of methods to govern scope, including change management, application requirements, and bug fixes and enhancements
- Development of detailed implementation plans, team governance structures and processes to enable a smooth transition and continuous performance improvement
- Articulation of guidelines for setting up an application development lab for design, development, configuration, integration test and support
- Advise on best practices for managing geographic, time-zone, cultural and security issues in the Rapid Application Development / Configuration / Integration, Test and Distribution environment
Data Center
All data centers-and their associated services-are not created equal. We help our clients choose a data center partner that will not degrade the uptime, security or accessibility of their networks, Web sites, e-mail servers, call centers, or computer applications. Through a highly client-collaborative approach, we help identify the top-tier data centers that meet our clients' specific requirements, including:
- Fit against technical and operational requirements, including guaranteed uptime, multi-tiered uninterruptible power supplies, scheduled maintenance and upgrades, 24/7 live monitoring, regulated temperature controls and multi-level security measures
- Service Level Agreements, including quantification / accountability for uptime, bandwidth, response time and support requirements
- Uptime ranking, including audit of documentation to demonstrate long-term performance
- Evidence of quality, such as objective documentation / processes/ metrication of the data center's facility, methodologies and services
- Compliance with industry regulations for security, storage and uptime to ensure that the data center meets strict industry regulations such as HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley, and SAS 70
- Install times (which are usually a strong indicator of what can be expected from the data center in terms of long-term responsiveness and performance)
- Disaster preparedness, including risk analysis and evaluation of disaster recovery planning, contingency and failover arrangements along with DR testing effectiveness
Help Desk and Desktop Support
We help clients identify technology solutions for their help desk service, technical, and desktop support needs without compromising their employees' or customers' experience. Our people, processes and technology expertise allow us to help our clients ensure that help desk and desktop support functions will provide quality service every day. We have extensive experience in the following areas:
- Helpdesk Operations, Software, and Processes
- Desktop Support and Infrastructure
- Onshore Help Desk
- Offshore Help Desk
- Combined Help Desk with Inbound and/or Outbound Call Center
- Internet / Web Based Help Desk
- Live Chat
- Knowledge Management Solutions
- Self Help Solutions
Contact Center Technology
We help our clients outsource technology and infrastructure that are critical to supporting the customer care organization. We have performed some of the largest contact center outsourcing transactions ever consummated and have a deep appreciation of the linkage between technology and operational performance. We directly understand, through hands on experience, the trade-offs between turn-key call center outsourcing (i.e., technology, infrastructure, and agents in one deal) vs performing independent technology and operational transactions. With respect to contact center technology outsourcing, we have extensive experience in the following areas:
- Hardware/Software Platforms: ACD, IVR, CTI, Auto Dialer, VoIP Switches
- Applications: Enterprise CRM, scheduling, advanced scripting, and reporting tools
- Network Services: WAN/LAN, VoIP Services and Management
- Facility Disposition, e.g., lease assumption, transition considerations
See also Customer Care Operations in Business Process Outsourcing.
Managed Network Services
We help clients establish and implement a preferred approach to outsourcing aspects of their wide area and local area network infrastructure. Examples of these outsourced services include:
- Wide area network monitoring and management
- Managed application services
- CPE (router, switch, CSU/DSU) maintenance
- Network installation and deployment services
- Security (e.g., managed firewall, intrusion detection)
- Site support services (e.g., PBX management, hard and soft MACD)
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