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T: (+54 11) 4116-0334/38
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Loyalty . . . to what? (Written by Dave Kinnear)
29/01/2010
29/01/2010
I’m reminded, from time-to-time, of the inequality of expectations between employees and employers with respect to employment. Especially in the small to mid-sized businesses, the owners are often frustrated with employees who do not seem to put effort into the business. They don’t have a sense of “ownership.” Well, that’s because they aren’t owners, and usually aren’t treated as owners.
On the employee side, they feel that it’s quite alright for them to give two weeks notice if they get a better offer elsewhere, but at the same time seem to think that as long as they want to stay, they should be able to do so. If the employer lets them go (for whatever reason), they feel that somehow it is unfair. Of course, this is not true of all employees nor do all business owners despair over employees not acting as if the company is their own. However, there does seem to be anecdotal data to back up my perceptions.
This situation first came to my attention many years ago as I worked in the semiconductor industry. We had facilities in Silicon Valley (Sunnyvale and San Jose). I often heard managers complaining that employees were more than willing to leave for a slight raise and join another company. It seemed to be easy to do in the valley and it seemed to be true; and it made me wonder. So I started asking some questions of the engineers, marketers and sales people who left our company and those still with us. The picture became a bit clearer. It seems that there was a lot of loyalty – but the loyalty was to a particular product line or architecture rather than a company. So if I considered myself a Complex Instruction Set Computer (CISC) kind of guy, I would go where all the exciting things were happening in that field. Likewise if I considered myself a Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) person. If I was skilled and excited about one architecture and the company began to emphasize the other, I eventually left to find another employer in line with my talents and passions. This kind of “loyalty to a concept” was even more prevalent in the software and Internet companies.
So managers needed to change the context in which they interpreted the content of their experience with respect to “loyal employees.” If an engineer or sales person believed in a certain product or architecture and we began to de-emphasize that particular product, then we could expect to see folks leave for greener pastures. On the other hand, if we kept pushing the envelope and introduced new products and improvements to existing products, then our employees were “loyal” and mostly content.
Discovering this different view of loyalty led to some insights that served some divisions very well. As long as they were able to stay at the leading edge of product development, they kept the best employees. They found that salary and other monetary rewards were not the biggest motivators. They had to be competitive, but by and large, it was an exciting environment in product development that the employees appreciated and which kept them happy and inspired.
So as we work our way out of this recession and employees begin feeling as though employment changes are possible, how will you hold on to your key players? Do you know what your employees are loyal to? Since they don’t own the company, it likely isn’t the company itself that inspires them. They may be grateful for the company and the employment it provides, but what are they really passionate about?
Is your culture one of team work and does everyone in your company agree? Have them take our Company Cultural Assessment.
Is your hiring methodology designed to attract top talent and weed out those candidates that embellish? You can download our 8 Point Hiring Methodology Assessment Scorecard and find out.
About the author
Dave Kinnear is a sought after Business Advisor and Mentor. He works with highly successful executives through one-to-one mentoring and coaching meetings. Individuals who are presently running successful businesses and executives in transition work with Dave to ensure meeting corporate and/or career goals. Through his affiliation with Vistage International, Dave convenes and facilitates Advisory Boards comprising Business Owners, Company Presidents and Chief Executives dedicated to becoming better leaders who make better decisions and achieve better results.
Source: impacthiringsolutions.com
On the employee side, they feel that it’s quite alright for them to give two weeks notice if they get a better offer elsewhere, but at the same time seem to think that as long as they want to stay, they should be able to do so. If the employer lets them go (for whatever reason), they feel that somehow it is unfair. Of course, this is not true of all employees nor do all business owners despair over employees not acting as if the company is their own. However, there does seem to be anecdotal data to back up my perceptions.
This situation first came to my attention many years ago as I worked in the semiconductor industry. We had facilities in Silicon Valley (Sunnyvale and San Jose). I often heard managers complaining that employees were more than willing to leave for a slight raise and join another company. It seemed to be easy to do in the valley and it seemed to be true; and it made me wonder. So I started asking some questions of the engineers, marketers and sales people who left our company and those still with us. The picture became a bit clearer. It seems that there was a lot of loyalty – but the loyalty was to a particular product line or architecture rather than a company. So if I considered myself a Complex Instruction Set Computer (CISC) kind of guy, I would go where all the exciting things were happening in that field. Likewise if I considered myself a Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) person. If I was skilled and excited about one architecture and the company began to emphasize the other, I eventually left to find another employer in line with my talents and passions. This kind of “loyalty to a concept” was even more prevalent in the software and Internet companies.
So managers needed to change the context in which they interpreted the content of their experience with respect to “loyal employees.” If an engineer or sales person believed in a certain product or architecture and we began to de-emphasize that particular product, then we could expect to see folks leave for greener pastures. On the other hand, if we kept pushing the envelope and introduced new products and improvements to existing products, then our employees were “loyal” and mostly content.
Discovering this different view of loyalty led to some insights that served some divisions very well. As long as they were able to stay at the leading edge of product development, they kept the best employees. They found that salary and other monetary rewards were not the biggest motivators. They had to be competitive, but by and large, it was an exciting environment in product development that the employees appreciated and which kept them happy and inspired.
So as we work our way out of this recession and employees begin feeling as though employment changes are possible, how will you hold on to your key players? Do you know what your employees are loyal to? Since they don’t own the company, it likely isn’t the company itself that inspires them. They may be grateful for the company and the employment it provides, but what are they really passionate about?
Is your culture one of team work and does everyone in your company agree? Have them take our Company Cultural Assessment.
Is your hiring methodology designed to attract top talent and weed out those candidates that embellish? You can download our 8 Point Hiring Methodology Assessment Scorecard and find out.
About the author
Dave Kinnear is a sought after Business Advisor and Mentor. He works with highly successful executives through one-to-one mentoring and coaching meetings. Individuals who are presently running successful businesses and executives in transition work with Dave to ensure meeting corporate and/or career goals. Through his affiliation with Vistage International, Dave convenes and facilitates Advisory Boards comprising Business Owners, Company Presidents and Chief Executives dedicated to becoming better leaders who make better decisions and achieve better results.
Source: impacthiringsolutions.com
10 Outsourcing Trends to Watch in 2010
17/12/2009
17/12/2009
CIO.com’s outsourcing guru talks to the experts, dives into the research and offers up 10 key outsourcing trends that you need to know about.
It was a long year of intense ups and downs in the IT outsourcing industry. Consolidation among vendors and interest in remote infrastructure management increased, while overall outsourcing demand and IT services pricing decreased.
The market for IT outsourcing is expected to rebound a bit in 2010, say industry watchers. For instance, more than 75 percent of the service providers polled by EquaTerra in the third quarter of this year reported continued growth in their deal pipeline, which was up 10 percent from the previous quarter and 34 percent from the same period last year.
But don’t expect too robust a revival. Outsourcing consultancy Everest predicts that although suppliers will see a resurgence in demand for IT and business process outsourcing services in 2009, growth rates are unlikely to return to pre-2008 levels.
Both suppliers and outsourcing customers could be in for a bumpy ride in 2010. Here are 10 trends to look out for as the IT services industry finds its feet in the ’new normal’ of the post-recession.
1. Transformers 2. Sure, outsourcing customers will still want vendors to transform IT in 2010. But revolutionizing IT service delivery is expensive and difficult.
’Optimization is the new transformation,’ says Mark Toon, CEO of outsourcing consultancy EquaTerra. ’Ultimately, organizations will still want to ’transform’ how they deliver back office services, but they typically will want to move in pragmatic, incremental steps and focus on achieving best in class, standardized and optimized delivery models.’
2. If at First You Don’t Succeed, Renegotiate. There has been an increase in the number of contracts being renegotiated and rebid during the past 12 months, according to outsourcing consultancy Compass America, and that will continue in 2010.
’While many organizations remain keen to avoid the costs of new capital and migrating to new suppliers,’ says Tom Schramm, EquaTerra’s managing director of finance and accounting, ’investment is being made in ensuring existing suppliers and internal processes are delivering optimum value.’
3. Multi-Sourcing Malaise. Multi-sourcing seems ideal in theory—work with best-in-class IT service providers and keep costs in check, thanks to the competition. In reality, it’s been difficult at best and disastrous at worst for many customers.
’Organizations are reassessing their approach to selective sourcing and multi-sourcing, and realizing that they need to have a certain level of maturity in terms of processes, governance and vendor management in order to make the multi-vendor model work,’ says Bob Mathers, senior consultant with Compass America. ’ Organizations that have pursued multi-sourcing without investing in management capabilities are finding themselves longing for the problems they used to have with their one and only vendor.’ Watch for reevaluation and restructuring of these relationships next year.
4. Captive No More? While certain companies will continue to set up fully-owned IT delivery centers abroad, look for more captive center divestitures in the new year and a ’marginally lower’ number of new captives being set up, predicts Everest.
5. The Urge to Merge. The number of top-tier service providers shrunk this year, creating both challenges and opportunities for other vendors in 2010.
’Consolidation at firms, including HP, EDS, Dell, Perot, ACS and Xerox, may represent an opportunity for their competitors,’ says Charles Arnold, managing director of EquaTerra’s IT advisory for the Americas. ’From acquiring former staff of top-tier providers to snapping up now empty chairs at the bidding table, competitive providers may be able to leverage this chance to grow capability and market share in 2010.’
The M&A party is likely to continue after we’ve rung in the new year. ’This consolidation will most likely involve tier two and tier three providers, as they struggle to compete with the breadth and depth that their tier one competitors can offer,’ says David Rutchik, partner with outsourcing consultancy Pace Harmon. ’We would not be surprised to see a non-offshore provider acquiring an offshore-based provider.’
Everest predicts that most consolidation in 2010 will focus on acquisitions of ’adjacent and complementary capabilities across functions, verticals and geographies,’ as opposed to mergers solely to increase scale.
6. Offshoring to...America? The greenback has had a grueling year. That could play out in some interesting ways. ’With the continued decline in value of the dollar and sluggish employment, I would expect to see more U.S.-based sourcing solutions evaluated by private and public sector clients across the globe,’ says Peter Iannone, EquaTerra’s executive director for the Americas.
7. The Mega-Death of Mega-Deals. Increased near-term cost pressures will drive a continued decline in mega-deals in 2010, Everest predicts. Customers will continue to eschew the billion-plus deals for more flexible approaches to outsourcing, says Lee Ayling, manager of Equaterra’s U.K.-based IT advisory.
’In 2010, we will see many contracts focused on core processes with shorter, less expensive transition periods and reduced return on investment timescales,’ says Brad Everett, executive director of EquaTerra’s human resource practice.
8. The Public Interest. All signs point to increased outsourcing in local and state government. ’Budgets are tight, but demands for new technologies are strong,’ explains Glenn Davidson, head of EquaTerra’s public sector practice. ’The winners in the competition will be offering innovative financing and strong risk insurance.’ However, he predicts decreased outsourcing in D.C. ’The federal government, with its ability to print money and this administration’s push for insourcing, is likely to continue its investment in internal solutions,’ Davidson says.
9. The (Slow) Return of the Discretionary Spend. Providers of application development, and maintenance and consulting services will develop innovative contract and pricing structures to win customers as the market rebounds next year, according to Everest. Both types of deals took a hit as buyers put discretionary spending on hold.
But such projects will make a gradual recovery in 2010, predicts Everest, noting that ’the pace of this change will be dictated entirely by the improvement in the global business environment.’
10. Semi-Sourcing. Cloud computing and software-as-a-service—which EquaTerra’s Stan Lepeak calls ’semi-outsourcing alternatives’—will make waves in the IT services industry in the year ahead.
The IT outsourcing market has reached a major tipping point, according to Forrester Research analysts, and a focus on outcomes means that traditional deals will continue to decrease during the next several years as new utility and cloud service offerings proliferate. ’This will be a large focus as companies try to figure out how this will work,’ agrees Dave Brown, head of EquaTerra’s financial architecture practice. ’Those that develop a sustainable commercial offering will hit the headlines early and often.’
Modularity will be the name of the game. Suppliers are poised to offer buyers more and more plug-and-play services coupled with pay-as-you-go pricing. ’We have observed a continuing move toward a more scalable and virtual infrastructure for many services...and more aggressive efforts to take advantage of sourcing’ says Melany Williams, partner and managing director of service provider consultancy TPI Momentum.
But it will be small and midsize companies leading the charge in this space in 2010, says Everest, while large enterprises wait for more of the technical and business challenges to be resolved before adopting these new delivery models.
Source: CIO.com
It was a long year of intense ups and downs in the IT outsourcing industry. Consolidation among vendors and interest in remote infrastructure management increased, while overall outsourcing demand and IT services pricing decreased.
The market for IT outsourcing is expected to rebound a bit in 2010, say industry watchers. For instance, more than 75 percent of the service providers polled by EquaTerra in the third quarter of this year reported continued growth in their deal pipeline, which was up 10 percent from the previous quarter and 34 percent from the same period last year.
But don’t expect too robust a revival. Outsourcing consultancy Everest predicts that although suppliers will see a resurgence in demand for IT and business process outsourcing services in 2009, growth rates are unlikely to return to pre-2008 levels.
Both suppliers and outsourcing customers could be in for a bumpy ride in 2010. Here are 10 trends to look out for as the IT services industry finds its feet in the ’new normal’ of the post-recession.
1. Transformers 2. Sure, outsourcing customers will still want vendors to transform IT in 2010. But revolutionizing IT service delivery is expensive and difficult.
’Optimization is the new transformation,’ says Mark Toon, CEO of outsourcing consultancy EquaTerra. ’Ultimately, organizations will still want to ’transform’ how they deliver back office services, but they typically will want to move in pragmatic, incremental steps and focus on achieving best in class, standardized and optimized delivery models.’
2. If at First You Don’t Succeed, Renegotiate. There has been an increase in the number of contracts being renegotiated and rebid during the past 12 months, according to outsourcing consultancy Compass America, and that will continue in 2010.
’While many organizations remain keen to avoid the costs of new capital and migrating to new suppliers,’ says Tom Schramm, EquaTerra’s managing director of finance and accounting, ’investment is being made in ensuring existing suppliers and internal processes are delivering optimum value.’
3. Multi-Sourcing Malaise. Multi-sourcing seems ideal in theory—work with best-in-class IT service providers and keep costs in check, thanks to the competition. In reality, it’s been difficult at best and disastrous at worst for many customers.
’Organizations are reassessing their approach to selective sourcing and multi-sourcing, and realizing that they need to have a certain level of maturity in terms of processes, governance and vendor management in order to make the multi-vendor model work,’ says Bob Mathers, senior consultant with Compass America. ’ Organizations that have pursued multi-sourcing without investing in management capabilities are finding themselves longing for the problems they used to have with their one and only vendor.’ Watch for reevaluation and restructuring of these relationships next year.
4. Captive No More? While certain companies will continue to set up fully-owned IT delivery centers abroad, look for more captive center divestitures in the new year and a ’marginally lower’ number of new captives being set up, predicts Everest.
5. The Urge to Merge. The number of top-tier service providers shrunk this year, creating both challenges and opportunities for other vendors in 2010.
’Consolidation at firms, including HP, EDS, Dell, Perot, ACS and Xerox, may represent an opportunity for their competitors,’ says Charles Arnold, managing director of EquaTerra’s IT advisory for the Americas. ’From acquiring former staff of top-tier providers to snapping up now empty chairs at the bidding table, competitive providers may be able to leverage this chance to grow capability and market share in 2010.’
The M&A party is likely to continue after we’ve rung in the new year. ’This consolidation will most likely involve tier two and tier three providers, as they struggle to compete with the breadth and depth that their tier one competitors can offer,’ says David Rutchik, partner with outsourcing consultancy Pace Harmon. ’We would not be surprised to see a non-offshore provider acquiring an offshore-based provider.’
Everest predicts that most consolidation in 2010 will focus on acquisitions of ’adjacent and complementary capabilities across functions, verticals and geographies,’ as opposed to mergers solely to increase scale.
6. Offshoring to...America? The greenback has had a grueling year. That could play out in some interesting ways. ’With the continued decline in value of the dollar and sluggish employment, I would expect to see more U.S.-based sourcing solutions evaluated by private and public sector clients across the globe,’ says Peter Iannone, EquaTerra’s executive director for the Americas.
7. The Mega-Death of Mega-Deals. Increased near-term cost pressures will drive a continued decline in mega-deals in 2010, Everest predicts. Customers will continue to eschew the billion-plus deals for more flexible approaches to outsourcing, says Lee Ayling, manager of Equaterra’s U.K.-based IT advisory.
’In 2010, we will see many contracts focused on core processes with shorter, less expensive transition periods and reduced return on investment timescales,’ says Brad Everett, executive director of EquaTerra’s human resource practice.
8. The Public Interest. All signs point to increased outsourcing in local and state government. ’Budgets are tight, but demands for new technologies are strong,’ explains Glenn Davidson, head of EquaTerra’s public sector practice. ’The winners in the competition will be offering innovative financing and strong risk insurance.’ However, he predicts decreased outsourcing in D.C. ’The federal government, with its ability to print money and this administration’s push for insourcing, is likely to continue its investment in internal solutions,’ Davidson says.
9. The (Slow) Return of the Discretionary Spend. Providers of application development, and maintenance and consulting services will develop innovative contract and pricing structures to win customers as the market rebounds next year, according to Everest. Both types of deals took a hit as buyers put discretionary spending on hold.
But such projects will make a gradual recovery in 2010, predicts Everest, noting that ’the pace of this change will be dictated entirely by the improvement in the global business environment.’
10. Semi-Sourcing. Cloud computing and software-as-a-service—which EquaTerra’s Stan Lepeak calls ’semi-outsourcing alternatives’—will make waves in the IT services industry in the year ahead.
The IT outsourcing market has reached a major tipping point, according to Forrester Research analysts, and a focus on outcomes means that traditional deals will continue to decrease during the next several years as new utility and cloud service offerings proliferate. ’This will be a large focus as companies try to figure out how this will work,’ agrees Dave Brown, head of EquaTerra’s financial architecture practice. ’Those that develop a sustainable commercial offering will hit the headlines early and often.’
Modularity will be the name of the game. Suppliers are poised to offer buyers more and more plug-and-play services coupled with pay-as-you-go pricing. ’We have observed a continuing move toward a more scalable and virtual infrastructure for many services...and more aggressive efforts to take advantage of sourcing’ says Melany Williams, partner and managing director of service provider consultancy TPI Momentum.
But it will be small and midsize companies leading the charge in this space in 2010, says Everest, while large enterprises wait for more of the technical and business challenges to be resolved before adopting these new delivery models.
Source: CIO.com
IT’s economic recovery may have started (Written by Gareth Morgan)
30/07/2009
30/07/2009
Influential financial thinktank the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) says it has detected signs that the bottom of the global slump has been reached in the IT sector.
In its latest report on the information economy, the OECD notes that while many IT vendors are gloomy about current prospects, there are some tentative indicators of improvement.
In its report entitled The Impact of the Crisis on ICTs and their Role in the Recovery, the OECD concludes that spending on IT hardware, software and services declined markedly in the first few months of 2009.
But May and June brought better news:
«There are signs of recovery, with the rate of decline bottoming out and turning up in the most recent cyclical data,» it said.
Nevertheless, that recovery is based largely on vendors’ cost-cutting measures, rather than increasing demand from users. Business confidence, especially in the financial services sector, remains fragile, said the report.
The OECD noted that the IT sector is particularly vulnerable to wider economic downturns, as both consumers and businesses are prone to cutting IT expenditure before other areas of expense.
But the organisation also confirmed that the long-term prospects for the IT sector remain good, as the internet economy will continue to grow over the coming years, while major government initiatives such as the development of smart transport systems and environmentally sound policies are reliant on IT investment.
Source: Computing.co.uk
In its latest report on the information economy, the OECD notes that while many IT vendors are gloomy about current prospects, there are some tentative indicators of improvement.
In its report entitled The Impact of the Crisis on ICTs and their Role in the Recovery, the OECD concludes that spending on IT hardware, software and services declined markedly in the first few months of 2009.
But May and June brought better news:
«There are signs of recovery, with the rate of decline bottoming out and turning up in the most recent cyclical data,» it said.
Nevertheless, that recovery is based largely on vendors’ cost-cutting measures, rather than increasing demand from users. Business confidence, especially in the financial services sector, remains fragile, said the report.
The OECD noted that the IT sector is particularly vulnerable to wider economic downturns, as both consumers and businesses are prone to cutting IT expenditure before other areas of expense.
But the organisation also confirmed that the long-term prospects for the IT sector remain good, as the internet economy will continue to grow over the coming years, while major government initiatives such as the development of smart transport systems and environmentally sound policies are reliant on IT investment.
Source: Computing.co.uk
Office 2010 shows early promise (Written by Dave Bailey)
23/07/2009
23/07/2009
Microsoft used last week’s Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans to announce details of its Office 2010 productivity suite, which is due to be available in the first half of next year.
Computing took a look at the technical preview of the software and gave it a quick test drive to identify the key benefits for corporate IT users.
Office Web Applications
Frustratingly, the most important new feature, Office Web Applications, is still not available for testing. “It will be available through Windows Live at a later date during technical preview and will have limited functionality at this milestone,” according to Microsoft’s Office 2010 technical preview documentation. Office Web Applications is designed to allow users to edit and collaborate on documents on the move without having a local copy of data. Companies that do not want business-critical data exposed in a cloud environment will need a SharePoint installation. Office Web Applications will include online, but “reduced functionality”, versions of Excel, OneNote, PowerPoint and Word.
Improved Outlook
The new version of Outlook can be used to access multiple email accounts, and has features making it easier to manage email. For example, it was easy to set up an inbox to a Google Mail account, and view that inbox through Outlook. The default was to arrange emails in this inbox by “conversation view”, which grouped thread-related conversations.
Other features include the “conversation cleanup” tool, which can be used to look across an email conversation thread, and remove to a specific folder emails that have duplicated information. For large organisations with lengthy email distribution lists, the “ignore conversation” option can be used to take out threads not normally intended for minor recipients, and puts them into the “deleted items” box.
Outlook 2010 will also allow voicemail and faxes to be sent to your inbox – but you will need Exchange 2010 on the back end. Using Office Communicator in conjunction with Outlook 2010, your Communicator “buddy list” is visible, and hovering over a name will give their availability. Contact through instant messaging, voice call or video will then be possible, but again you will need additional Microsoft applications Office Communicator 2007 R2 and Office Communications Server 2007 R2.
Document fidelity
One thing Microsoft has worked on in Office 2010 is document fidelity – whereby formatting is preserved across versions and users which is important for business users. With Office 2010, Microsoft says this problem has been eliminated, and it worked for all our complex documents emailed across Office 2010 installations on XP Professional, Vista and the Windows 7 release candidate. However, we could not check what happens when documents move across Word Mobile 2010 since this is not included in the Office 2010 preview applications or suites.
Office BackStage
In the top left-hand corner in all the new Office applications is Office BackStage, an all-in-one sub-menu that is designed to make major changes to your Office documents simpler. For users well versed in dealing with new features and who do not normally require any IT support, getting used to controlling content through BackStage should not be too much of a problem. However, users who find new interfaces disorientating may need some support.
The best of the rest
The rest of the new features will each result in minor productivity increases for enterprise users, but may give a significant increase when added together.
Word has new cut and paste options, saving time with the “keep text only” option, which pastes in the content you want – and in the format you are already using. Excel has been rejigged with tools for better data visualisation and data handling.
Excel, PowerPoint and Word all come with better photo editing tools, and PowerPoint has video editing capabilities to quickly trim content. However, our two attempts at inserting videos into PowerPoint both ended in failure.
Conclusion
Office 2010 has important new enterprise features that will save time managing email, collaborating on shared documents, and creating content, but they require full end-to-end Microsoft software to achieve. One major feature for businesses – Office Web Applications – could not be evaluated. This was a shame, because if it lives up to expectation, this feature is likely to be one of Office 2010’s biggest selling points.
Source: Computing.co.uk
Computing took a look at the technical preview of the software and gave it a quick test drive to identify the key benefits for corporate IT users.
Office Web Applications
Frustratingly, the most important new feature, Office Web Applications, is still not available for testing. “It will be available through Windows Live at a later date during technical preview and will have limited functionality at this milestone,” according to Microsoft’s Office 2010 technical preview documentation. Office Web Applications is designed to allow users to edit and collaborate on documents on the move without having a local copy of data. Companies that do not want business-critical data exposed in a cloud environment will need a SharePoint installation. Office Web Applications will include online, but “reduced functionality”, versions of Excel, OneNote, PowerPoint and Word.
Improved Outlook
The new version of Outlook can be used to access multiple email accounts, and has features making it easier to manage email. For example, it was easy to set up an inbox to a Google Mail account, and view that inbox through Outlook. The default was to arrange emails in this inbox by “conversation view”, which grouped thread-related conversations.
Other features include the “conversation cleanup” tool, which can be used to look across an email conversation thread, and remove to a specific folder emails that have duplicated information. For large organisations with lengthy email distribution lists, the “ignore conversation” option can be used to take out threads not normally intended for minor recipients, and puts them into the “deleted items” box.
Outlook 2010 will also allow voicemail and faxes to be sent to your inbox – but you will need Exchange 2010 on the back end. Using Office Communicator in conjunction with Outlook 2010, your Communicator “buddy list” is visible, and hovering over a name will give their availability. Contact through instant messaging, voice call or video will then be possible, but again you will need additional Microsoft applications Office Communicator 2007 R2 and Office Communications Server 2007 R2.
Document fidelity
One thing Microsoft has worked on in Office 2010 is document fidelity – whereby formatting is preserved across versions and users which is important for business users. With Office 2010, Microsoft says this problem has been eliminated, and it worked for all our complex documents emailed across Office 2010 installations on XP Professional, Vista and the Windows 7 release candidate. However, we could not check what happens when documents move across Word Mobile 2010 since this is not included in the Office 2010 preview applications or suites.
Office BackStage
In the top left-hand corner in all the new Office applications is Office BackStage, an all-in-one sub-menu that is designed to make major changes to your Office documents simpler. For users well versed in dealing with new features and who do not normally require any IT support, getting used to controlling content through BackStage should not be too much of a problem. However, users who find new interfaces disorientating may need some support.
The best of the rest
The rest of the new features will each result in minor productivity increases for enterprise users, but may give a significant increase when added together.
Word has new cut and paste options, saving time with the “keep text only” option, which pastes in the content you want – and in the format you are already using. Excel has been rejigged with tools for better data visualisation and data handling.
Excel, PowerPoint and Word all come with better photo editing tools, and PowerPoint has video editing capabilities to quickly trim content. However, our two attempts at inserting videos into PowerPoint both ended in failure.
Conclusion
Office 2010 has important new enterprise features that will save time managing email, collaborating on shared documents, and creating content, but they require full end-to-end Microsoft software to achieve. One major feature for businesses – Office Web Applications – could not be evaluated. This was a shame, because if it lives up to expectation, this feature is likely to be one of Office 2010’s biggest selling points.
Source: Computing.co.uk
Top 30 Countries for Offshore Service in 2008. Argentina top destination within Americas says Gartner (Report by Caroline Diana)
24/12/2008
24/12/2008
Determining the country or countries that are best placed to host offshore IT operations is a daunting task for many organizations, according to Gartner, Inc. This year, Gartner has assessed the suitability of 72 countries as offshore locations, and has announced its ‘Top 30’. The analysis showed that the dynamic nature of the market has seen a number of countries position themselves as credible alternatives to the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China).
«Countries such as Mexico, Poland and Vietnam have continued to strengthen their position against leading alternatives, while others have forced their way into the ‘Top 30’. These countries will be seeking to take advantage of the opportunity created by the increased focus that many organizations now have on cost optimization, as a result of the current economic crisis,» said Ian Marriott, research vice president at Gartner.
During the last 12 months there has been significant activity in many countries to consolidate or grow their positions as leading locations for offshore services. “As a result of this, four countries have dropped out of the ’Top 30’ and have been replaced by four that were just outside the ’Top 30’ 12 months ago. This does not mean that the four ’relegated’ countries have underperformed this year but the dynamic nature of the market has seen others making strong progress,” said Mr Marriott.
Why you should be the driver, but not the owner of business case ROI.
The four countries leaving the ‘Top 30’ this year were Northern Ireland, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Uruguay. The new entrants into the 30 leading countries for offshore services were Egypt, Morocco, Panama and Thailand. Strong interest in nearshore locations was a key factor; language skills, cultural compatibility, time zone and travel time were important considerations. As French speaking countries increase their proportion of work conducted offshore, they have been keen to find appropriate French language countries, and saw Morocco ‘step up’. The nearshore benefits of Egypt and Panama, and the cost consideration in Thailand were also important.
In 2008, Gartner’s top 30 locations for offshore services, by region, were:
The key evaluation criterion of cost was where Canada fared the worst («fair») compared with «good» or «very good» ratings for all other countries in the region. However, Canada again led the rating for political and economic environment, cultural compatibility, global and legal maturity, and data and intellectual property security and privacy. Argentina was rated less favourably than the rest for its political and economic environment. Brazil and Mexico were considered «very good» for cultural compatibility, and the Latin American countries all managed a solid «good» rating for global and legal maturity. As observed in other regions, data and intellectual property security and privacy remain «work in progress» for many developing countries.
Ten countries from Asia/Pacific were represented in the 30 leading countries. These included the undisputed leader in offshore services — India — and the greatest challenger in terms of potential scale — China. The rest are a mix of mature environments that offer limited cost benefits (such as Australia, New Zealand and Singapore) and emerging countries with a variety of challenges, but attractive costs (such as Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam).
The final list of 30 countries included 13 from EMEA and for the first time saw two North African countries enter the leading countries in EMEA. Locations such as Ireland, Israel and South Africa fared well for language skills, because of the quality and quantity of English-language speakers. However, other countries, such as Morocco, Romania, the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary were also given credit for the availability of alternative languages that address the needs of an increasing number of continental European buyers.
Why you should be the driver, but not the owner of business case ROI.
Cultural compatibility was variable, although only one EMEA country (the Ukraine) was rated lower than «good.» In recent years, many countries in EMEA have become nearshore centres for traditional service providers and large Indian providers. This is reflected in the global and legal maturity section, where eight of the 13 countries scored between «good» and «excellent.» Few countries in this region, with the exception of Russia, have a good selection of local service providers actively selling their capability outside their own country. In the final category of data and intellectual property security and privacy, a mature domestic environment or membership of the EU resulted in the highest ratings.
Gartner also found that external service providers (ESPs) have started to target places outside the ‘Top 30’ to get closer to mature countries, such as the Nordic regions and France that show increased interest in offshore. “Given the current financial turmoil, cost will remain an important factor. However having the right balance between lower cost and higher risks, and lower risks and higher costs will be critical in times of recession and uncertainty,” said Marriott.
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Source: CIO.com
«Countries such as Mexico, Poland and Vietnam have continued to strengthen their position against leading alternatives, while others have forced their way into the ‘Top 30’. These countries will be seeking to take advantage of the opportunity created by the increased focus that many organizations now have on cost optimization, as a result of the current economic crisis,» said Ian Marriott, research vice president at Gartner.
During the last 12 months there has been significant activity in many countries to consolidate or grow their positions as leading locations for offshore services. “As a result of this, four countries have dropped out of the ’Top 30’ and have been replaced by four that were just outside the ’Top 30’ 12 months ago. This does not mean that the four ’relegated’ countries have underperformed this year but the dynamic nature of the market has seen others making strong progress,” said Mr Marriott.
Why you should be the driver, but not the owner of business case ROI.
The four countries leaving the ‘Top 30’ this year were Northern Ireland, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Uruguay. The new entrants into the 30 leading countries for offshore services were Egypt, Morocco, Panama and Thailand. Strong interest in nearshore locations was a key factor; language skills, cultural compatibility, time zone and travel time were important considerations. As French speaking countries increase their proportion of work conducted offshore, they have been keen to find appropriate French language countries, and saw Morocco ‘step up’. The nearshore benefits of Egypt and Panama, and the cost consideration in Thailand were also important.
In 2008, Gartner’s top 30 locations for offshore services, by region, were:
- Americas: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Mexico and Panama
- Asia/Pacific: Australia, China, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam
- Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA): the Czech Republic, Egypt, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Morocco, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain and Ukraine
The key evaluation criterion of cost was where Canada fared the worst («fair») compared with «good» or «very good» ratings for all other countries in the region. However, Canada again led the rating for political and economic environment, cultural compatibility, global and legal maturity, and data and intellectual property security and privacy. Argentina was rated less favourably than the rest for its political and economic environment. Brazil and Mexico were considered «very good» for cultural compatibility, and the Latin American countries all managed a solid «good» rating for global and legal maturity. As observed in other regions, data and intellectual property security and privacy remain «work in progress» for many developing countries.
Ten countries from Asia/Pacific were represented in the 30 leading countries. These included the undisputed leader in offshore services — India — and the greatest challenger in terms of potential scale — China. The rest are a mix of mature environments that offer limited cost benefits (such as Australia, New Zealand and Singapore) and emerging countries with a variety of challenges, but attractive costs (such as Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam).
The final list of 30 countries included 13 from EMEA and for the first time saw two North African countries enter the leading countries in EMEA. Locations such as Ireland, Israel and South Africa fared well for language skills, because of the quality and quantity of English-language speakers. However, other countries, such as Morocco, Romania, the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary were also given credit for the availability of alternative languages that address the needs of an increasing number of continental European buyers.
Why you should be the driver, but not the owner of business case ROI.
Cultural compatibility was variable, although only one EMEA country (the Ukraine) was rated lower than «good.» In recent years, many countries in EMEA have become nearshore centres for traditional service providers and large Indian providers. This is reflected in the global and legal maturity section, where eight of the 13 countries scored between «good» and «excellent.» Few countries in this region, with the exception of Russia, have a good selection of local service providers actively selling their capability outside their own country. In the final category of data and intellectual property security and privacy, a mature domestic environment or membership of the EU resulted in the highest ratings.
Gartner also found that external service providers (ESPs) have started to target places outside the ‘Top 30’ to get closer to mature countries, such as the Nordic regions and France that show increased interest in offshore. “Given the current financial turmoil, cost will remain an important factor. However having the right balance between lower cost and higher risks, and lower risks and higher costs will be critical in times of recession and uncertainty,” said Marriott.
Channelworld, Channelworld.in and their respective logos are trademarks of IDG and/or its subsidary companies.
Source: CIO.com