Multisourcing

Organizations are choosing to Multisource rather than rely on large, big-bang outsourcing deals:

Last month, we had Dutch Bank ABN Amro signing a huge new IT outsourcing deal with five vendors splitting $2.2 billion in IT work over five years.

IBM won a $1.9-billion IT infrastructure-outsourcing component, including servers, storage systems and desktops; Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services drew $125-million and $250-million contracts, respectively for application support and enhancements; and Accenture, IBM, Infosys, Patni Computer Systems and TCS earned preferred-supplier status for an unspecified amount of development work.

The bank says its IT overhaul will save the company more than $600 million by 2007, including savings accumulated by cutting 1,500 jobs and transferring 2,000 jobs to the outsourcing vendors.

In march French carmaker Renault, awarded outsourcing contracts to Atos Origin, Computer Sciences Corp. and HP;

Royal Dutch/Shell Group, which orchestrated an IT services agreement, reportedly in the $1 billion range, with IBM and Wipro Technologies;

& Bank of America, is outsourcing work to EDS and Hewitt Associates;

GM, which has a multibillion dollar outsourcing contract with EDS set to expire next year, is likely to sign a multi source deal when it expires says Barry Mason Rubenstein, a senior analyst at IDC.

Analysts predict more companies will pursue a multi-vendor approach. Allie Young, vice president Gartner says 'Users are more sophisticated about their sourcing strategies, & they're more capable of managing multiple vendors, and they're looking for expertise to meet their very specific applications needs,'

Multi-sourcing, does allow IT organizations to gain access to best-of-breed providers while reducing the risk of having a single vendor responsible for vast corporate IT resources. But, it places an even greater premium on effective planning and management and is vulnerable to additional risks of Communication barriers, Cultural Factors and Complexity of Infrastructure.

Study Says Offshore Outsourcing helps US economy
Offshore outsourcing helps the U.S. economy by lowering production costs for IT vendors and product costs for their customers and by helping to keep inflation low, according to a study released this week by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA).

ING in talks with two consortiums on outsourcing
Dutch financial services company ING Groep NV is following the lead of its local rival ABN Amro and overhauling its IT and back-office administration operations through a major outsourcing program. Dutch financial services company ING Groep NV is in talks with two consortiums, which include IBM Corp. and Getronics NV.

F&C Asset management terminates Mellon outsourcing deal
F&C Asset Management has discontinued its project to outsource the former Isis Asset Management operational functions to Mellon Financial Services, after 'failing to agree contractual terms'.

DuPont Selects Convergys to Provide Transactional Global Human Resource Services
DuPont and Convergys Corporation, a global provider of customer care, human resources, and billing services, announced they have signed a contract under which Convergys will provide comprehensive Human Resources (HR) transactional services to DuPont's 60,000 employees and 102,000 retirees in 70 countries and 30 languages around the world.

Aetna Selects CitiStreet For Certain Human Resources Services
Aetna Inc., one of the nation's leading providers of health care benefits, has selected CitiStreet to provide certain human resources services and health and welfare administration

Hitachi Global Solutions Center being Established in India by Hitachi, Ltd.
Hitachi GSC would provides IT systems development, maintenance, and support for enterprise applications, supporting a blended offshore/onsite staffing model. The Hitachi GSC begins operations with 200 people, initially supporting Japanese and U.S.-based global companies, with plans to grow its capacity to at least 1000 people in the next two years.

Benetton plans outsourcing from India for global market
Italian fashion major Benetton Group is planning to outsource clothing from India for its vast 5,000 chain of retail outlets across the globe.

CSC inks Banca Intesa IT outsourcing deal
Banca Intesa, the largest banking group in Italy, has contracted with California-based Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) for the supply of outsourced IT services.

PacificNet Epro Selected by China Mobile Jiangsu to Provide CRM Consulting and Call Center Training Services
China Mobile's Jiangsu '1860' Information Hotline which provide basic customer service such as answering customer questions, processing orders, and handling complaints as selected PacificNet Epro to improve its CRM services and generate additional revenue through CRM services, telemarketing and outbound telesales.

Williams Lea to provide Corporate Information Solutions to Orrick
Williams Lea, has entered into an agreement with international law firm, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP to deliver document and transactional processing services to the firm. The Corporate Information Center will provide an alternative off-site processing capability to our operations in India.,' said Williams Lea CEO Tim Griffiths

IBM acquires land in Bangalore for software development campus
At present, IBM functions out of four leased facilities in Bangalore from where its global services, business transformation, software laboratories and the application management services wing are run. It has over 25,000 employees on its rolls in India, the bulk of whom are in Bangalore.

Syntel revenue up 26% Y-o-Y
Syntel Inc., an information technology services firm, today reported a 25.5 per cent growth in total revenue for the third quarter ended September 30 2005.

Cognizant Is Latest Offshore Outsourcer To Report Big Growth
the company said third-quarter revenue jumped 52% to $235.5 million from the year earlier. Net income rose 56%, to $40.6 million, while per-share earnings increased 55% to 28 cents. Cognizant is headquartered in Teaneck, N.J., but operates primarily from technology centers in India.