Janeeva Blog: Thoughts, news and views on Outsourcing Relationship Management

Janeeva in E-commerce Times: Outsourcing Relationship Management getting more visibility

jim.diggs@janeeva.com — 30 Jun 2008 20:16:28 GMT

I just saw a pretty good overview article posted at the E-commerce Times website. The article, ORM: Tracking Operations From Half a World Away, focuses on software tools for managing services. The article is online at the E-commerce Times website. Also, it's interesting to note that there's an ORM entry on Wikipedia now. It's fun (and enlightening) to see people from around the world contribute/edit/comment on the entry.

Another Tale about "When you Don't Have Vendor Governance"

jim.diggs@janeeva.com — 28 Mar 2008 17:55:10 GMT

Another Tale about "When you Don't Have Vendor Governance" Hat tip to the 360° Vendor Management blog I'm really loving having the "guest blogs" on the Janeeva website. It brings together some really interesting ideas and viewpoints and puts them where I'm likely to actually read them (to remind you, our guest blogs are here). One blog I really like is the "360° Vendor Management" blog, written by the "Mystery Vendor Manager" - a real-life vendor manager at a Fortune 50 company who prefers to remain anonymous. The latest post is a glimpse into the challenges facing the "single person vendor management team"; my favorite quote is "Needless to say, this person is very busy and, quite honestly, overwhelmed. No single person could perform this job." This is very much in line with what I've seen out there. Companies are starting to understand the challenges of properly managing outsourcing relationships and devote the appropriate planning, staffing and resources to the task. This is where I live.

Latest Janeeva Podcast posted

shannon.culver@janeeva.com — 21 Mar 2008 17:55:10 GMT

The latest episode of the Janeeva Outsourcing Experts podcast series is online. This one features Cindy Kearney talking about Outsourcing Relationship Management and managing contract R&D in biotech and pharma companies The latest installment in our podcast series is now online in the podcast section of the Janeeva Resources Page (registration required).

Janeeva Website (again): announcing Guest Blogs

shannon.culver@janeeva.com — 11 Mar 2008 17:55:10 GMT

Scouring the Web to bring you interesting Outsourcing Relationship Management and SaaS tidbits Another new feature of the new Janeeva.com goes live: Guest Blogs. We're bringing in the latest news from hundreds of websites and blogs out there - all focused on the latest news and technology around SaaS and Outsourcing Relationship Management topics. For you techies out there, the Guest Blogs page isbuilt by incorporating multiple RSS feeds, Google Blogsearch, XML/XSL templates and AJAX. Buzzword compliant, to be sure, but an interesting example of mashing up web content/services.

The new Janeeva.com goes live!

shannon.culver@janeeva.com — 4 Mar 2008 17:55:10 GMT

We've just launched a complete update to the Janeeva.com website. We hope you'll find that the new site has more information, easier navigation and a generally better look & feel. Please let us know what you think! Some highlights: Site search Complete keyword and tagged keyword search of all content Resources page A one time sign-in to access all of the Resource content Webcasts, podcasts Archives of our "Outsourcing Experts" presentations Product & tech info A complete, updated library of product and technology information Solutions overview High level overview of Janeeva solutions for nine applications/industries We hope that the Janeeva website will be a great resource for you to follow the latest industry news, learn about Janeeva's Outsourcing Relationship Management expertise and keep in contact with Janeeva.

Janeeva featured in Managing Automation Magazine

jim.diggs@janeeva.com — 1 Mar 2008 17:55:10 GMT

Janeeva was cited prominently in a feature article in the latest Managing Automation Magazine. The article, titled "Managing Outsourcing: Is More Automation the Answer?", takes a look at Outsourcing Relationship Management and how many companies need to focus more on ORM in order to succeed with their outsourcing and extended enterprise strategies. The article includes quotes from Vinay as well as from Danny Ertel. This paragraph from the author is a good summary of the article's premise: "Outsourcing is a complex business relationship, one that can't be fully automated. And while no one claims that technology is a panacea for fixing all of the problems associated with outsourcing, manufacturers can benefit greatly from the strategic deployment of technologies designed specifically for managing outsourced processes. Conversely, those that fail to properly automate may continue to suffer debilitating setbacks."

Outsourcing Predictions for 2008: Comment on new directions

jim.diggs@janeeva.com — 21 Dec 2007 17:55:10 GMT

Just read a great post ( Outsourcing Predictions for 2008… in a nutshell ) at ZDnet's Outsourcing Blog. It caught my eye because it talks about how ERP vendors are finally starting to look at the specific technology/infrastructure challenges presented to the extended enterprise as companies try to build the infrastructure to effectively manage their network of service providers. But the claim that Oracle and SAP will provide "software that staff can be quickly trained to use" is suspect. This has never been a strong point of ERP systems and I don't see them getting it right in this context. And the thought of extending bloated on-premise ERP systems to span the outsourced service providers is a bit fanciful. Understandably, both of these companies are targeting the service providers as this seems like the best way to dictate a technology solution to the market. What they are failing to recognize is that it will ultimately be the customer side that will decide on the tools they want to use. Janeeva's view: the benefits of a tailored outsourcing governance solution delivered via SaaS are proven, already managing over a billion dollars of outsource spending. Our task is to get the word out to the world that there is a better way...

Outsoucing Governance Issues: Janeeva "Outsourcing Executive Podcast" featuring Danny Ertel

mike.young@janeeva.com — 15 Dec 2007 17:56:10 GMT

Danny Ertel, co-founder of Vantage Technologies, talks about Outsourcing Governance and Outsourcing Relationship Management. He specifically talks about the importance of establishing meaningful metrics and building great working relationships with your outsourcing service providers.

Are Service Level Agreements enough? Some observations on SLAs and performance metrics

jim.diggs@janeeva.com — 9 Dec 2007 17:56:18 GMT

Service-level agreements are widely recognized as one of the "levers" that clients use in their outsourcing governance activities. And, while SLAs are extremely important and should be continuously refined and improved over the life of the outsourcing agreement, it's becoming clear that they must be augmented by other methods to ensure outsourcing success. It's interesting that as recently as this time last year, prospective Janeeva clients were very much (almost singly) focused on SLAs. But I'm seeing more and more references along the lines of "are SLAs enough?" lately among analysts as well as among outsourcing managers I talk with. I think this is a good trend and that it signals that outsourcing clients are starting to realize that outsourcing relationships matter.

Outsourcing Governance in Contact Center Outsourcing Vinay Gupta featured in Executive Interview on Contact Center World

mike.young@janeeva.com — 1 Dec 2007 17:56:23 GMT

Janeeva's CEO, Vinay Gupta, is featured in an interview on Contact Center World's online portal. Vinay gives his views on contact center outsourcing, with some interesting twists: Outsourcing of contact center operations is not driven by cost savings. It is driven by the need for better performance and flexibility in contact center operations. This represents a new model of outsourcing that leading companies are just starting to recognize. In the near future, the term 'outsourcing' may become as dated as the phrase 'IBM compatible PC' (remember that one?). The point is that leading-edge companies are remaking themselves to incorporate much more sophisticated process models and services sourcing will just be a given (at least for those companies that succeed). Outsourcing governance capabilities (in a general sense) will be much more important to companies as this new extended enterprise model evolves and companies will need to build skills and adopt tools to support it.