Our Blogs – For CIOs by CIOs

Our Managing Partner, Jeff Richards, is quoted in this article in the November 7 issue of ComputerWorld.

The latest in IT services? CIO hired guns

Damon Neth hasn't had a full-time, salaried position with a company in nearly 20 years. And he wouldn't have it any other way.

That's because Neth has built a lucrative career as an interim CIO. Highly qualified and rich in experience, he and other IT guns-for-hire possess a unique blend of IT expertise, business smarts and boardroom savvy. Rather than commit to cubicle life, interim CIOs transition from one client to the next with contracts typically spanning three months to two years, and annual compensation of six figures.

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By Jeff Richards
Managing Partner

We deliver a lot of fractional CIO and interim CIO engagements at CIOPS. In fact, over the past six or so years we’ve seen the demand for fractional CIOs in what we define as the mid-market (i.e. organizations with sales in the $250MM to $1BB per year range) increase by around 60%. This is more than double the 25% or so increase in demand that we’ve seen for interim CIOs.

While I don’t have any actual studies or data to back this up, from where I sit it seems that more and more organizations are reaping the benefits of using fractional CIOs. Here’s what you need to know…

By Jeff Richards
Managing Partner

The decision to outsource a business process or an IT function is a significant one, and to ensure you achieve the desired outcomes care must be taken at each stage of the outsourcing lifecycle. In previous posts we introduced the outsourcing lifecycle and talked about each of the first three phases of this cycle: assessing outsourcing opportunities, selecting an outsourcing service provider and developing and negotiating an outsourcing contract.

In this final post in the 5-part series we will cover phases IV and V of the outsourcing lifecycle. In these phases the contract is implemented, and the relationship and Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are managed on an on-going basis.

By Jeff Richards
Managing Partner

In our past few blogs we’ve been talking about the outsourcing lifecycle and its five phases. We started with an introduction to the outsourcing lifecycle, and then delved into the first two phases: assessing outsourcing opportunities and selecting an outsourcing service provider. This brings us to Phase III: contract development and service provider negotiations.

This is the phase in which you develop the framework for your relationship with your new business partner. Yes – your outsourcing service provider is essentially a business partner! Here’s what you need to know…

By Jeff Richards
Managing Partner

This is the third installment of our series on the outsourcing lifecycle. The first article provided an introduction to the outsourcing lifecycle and its five phases. The most recent article was about Phase I of this lifecycle, Assessing and Documenting Outsourcing Opportunities. Today we’ll do a deep dive into Phase II: Evaluating and Selecting a Service Provider.

This phase starts with the creation of a Request for Information/Proposal (RFI/RFP) and concludes with the selection of an outsourcing service provider.

By Jeff Richards
Managing Partner

We work with a lot of organizations that outsource many of their business processes to third party providers. If you’re considering outsourcing your manufacturing, data center, call center or other processes, you need to be aware of the different phases of the outsourcing lifecycle. In our last article, we introduced the outsourcing lifecycle and its five phases. In this article we’ll delve more deeply into Phase I of the cycle: assessing and documenting outsourcing opportunities.

By Jeff Richards
Managing Partner

Regardless of what services you wish to outsource – Manufacturing, Data Center, Applications Management, Call Center, Business Process or Supply Chain – there are multiple ways to approach your outsourcing journey. As with any significant transformation of your business model, it is always best to follow an organized and methodical approach. The exact approach you choose will be determined by many things, including:

By Jeff Richards
Managing Partner

It is an unfortunate reality that most outsourcing deals fail to reach their true potential. Over the course of assisting many clients with outsourcing, we have found that the following seven things, either alone or in combination, are the major causes of dissatisfaction with outsourcing:

By Jeff Richards
Managing Partner

Thanks to the wonders of technology and transportation, today many (if not most) business processes can be performed almost anywhere in the world. As a result, your organization has countless options for global sourcing – so much so that analyzing all of the options can be challenging.

To assist you in this area, CIOPS has developed a matrix that serves as a succinct strategic framework for illustrating your global sourcing alternatives. Here’s what you need to know…

By Jeff Richards
Managing Partner

In today’s highly competitive global environment, many companies are asking the question, “Is outsourcing right for us?” The short answer is probably a qualified yes. In my last post I presented some of the benefits of outsourcing. Some part of almost every organization could undoubtedly benefit from an outsourcing assessment. But which part?