You probably noticed how I failed to properly blog in the last couple of months. There are several reasons for this:
- I started this blog as a watchdog for current trends in IT Sourcing and Shoring. More than a year has passed since the start and I have pretty good impressions of those trends and I do not expect that they will change a lot in the next 12-24 months. So after more than 600 posts there is no need for me to watch the IT outsourcing market on a day-by-day basis.
- This blog was never ment to be a showcase for me and neither to be a public blog in the early beginning of its life. Although I was very surprised of the overwhelming international interest in this blog and in its topic. I received a lot of mails in that time and gained a lot of friends and valuable contacts. Particularly from India, China, the Americas and Eastern Europe were I got a lot of support and understanding for this complex domain. This shows me that these regions are far ahead of Central and Western Europe concerning the business.
- Meanwhile I have generated many ideas while studying international shoring & sourcing in real life and via this blog and now some of these ideas will reach its early project stages. I have to focus on this now. So there will not be much time for collecting news and data, analyzing the feeds and publish the results in this blog.
Things will change here in the next weeks and be assured I will inform you in time. Thank you all for tracking this blog, your attentiveness and kind support. I am a man of practice, not of theory. Now I have to take action!
Stay tuned here for more news!
Categories: Personal
Categories: Globalization
On March 8, 2007 I will be speaking about nearshoring and some trends in IT sourcing and shoring at a show case night in Munich. The event is sponsored by Develine, a global IT service provider from the Ukraine with expertise in .NET and Java application development. The Ukrainian Consul General Dr. Walerij A. Stepanow will attend the event and make a key note about the country as a partner.
The Ukraine is becoming one of the new rising stars in Eastern Europe. So there is a good chance to gather useful insights in a short time about a hot topic. This event will be in German language.
Categories: Events · Personal
If you want to build a ship, don’t herd people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery
I’m quite busy with some strategic and exciting projects so blogging is pretty slow these days …
Categories: Personal · Wisdom
United Internet AG, Montabaur, today reached a general agreement with Teleperformance SA, Paris, with regard to the sale of the United Internet Group subsidiary twenty4help AG, Montabaur, to Teleperformance.
twenty4help is the current European leading company in technical support & help desk with a consolidated turnover of more than 100 Millions €. The company operates in many European countries, such as Germany, the Netherlands, UK, Sweden, Spain, Poland and Czech Republic and offers technical support in 22 languages.
With the sale of the company, which no longer belonged to the Group’s core business, United Internet has completed the final step toward becoming a pure Internet Service Provider (ISP). The Group’s Outsourcing segment, of which twenty4help accounted for around 90%, will no longer be separately disclosed in future. The remaining Outsourcing brand InterNetX will be integrated into the Product segment. In future, therefore, United Internet will focus entirely on its Product segment (with the brands GMX, WEB.DE, 1&1, Fasthosts and InterNetX) and Online Marketing segment (with AdLINK, affilinet and Sedo).
In the course of the transaction, the value of twenty4help AG was determined to be around EUR 85 million. The final purchase price is based on the audited and certified consolidated financial statements of twenty4help AG for the fiscal year 2006. Teleperformance will pay the full purchase price in cash.
Keep reading →
Categories: Aquisitions · Globalization · Outsourcing
Categories: Daily Links · Outsourcing
Categories: Daily Links · Outsourcing
A short video take from Munich at a blogger meeting in the first evening during DLD07. Nevermind the wrong spelling of my family name in the trailer - but you can hear at the beginning of the tape (59 sec) the correct pronunciation of my full name … ;-)
Categories: Personal
DLD07 was an excellent three day event. Where do you get the chance to experience such an exclusive and brilliant crowd like John Naisbitt, Arianna Huffington, Carlos Bhola, Caterina Fake, Lars Hinrichs, Luc Besson, Lord Norman Foster and many many others out of the field of science, digital life, technology, design, art, architecture, sport, experienced people and youngsters, people you could meet, talk to, discuss, a very attractive mix of innovators, entrepeneurs, drivers, goal getters and assists on stage and in the audience … Absolutely fantastic! This was really a great experience to me.
Thank you all from Burda Media for a very inspiring and warm atmosphere! Very remarkable … Or to say it in a dramatical way: DLD07 - A little digital PreDavos in Munich with a dash of Bambi for the Electronic Age …
KO1P1029, originally uploaded by HBM Marcom.
And thanx for the bags. But - y’now what? Too much heavy bulky clumsy “paper” in the goody bags … This supposed to be a DIGITAL event. How about a small cheap electronic device or something like that? A cool little gadget with all that information. Think about it next time, Heiko ;)
Categories: Events · Personal
DLD07, Munich, Germany on January 21st - 23rd, 2007
I will meet a lot of friends there and interesting new people, share ideas and network, get some fresh inspiration and some sparring for my own concepts for three days …
If you see me there, don’t hesitate to approach me! You are also welcome to share a drink (or two) with me, exchange business cards and have a nice talk … So let the good times roll, laissez les bon temps rouler!
Categories: Events · Outsourcing · Personal
Satyam: Deal or no deal? Still a lot of questions …
… and the rumors still persist.
Categories: Aquisitions · Daily Links · Outsourcing
Categories: Daily Links · Outsourcing
Atos Origin signed a contract with EPZ, a Dutch nuclear and coal-fired power station. EPZ outsources its ‘Generic IT Service’ to Atos Origin who has been given the assignment to reduce the service costs and increase the quality of services provided to internal customers. The contract runs for three years with an option for two extensions by one year. Both parties have agreed not to disclose the contract value.
EPZ supplies energy through a nuclear power station and a coal-fired power station powered by coal and biomass, and provides a total of six percent of electrical energy output in the Netherlands. Until recently EPZ used the services of several suppliers for its Generic IT Service. This service encompasses the IT infrastructure, the help-desk, workplace services and the application management. EPZ decided to transfer its entire end-to-end service to one supplier in the aim of reducing costs and also offering a higher quality of services to the (internal) customers.
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Categories: Contract Wins · Outsourcing
Accenture has signed a 10-year, US$100 million business processing outsourcing (BPO) agreement with AIG Europe S.A. to provide an IT platform and insurance support services to AIG Entrepreneur, an AIG unit specializing in Property and Casualty insurance for small and medium enterprises. The agreement which aims to maximize operational efficiencies and enhance services will be implemented in several European countries starting initially with France.
Services will be provided to AIG Europe by Accenture Insurance Services – an Accenture business that offers insurance BPO services to life, annuity, pensions and P&C insurers globally – through Accenture’s service centre in Bucharest, Romania. The underwriting, policy and claims services will be supported by an IT platform using Accenture’s proprietary insurance solution software. The implementation is expected to be completed in less than six months.
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Categories: BPO · Contract Wins · Offshoring · Outsourcing
ECCO Sko A/S, the global shoemaker, and IBM announced a 5-year services agreement for IBM to support the company’s existing SAP R/3 environment and the implementation of a new ERP business solution with several new modules that will enable the company to continue its aggressive growth and global expansion strategy. The contract has the potential value of more than $12M.
As a leading brand manufacturer, ECCO has tanneries, shoe factories, selling companies and more than 500 own or franchise shops in 60 countries. The shoemaker has decided to implement a more flexible and modern version of SAP with several new modules including customer relationship management, supply chain management and supplier relationship management. IBM Global Business Services consultants will implement and manage the new modules, while also supporting ECCO’s current SAP installation.
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Categories: Contract Wins · Outsourcing
