| ------------------------------------- BrainStorm Bulletin e-newsletter of BrainStorm Group August 28, 2003 -------------------------------------
==================================================== -- INTRODUCTION:
==================================================== Things are looking up. The Wall Street Journal quoted Ken Goldstein, a Conference Board economist, as saying the leading economic indicators are more favorable now than at any time since the recession started more than two years ago. Also, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia said its index of mid-Atlantic factory-business conditions rose sharply in August, the manufacturing sector index shows three consecutive months of expansion, and new orders have increased. It looks like the long awaited turn around is finally starting . Businesses with an IT edge, will have a head start. At BrainStorm San Francisco, starting on September 15, you can find out how to get your competitive IT edge! For this issue, I interviewed James K. Watson Jr., the CEO and Founder of Doculabs. James is Co-Chairman for the upcoming seminar on Enterprise Content Management at BrainStorm San Francisco on September 17th. Enterprise content management is one of the top five issues facing corporations today, according to Gartner and Forrester. One of the main drivers for this is government regulation, particularly Sarbanes-Oxley, which takes effect on January 1, 2004. Read what James has to say about content management, along with the agenda for the program, below. We also spoke with Gerald Levesque, the Co-Chairman for the Business Process Outsourcing Seminar held also at BrainStorm San Francisco on September 16th. Gerald is a former Senior Partner for PricewaterhouseCoopers where he was the National Service Delivery Partner for the AOS/BPO. He will give the keynote address, "Business Process Outsourcing: Where is it Going?" Gerald explained that many more businesses are looking toward BPO to lower costs and focus more on their core competencies. He also discussed the rich program being offered at the BPO seminar at BrainStorm San Francisco. Read about it below. BrainStorm San Francisco starts in just two weeks. Plan to attend today by registering online or calling BrainStorm Group at 508-393-3266. Remember that only at BrainStorm conferences can you get up close and personal with our presenters, analysts, and industry experts in one-on-one sessions. Let’s talk in San Francisco. Jon
Huntress |
=========================================================== The Global Outsourcing Institute – A Peer to Peer Exchange for Global Outsourcing and Business Process Outsourcing Professionals Complimentary Membership
for the remainder of 2003!
There are two kinds of data within every enterprise: structured and unstructured. Structured data exists on and is accessed through the corporate databases, network servers, and files systems. Unstructured data includes all the ‘other’ data such as email, PDFs, PowerPoint presentations, spreadsheets, web content, corporate archives, and audio/video files. The amount of this unstructured content is huge and being able to access it on demand is a major challenge. Government regulation (Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPPAA) and legal necessity have spawned Enterprise Content Management (ECM) solutions to help collect, store, and share this data. Sarbanes-Oxley takes effect in 2004, leaving little time remaining to become compliant. I talked with James K. Watson Jr., the ECM Seminar Co-Chairman, CEO and Founder of Doculabs. Doculabs is a Chicago-based research and consulting firm that helps companies plan for, select, and optimize emerging technologies. The firm has achieved revenue growth averaging 75% annually and established its market niche by pioneering unbiased, real-world product assessments. James told me that government regulation is one of the big drivers for document and process automation. The regulatory environment, liability from litigation, along with the potential damage to a brand has caused investors to demand better content management. However, the cost of maintaining archives in both paper and electronic form is high. With the need to drive down costs, James said, an opportunity exists to develop solutions. Vendors have responded with a variety of solutions, most of which are their re-tasked products. Buyers need to be aware of this. Because a solution works in one setting doesn't mean it will work for you. James said he is skeptical of most of the products at this time. It is relatively simple to create new ways to save corporate information, but that doesn't mean it can be produced quickly and easily for discovery. He gave the huge volumes of corporate email as an example. James did say, however, there are a few players out there with some good solutions. James will give his talk, “ECM: Preparing for the Future,” after the opening keynote. He will lay out a systematic framework to ground the discussion for both IT and the business side. His pragmatic approach will cover the business issue first, then the technological capabilities. “All too often our clients jump into technology evaluations or invite vendors in and think about buying something when the heart of the issue may be nothing more than a process change. This is what is going on with Sarbanes. The majority of the work is on solidifying the policies, which is a business process and not technology. The business issues need to be dealt with first, and then you can invite in a number of suppliers with robust capabilities to help you with those business requirements.” James told me this seminar will supply of rich detail on how to actually get a handle on your enterprise content. The focus will be on the nuts-and-bolts, and should be a must for many. Content Management is one of the top five issues of concern today. The seminar is directed toward business analysts and project managers, the people who own the responsibility to move projects from A to Z. The CEO makes it a priority, and it is up to his lieutenants to make sure the company is safe from litigation. These lieutenants make the ideal audience for this seminar. The seminar make-up is usually 60% IT and 40% business. Of the business people, most of them are the IT liaisons. The opening keynote will be given by Scott Mondeau, Principal Systems Architect for Genentech. He will present: “Twelve Keys towards a Successful Enterprise Content Management Strategy Project.” The agenda following James Watson’s talk is as follows:
Come and join us in San Francisco for this important seminar, where conference attendees, industry experts and vendors will meet to discuss the solutions and strategies to these challenging issues. Remember to take advantage of this opportunity register for BrainStorm San Francisco where you can sign up for one-on-one sessions with the presenters and leading analysts to discuss the needs of your organization. ================================================= Register for BrainStorm San Francisco (September 15-17) today to schedule your One-on-One Meetings*! BrainStorm San Francisco features 4 events in one location:
Complete program information
for all 4 events is included in the show Enter Priority Code BB803 when you register online: http://www.BrainStormSanFrancisco.com * Practitioners and
event sponsors will be given preference on scheduling meetings. The numbers
of meetings are limited and based on a first come basis. Gerald Levesque is the Co-Chairman for the Business Process Outsourcing Seminar that will be given by BrainStorm in San Francisco on September 16, and in New York on November 5. Gerald is a former Senior Partner for PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting where he was the National Service Delivery Partner for the AOS/BPO line of service. He is President of SysTech, a small professional services firm specializing in CXO-level outsourcing consulting. His clients have included Fortune 50 companies and large city and state governmental entities. Gerald will give the keynote for the seminar: “BPO: Where is it Going?” His address will focus on how the BPO market is evolving and how changes in business focus will determine its future direction. Gerald will also cover some of the legal issues, the service-level challenges, and the growing scope of these services. When talking about the upcoming seminar, Gerald explained to me why BPO is such a hot topic. The technology industry started outsourcing technology and software some time ago. Now other industries are looking at outsourcing as a way to reduce costs and focus more attention on their core competencies. Over the last three to five years, an increasing number of businesses have looked at their internal processes and asked themselves whether it is advantageous to keep them in-house. Gerald said the point he makes to people is that managing your accounts payable is not a core competency or a differentiator in your industry. “I’ve never heard anybody say that their payables are out in ten days and that makes us different! Sometimes you don’t want to be different.” In the last three years, Gerald has seen BPO accelerate in acceptance and in contracts. Finance is still in the vanguard. Many are looking to let someone else handle the back office. It is a cost effective solution to the common human resource issues, which consume too much time. The area of employee benefits is also being outsourced more often. Many providers for this kind of service are specialists who have been doing this kind of work for themselves for years and have decided to offer it as a service for others. Gerald said that these companies come in with unique ideas and flexibility, making a compelling offer for businesses to outsource part of their operations. Fidelity, for example, found it was good at managing many people, so they decided to offer the services to others. Gerald is seeing more acceptance from business people. In the past, the tech people drove most of the outsourcing. Also at the San Francisco
conference, Marty McCaffrey, Executive Director for Software Outsourcing
Research will give his talk: “Offshore BPO: Hype vs. Reality.”
He will focus on the fact that while the offshore outsourcing market has
grown over 70% just in the last year; several research groups have made
wildly optimistic projections for the growth to continue. The seminar will end with a panel discussion about Critical Success Factors in Outsourcing moderated by Gerald. Panel members will take questions from the audience and cover the fine points of this emerging market. Gerald told me that
any CXO-level person who is struggling with personnel or cost challenges
to their non-core business processes, and is considering outsourcing as
a possible solution, should come to this seminar. It would also be an
advantage for anyone who wants to learn more about outsourcing, or even
those are already doing it and want to see results from others. “This
is a chance to talk to people who have been involved in it for a long
time. Even for those who know nothing about it.” He advised, “Come
and find out what the ‘O’ word is all about.” |
|
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