Posts Tagged ‘IT services’

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11 Outsourcing Trends to Watch in 2011

Wednesday, December 29th, 2010

Outsourcing activity is expected to creep back in 2011, but things are hardly getting back to normal in the IT services space. The new year will be marked largely by upheaval - smaller contracts, cloud-related chaos, increased offshoring and decreased quality, for a start.

software-outsourcing-trends-2011

Read on for more. It’s not all bad, we promise.

1. Progressive Outsourcing

The year will be marked by the inking of smaller IT services deals, many of them by first-time buyers who sat on the sidelines in 2010, say industry watchers. Providers, happy to have a foothold, will push such customers to expand the scope of their relationships over time — the old “penetrate and radiate” approach. Contract activity will “creep back throughout 2011, as the recover stutters and buyers pull the trigger on sourcing activity,” says Phil Fersht, founder of outsourcing analyst firm HfS Research.

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Posted in Cloud computing, IT services, Offshore, Outsourcing, Software outsourcing | 3 Comments »

SAP Verdict Rattles Tech-Support Sector

Friday, November 26th, 2010

oracle-sapOracle Corp.’s success in winning a $1.3 billion jury verdict against rival SAP AG sent tremors through a small but fast-growing niche in the technology sector: companies that provide technical support for other companies’ software.

So-called third-party support companies supply maintenance and repairs—though not software upgrades—for a variety of business programs. The verdict Tuesday stemmed from the actions of a now-closed SAP unit called TomorrowNow that supported Oracle products. Oracle has also sued another third-party maintenance company, Rimini Street Inc., and the possibility of other legal action in the field has become a hot topic.

The third-party market is still tiny, accounting for just $100 million of the $20 billion spent on software maintenance overall, estimated Paul Hamerman, an analyst at consulting firm Forrester Research. But the entire support market is growing roughly 8% a year.

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Posted in Industry news, Marketing, News, Software development | 3 Comments »

Yahoo Mail Gets a Refresh Beta, Adds Twitter

Thursday, October 28th, 2010

yahooSpeed and spam topped the list of what Yahoo was trying to improve in its next version, a beta of which will start rolling out to users Tuesday night. The redesigned version takes inspiration from Yahoo’s iPad and Android clients for the market-leading, Web-based mail service, and not only adds the speed and spam reduction, but also brings Twitter into its fold and, like Microsoft’s updated Hotmail service, can now display photos and videos within users’ inboxes.

David McDowell, Yahoo’s senior director of product management for Yahoo Mail, about the new mail version: “People spend more than 30 billion minutes a month on Yahoo Mail, so if we make a change, it’s significant,” said McDowell. “If you were to stack up users lists of complaints about e-mail, speed and spam would be at the top of the list, and we’ve tackled both head on with this release. Yahoo Mail’s been re-architected from the ground up with speed and performance in mind, and it’s actually two times faster than our existing version—much faster to load and much faster to navigate.”

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Posted in Internet, News, Web, Web design, Web development, Web testing | 10 Comments »

The Cloud: A Threat to Incumbents, Opportunity for Startups

Monday, October 25th, 2010

cloud-computingLegacy enterprise software, like well-known CRM and ERP applications, are moving to the cloud, but new kinds of applications will need to be developed to take full advantage of these computing services, said Amazon’s Web Services chief.

Such a potential shift to new applications poses a threat to vendors of legacy software, said experts speaking during a panel at TechNW on Monday.

Companies like Oracle, SAP and CA are certifying their software to run on cloud services like Amazon’s, said Werner Vogels, CTO of Amazon Web Services. “That doesn’t give you immediately all the benefits like scale and elasticity,” he said. “For that, new apps have to be developed.”

That shift opens doors for new companies to develop services that take full advantage of the cloud but also threatens existing vendors. Vogels said that telecom service offers a good example. For instance, “no one buys their own PBX anymore,” he said. Instead, companies are using cloud-based voice services from providers like Twilio, which uses Amazon.

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Posted in Application development, Cloud computing | 2 Comments »

Microsoft Launches “Cloud” Version of Office

Wednesday, October 20th, 2010

ms-office-365As websites continue to evolve from static pages to interactive tools rivaling desktop apps, you’re bound to hear more and more about cloud computing. Under the model, your computer wouldn’t need tons of storage or processing power, but would make use of those resources on remote servers and instead act more as a remote terminal. One of the biggest names in software is in the middle of making that move to a cloud-based system, as Microsoft announced the launch of online-based Office 365.

Office 365, scheduled to ship next year, is now available in limited beta form in 13 countries and regions and includes Office Web Apps, Exchange Online, SharePoint Online and Lync Online.

Combining some of Microsoft’s existing cloud-based services, it will be available through most browsers, including Mozilla’s Firefox, Apple’s Inc’s Safari and Google’s Chrome, and can be used on mobile devices such as Research in Motion Ltd’s BlackBerry and Apple’s iPad.

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Posted in CRM, Cloud computing, IT services, Internet | No Comments »

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