Inside Technology Services – 1.01.2012
Professional Services from the Cloud: Beware the Trade-Offs
By Mark E. Sloan
Cloud computing – the delivery of computing as a service rather than as a product – continues to grow at a rapid rate due to the real client benefits of this model: low initial costs, operational predictability, business flexibility, and lower risk. And the growth of this model is inherently changing the role of professional services organizations (PSOs).
PSO leaders are readily embracing the opportunities associated with this model for their organizations, including:
- Staffing skilled resources across multiple client implementations
- Managing virtual, global staffing more effectively
- Blurring the lines of implementation and support to minimize post-production quality issues
While many professional services staff members enjoy the reduced frequent flyer miles and stress of implementing solutions in disparate client environments, PSO leaders should be mindful of some new management and operational challenges that this model presents. What follows is a discussion of the potential pitfalls that the software as a service delivery model presents for PSOs, and the remedies for dealing with them.
Click here to read the full article.
Consulting Magazine – 4.01.2010
Game-Changing Lessons Learned in Manufacturing
By Randy Mysliviec
Most consulting leaders recognize that billable utilization is paramount to success, and that effective resource management can improve overall profitability, as well as the quality of services and the predictability of service levels. Yet we haven’t seen any real innovation in this arena over the last three decades. While the development and adoption of ERP, PPM, PSA and other tools have helped to some degree, this mission critical business function remains largely unimproved—if not a critical point of failure for many companies.
Recently however, a new breed of process solutions has emerged, borrowing from the Just-in-Time Manufacturing movement of the 1980s, which may ultimately change the landscape of human capital management moving forward.
But instead of “getting the right part in the right place at the right time,” these new methodologies focus on “getting the right person in the right place at the right time.” Early adopters in the consulting industry are applying these new best-practices to revolutionize their services delivery, drastically improving their overall business performance, and gaining major competitive advantages in the marketplace…
Click here to read the full article at ConsultingMagazine.com.