Who Guarantees the Services?The transition of IT services is an integral part of IT outsourcing. The transition aims to transfer the contracted services to the new supplier. After the transition, the new supplier should have taken over the IT services in such a way that it can provide the correct services on time, in accordance with specifications and at the agreed upon cost.When designing the outsourcing, outsourcing organizations should give high priority to transition management, as well as to governance (demand and supply management). It is not only about good project management, but also about an explicit, process-oriented focus on the controlled takeover of the correct services. Transition management is an excellent way of focusing on results.Authors: Raymond van Gils, Marco van der Haar, Ronald Israels

The internal IT organization that cannot meet the information demands of the business runs the risk of becoming marginalized and losing its right to exist. What can the CIO or IT manager possibly do to win back the confidence of the business and to (re)position his organization as a preferred partner for innovation? Over the past few years, many IT organizations have rationalized their operations, especially with the aim to save on costs in times of economic decline. A side effect of this rationalization is that it becomes increasingly difficult these days to meet the new demands that the business makes on the IT organization with regard to innovation of products and services. Recently, Giarte observed with regard to this that innovation in practice often gets stuck in replacement of written off infrastructure through the adoption of proven technology. And especially now the business views the support of innovation at the business side by capitalizing on new technologies and introduction of new service concepts as one of the main objectives of the IT organization. A workstation migration from Windows XP to the Vista platform is apparently of a different order than exploring and successfully implementing a new distribution channel for online financial services based on Web 2.0 technology. Not just the focus but also the success of innovation projects leaves a lot to be desired: IDC research provides average success rates of only 50%.

Quite some larger organizations decide to establish a Shared Service Centre for reasons of effectiveness, scaling advantages, concentration of service management, increase alignment and cost cutting for internal customers. This tendency proceeds with organisations that aspire to create even bigger advantages of scale by offering their services to external, commercial clients. With this white paper, Quint Wellington Redwood reflects upon the question in what way these objectives can be obtained and what the determinant factors of either success, either failure are.

Contract renewal can be an easy extension of the existing contract with a 5% discount offered by the incumbent supplier. You can take the 5% or you can spend time and money to assess your options. Going back to the market to re-tender your requirements is, given the massive cost and disruption that re-tendering and contract exit can entail (find a new supplier and simultaneously manage the exit of the old), usually not the best option. The same goes for insourcing the services. Renegotiation is the smarter way to fundamentally redefine a contract. The common drivers for renegotiation are; Timing: the contract expiry is imminent Underperformance: the price level and or quality of service Lack of flexibility; complete vendor lock in Contract flaws; omissions in the original contract Major business change: market situation, M&A The renegotiations projects have shown that there is more financial room available at vendors than the 5% offered. Plus there are a lot of opportunities to update the contractual terms and structure to the latest market standards. But you have start in time and take control. So re-think your sourcing strategy before simply accept the price reduction.

In May 2007 the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) released the new version of the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL®). At the same time the APMG Group took over custodianship (certifying professionals and accrediting training organizations) from the Exam Institute (EXIN) and the Information Systems Examinations Board (ISEB) and the certification scheme changed completely. Now, in January 2008, after delivering the first ITIL v3 Foundation trainings and after studying the materials, it is time to make up the balance. After 6 months we are beginning to get a better idea of this new version. Although the material probably constitutes a revolution in thinking, the question is whether it will revolutionize the market. In this white paper we will take a look at what is new, what is exiting, what is disappointing and how we can use this new version to our advantage? By Georges Kemmerling,Senior Consultant