Research and publications

Fixing the Bank Factory
As regulators scrutinize leverage and demand higher amounts of capital for a given business volume, profitability must be sustained by increased productivity. This requires lean processes and rebuilding IT architecture to improve quality and reduce costs.
[Read Article]

Better Decision Making with Proper Business Intelligence
As companies focus on growth and business development, the availability of quality information is crucial for making sound business decisions. Leading companies provide their decision makers with precise, relevant data in an easy-to-grasp format.
[Read Article]

Technology: The Insurance Industry’s Pivot Point"
Insurance companies seeking to lead their industry will focus on three innovative technologies—social networking, telematics and service-oriented architectures (SOAs).
[Read Article]

To Boost Sales, Stock a Little of Everything
Q2 2010 — Supply Chain Quarterly
The answer to the problem of low-volume SKUs may seem counterintuitive, but experience shows benefits from stocking small quantities of every product at every store and centralizing replenishment decisions.
By Laurent Chevreux
[Read Article]

The End of Outsourcing (As We Know It)
10 August 2010 — Bloomberg Businessweek
Who will emerge as the new leaders? Google and Amazon.com, brands that we associate with search and retail, will become better know for outsourcing.
By Arjun Sethi and Olivier Aries
[Read Article]

A Lean Approach to Change Management
Companies have long applied lean management techniques to manufacturing and operations. Why not apply them to managing change?
[Read Article]

Corporate IT Innovation Is Where The Money Isn't
22 October 2010 — Forbes
In theory, IT innovation is important—yet it's often not a priority in company budgets. Adapted from "Where the Money Isn't," Summer 2010, MIT Sloan Management Review.
By Bob Haas and Christian Hagen
[Read Article]

Software Demand Management
Cloud computing is gaining popularity, but decisions about software assets still have to be made internally.
[Read Article]

Rethinking IT Application Outsourcing Contracts
July/August 2010 — Supply Chain Management Review
With IT application development and maintenance outsourcers fighting to hang on to business, now is the perfect time to revisit outsourcing contracts.
By Bob Haas, Arjun Sethi and Venkat Tummalapalli
[Read Article]

IT in the Telecom Industry
As IT becomes a more vital part of the telecommunications industry, costs and complexity are also rising. Telecom companies today must strive to make IT a driver of value.
[Read Article]

Building Flexibility into Software Licensing
New options for software licensing offer companies greater savings and more flexibility.
[Read Article]

Make or Break
IT plays a vital role in creating a smooth transition for merging organizations. Often, it can make or break post-merger prospects.
[Read Article]

Delivering Technology Innovation
IT innovation can provide the groundwork for firms to weather tough times and emerge stronger in the long run.
[Read Article]

Time to Renegotiate Those 'Mega' IT Deals?
As the global economy slows down and financial executives move to trim costs and improve efficiency, the IT mega deal is ripe for renegotiation.
[Read Article]

Rethinking IT Application Outsourcing Contracts
Now is an ideal time for financial services firms to expand or improve their outsourcing and offshoring deals.
[Read More]

SaaS: Managing the Anti-IT Application
SaaS applications are emerging as a major tool for reducing IT costs, but successful deployment only happens when SaaS is tied into an overarching strategy.
[Read Article]

A Blueprint to Fix IT Complexity
Attack IT complexity by taking a step-by-step approach and building an IT application blueprint.
[Read Article]

IT Innovation at a Crossroads
A.T. Kearney evaluates role of information technology in business innovation.
[Read Article]

Service-Oriented Transformation
When confronted with the scope of transformation companies often opt for piecemeal moves that are easier to implement but fall short of true transformation. But the principles of service-oriented architecture can help companies manage transformation in a manner that is both thorough and long-lasting.
[READ ARTICLE]

Fixing the Software Portfolio
All businesses that use software know that the licensing process can be complex and time consuming. And while independent software vendors do their best to simplify the process, it is almost never enough.
[READ ARTICLE]

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective IT Governance
The most successful companies are those that have matured beyond linking IT strategy and the business, and have established an integrated operating environment.
[READ ARTICLE]

In the Race to Be Green: Turn to IT
While helping the planet is certainly important, the top- and bottom-line benefits for those that take steps to go green are a big motivator.
[READ ARTICLE]

Strategic IT: How to reinvent the supply chain
IT-enabled supply chain management can reduce customer lead times, increase revenues , and cut costs and inventory.
[READ ARTICLE]

Getting Control of Your Inventory
COGS analysis provides an overall view of how much inventory is held across the company's supply chain. What it doesn't provide, however, are the reasons why the inventory is there in the first place or whether the return on each inventory dollar is sufficient.
[READ ARTICLE]

Spending Smarter: Rebalancing the IT Budget
Don't fall into the trap of buying information technology you don’t really need or paying too much for what you do.
[READ ARTICLE]

New Technologies Boost Procurement’s Potential
By leveraging the capabilities of today’s technologies, supply management leaders can enhance the value they deliver to their organizations.
[READ ARTICLE]

Motorola Takes IT to the Next Level
Information technology organizations consumed with putting out today’s "fires" have no time to anticipate tomorrow’s needs.
[READ ARTICLE]

Why Today's IT Organization Won't Work Tomorrow
Can today’s IT organizations meet tomorrow’s needs? Only if they can move beyond the past and plan for the future.
[READ ARTICLE]

Strategic IT-Management
CIOs and company leaders responsible for IT are in a paradox situation these days. After years of significant growth, IT spending has been reduced to a minimum, as companies look for bottom-line value delivered from IT.
[LEARN MORE]

CRM Take/Two
The value of CRM isn't determined by what you're deploying so much as why you're deploying it. What competitive advantage are you trying to create? What leadership commitments are you willing to make?
[READ ARTICLE]

Are You More Capable Than Your Competitors Are Ruthless?
In a competitive world, the best players win by setting the terms by which others must compete. Long-term success often suffers when competitors seize advantage by rewriting the rules. How should you react when the game suddenly changes?
[READ ARTICLE]

Digging out of the Software Trap
Advances in hardware technologies have increased the license and maintenance fees—usually because of the underlying software licensing metric on which the software procurement contract is based.
[READ ARTICLE]

Battling the Beast: Complexity vs. Customization
In some ways, the financial services industry is where the automakers were in the 1970s, when every feature of a car was custom designed.
[READ ARTICLE]

Accelerate Merger Value with a Pre-Merger IT Diagnostic
For merger savvy organizations, "above the line" growth must be complemented with "below the line" cost management and efficiency.
[READ ARTICLE]

Research & publications archive