It takes a keen eye on the business to effectively manage contracts for equipment and services -- and to keep them aligned with the company's needs. Assessing the company's unique situation, evaluating RFPs, and negotiating service-level agreements (SLAs) and contracts are only part of the task. Keeping up with changing market trends in homeshoring, outsourcing and staffing strategies, as well as innovations in services such as cloud computing, all define the successful mix of in-house and outsourced goods and services.
What’s new and popular in our professional business community
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RFPs Suck! How to Master the RFP System Once and for All to Win Big Business Excerpt
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Best Practices for Designing Service Agreements
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Designing Service Agreements
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Rescue Wavering Clients
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Economy's impact on financing your tech purchases
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Client Rescue Guide
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RFPs Challenging for SMBs, Author Says
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PC Protection Guides Focal Point of Knowledge Network Uploads Last Week
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SMBs Performing Poorly on Disaster Recovery, Business Continuity
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Template Shows How to Compose a Model SLA
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Job Description: SLA Manager
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Checklist Helps Decipher the Cloud
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Internal Service Level Agreement
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Effective Problem Management
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Storage Optimization Tools Key to Green Savings
More From The Web
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ZDNet
Small SaaS Vendors May Need to Offer Reassurance Data is Safe
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silicon.com
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Network World
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PCWorld.com
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oreilly
Articles & Interviews
RocketLawyer CEO Talks Privacy, Compliance in the Cloud
Lora Bentley spoke with Charles Moore, CEO of RocketLawyer.com , about how cloud computing is changing the practice of law -- allowing increased efficiency and decreased cost to clients. He notes that maintaining compliance and privacy in a cloud computing situation is actually easier than it... More >
Not All Managed Services Are Created Equal
Many IT providers in the market today claim to offer “managed services,” and for rock bottom prices. But just what qualifies a provider’s service as a “managed IT service” and what distinguishes one managed IT provider from the next? According to Wikipedia,... More >
Art of Answering RFPs: Focus on Ones You Can Win
Ann All spoke with Tom Searcy, founder of Hunt Big Sales , a sales consultancy and thought leadership organization. He is co-author with Barbara Weaver Smith of "Whale Hunting: How to Land Big Deals and Transform Your Company" (Wiley) and author of “Landing Big Sales with an RFP." His new book... More >
Software Forum: Information On Demand Virtual Experience
This interactive virtual forum presents leading IT experts providing the insights you need to turn your information into a strategic driver for innovation, business optimization and competitive differentiation.
Performance Under Pressure: The State of Enterprise Web Application Quality and Availability
This research study finds that Web application issues are an all-too-common problem and examines these Web-based enterprise application issues from two perspectives: that of an online customer and that of a site manager.
Apparent Networks Launches Cloud Performance Center
Mike Vizard over at our CTO Edge site discusses a free service from Apparent Networks that sets out to allay fears businesses have regarding the network performance of the wide area networks that link them to their cloud computing providers. Apparent Networks' Cloud Performance Center offers performance data on... More >
Many Drawbacks to Single-Source RFP
In a piece on CIO.com , consultancy Pace Harmon's Steve Martin advises against submitting a single RFP for multiple outsourcing services. Though going with a big all-in-one vendor has its benefits, such as offering a "single throat to choke," he says true end-to-end service management "rarely happens in practice."... More >
Outsourcing Fulfillment for Your E-commerce Site
If you're considering outsourcing warehousing, shipping, and returns processing for your fulfillment center, this piece on practical ecommerce spells out how to go about it. It offers good advice, such as choosing a vendor close to your customers to minimize cross-zone shipping rates, as well as questions to ask... More >
Resource Centers
- Data Management Solutions
- Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)
- Enterprise Manager
- Decision Management
- Cost Cutting through Server Consolidation
- Data Center Management
- Virtualization & Business Continuity
- Data Warehousing for Business Intelligence
- Power Supply Solutions
- Application Grid
- Data Management
- Business Intelligence
- Data Deduplication
- Network Optimization
- Data Loss Protection
- Security Information and Event Management
- Laptop Security
- Optimized Infrastructure
- Information Management
- Energy Efficiency
- Tape Storage
- Greening IT with Server Consolidation
- Security SaaS Solutions
- Applications for Mid-size Businesses
- Responding to Change
- Tablet PCs
- Mobile Computing Optimization
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Tablet PCs
Powerful and portable computing capacity for today's high-speed, fluid business environment.
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Tape Storage
Disaster recovery and business continuation that includes encryption, all at a manageable TCO.
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Mobile Computing Optimization
Mobile computing solutions, tips, and expert commentary that increases the usability and bottom-line benefits of your mobile computing assets.
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Information Management
Tools, tips and solutions to help you manage your data more efficiently to tackle today's challenging economic environment.
The IT Service Catalog Management Toolkit
Bridge the it-business gap once and for all! A well documented IT services catalog is the conduit for IT services to the rest of the company.
Service Level Management Process Kit
Service Level Management is a key component of the ITIL Framework. Use this kit to assess your readiness and apply best practices to your organizaion.