Posted on 2009 under Communications |
8
Sep
Add Asus to the list of consumer electronic companies set to make plays in the e-reader market. By the end of the year, Asus plans to unveil as many as two e-readers, the company tells the Times of London. Features may include two side-by-side full color screens (so that users can look at two pages at once or browse the web while reading a book), speakers, a mic, and a webcam. A budget version will sell for around 100 pounds ($164). No word on how much the premium version will cost.
Asus will face steep competition, but at least based on the price of its lower-end device it should be able to gain ground. At roughly $164, the device would likely be the cheapest e-reader on the market (Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) sells its Kindle 2 for $299). And a survey released last week by Forrester indicated that the potential market for e-readers would increase significantly if the average price of the devices was cut to below $150.
Asus also has experience disrupting established markets with cheaper products. It launched its low-price Eee PC netbook in 2007, which has since stolen market share from traditional laptop makers and led to a wave of other netbooks coming to market.
Other big consumer electronics companies are also likely to soon introduce e-readers. In early June, Forrester pegged a number of device manufacturers—including Panasonic, Palm (NSDQ: PALM), Lenovo, and LG—as possible future entrants. Samsung announced plans for its own e-reader in late July.
Related
Posted on 2009 under Communications |
3
Sep
Advertisers like Ford and Microsoft are slowly starting to include mobile video ad buys in their media plans, and there’s new research every week showing how the iPhone, in particular, is ramping up mobile video consumption. But fresh data from market research firm Knowledge Networks (KN) shows that while the market for mobile video usage is growing—it’s actually not growing that fast. And that means the available pool of mobile video impressions for advertisers is still somewhat limited.
The market research firm found that roughly 10 percent of all broadband internet users in the U.S. have video-enabled phones, with roughly five percent of those owners using their phones to watch video. That’s up from 6 percent of people who had video-enabled phones, and three percent who watched video on them, in 2006—definitely growth, but not staggering.
When it comes to video-enabled iPods (but not iPhones), the growth stats are better: Nearly a quarter of the broadband users (23 percent) own a video iPod, and 15 percent say they use it to watch video. In 2006, only five percent of respondents had a video iPod—with just about three percent actually watching clips on it. Again, the market is growing; the question is whether it’s growing as rapidly as marketers need it to, since most campaigns—be they performance-based or branding—need a considerable amount of scale to be effective.
KN surveyed over 800 members of its online panel, which includes cell phone-only and non-Internet using households, for this study. Release.
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Posted on 2009 under Communications, News |
2
Sep
The current economic climate calls for a new approach to outsourcing relationships
Study commissioned by Logica and the London School of Economics (LSE)
- identifies the need for behavioral and contractual step changes in outsourcing relationships that move towards a shared risk and reward approach
- stresses the importance of collaborative leadership to enable innovation and business value add
- warns companies of failure to build their business for the future if the focus is solely on cost cutting/cost efficiency measures
- identifies ‘collaborative innovation’ as the new wave in outsourcing
02 September, 2009: Logica, a leading IT and business services provider, today announced the findings of an extensive study conducted in partnership with LSE’s Outsourcing Unit on outsourcing relationships entitled ‘Step change – Collaborating to Innovate’. The study calls for a sustainable change in the way businesses interact with the external services market to enable them to move their relationships from contract administration and outsourcing management to a new phase of collaborative leadership. The paper underlines the importance of new forms of contracting – contracts that share risk and reward in ways that incent innovation, collaboration and high performance to achieve common goals – as the key to success. When collaborative innovation plays a key role in outsourcing relationships, businesses truly leverage IT as a competitive advantage.
The paper draws its key findings from in-depth interactions with businesses across a spectrum of industries including companies such as Michelin, Spring Global Mail, Heathrow Terminal 5,(BAA), KPN and StatoilHydro among others. The paper classifies outsourcing relationships into four phases – contract administration, contract management, supplier management and collaborative innovation. Businesses in the fourth phase of collaborative innovation are positioned best to ride out the economic recession with the ability to build their businesses for the future.
Companies today expect more from their partners and suppliers. As Piet Koetsier, Manager, Business Process Outsourcing at KPN says “A pro-active partner is aligned in thinking with you and comes up with new ideas and innovation. They think for me.” The paper sets examples of how relationships are changing and the impact collaborative relationships have on performance.
Commenting on the importance of collaborative innovation, Kate Hanaghan, senior analyst, Bathwick group*, says, “Innovation has to be a joint effort as true innovation demands a proactive, timely and effective service to customers. There need to be processes in place that bring suppliers and customer teams together. Simply assuming or hoping that this will happen of its own accord is not enough. Collaborative leadership that leads to innovation has to be a conscious effort. This research paper will help guide companies and suppliers think of different ways to bring innovation to the forefront.”
The change in expectations from partner/supplier relationships is clearly outlined by Pascal Zammit, in 2008 Michelin’s head of business solutions, “We want our suppliers to jointly create a ‘polar star’ for us.” Michelin embarked on a CRM project in the fleet management area. Logica was part of the co-management of the project showcasing a relatively new way of working with collaborative leadership. Michelin showed leadership in its sourcing strategy by deciding on multiple vendors but experimented with the co-managed route with each of its partners for the implementation of the project. The case study clearly outlines how Michelin used collaborative leadership with its partners to ensure success of the project, highlighting a robust organisation and governance structure.
The paper concludes with four fundamental shapers and components for effective collaborative innovation – Leading, Contracting, Organising and Behaving. Of these, Leadership is primary and plays a vital role in shaping the environment to facilitate right contracting, organising and behaving.
Abhay Gupte, CEO, Logica India, says “While the debate rages around innovation, outsourcing and collaboration, this paper helps businesses decide the best way forward for them. It’s becoming increasingly crucial for organisations to work together, combining skill sets and sharing risks in order to stay competitive, thrive and build robust innovative businesses of the future. We do hope that this paper will motivate businesses to relook at the components that shape their outsourcing relationships.”
Professor Leslie Willcocks, Director of the Outsourcing Unit, LSE and lead author of the paper, said, “The findings of this paper are a culmination of our new research and further analysis of our database representing 17 years of combined research into over 1600 organisations. In the last four years we have seen an increasing number of mature outsourcing relationships capable of achieving technological, business process and even strategic innovations. Moreover the economic environment forces people to work together and we are seeing some organisations with the right type of leadership, contracting relationship, teaming and behaviours, achieving with their suppliers a positive and lasting impact on performance. Collaborative innovation is outsourcing’s new wave.”
To download the full white paper, visit: http://www.logica.com/outsourcingenterprise. To view a video of the authors explaining the findings of the paper, please visit < insert Logica TV>
* The Bathwick Group, founded in 1997, researches how businesses actually buy and apply IT to their business, how they innovate using technology, and how IT is supporting changes in market and organisational models.
Notes to Editors
The Outsourcing Enterprise series
This research paper is the fifth to be released as part of The Outsourcing Enterprise series of white papers targeted at CEOs that draw on a series of interrelated research studies conducted by Professor Leslie Willcocks and his co-authors – all leading authors on outsourcing. The findings are sourced from over 1600 organisations located throughout Europe, the USA and Asia along with ongoing, unpublished research. The Outsourcing Enterprise series, sponsored by Logica, provides leading edge thinking from the perspective of the Chief Executive and suggests the nature of the involvement the CEO should have, as well as those issues which should be considered in order to ensure the success of an IT or business process outsourcing decision. The four previous white papers in this series are:
1. “ Building core retained capabilities”, published November 2007
2. “The CEO role in delivering strategic advantage”, published July 2005
3. “The power of relationships”, published November 2005.
4. “The CEO guide to selecting effective suppliers”, published September 2006
These papers can be viewed on www.logica.com/outsourcingenterprise along with the special edition ‘Outsourcing in Difficult times’ released in April, 2009
About the authors
Professor Leslie Willcocks
Leslie Willcocks has an international reputation for his research and advisory work on outsourcing, information and communications technologies and organisational change. He is Professor of Technology Work and Globalisation and Head of the Information Systems and Innovation Group at the London School of Economics and Political Science UK. He is also Associate Fellow at Templeton College, Oxford, Visiting Professor at Erasmus and Melbourne Universities, and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Information Technology.
Andrew S. Craig
Andrew S. Craig heads the IT leadership and governance stream of Carig Ltd and is also a director of Board Coaching Ltd. In addition to coaching he teaches at Ashridge and Warwick business schools on leadership and is a visiting Senior Research Fellow at the LSE. Current assignments include coaching the CEO of a FTSE-250 leisure company and working with the Board. He is also working with individuals and teams in the Defence Procurement Agency, Balfour Beatty, HSBC and finance and fund management companies.
About Logica
Logica is a leading IT and business services company, employing 40,000 people. It provides business consulting, systems integration, and IT and business process outsourcing services. Logica works closely with its customers to release their potential – enabling change that increases their efficiency, accelerates growth and manages risk. It applies its deep industry knowledge, technical excellence and global delivery expertise to help its customers build leadership positions in their markets. Logica is listed on both the London Stock Exchange and Euronext (Amsterdam) (LSE: LOG; Euronext: LOG). More information is available at www.logica.com.
Press Contacts:
Sabrina Mukund
Communication Manager- Logica
+91 96633 81233;
mukund.sabrina@logica.com
Tanuja Singh
Genesis Burson-Marsteller
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tanuja.singh@bm.com
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Genesis Burson-Marsteller
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