The Week in Review: August 29, 2003

In the news... The worldwide analytic applications software market is forecast to reach over $4.8 billion by 2007, according to a report issued this week by IDC. CRM analytics is expected to grow the fastest, with a compound annual growth rate of 12.9 percent. Sixty-six percent of 98 respondents said that information volume has made their job harder than five years ago, according to an August 1 to August 22 poll conducted by Teradata, a division of NCR. Twenty-two percent of workers said that it has made their job easier and 12 percent said harder. An earlier Teradata poll indicated that 54 percent of workers felt that information is doubling or tripling every year. Siebel Systems has adopted new corporate governance issues. According to spokesman Rob Goodman, these new initiatives reinforce Siebel's commitment to corporate governance principles like rigorous disclosure policies, transparent accounting practices, an independent board of directors, and adherence to high ethical and legal standards. Hitachi subsidiary Hitachi Consulting has announced plans to begin outsourcing services in the United States. The company says it will provide three key outsourcing solutions. They are business process outsourcing (BPO) solutions for procurement, finance and accounting, and human resources, plus CRM processes that require industry and functional experience. Also, extended application outsourcing solutions for custom-developed or commercial off-the-shelf applications that require in-depth application knowledge and infrastructure management capabilities. Last, sourcing optimization and compliance solutions, including managing vendor relationships, which may involve other outsourcers and procurement activities for a client's IT organization, and monitoring vendor performance. Many companies are getting into offshore BPO, but enterprises should also examine the benefits from offshore insourcing, according to Gartner. Enterprises wary of control and data-security issues can benefit from the offshore advantage of "insourcing" offshore. "The rewards and risks of offshore BPO are just beginning to be understood. As enterprises and service providers evolve, it has become clear that there is no right model for a given company," Sujay Chohan, research vice president for Gartner, said in a statement. "No enterprise will fully insource or outsource offshore. Most will use a combination of delivery models as they climb the learning curve to BPO." Executive changes... Pivotal has announced the appointment of Bruce Kenny to the position of senior vice president of products. Kenny, a key member of Pivotal's senior management team since June 2000, served as vice president and general manager of Simba Technologies. Initiate Systems, a provider of customer data integration software and services, has hired Anthony Crescenzo as a vice president of its public sector business unit, and R. Michael Martin as vice president of business development. Crescenzo has held senior-level positions with Illumitek and InLine Software, while Martin most recently served as vice president of strategic alliances at i2 Technologies.