Advising on the commercial impact of technology and
    market changes in telecoms, software and IT services

Ovum is an agile analyst and consultancy organisation. We champion multi-skilled research teams to provide you with well-connected, cross domain outsourcing expertise in a market where prudent investment in software and network technologies makes the difference in competitive capability.

Our analysts understand the existing and emerging technologies that underpin your outsourcing capability. As the largest indigenous analyst company for Information Communications and Technology in Europe, we understand both Anglo-American and Franco-German models of outsourcing - all other global analyst players rarely see past the Anglo-American perspective.

We are the only analyst company that offers to contract consultatively on an annual basis (via our Business Action Programme) to put our findings to the test with you as you go to market throughout your business year.

Over the past four years we have established a world class research and consultancy capability in the emerging hosted services market. This is one of the fastest growing areas of the outsourcing market, but it is a challenging sector that requires Ovum's combined understanding of the software, services and communications communities.

By establishing our Outsourcing Practice we have expanded this capability to cover the full range of outsourcing topics.

Outsourcing Practice

Ovum's dedicated outsourcing practice provides you with the expertise of a retained analyst team. Delivering fresh and independent, actionable advice throughout your business year, Ovum's Outsourcing practice offers a consultative approach to delivering the market insight your strategy requires.

Our analysts understand the existing and emerging technologies that underpin outsourcing capability and will investigate and inform in an engaging manner. By working interactively with you, Ovum's Outsourcing practice puts the analyst in the hot seat with you as you go to market with your offerings.

Topics covered include:

• IT-intensive Business Process Outsourcing
• Offshore
• Hosted Services
• Utility Computing
• Transformational outsourcing
• Software-as-a-service
• BPM technologies in outsourcing
• Shared service provision

Outsourcing@Ovum

Outsourcing@Ovum is an advisory service giving you online access to both continuous research and standalone reference reports. SWOT analyses, market analysis, forecasts, competitive positioning and player ranking allow you to follow market changes and opportunities while in depth reports give you deep insight into specific topic areas.

We have structured our Outsourcing practice around the needs of our clients in order to help them make the best commercial decisions on strategies and competitive approaches. All of Ovum's analysts are highly accessible and work to develop deep relationships with our clients. The emphasis is on working in partnership with clients to maximise their commercial opportunities.

Delivering your own Business Action Programme

With our Business Action Programme, we are the only analyst company that offers to contract consultatively on an annual basis to put our findings to the test with you as you go to market throughout your business year.

The Business Action Programme is a series of workshops that puts an Ovum analyst in the strategy planning and business development room with your executives. This development stems from the success of similar initiatives that have previously been delivered on a bespoke basis.

This type of higher value, consultative offering is designed to support your yearly planning cycle, helping you prepare for decision-making meetings at board level and independently refining your proposals for global strategy reviews.

Through the Business Action Programme, Ovum becomes an integral part of your decision-making framework providing you with informed and trusted advice, in person, as you need it.

Drawing from our competitor, market and topic research areas, the Business Action Programme delivers:

• An annual strategy assessment in the form of a face-to-face workshop with your European marketing and/or business development teams to jointly develop the year's analyst programme for your business.
  
• Quarterly healthcheck reviews via teleconference or workshop to focus on mutually agreed areas of interest or concern and review the progress of the Business Action Programme initiatives that Ovum has been contracted to work on with you.

In this capacity we have already helped clients decide:

• whether to retain or sell hosting business units
• partnering strategies for data centre operations
• how to develop next-generation outsourcing offerings for European country markets
• what marketing action to take on utility computing
• messaging around competitor software-as-a-service offerings
• the strengths and weaknesses of planned service offerings for SMB markets in Europe.

The nature of the outsourcing market is such that changes do not come about from one day to the next. Long term contracts and prolonged decision-making processes see to this. It is wrong to think however, that the market's structure today is how it will be in five years time. The outsourcing market does change but it requires patience and persistence to see these changes through. Work with Ovum's Outsourcing Practice to ensure you have immediate access to the best advice.

Your next move...

To find out more about Ovum's Outsourcing Practice, please telephone, fax or e-mail your account manager, or visit our website:

www.ovum.com

Ovum's offices

Europe

London, UK

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7551 9228
Fax: +44 (0) 20 7551 9090/1
Email: info@ovum.com

Cologne, Germany

Tel: +49 (0) 221 5540 5169
Fax: +49 (0) 221 5540 545
Email: infode@ovum.com

Paris, France

Tel: +33 (1) 53 30 24 88
Fax: +33 (1) 47 42 32 14
Email: infofr@ovum.com

North America

Boston, USA

Tel: 800 642 6886
Tel: + 1 617 523 1294
Fax: + 1 617 523 6993
Email: infousa@ovum.com

Asia Pacific

Melbourne, Australia

Tel: +61 (0) 3 9667 1200
Fax: +61 (0) 3 9663 5800
Email: infoasia@ovum.com

Seoul, Korea

Tel: + 82 2 3210 3966
Fax: + 82 2 3210 3969
Email: infoasia@ovum.com