Due to a variety of market pressures, today's enterprises are looking beyond IT outsourcing to find additional ways to realize cost reductions and enterprise-wide improvements. Many companies are turning to business process outsourcing (BPO) to address these issues.

For maximum benefits, an enterprise architecture (EA) should be consciously “derived” to meet explicit business objectives. It should contain objective criteria to allow unambiguous measurement of its effectiveness and consider input from all stakeholders.

To help architects and architecture groups derive an optimal EA, this white paper presents a proven, five-step methodology consisting of (1) defining objectives and constraints; (2) enumerating solution components; (3) defining the architecture; (4) implementing the architecture; and (5) monitoring, maintaining and improving the architecture. An architecture so derived and managed will help ensure that business objectives are achieved. Clear objectives will facilitate architecture enhancements when objectives or conditions change.

A logical, business focused enterprise architecture (EA) can deliver exceptional business benefits and investment
returns. Ensuring such results is the goal of enterprise architecture evaluation, which
should be done periodically by an independent team. Independent evaluation will facilitate confident decisions by EA management and sponsors; provide valuable input to the architecture team; and help the architecture succeed by adding visibility and weight to the team’s authority. Effective evaluations can be performed using one of the many publicly available methodologies or via homegrown methods.

By logically defining and enforcing a business-focused enterprise architecture (EA) across the entire organization, companies can achieve interoperability and consistency of business processes, applications, data and technology. Benefits include:

• Meeting and enabling business vision
• Better economies of scale
• Simplification and consistency at every level
• Reduced application development, implementation and maintenance cost and time
• More efficient use of software licenses
• Greater leverage over vendors

Long-term success of such a project will depend on factors such as choosing the right
leadership and governance structure, considering the views and requirements of all
stakeholders, and adopting an EA framework that can be customized to meet the
unique needs of your enterprise.

As SLAs increasingly become an important part of the vendor selection process, organizations will want to ensure that they are working with an experienced vendor that knows how to construct an SLA that serves the customer’s best interests. In this paper, we explain best practices for structuring, implementing, and successfully managing SLAs, and illustrate the reasons why Syntel is the best choice to help organizations meet today’s enterprise demands.

There's no better time to consider offshore outsourcing. The sluggish economy has made cost-cutting a top priority for most organizations, and IT is no exception. But saving money isn't the only reason to outsource.

Global outsourcing has the potential to help overcome IT professional staff shortages and reduce application management costs 20 percent to 50 percent – but only if it's handled right.

Consultants with a full spectrum of skillsets are bridging the gap between new e-business applications and mission-critical legacy applications. Consultants with both leading-edge and legacy skills can often be delivered at a very reasonable cost by offshore development centers. This paper will overview the challenges of Web-legacy integration and present the advantage of consulting firms that have full spectrum IT skills.

The Keys to Successful Service Level Agreements: Effectively Meeting Enterprise Demands

Service Level Agreements (SLAs) focus on measuring and managing productivity and service quality improvement for IT outsourcing and are the key to determining the true value of an outsourcing engagement. As SLAs increasingly become an important part of the vendor selection process, organizations will want to ensure that they are working with an experienced vendor that knows how to construct an SLA that serves the customer's best interests. In this paper, we explain best practices for structuring, implementing, and successfully managing SLAs, and illustrate the reasons why Syntel is the best choice to help organizations meet today's enterprise demands.

Most Global 2000 corporations have outsourced some or all of their application management activities to one or more offshore suppliers. With the first generation of outsourcing's initial goals of cost reduction and system stability achieved, it is time to take the next step to further reduce costs and improve business performance. Here, Syntel explores its best practices gleaned from hundreds of production support engagements to do just that.

In the e-world, enterprises are faced with the challenge of developing applications faster, with better quality, and higher ROI. How do you jump that hurdle? With industry standards and solid frameworks.

Six Steps to Migration Project Success

Many organizations are adopting migration as a strategy to resolve their business and IT challenges. The goal of this white paper is to provide businesses with the six key steps to succeed when embarking on a migration project.

Business enterprises invest millions of dollars to implement and deliver Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence (BI) initiatives that rely on consistent, accurate and reliable data. IT organizations in these enterprises must ensure that proper integration techniques are selected to address the data needs of the organization. Positioning a common enterprise-wide integration strategy with EAI is essential to establish a clear-cut partnership between business needs and IT solutions. Data integration, a function of ETL, is a prominent need as mediocre data at the foundation of any BI initiative fails to provide an accurate picture of the business. Thus the vital question: EAI or ETL?

In this paper, we'll explore this question, comparing ETL against the data integration element of EAI.

The Tried and True Approach to Data Warehousing

Syntel has developed a proven methodology for the design, development, and deployment of an enterprise-wide data warehousing solution.

Once a company has made the decision to design an enterprisewide data warehouse, they are faced with the challenge of designing it. This technology brief delivers tips on how to deliver on this challenge.

Building a data warehouse is no easy task. With the average cost of a system valued at $1.8 million, the right people, methodology, and experience are extremely critical. The reliance on technology is only a small part in realizing the true business value buried within the multitude of data collected within organizations today. Data warehouses touch the organization at all levels, and the people that design and build them must be capable of working across the organization as well.

The Web makes it possible to develop deeper relationships with customers by linking the information systems of interacting organizations together -- leading to the construction of complex B2B Digital Ecosystems. With the progression of this concept, Syntel presents a holistic approach to Digital Ecosystem development, which advocates an enterprise-wide view of an organization's environment to ensure a solution that integrates legacy and latest technologies.

The faster a business responds to customer needs, the greater its chances for success. This kind of real-time responsiveness requires that decision-makers have immediate access to accurate information for decision-making and the ability to make immediate changes to business processes in response. Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) addresses these needs by enabling multiple applications within an organization to share information and functionality to automate business processes.  This paper provides a road map for getting from a to z.

Since wireless applications have received heavy press coverage for more than a year, Syntel discusses critical issues for mobile professionals, wireless IT personnel, and the debut of mobile insurance policies.

Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) offers the opportunity to adapt enterprise applications so that mobile employees and customers can access them from small, light, inexpensive hand-held devices on an anytime, anywhere basis. The critical benefit for all of these applications is that they reduce the reaction time of mobile professionals, enabling them to take immediate action and dramatically increase productivity. This article provides suggestions for taking advantage of the wireless explosion and profiles one of the first wireless enterprise applications.

B2B exchanges provide dramatic opportunities to automate collaborative business processes with customers and suppliers, generate internal efficiencies, and reach new markets at minimal costs. Syntel has built several B2B exchanges/portals from the ground up, and shares how to take advantage of the opportunities and avoid the pitfalls of this dynamic channel.

Overcoming EHR Deployment Challenges

With federal led e-health initiatives, there is a
flurry of activities in the EHR space. However, from a provider perspective, selecting a best-of-breed solution is just half the job. It is the actual deployment of the system on-site and ensuring provider acceptance of the same which makes or breaks success.

With the growing threat of identity theft and the passage of a number of federal and state regulations (including HIPAA) aimed at protecting the privacy of individuals, health care organizations are facing tremendous pressures to address the use of Social Security Numbers (SSNs) as identifiers. Because of the serious implications of failing to protect privacy, health care organizations need to act now to address this issue. Drawing upon its vast experience providing insurance industry solutions, Syntel has developed SSN Remediation options and can help organizations customize and implement an approach that best suits their requirements.

HIPAA: A Healthy Change for the Health Care Industry

SSN Remediation Approaches

With the growing threat of identity theft and the passage of a number of federal and state regulations (including HIPAA) aimed at protecting the privacy of individuals, insurance organizations are facing tremendous pressures to address the use of Social Security Numbers (SSNs) as identifiers. Because of the serious implications of failing to protect privacy, insurance organizations need to act now to address this issue. Drawing upon its vast experience providing insurance industry solutions, Syntel has developed SSN Remediation options and can help organizations customize and implement an approach that best suits their requirements.

Optimizing 3PL Through IT

Logistics is a complex and extremely critical function, with real-time flows of information and physical goods. Third Party Logistics (3PL) is gaining increasing ground in a global economy where companies source various elements of their value chain to external providers so they can focus more on their core competencies. IT is central to solving some of the most pressing challenges in the 3PL business, including exceptions handling, supply chain integration and optimization and increased transparency in the flow of goods and information.

Achieving Operational Excellence in Mobile Telecom

Mobile operators in mature western markets are facing operational challenges. Flexibility, speed-to-market and cost containment are more important than ever before. Information technology is at the hub of the mobile product and is also central to providing world-class customer service. As such, the underlying IT systems, capabilities and architecture play a central role in enabling mobile telcos to achieve their operational aspirations. Learn why IT is relevant, and three steps to leverage IT effectively.

Retail's Complexity: The Information Technology Solution 

Complexity of products, scale, and processes, along with supply chain challenges, place ever greater demands on retailers. IT systems are at the heart of retail operations and hence play a central role in alleviating pressure points in the retail sector.