All aboard the new bandwagon - the aggregator role for outsourcers

Missed the 'Green IT' boat? Don't panic: your next bandwagon will be arriving soon...

EDS has created a lot of buzz (albeit not as much as its acquisition by HP) with its new Shell contract - where EDS will taking the lead outsourcing role managing two other key suppliers (AT&T and T-Systems).

For all the background, take a look at computer weekly - http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2008/04/09/230199/shell-offers-lessons-on-outsourcing-contracts.htm

Time to see all those people who predicted the death of outsourcing contracts on this scale rushing to praise the 'new' model? Maybe, maybe not.

Ann All at ITBusinessEdge has brought together some interesting comments on the deal - particularly one from her interview with Ovum Research Director John Madden:

"Certainly for EDS, and for some other outsourcers out there, they’d like to see more deals like this. It allows them to show their expertise in managing complex contracts, and it’s another source of revenue for them. I think the success of a global vendor like Shell is going to be important to the overall service integrator trend and help determine whether it’s going to get some traction with some other large global clients."

From a marketing hoodie standpoint, it looks like another bandwagon in the offing. EDS have put themselves in a great position - working with an innovator like Shell to try and prove the case for this kind of contract. And maybe there won't be hundreds more of these contracts - but what great potenial for some hard-hitting positioning: "if we can manage a contract like this, imagine what we could do for you?"... And although EDS have taken a lead, the market's still wide open - it just needs an innovative approach to getting the message across...

...on which note, let me introduce a group of hoodied-up dancers who have used their skills to visualise what a new outsourcing proposition might look like through the medium of dance. And spot the bit 54 seconds in where they page homage to HP's acquisition of EDS - it's a classic!

Does the world need another B2B marketing blog?

Yes - 'nuff said.

What's that? You'd appreciate a deeper explanation? You think that this first post should really be more introspective, more questioning of the rationale behind this foray into the blogosphere? Well, if you insist...

It all comes down to a little experiment...

'There must be hundreds of B2B marketing blogs out there already', I hear you cry. Very true - there may even be thousands...

But what happens when you ask Google to find you only the useful tech marketing blogs, ones that don't contain inappropriate or rubbish content? Suddenly, thousands of links disappear and only one remains.

Unleashing the Marketing Hoodie onto an unsuspecting world, I'm delighted to say that there are now two. So do we have a USP? Not sure yet - give it 12 months (or maybe 6 for good behaviour with an ASBO to keep us in order...)

We want to provide a more oblique view; to ask ourselves what people in the real world would think of all the things we get up to in the quest to sell IT and services, and maybe look with a more sceptical eye on all the latest and greatest fads.

Please note: We don't actually believe that all the other tech marketing blogs out there have rubbish content (and not really sure how Google is able to judge them anyway). There are some great, thought-provoking examples (God knows we'll be 'paying homage' to them often enough).

'Nuff said. Finally.