Outsourcing Exit Strategy

I’ve posted an article on eZine Articles.  I may post more. 

Phizackerley, Kate “Outsourcing Exit Strategy – Planning Ahead For the Full Contract Life Cycle.” Outsourcing Exit Strategy – Planning Ahead For the Full Contract Life Cycle EzineArticles.com.

In the article I look at the importance of considering how to avoid lock-in with outsourcing contracts.  This is a sample paragraph:

That is the key question which any organisation outsourcing a service needs to consider before signing a contract. If the answer is “only with great difficulty” then your supplier is holding a hand of aces whenever you need to negotiate a new contract or a revision in contractual terms. If you lack the resources or knowledge to take the contract back in house, and no other supplier has them “off the shelf”, then there is substantial lock-in. If a supplier knows that moving the contract away from them would cost you £2m, they can easily afford to inflate their charges to you by £1m knowing that you have little alternative but to pay.

(A reminder as well that my business blog is now Kate Phizackerley on Business.)

Professional Blogs undergoing change

There was a problem with the hosting of my two business-oriented blogs. Rather than resurrect them with a new host, I’ve decided to let them die and relaunch a single consolidated blog. I’ll post again when it’s ready. (The domain is all set up, but I need to spend time customising the template before I launch.)

More Articles

I’ev just had another two articles commissioned and published: one on the Valley of the Kings and the other on Lord Carnarvon.

Tutankhamun

Heritage-Key is an exciting new venture for those interested in the Ancient World.  I was commissioned to write the keynote article on Tutankhamun for one of their first focus areas.

“For me, the abiding legacy of the 18th Dynasty, and particularly the Amarna renaissance, is the power of its art.  Despite suppression of references to Amarna by Horemheb, the last pharaoh of the dynasty, art of peerless quality has reached us in the treasures buried with a relatively minor pharaoh whose tomb largely escaped the robbers who raided the tombs of more illustrious pharaohs.  That pharaoh was, of course, Tutankhamun whose largely-intact tomb was found by Howard Carter in 1922.”

 You can read the rest at Heritage-Key.

Creative Commons Attribution Sharealike

I adopt three different licenses for any of my own the photos I post:

1. © copyrighted as stated.  All rights reserved.  For instance I use this copyright when reproducing photographs of my father’s paintings.
2. Creative Commons – unrestricted license for “snaps”
3. Creative Commons Attribution Sharealike

Where I note that I have posted photographs here or elsewhere on a Creative Commons Attribution Sharealike Licenses then the following terms apply: 

1. You may reproduce the image for commercial or non-commerical purposes providing
2. you credit my copyright as shown with the photograph (ie Kate Phiizackerley);
3.  link back to http://katephizackerley.wordpress.com/;
4. and repeat these license terms.

Also, please host the images on your own site and don’t steal my bandwidth.

Wikipedia

I’m gradually updating some of the Wikipedia articles for places round Lancaster – Caton, Quernmore, the Lune etc. They will give me decent material to link to on the site I’m working on as a tribute to my father

Transphobia

It’s easy to see political correctness as a burden if one remains blind to the impact on real people.  Recently a pretty young woman was beaten up by her father.  She lost a number of teeth.  Her cheeks were shattered.  She’s no longer pretty – and that was her father’s specific intention.  Her “crime” was that she was born in a male body and had undergone gender reassignment.  Her own father battered her with the deliberate intention of taking away her looks so that she couldn’t pass as a woman. 

 

That is transphobia.  That wasn’t in some third world country, that was here in the West where transsexual people are supposedly ’legally protected”.

 

“When I read that story, I cried.  I would like to tell you that it is an isolated incident but sadly it seems that isn’t the case. The more I talk to women who have undergone gender reassignment, the more I hear of violence against them, of rape and even the murder of a woman who lived near me.  Apparently transsexual people in the USA are 17x as likely as the national average to be victims of homicide.  I got a small, personal taste of transphobia when a particularly unflattering photo of me attracted comment that I looked like a bloke.  (Note to self – I don’t suit short hair!)  The comments grew increasingly cruel as people tried to outdo each other in their comments. 

 

Whether we are transsexual or not, women (and in some cases men) suffering this degree of discrimination is not acceptable to anybody with a Christian conscience.  To help draw attention to these injustices I have started a blog called Stop Transphobia at http://stoptransphobia.wordpress.com  Posts will be erratic as I hear of issues worth reporting, but please bookmark it and help fight for justice for this vulnerable group of people.

Sharing salary information

I commented on an article over at the Workplace clinic about sharing salary information.  Having thought about it in the hours since I posted, I think there is a point here about inter-generational differences that I will add to my General Administration blog in the next few days.

Framework for a Fairer future

There is extensive comment on Kate Phizackerley on General Business Administration but the short comment I have submitted to the BBC reads as follows:

The document fails industry and individuals. Both want people to be treated equally and fairly not as special cases. In practice this leaves some groups more favoured than others – women only Parliamentary shortlists will be allowed but not ones for the disabled, nor for ethnic communities. There is no mention of the mentally ill or transgendered – not equal enough to even be mentioned.

We need equality legislation – but we neeed it to be based on equality not favouring certain groups.

Risk taking in recessions

Another comment on the Personnel Today Workplace Clinic blog, which this time expanded upon in my General Business Administration blog.

Ethnic minorities in the workplace

Over on the Workplace Clinic blog on Personnel Today I commented on a article on practical steps which can be taken to improve promotion prospects of ethinic minority women:

In many organisations, pubs bars and clubs form the backbone of after work socialising. It’s easy to overlook the importance of such activity in terms of cementing work relationships, visibility and even diseminating news on what promotion and other opportunities are coming up. Unfortunately alcohol-based socialising excludes certain religious and ethnic groups.

If organisations are serious about promoting equal opportunities this is an area to address, perhaps by establishing a more diverse social programme – which will of course generally be welcomed and improve morale.

Talk to strangers

I came across a useful article on WikiHow with advice on how to talk to people you have just met, which I would recommend to anbody looking for basic advice on networking.  It wasn’t perfect though so I couldn’t resist editing it and adding a couple of tips!

Homophobic bullying

Comment on the Personnel Today Work Clinic blog stressing the importance of getting to the root cause of the workplace issues.

DC pension governance

The Professional Pensions July special DC supplement quotes my view on goverance arrangement for contract-based DC schemes, including the follow remark:
 

In the world of DC, the key issues are again asset management and investment options, but also communications and administration. A properly constituted governance committee, backed by new regulatory powers to give them real authority to force change where necessary, can offer effective and independent oversight in these areas.

Comment on Regulator’s governance survey

Press comment on the Regulators annual survey of governance with full text reported here. Various excerpts picked up and quoted by the press. For the benefit of the press I summaried my detailed commentary as follows:

“The survey reports encouraging progress in several areas, including conflict awareness and the evaluation of the employer covenant. It also highlights a number of areas where general practices remain weak, namely Advisers, Risk Management and Administration. Whilst we expect to see developments in these areas over the next 12 months, the focus for trustees should be to ensure they have good governance structures in place and the rest will follow. As well as delivering a well run scheme, this will protect their position with the Regulator.”

Home movers risk identity fraud

Press comment in the April 2007 edition of Pensios Management

… the results were unsurprising. “there are some schemes that are in a total mess – you have administrators making up records because they are going into wind-up and they just want to get it sorted somehow …

Time for some focus

Press comment in Professional Pensions

…in our experience trustees remain passionate about looking after their members; there is no reason to doubt that governance committees would be less diligent…”

Salary sacrifices

Author of an article for Pensions World explaining some of the practicalities for organisations wanting to establish salary sacrifice arrangements for benefits.

“…implementation can be problematical in a group personal pension where tax relief is claimed by the life office…”

Salary sacrifice and payroll

Comment in Employee Benefits magazine on the importance of getting the processes and systems right in payroll when setting up a flexible benefits scheme.  Excerpt from the full comment as follows:

… if it is broken in payroll, that will create real problems. One very big retailer’s payroll system, for example, just could not add any additional columns for the extra data. 

Governance Consulting

Press release annoucing the launch of LCP’s Governance Consulting Practice for which I am one of the two senior contacts.
The launch consolidates work to produce a manual for clients on how to undertake a risk management exercise.