How is the Italian benchmarking market presenting itself and what are the prospects? What is the relationship between companies and this activity?
Fundamentally, the outsourcing market is divided into two macro categories based on user objectives:
1. Companies that wish to position their Information Systems relative to similar companies and require an external consultant to certify how aligned they are with the market. Often, benchmarking projects in these companies are initiated by stimuli external to ICT.
2. Companies intent on pursuing “improvement” paths, viewing benchmarking as a “diagnostic” tool from which to define an action plan aimed at increasing their efficiency in relation to business objectives. These companies are aware of the contribution ICT provides to the Business and, for this reason, IT leadership is engaged in a continuous improvement process of the “machinery” they manage.
The Italian market is shifting towards the second category, especially for companies with complex information systems. The analysis of the application landscape is beginning to attract growing interest, while the majority of benchmarking projects still focus on infrastructure. A separate discussion is warranted for the evaluation and benchmarking of service supply contracts (Outsourcing). In this sector, companies seek to verify the alignment of the prices charged by their supplier and are interested in identifying contract management mechanisms that can support them through the temporal evolution dictated by business objectives.
What is Compass Vision?
Compass operates in the Management Consulting field with an original approach called Factbase™, which is structured into the following three elements:
1. Functional Models that allow for the analysis and evaluation of all phenomena related to ICT and, for the banking and insurance sectors, also aspects pertaining to retail banking and life and non-life insurance.
2. Consultants with significant experience (no less than 10 years) in their respective operating fields.
3. Databases. The Compass database is the richest and most articulated worldwide among companies involved in benchmarking. To date, over 9,600 studies have been conducted globally.
The Compass offering is structured into the following areas:
Performance Improvement
• Improvement of IT service efficiency
• Improvement of the quality of service delivered by IT to business users
• Identification of optimal size to achieve economies of scale
• Identification and quantification of cost-saving opportunities
Performance Management
• Identification of business client needs
• Identification of IT Governance dashboards
• Definition of the IT Service Catalog
• Definition of chargeback practices
• Customer satisfaction analysis
• Definition of Information System performance measurement metrics
Sourcing Strategies
• Definition of sourcing strategy
• Current State Analysis
• RFI Development
• RFP Development
• Vendor Selection
• SLA Definition
• Negotiation Support
• Contract Analysis
• Financial Benchmarking
• Identification of governance models
IS Value Realization
• Identification of business benefits from efficient IT use
• Quantification of IT investments to efficiently support business processes
• Evaluation of application projects supporting the business
• Establishment of a formal communication process between IT and business
Merger & Consolidation
• Identification of possible scenarios and the risks/benefits related to merger and consolidation projects
• Simulation tools
• Facilitation of client communication, discussion, and decision-making processes
• Reference best practices for Mergers & Consolidations projects
• Support in Project and Change Management areas
Business Performance Improvement
• Detailed and consistent models for mapping banking and insurance processes
• Identification of improvement opportunities and definition of business process governance KPIs
• Definition of indicators for comparison with similar entities.
Who is your typical client?
Our clients are primarily large companies with complex IT departments or companies with high-value outsourcing contracts. The following is a non-exhaustive list of Italian clients:
Allianz, Assicurazioni Generali, AXA, Banca Popolare di Sondrio, Banca del Gottardo, BancaIntesa, BNL, Cedacri, CNIPA, Credem, ENI, ERG, Gruppo FIAT, Il sole 24 ore, Informatica Trentina, Insiel, IT Telecom, Lombarda Sistemi e Servizi, Lombardia Informatica, Lombardia
Servizi, Mediaset, Regione Autonoma Friuli Venezia Giulia, Saipem, Saras, Seat Pagine Gialle, SIA, SNAM Rete Gas, SSB, Unicredit.
Who are your competitors?
The adopted approach makes Compass’s offering distinctly original compared to traditional consulting. However, for some areas, we consider Gartner as a competitor, while for others, it’s management consulting firms.
What does Compass offer that competitors in Italy do not, and why should clients choose you?
A strongly differentiating element is undoubtedly the consistency of our database (over 9,600 studies). Regarding benchmarking projects, we are the only company worldwide to declare the components of the Reference Group. This approach guarantees the authenticity and “freshness” of the data for the client. Concerning the Sourcing world, Compass can boast of having analyzed and monitoring the most complex Outsourcing contracts. This has allowed us, over the years, to acquire a deep understanding of this market, which we can effectively make available to our clients.
What are the latest trends in the sector?
The direction our market is taking sees the company as a set of departments that must operate synergistically and not in a fragmented manner. Therefore, ICT must also be viewed in this new light, considering the contribution it can and must provide to the business. For this reason, analysis models increasingly tend to consider the aforementioned aspects, and the theme of ICT value for business and its measurement are at the center of consulting firms’ attention.
How was the first half of 2007, and what are your future objectives?
The semester closed excellently; we are very close to achieving our annual goal, which forecasts a 30% increase compared to last year. Our future objectives are:
• to grow and consolidate our client base,
• to increase, as already planned, the staff dedicated to the Italian market.
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