The April 11, 2005 issue of Information Week shares the technique that Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. uses to ensure the privacy and security of its customer data:
For about six months, the diversified insurance and financial-services company has given IT workers at Infosys Technologies Ltd. in India access to applications containing sensitive customer data, including Social Security numbers. The employees use dumb terminals that limit users' ability to alter, record, or print the data. "The machines don't even have hard drives," Northwestern Mutual CIO Barbara Piehler said… The terminals are linked via secure, high-speed phone lines to Northwestern Mutual's servers in Milwaukee. Infosys staffers use them to test and maintain a number of the company's business applications.
The same article shares a story about how Boeing achieved success in managing the transition of some of its IT services to three different vendors:
The success of the deals is in large part because of the extensive preparatory work that Boeing undertook before signing, [director of IT sourcing and benchmarking, Philip] Harris said. Among other things, the company formed a transition committee, led by Harris, charged with ensuring that even the smallest details of the handover–such as sending the right contractors to the right buildings–were planned. Boeing also insisted that vendors competing for the contracts include detailed plans for transitioning the company's employees to the outsourcing company in their bids. Harris said his job depended on a smooth transfer.
