Swingtide brings practical sourcing solutions to the world of IT

Sourcing and contracting in the world of information technology is no longer a matter of answering the question “Is labor arbitrage the right solution for us?” The fundamental importance of third-party solutions as part of every IT shop is no longer debated. How to get the most out of those solutions – how to plan for and structure the best, most reliable contractual relationships in a moving-target IT world – is a challenge that more and more CIOs are facing by turning to consulting firms that have backgrounds not only in traditional outsourcing arrangements but also in some of the newer ways to structure and govern all third-party relationships. 

Swingtide is one of this new wave of sourcing and contracting consulting firms. Guided by president and CEO Diane Carco, Swingtide helps organizations address the vexing problems posed by increased reliance on, and decreasing leverage over, the third parties that represent what has become the most important variable factor in determining whether a CIO is able to help his or her business grow, or to inadvertently act as a drag on growth.  

Swingtide is an organization of high-value consultants with real-world experience; it has an analytical approach, and the ability to identify and solve IT problems with well-defined methods. Its senior business and IT professional team has the experience required to solve complex business and technical problems in rapidly changing environments. 

History of the company

Swingtide was established in 2001 as a venture-capital-backed software company. In 2004 it shifted its focus from software to advisory services supporting the CIO. The company has evolved to address specific needs of today’s CIOs in healthcare, finance, manufacturing, and other verticals.

Swingtide’s approach to solving IT business problems

Swingtide fields tightly integrated teams of experts who incorporate client resources into each project team, leaving the organizations with sustainable knowledge and processes. It uses a fact-based, detailed methodology that is customized to align with an organization’s culture; it also builds financial models to support the choices from which the decisions are made for the organizations. Finally, when the benefits are identified, it offers approaches to assure that the expected benefits are realized over time. 

Sourcing advisory services

In a technology world in which very little can fairly be characterized as “long term,” the provisions of third-party contracts can sometimes prove to be annoyingly, or even agonizingly, persistent. By taking the contract life-cycle view, Swingtide consultants operationalize an understanding of the long-term implications and effects of contract provisions in a way that even the most diligent attorney without this business-of-IT view may not. 

The Swingtide secret sauce is partly the result of having not too many cooks, but just the right number. Technology experts are needed of course, but also finance and sourcing specialists working side-by-side to assure a successful dish. When you consider the many kinds of decisions that are made in the sourcing process – buy-or-build, fully outsource a function or not, how to make an arrangement governable, baking in a dispute resolution process that will bind the vendor to performance without harming the working relationship, assuring that none of these things undercut the financial validity of the business case – it is little wonder that CIOs are turning more and more to experts such as Swingtide for help.

Business process advisory services

Keeping the lights on is a full-time job for today’s CIO. In rapidly evolving verticals such as healthcare and financial services, forty hours a week is not enough. Smart acquisition of the right tools in a world full of rapid change is simply not possible without expert assistance. Swingtide offers clients the help needed to run IT in a businesslike manner while also just running it. It helps CIOs find their way to a place from which they can see a rational path to real business benefits, such as cost reduction, realignment of cost from low-value to high value, and resolving software compliance issues while still managing core applications and infrastructure functions. 

Diane Carco, Swingtide President

Swingtide is led by Diane Carco. Throughout her career Diane has focused on helping companies obtain value from third-party relationships and on improving other aspects of the business of running their IT departments. She is a respected information technology executive, author, and frequent speaker at industry conferences and university seminars. As a senior vice president and chief financial officer for a large insurance services firm, she led that organization through acquisitions, divestitures, outsourcing, in sourcing and major restructurings. She has also played key roles at a major U.S. auto manufacturer and industry-leading accounting firm. 

Diane’s primary consulting focus is guiding companies to the successful completion of the complex set of tasks that make up sourcing deals. Her management of the outsourcing process for companies entering into deals, managing relationships, terminating relationships, developing service catalogs, and supporting complex transactions has helped organizations save hundreds of millions of dollars while avoiding costly missteps. She is co-author of The Smart Way to Buy Information Technology (AMACOM, 1998), a widely used and quoted guide to information technology sourcing. 

Swingtide’s competitive advantage is depth of service combined with a commitment to a process that has a well-defined course that ends with tangible business benefits.