Outsource Magazine

One of the largest and most influential publishing companies in the world, Hearst is at the forefront of the digital revolution. CIO Debra Robinson explains how embracing outsourcing has been a crucial factor in maintaining that position

Debra Robinson: I did an undergraduate degree in business at The Wharton School  (University of Pennsylvania), and have an MSc in change management from there as well. Before I came to Hearst I was a CIO at four other companies; I came to Hearst as VP technology and production, to set up Hearst Digital Media – a new division within Hearst. That was in March 2006. I focused on digital media, to launch digital properties in-house on the internet. Prior to that, they were at iVillage: the decision was made to bring them in-house. Since then we’ve bought a couple of companies, as well as launching pure-plays. After about a year, and all the launches, I went out to CDS Global as interim CIO, in Iowa, and came back to New York as SVP/CIO, which includes digital and traditional IT.

O: So, turning to outsourcing: what kind of activities do you outsource at present?

DR: Currently all the digital infrastructure is with Verizon: all the hosting, network, equipment. So we do a managed service, and disaster recovery for digital properties, with Verizon. Our customer database and warehouse is with Acxiom. And we do a lot of work offshoring with Harvey Nash. Those are the three big partners. We offshore QA/QC, for digital; production work (HTML and Java) for the websites; sometimes some BPO, if we have books we want to convert into HTML for the web, we could offshore that work; and some of the magazine work, reformatting. There’s not a streamlined way right now to get content from magazines all the way through into different formats, so offshoring is still the quickest way to do it. We have a 24-hour turnaround.

O: You’ve said that your organisation uses outsourcing to “increase productivity and delivery of products”, and that it allows you to “scale up and down quickly and efficiently”. Were those the main drivers behind the strategy at its inception?

DR: Yes. It was interesting: at Harvey Nash everyone was very excited about outsourcing and offshoring because they saw it as augmenting the department. People did not see it as jobs going away; they saw it as help. The driver was throughput: there was a backlog of work and we were able to work 24 hours a day by going offshore. Especially in Vietnam where there’s a 12-hour difference. We started off small with QA and QC, because a lot of it was process work that needed to be done. So we would send work over at the end of our day, and we’d come in in the morning and the work was already QAed and ready for corrections. In theory we were now working 24 hours a day.

O: You’ve mentioned Vietnam there: was that one of the main reasons you went with that particular partner, or was that something that emerged as a result of other drivers?

DR: It emerged as a benefit. Harvey Nash was a relationship built after they came in to talk about executive recruiting. Then we started talking about offshoring, and about other issues and pain-points that I was having at the time, and they said they had another arm which could carry out offshoring. What Harvey Nash was willing to do was start off small, help us with the process, help us learn how to offshore: it went very smoothly. From there we grew. We started off with three testers and now we’re at about 35 people over there.

O: How do the peculiarities of how Hearst is set up globally, and has evolved, impact upon how you offshore and outsource? You have a lot of subsidiaries internationally…

DR: It does impact. I did not look to do a big outsourcing deal where you take all your infrastructure and say, “100 per cent we’re outsourcing it”. That wouldn’t work here. It was creating a model and then organically growing it. Here’s a good example: with Hearst Digital Media here in New York, we went to RealAge (one of our digital properties) with the model. That site is preparing to launch some new products. All the QA – a very complicated testing model we have to go through – is being offshored with Harvey Nash in Vietnam.

We’re now in the process of taking the websites in the UK and bringing them onto the Hearst Digital Media platform; a lot of the production work for the UK is being done in Vietnam. That’s what I’m saying by “organic change”; it requires a lot of change management skills and leadership to get people comfortable with it. Offshoring and outsourcing are about people and processes, and wanting to make them work. And being with the right partner!

O: What are your secrets to a successful partnership – and how have you worked to achieve that with your partners?

DR: I’ve had a long-term relationship with Verizon, and I have to say it’s the people, and being people-facing, and the time spent, and being fair as a partner, seeing both sides. The same thing with Acxiom: another long-term relationship, wanting to work through issues. And then there’s Harvey Nash, a new partnership; the person I work with is very client-facing. It all comes from the ground up: if you force these projects down you’re not always successful.

O: How have you overcome any challenges which have arisen?

DR: Open communication: when there are problems on either side, we expect them to be told. I expect any vendor to tell me about problems. We have monthly meetings where we have open discussions about issues and concerns. If issues are not resolved right away, and people let them fester, it’s a problem. As soon as there’s an issue, get right on it, resolve it, and move on.

O: Do you think that attitude reflects a general change in the relationship between buyer and provider?

DR: That’s a part that vendors are struggling with: how to move to client relationship management? What’s the value-add? They realise they have to do it, but it’s a big cultural change for them. I think ait’ll change over the next few years. It’s a very important change.