Almost daily, it seems that domestic private equity firms, from Blackstone Partners to General Atlantic Partners and Sequoia Capital, are directly entering the outsourcing world. Meanwhile, existing companies already in the midst of the outsourcing fray are now in merger mode, able to reach sky high multiples seemingly overnight. And why not? […]
Whether you are based in Bangalore, Beijing or Bacalod City, one of your biggest challenges will be selling your outsourcing services to Western buyers. It doesn’t matter if you are offering IT, BPO or KPO services, you will need to overcome language, cultural and geographic barriers in order to generate sales. Following are […]
That’s right. Get your feet on the ground and visit your outsourcing vendors. Before you make the determination to move operations of any size or sort offshore, do yourself, your business and your customers a material favor, and get over to wherever it is that your work is headed, and take a look. Kick the […]
Even with the best of planning and implementation, the reality is that from time to time outsourcing projects will run into challenges. Often, the frontlines are manned by operations folks that are tasked with getting the work done, period. However, those same folks need help, but where to go? A clearly defined escalation protocol that enables […]
A successful implementation or transition of work from Company to outsourcing vendor is crucial to developing a strong relationship, as well as ensuring consistent service levels. Implementation plans must be drafted and agreed to by both parties during the negotiation of a Statement of Work, and detailed within a Specifications Manual that clearly articulates scope, responsibilities […]
Multiple service center locations cross-trained and able to ramp up for temporary volume spikes, or as mitigation pertaining to disaster recovery, is smart business and well worth the financial impact. Your customers expect service, and in today’s global world, that service is often required to be 24/7. To meet the demands of your customers in this […]
If you are an outsourcing manager, you know that services must be provided to your customers, regardless of systems outages or schedule adherence issues. At the end of the day, services must go on. Service levels often include such performance requirements as turnaround time, systems uptime and average handle time or time to answer. Each […]
We’ve all experienced it - you call an airline, a bank, your insurance company, and the voice on the other end of the line gives it away - an outsourced call center. Accents so pronounced to obviously give it away cause unnecessary abrasion with many customers, and not just in the US. Our expectation is […]
Political stability is a real risk when outsourcing offshore. Although there may be an analogy between the rise of a middle class due to better employment opportunities, and the stability of the governments of those countries, there isn’t always an analogy between the rise of outsourcing service employment and the appropriate infrastructure necessary to support those […]
In the Tier 1 Call Center space, the Philippines has proven to be an excellent location for outsourcing. Generally speaking, acceptable political stability (excepting Mindanao in the far South), a large population of English speakers with a far less discernible accent than India or elsewhere in the developing world, and a large base of college-educated […]
Contractually provided service levels ensure levels of performance, such as quality and timeliness, and are a framework under which both company and vendor can manage the outsourcing relationship. Failure to meet service levels should result in financial penalties to the vendor. Specific service levels that are critical, such as those pertaining to regulatory compliance, may be […]
Not all BPO service providers are created equal. The RFP process, though time consuming to be sure, can ultimately save time otherwise spent in prolonged and costly implementations. This process can also be an exercise in thought and internal due diligence - what are the business, technical and disaster recovery requirements associated with the work? Better […]
Ongoing governance through strong vendor management is a necessity for good outsourcing ventures. Performance measurement through service levels alone will not suffice in the long term. The establishment of a key group of specified individuals, for both company and vendor, will go a long way toward increasing vendor performance. In this day and age of […]
We are constantly being asked for a definition of outsourcing, especially by students and researchers. Following is a high-level definition covering outsourcing in general, IT outsourcing, business process outsourcing and knowledge process outsourcing.
Outsourcing
Outsourcing is the process of contracting a third party to manage or operate a non-core business function in order to reduce cost and […]