Much of the monitoring of an outsourcing deal is based on specific metrics. There are good reasons for this approach — after all, metrics are “hard numbers” and are relatively easy to measure. No doubt, meeting metrics is also a very important part of any quality outsourcing deal. But are metrics everything? […]
Here is my annual list of New Year’s Resolutions for those of us in the outsourcing industry.
For Outsourcing Customers
1) I will dedicate adequate resources to managing my outsourcing deal.
2) I will send out RFP’s only to vendors with a chance of earning the business.
3) I will set service levels that reflect my true business needs, […]
As BPO outsourcing matures and more and more companies are getting into the fray, increasing numbers of companies are now also realizing that perhaps outsourcing hasn’t been such a good deal. The “lift and shift” mentality so commonly afflicting companies is coming back to haunt them in the final analysis – issues from poor […]
The life cycle of outsourcing as a trend is following the same pattern as recent business fads. Certainly, the U.S. domestic deal flow, which has been weak at best, is showing its age. I expect that European outsourcing, which was the major hot growth area in 2007 - will face a similar fate […]
If the U.S. economy continues to show signs of a slump, it will be increasingly likely that our politicians and special interest groups will look for a bogeyman to blame. In his New York Times bestseller (2006) Take This Job and Ship It, Senator Bryon Dorgan did just that: he pinned the loss of jobs in […]
In recent years, legal fees of major law firms have grown dramatically, both on a per-attorney and per-matter basis. Individual attorney fees can be as high as $300/hour for a first year attorney. For complex mergers and acquisitions, litigations and patent prosecutions, fees can easily reach into seven figures. This growth has […]
A September 17, 2007, article in CIO magazine entitled “How to Measure Real Outsourcing Success” (Hint: It’s Not the SLAs), pointed out some interesting statistics about outsourcing and outsourcing happiness. Starting with the premise that SLA statistics are not a measure of happiness, the article described a process built by Dr. Paul Roehig at […]
There was an interesting short article in Computer World on Monday, August 27 that described a trend in which outsourcing customers are bringing disaster recovery back in-house. Having witnessed this debate on an ongoing basis several times, I read this article with a combination of cynicism and intrigue.
Outsourcing has had a difficult year in North America. There are many explanations, some point to quality concerns, some to governance concerns, and some to a reduction in value caused by the combination of labor shortages and currency fluctuations. All of these represent a change in the risk-reward analysis that many […]
To the uninitiated, call center outsourcing projects can appear quite complex, as they involve a wide variety of interrelated tasks and require participants from nearly all areas of an organization. The first implementation is a significant learning experience to all involved, as few internal projects have the same scope, with the added variables of an […]
TPI’s Peter Allen, in a recent blog posting in The Deal, asked whether it was better to offshore a business process using a captive or third-party model. Interestingly, the article offered no real conclusion to the question of which is better, but did highlight the most important aspect – and the biggest shortcoming – […]
Claims processing is one of the cornerstones of outsourcing in the insurance industry. This primarily back-office task is often seen as a great opportunity to save money ¨C as it is primarily ministerial, not customer-facing and based on specific rules and guidelines. Many insurers have grasped this concept and moved their processing to lower-cost offshore […]
The Wall Street Journal article dated June 16, 2007 and entitled “The Seven Myths of Outsourcing” (at this link) is a great survey of significant issues arising in outsourcing deals. While it points out certain major flaws in the deal-making process, however, it fails to scratch below the surface to the misaligned incentives that give […]
According to a recent article found on ZDNet UK (here), more and more U.S. companies are participating in “do-it-yourself” (DIY) outsourcing. This has caused a slow down among outsourcing consultants and law firms – all of which suffer when companies take on outsourcing themselves. What is being gained and lost in this transition?
The tales and travails of bad outsourcing agreements are probably as legendary as the stories of legions of foreign workers taking away American jobs. Yet, we don’t hear much about the agreements that lead to engagements gone wrong, to service levels not met or in worst case, services not being provided. Of course, […]