Recently, there has been a lot of press coverage over TPI’s analysis of the first quarter’s severe market drop-off in U.S. outsourcing. Many press agencies have picked up the story and, like Chicken Little, are claiming that the sky is falling. Other analysts are calling it, at worst, a temporary blip or a “market correction,” […]
Some law firms claim to be “Champions of the Customer,” a phrase that I always thought was a bit peculiar in the context of outsourcing deals. Thinking about this, I looked up the word “champion” and found the following definition: “a militant advocate or defender.” Is that what one needs to start a […]
Outsourcing vendors, with hundreds or even thousands of seats, make money by maximizing the utilization of those seats. Seats that sit idle do not generate revenue, thus providing either costly overhead or an opportunity for companies to increase capacity by soliciting business that is complementary in terms of time. For example, Philippine call […]
Much has been written about the failures of outsourcing deals to live up to their true potential. Poor communications, scope creep, and unrealistic promises and expectations top the list. Interestingly, these are all derivatives of poor deal governance – both by suppliers and customers.
Certainly, the governance issues among customers are well understood, even if they’re […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]