In an article appearing in Computer World on July 23, 2007 entitled When to Fix a Broken Process, Bart Perkins of Leverage Partners, Inc., explores a question that many ask: whether it is better to improve your process before or after you outsource. Mr. Perkins aptly points out that there are pros and cons to […]
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, […]
The idea of picking up or lifting a particular lot of work, and sourcing (the shifting) to a vendor is not new. And, the reasons for so doing are not new either. However, as more and more companies, of all sizes, further mature in their outsourcing experience and strategy, the “lift and shift” of […]
I recently had the opportunity to represent an outsourced services supplier in one deal and a new outsourced services customer in another. In both deals, the other side provided the paper. The experience left me even more sure that a better way must exist for these deals.
There is a new buzz in operations areas regarding Staffing Accuracy. Staffing Accuracy is the measure of actually supplied staff versus planned staffing in each interval of the staffing forecast. I expect good vendor managers to forecast staffing levels using the same intervals used in forecasting.
Without accurate transaction volume forecasts, staffing forecasts are meaningless. However, […]
Addressing Complexity
Complexity is the first thing that we must change to facilitate the development of governable outsourcing deals. We have all been taught to believe, axiomatically, that “more information is better information.” Current outsourcing deals generally reflect this approach, drawing “every leaf on every tree” to describe the outsourced and retained services.
More information […]
Why do we create ungovernable deals?
Outsourcing deal documents fail to support governance for many reasons. Chief among them is that the deal paper is simply too complex. These documents go on for literally hundreds of pages, are full of arcane language and do not provide adequate information to permit a Customer to govern […]
Like most outsourcing attorneys, I have experienced the telephone book-sized outsourcing deal. Truth be told, I even created a couple in my day. Being in the relatively unique position of in-house outsourcing counsel, I also had the opportunity to deal with the other end of the process – governance. While these documents were good, sometimes […]
A few years ago, a product came out that could have - and should have - revolutionized much of the way that business information is presented. Called the “Ambient Orb,” the product was simply a sphere that glowed, usually with the stock market. Green was up - the brighter, the higher; red was down, the […]
Picture the job of a call center director who must provide staff to handle inbound sales calls in response to sales and marketing initiatives. Picture the job of an insurance claims operations director who also must provide staff to cleanse and adjudicate claims. If they don’t have a good estimate of inbound transaction volumes, how […]
In E.M. Foerster’s “A Passage to India,” the conflicts between British aristocracy and the Indian professional class was explored. It was a difficult story, highlighting pride, prejudice and institutionalized bias.
These days, however, passages to India (and Singapore, Argentina, Belgium and Thailand, among others) mean something entirely different for hundreds of thousands of people (about […]
Over the past few years, outsourced call centers have become a whipping boy for the trouble with outsourcing. We have all seen the cartoons or the YouTube videos and we have all had similar experiences… A poor customer negotiates a maze of teleprompts and menus, is placed on hold for an extended period […]