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 […]
People ask us all the time what to put into an outsourcing RFP. Top dollar consulting companies such as TPI, EquaTerra, and Everest Group all have different templates and processes. We believe that the RFP is the principle point in time where the company establishes their negotiation leverage while enforcing enough structure to permit an […]
Software as a Service (SaaS) is a services delivery model being sponsored by many software vendors. While not generally referred to as “outsourcing,” SaaS has many of the same features, and requires many of the same contractual precautions of an IT outsourcing.
In a true SaaS model, the software vendor and the service provider are one-in-the […]
According to a Deloitte survey cited in an article by Jeana Wong in Channel News Asia, outsourcing is not generating the savings promised. Surprising? No. Actually, to anyone in the business, it is pretty obvious.
Nor are the reasons surprising. In that article, Phua Jer Hong, regional practice leader of Strategy & Ops Advisory at Deloitte […]
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 […]
Back when I was in high school, I knew a guy who was a great athlete – baseball, football and track letterman. He had all the pretty girls swooning over him (including the one that I was secretly in love with). He seemed unstoppable. I ran into him a couple of years ago at my […]
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 […]
Your company makes money by providing outsourcing services to your clients. The more your workers are utilized and the less time that seats or systems sit idle, the more money your company makes. However, what does it take to win business in this globally competitive world? How does your company compete in […]
In Part One, we focused on site visits before you decided to outsource. If you haven’t read it yet, please do so, as you’ll find the differences between the two trips interesting. In this part, we’ll focus on the site visit basics when you’re performing due diligence during vendor selection.
Why Are You Visiting?
There is simply […]
This is the first of a two part series where we’ll focus on site visits before you outsource. In this part, we’ll focus on the site visit basics when you’re making-up your mind as to whether your want to outsource or what you should outsource. In the second part we’ll focus on due diligence activities […]
We’ve all heard the tragic stories of outsourcing gone wrong. In fact, the media’s stories only tell tales of companies whose relationships fail, forgetting to mention the bad vendor selection decisions, the dysfunctional day-to-day relationships of frontline vendor managers, and the Byzantine-like division of responsibilities among vendor managers, vendors, and remaining IT/Operations units. Behind every […]
Outsourcing metrics are measurements of performance used by companies to manage their outsourcing operations. Also referred to as key performance indicators, or KPI’s, metrics enable companies to enforce service level agreements (SLAs), compare vendors, and maintain day-to-day visibility into remote operations.
Many companies fail to recognize the value of metrics, looking only at end-of-the-day profits and […]
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 […]