Outsourcing Center assembled a panel of industry experts to discuss the changes in outsourcing contracts and pricing models over the next two to five years. Their insights reveal buyers and providers will approach outsourcing initiatives differently than in the past. Q. Outsourcing pricing models and contract vehicles have evolved over the past few years. How [...]
For the most part, industry experts say the midmarket is poised for significant growth in outsourcing during the next five years. However, some point out that the nature of midsized companies may hinder growth. Outsourcing Center interviewed providers and advisors serving the midmarket regarding upcoming changes in this market and the risks and challenges that [...]
HR outsourcing went through a shake-out over the past two years due to the continual issues around scope and other challenges that buyers and service providers encountered over the past decade. The dust has settled from the revamping efforts, but there are new challenges on the horizon. Here’s what your company needs to know for [...]
Which industries will experience a surge in outsourcing in the next few years, and what risks will buyers of those services face? Are there business processes or functions that will begin turning to outsourcing in the next two to five years? What value opportunities and risks will they bring? In what geographic regions will companies [...]
As GE’s Jack Welch states, mistakes can often be as good a teacher as success. In studying outsourcing relationships through Outsourcing Center’s annual Outsourcing Excellence Awards program since 1996, Outsourcing Center has aggregated and analyzed the lessons learned – mistakes and successes – by hundreds of buyers and providers of outsourcing services. These lessons learned [...]
An outsourcing provider’s quality of services and the achievement of the agreed-upon mutually beneficial objectives are essential to success. But there are additional actions that service providers and buyers can take to boost the return on investment and increase the life expectancy of their relationship. To identify these relationship-strengthening actions, Outsourcing Center conducted a survey [...]
Organizations are recognizing that diversity management in outsourcing makes a measurable difference in the potential return on investment (ROI). The diversity issue extends beyond a differing culture where offshore resources are involved. And it goes beyond ensuring that an organization employs a workforce of multiple races and ethnicities. In outsourcing, managing diversity focuses on getting [...]
“What was horrible about our outsourcing relationship in the beginning is that our expectations were unclear. That’s a horrible formula for success.” The person stating this assessment described a troubled – but remediated and turned-around – relationship that Outsourcing Center studied in its annual Outsourcing Excellence and Sourcing Awards program. Like the relationship just described, [...]
The possible perils that can impact the success of an outsourcing relationship’s transition phase are well known. These days, most buyers are as aware as service providers of the need for a robust governance framework that facilitates the parties’ identification of challenges and working collaboratively to address them quickly. Most have also read tales of [...]
At Outsourcing Center, a frequent comment we hear from buyers of outsourcing services is: “If I had it to do all over again, I would put in place a more effective structure for managing the service provider and the relationship.” The problem is significant enough that it spawns many advice-oriented articles with titles such as: [...]
Service level agreements (SLAs) play two important roles in an outsourcing arrangement. They set the stage for the service provider’s accountability, and they are the major factor in determining the price of the service. The buyer of outsourced services can achieve a comfort level that it’s getting what it pays for if it regularly monitors [...]
Industry media, especially over the past two years, often points out that a significantly high number of outsourcing arrangements do not deliver the promised cost savings due to “hidden” costs associated with managing the relationship. This is especially true, the reports state, in outsourcing relationships with an offshore delivery component, where administrative costs increase due [...]
After buyers and service providers begin working together, they find aspects about each other and the relationship they hadn’t anticipated and planned for or issues about which they had mistaken assumptions. Outsourcing Center surveyed 64 buyers on what caused those issues and how to successfully address them.
Giving up control over the outsourced process is a basic principle in how outsourcing works, but many buyers find it difficult to do this at the outset of a relationship. An Outsourcing Center study looked at the factors that cause initial discomfort and what makes a buyer feel comfortable enough to turn over control to the provider.
An Outsourcing Center study found that a lot of outsourcing buyers have relationship managers with no prior experience or training in how to manage the relationship. This article describes why this occurs and the challenges that result from this phenomenon.
You know the feelings that surround a day you’d like to forget. Stress. Anxiety. Embarrassment. Regret. Revisiting a decision. Now place all of that in the context of an outsourcing relationship on a day when something goes wrong – really wrong. A revenue-generating, ERP, or payroll system goes down. A hurricane or tsunami wipes out [...]
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