Robert Joslin, Managing Director, Alsbridge
Hint: 12 Months Out is TOO Late When should you start working on your next outsourcing contract? Many organizations do not address the end of a contract until the last year of its term. The notification period in the contract, typically 6-to-12 months, usually triggers this discussion. However I believe this is a mistake. Developing …
Thomas Keenan and Geofrey L. Master, Mayer Brown LLP
The entire sourcing value chain for consumer products sourced or manufactured in Asia has become increasingly interconnected and mutually reliant—ownership of physical manufacturing assets and intellectual property rights has become more ambiguous and contentious. With ambiguity over ownership and rights to manufacturing assets, customers lose the key leverage of mobility. While brand companies were able …
Outsourcing Center, Patti Putnicki, Business Writer
Can you even remember what it was like to have to be in a “place” to make a call? When a flat tire meant a search for a pay phone? When email was something that accumulated between Friday and Monday, until the office computer was powered back on? It’s hard to believe that when the …
Outsourcing Center, Patti Putnicki, Business Writer
If information technology outsourcing (ITO) were a movie, cloud, analytics and mobility would be the headliners. Although this trendsetting triad is having a dramatic impact on how services are consumed and how companies operate, a number of other significant trends are emerging in the information technology outsourcing space. This article focuses on those unsung heroes …
Outsourcing Center, Patti Putnicki, Business Writer
In the world of IT, Cloud has been the media darling, taking center stage in every conversation and publication. While it’s true that Cloud is a major trend in and of itself, its adoption has caused a domino effect in the industry as a whole. The advent of utility-based pricing, in combination with a more …
Outsourcing Center, Patti Putnicki, Business Writer
The past few years have not been kind to the retail industry. Sluggish economies, shrinking margins and a more cost-conscious consumer have taken their proverbial toll. “We’ve seen retail sales increase by 5 percent to 6 percent, yet profits declined from 3.5 percent to 2 percent. So, even though stores are selling more, they’re making …
Outsourcing Center, Staff Writer
Enterprise IT and compliance groups agree on one thing for certain: their cloud environments could use some work on the security front. Less than half of the 1,018 IT security practitioners and enterprise compliance officers surveyed by the Ponemon Institute, which conducts independent research on privacy, data protection and information security policy, believe their organizations …
Thomas Keenan and Geofrey L. Master, Mayer Brown LLP
The product supply chain from China is not what it used to be. Over the past 20 years, Chinese consumer-product manufacturers have become increasingly sophisticated and capable of taking on more “value-adding” tasks or segments of the product creation supply chain and have moved from mere manufacturers to multi-functional suppliers. In doing so, they have …
Linda Tuck Chapman, President, ONTALA Performance Solutions Ltd.
Despite quantum improvements to outsourcing deals and governance over the past 10 to 15 years, when it comes to achieving outsourcing process excellence there’s still plenty of opportunity. Part of the challenge is that once the decision is made to outsource or change providers, the clock starts ticking….fast. It takes real discipline to know when …
Outsourcing Center, Patti Putnicki, Business Writer
It is the era of the 24/7 employee – but no one seems to be complaining. Cloud computing, collaboration convergence and the need for access-on-the-go have driven a surge in mobility technologies. Instead of wanting to “get away from it all,” people want to take it all with them – accessible through the lightweight devices …
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