Time to Market Archives

Signing a Foreign Trade Agreement Made Colombia Outsourcers More Welcome in the US Market

Outsourcing Center, Beth Ellyn Rosenthal, Senior Writer

The Foreign Trade Agreement (FTA) is no longer an unfamiliar concept. By 2013 most American companies understand and appreciate the value of offshoring. Since the Indians were among the first suppliers to pioneer the concept of sending work across geographical boundaries, American companies feel comfortable offshoring major functions to Indian service providers. Outsourcers in other …

Why is Outsourcing Innovation So Hard? Here’s How to Make the Impossible Possible!

Outsourcing Center, Beth Ellyn Rosenthal, Senior Writer

Talk to most outsourcing buyers at the outset of their engagements and innovation is always on their wish list. Talk to them two or three years later, and the one thing they wish they had gotten is innovation. The lack of innovation in outsourcing seems to be one the few things they are unhappy about. …

How Analysis Can Make Sense of the Flood of Data to Create a Competitive Edge

Outsourcing Center, Beth Ellyn Rosenthal, Senior Writer

Five years ago the big industry buzz was about the role of analytics. The excitement it generated at the time matched the arrival of another hot new technology: the first iPhone (June 27, 2007 in case you forgot!) Did the reality match the hype? (Analytics not iPhone.) Today an analytics component has become table stakes …

The F&A Forecast: 14 Challenges and Six Solutions

Outsourcing Center, Beth Ellyn Rosenthal, Senior Writer

The finance and accounting function, along with HR, have traditionally been the BPO processes that companies testing the waters of outsourcing get wet with first. Today “transactional outsourcing has been leveled to a simple commodity,” says Michael J. Alfonsi, Managing Director, BancTec Financial Transaction Services. So what are FAO’s challenges 20 years later? Processes are …

The New World Order of ITO: The View from the Inside-Out

Outsourcing Center, Patti Putnicki, Business Writer

If you look back on the transforming world of IT over the past few years, it’s easy to chart the stages. First, there was denial that anything needed to change. Then came the fear of cloud and the perceived lack of control associated with this agile, new delivery model. As we move to 2013, we …

Beyond Automation: The Importance of Human Analytics in Social Media Monitoring

Anand Chopra, Ph.D., Research & Analytics, Wipro BPO

Mobile networking. Online games. Social computing. As personal and professional worlds collide, social media is generating huge amounts of unstructured data that’s brimming with business insights — from consumer preferences to competitor activities. That’s why many companies are using social media monitoring tools to “listen” to these conversations. These automated tools — from firms such …

What is Outsourcing? It’s Our Past, Present and Future

Outsourcing Center, Karthik Nagendra, Business Writer

What is outsourcing? It is not a new or alien phenomenon. Almost every organization outsources some aspect of its business. A paint company may outsource the manufacture of its paint cans; a mobile network may outsource its billing activity; a hospital may outsource medical waste disposal; an auto manufacturer may outsource servicing; and an IT …

The Next Generation Shared Services through BPO

Dennis Winkler, Director, Jim Matthews, Managing Consultant, Alsbridge

Executives are all asking similar questions of their shared service organizations (SSO): “How do I get to the next level of shared services and realize more value?” “How do I change my SSO model to expand services and go global?” “How do I drive continuous process improvement initiatives?” “How do I deal with social media …

Mobility Shifting the Wave from Brand-centric to Customer-centric Retailing

Outsourcing Center, Karthik Nagendra, Business Writer

Two things are of key importance in the retail industry today: margins and customer loyalty. While better sourcing, operational efficiencies and market penetration can check margins, the answers to improving loyalty or even maintaining them are complex. Retailers are increasingly being forced towards tactical solutions, rewarding customers with “money-off” deals. Much of the concept of …

Financial Services: Build those mobile apps before customers dial out

Outsourcing Center, Karthik Nagendra, Business Writer

Innovation unfolding by way of mobile application usage in the financial sector is not totally unexpected: an increasing number of customers are walking around with smart phones, transacting in virtual worlds, accessing information 24X7, changing market dynamics and providing unlimited opportunities. Time has literally begun to translate into money. ComScore (NASDAQ: SCOR) [i] reported earlier …

Research & Insight

Time to Market

Signing a Foreign Trade Agreement Made Colombia Outsourcers More Welcome in the US Market

What is Outsourcing? It’s Our Past, Present and Future

Financial Services: Build those mobile apps before customers dial out

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