Despite quantum improvements to outsourcing deals and governance over the past 10 to 15 years, when it comes to achieving outsourcing 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 to [...]
With the rate of technical and business change increasing through the foreseeable future, outsourcing contract renegotiations have become the new normal. Clients and providers must now develop outsourcing contract renegotiation skills as part of their core competencies in order to ensure the provider’s services are aligned with the client’s needs in terms of price and [...]
As the rupee hits new lows against the U.S. dollar this year, the issue of how foreign exchange rates impact offshore outsourcing arrangements has again come to the fore. But how swings in currency valuations affect outsourcing parties remains a complex question. A weak rupee, for example, theoretically boosts the top line of Indian service [...]
At the most basic level, the challenge with change management is that everyone knows it’s important, even that it’s make or break to the success of outsourcing engagements, but very few actually know what it is or how to do it. Even the most outsourcing-sophisticated organizations fall short in their change management activities. Sourcing change [...]
In June 2011 I was interviewing the COO of a California-based bank as part of an application strategy engagement. At the end of the conversation, he asked if Alsbridge had any data on the number of contracts in which the client repatriated all of the services. My answer was, “Off hand I don’t know, but [...]
If you are an outsourcing customer, an outsourcing agreement is like a three-legged stool. Its value depends on what you agree to buy, what you agree to pay and the terms of the contract. Although the agreement and the other contract terms are often extensive, outsourcing customers often underestimate, or even overlook, the value in [...]
Outsourcing has attracted a huge amount of attention over the past few years. The basic idea is of course very simple – reap the benefits of having a specialist do the job at a lower cost. However, setting up the right deal can be complex and there is a bewildering array of jargon. As a [...]
Behind each award-winning global outsourcing relationship is a fascinating story of extraordinary people, excellence in service delivery, lots of sweat equity, some painful bumps in the road, a mutual willingness to constructively solve problems, and trust earned. Contracts were awarded as a result of a competitive bid, so they started with a blank recipe card. [...]
When you begin evaluating service providers the basic requirements are straightforward. You want a provider with expertise in your industry, a deep understanding of your processes and a proven track record of superior delivery. The provider should be responsive, communicate clearly and demonstrate that it wants your business. However, because these are table stakes in [...]
To paraphrase Mark Twain, the reports of the death of third-party outsourcing advisors are greatly exaggerated. Are you thinking about how to take advantage of the power of global sourcing? Have you signed a deal and then watched as the business case eluded you? Would you benefit from enhancing the sustainability of your supplier relationship(s)? [...]
Buyers of outsourcing services want their service providers to invest in technologies that bring continual improvement to the outsourced processes. Providers want to invest only where it is also beneficial to their margins in the long run. Therein lies a conflict. Are there reliable predictors of a buyer’s intent for a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship [...]
Many buyers of outsourcing services encounter difficulties in realizing the full benefit of their outsourcing relationships. In this paper, sourcing advisor firm Alsbridge identifies buyer attributes that lead to underachievement of outsourcing value and discusses how those attributes relate to mistakes in governance. The information covers such areas as guidance in product development, ownership of [...]
While reducing cost is typically the primary benefit of outsourcing, you also want an outsourcing agreement that allows you to realize your immediate and long-term delivery needs, provides contract flexibility and ensures that you receive maximum value for the money you will be spending. To meet those objectives, pay careful attention to the five “gotchas” [...]
Most companies that outsourced a portion of their finance and accounting (F&A) functions in the early to mid-2000s generated great savings but are probably overpaying now for the service levels they are receiving. More than $2 billion dollars of outsourcing contracts will expire in the next 12 months, and sourcing buyers need to be prepared [...]
A recent CIO Roundtable sponsored by Alsbridge, Inc. resulted in several breakthroughs on adopting and implementing cloud computing. Every IT executive in the room had two things in common: (1) a driving need to explore and leverage cloud solutions and (2) lack of a clear way to validate the cloud offerings in the market and [...]
Ben Trowbridge responds Technology is great when it works. What does a buyer of cloud services do when something goes wrong, creating a service disruption? That question became a reality for users of Amazon Web Services on April 20. Its Northern Virginia data center suffered a service outage for its hosting service at 10:41 p.m. [...]
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