Mark Walker, Business Development Director, Ubertas
Fear of surrendering control is probably the main factor holding many IT directors back from realizing the benefits you’ll reap when you outsource IT services. But if you can find an IT services supplier who will work with you in a genuine partnership, understanding the specific needs of your business, it soon becomes clear that …
Outsourcing Center, Beth Ellyn Rosenthal, Senior Writer
Almost 40 years after Ross Perot launched outsourcing by offering to take over a company’s IT, outsourcing has become an accepted business practice. Yet it’s surprising how much resistance there still is in the market. The Outsourcing Center asked recruitment technology service providers and RPO providers why they believe companies still refuse to outsource in …
Outsourcing Center, Karthik Nagendra, Business Writer
The digital age has changed customer DNA forever. They have no patience with 9 to 5 and they’re shredding the concept of after-hours and weekends. They have a voice, and that voice demands to be heard whenever, wherever. Enter outsourcing social media marketing. Working hours, what’s that? Banks—previously such strict observers of “working hours” all …
Outsourcing Center, Patti Putnicki, Business Writer
Business Process Outsourcing (BPO). The concept is relatively simple: instead of hiring employees to handle the necessary but non-core, transaction-based business functions in your company, pass these on to someone else. Where’s the room for BPO mistakes? Here’s the thing: BPO is not like dropping off your dirty clothes at the dry cleaner and having …
Outsourcing Center, Patti Putnicki, Business Writer
Payroll outsourcing is an excellent way to improve accuracy, streamline processes and offload time-consuming, often tedious tasks to a proven specialist. While the service is designed to simplify life for the client company (and the people in it), without careful planning or adherence to some best practices, the whole thing can get a little complicated. …
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. …
Outsourcing Center, Karthik Nagendra, Business Writer
Today’s Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are not simple documents that define the duration and the service to be delivered against a timetable with a handful of pre-determined performance parameters. Rather, they are documents that include cleverly negotiated customization, additional provisions, provider and buyer obligations, reporting methodologies, penalties and rewards. A well-crafted and customized SLA document …
Outsourcing Center, Karthik Nagendra, Business Writer
One of the questions that continue to hound buyers and providers of outsourcing is how to mitigate the risk of failure. This is despite a longer history of outsourcing than you would suspect—outsourcing can be traced back to the Industrial Revolution. For 150 years, until 1900, industry in Europe outsourced its requirements. Functions like accounting …
Frank Usher, Managing Consultant
When considering sourcing alternatives for IT services, buyers must make a fundamental decision on structure. Do you want a single IT provider or multiple IT providers? Both have their pros and cons. Neither of the approaches is wrong. But each presents unique challenges, both in operations and in provider management. When IT outsourcing initially evolved, …
Outsourcing Center, Patti Putnicki, Business Writer
16th Annual Outsourcing Excellence Awards—Best BPO: International Paper and Aon Hewitt “Instead of communicating by change requests and contract management, we can sit down and talk. That is what makes us successful.” Scott Lacy, Manager of HR Operations, International Paper It was the 1990s and the paper and packaging industry was dramatically evolving. To keep …
"*" indicates required fields