Research & Insight

Service Level Agreement (SLA)

Assessing Cultural Fit during the RFP Process – "No-Divorce" Outsourcing

Linda Tuck Chapman, President, ONTALA Performance Solutions Ltd.

A good cultural fit is one of the most important hallmarks between a successful and unsuccessful outsourcing relationship. Cultural fit assessment during the RFP process is far less structured than defined processes that help you quantitatively evaluate the service provider’s solution, capabilities and pricing. To decide whether your company and the service provider will have …

Seven Examples of Resolving Financial Conflicts between Buyers and Providers of Outsourced Services

Outsourcing Center, Kathleen Goolsby, Senior Writer

At the point where outsourcing service providers or their customers have financial conflicts that will result in a monetary loss to either party, they’re walking a fine line. If they manage to resolve the issue with a mutually beneficial solution, their relationship will be even stronger than before the conflict. If not, the party that …

Business Process as a Service – The Next Wave of BPO Delivery

Outsourcing Center, Bruce McCracken, Business Writer

Business process as a service (BPaaS) is emerging to be a BPO game-changer reminiscent of Software as a Service (SaaS) a decade ago. Specifically, BPaaS is adding arrows to organizations’ outsourcing quiver in how they approach their finance and accounting and other back-office functions. “Businesses that leverage traditional outsourcing deals are looking to move off …

Eight Biggest Areas of Risk for Buyers of Outsourcing Services

Outsourcing Center, Kathleen Goolsby, Senior Writer

New delivery models, new pricing models, service providers’ new marketing strategies, moving up the value chain to intellectual arbitrage, new technologies, real-time customer interaction, globalization, and new standards and regulations – these factors set the stage for risks for buyers of outsourcing services in the next two to five years. (Read Forces of Change Shaping …

Buyers Face Decisions around New Opportunities and Risks in Outsourced IT Solutions

Outsourcing Center, Kathleen Goolsby, Senior Writer

Buyers must face decisions around new risks and opportunities in outsourced IT solutions. Charlie Bess, HP Fellow, HP Enterprise Services, says the outsourcing industry is facing “a different kind of IT and support environment than what we had just a few short years ago.” Here’s how he describes this new environment: More sensors deployed in …

Outsourcing Experts Discuss New Flexible Pricing Models

Outsourcing Center, Kathleen Goolsby, Senior Writer

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 …

Decision-Making Insights for Companies Outsourcing HR Functions

Outsourcing Center, Kathleen Goolsby, Senior Writer

Outsourcing HR 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 …

100 Lessons Learned – Mistakes and Successes of Outsourcing Buyers

Outsourcing Center, Kathleen Goolsby, Senior Writer

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 …

Seven Action Areas to Strengthen an Outsourcing Relationship

Outsourcing Center, Kathleen Goolsby, Senior Writer

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 relationships, that is, strengthen outsourcing relationships. To identify these relationship-strengthening actions, …

Four Tips for Effective Management of the Outsourcing Transition

Outsourcing Center, Kathleen Goolsby, Senior Writer

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 …

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