Research & Insight

Business Challenge

Business Transformation

Big Data Trends: New Uses, New Challenges, New Solutions

Outsourcing Center, Patti Putnicki, Business Writer

It’s hard to find a business enabler that’s evolving as quickly as big data analytics. Big data trends are on the minds of business owners everywhere. This undisputed darling of the loyalty program and retail world has now infiltrated nearly every industry, from transportation and healthcare to insurance and supply chain management. It’s the catalyst …

The Seven Deadly Sins of BPO and How to Avoid Them

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 …

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. …

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 …

Fabric Data Centers: The End of Complex, Expensive and Inefficient Infrastructure

Outsourcing Center, Karthik Nagendra, Business Writer

What’s new in the data center? Last year, the buzz was around “fabric data centers” as organizations began to worry about costs. Did it make sense to have dedicated and expensive network, computing and storage resources around applications even if the IT infrastructure was outsourced? Could IT infrastructure costs be brought down? CIOs were under …

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 …

Transforming Supply Chain Management with RFID

Outsourcing Center, Karthik Nagendra, Business Writer

Some years ago, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) was going to bring supply chain management to the next level. Retailers like Target, Metro Cash & Carry and Walmart adopted it, only to discover that there were several challenges. Integration with SCM was one—tracking everything down to the last part/unit using RFID was turning out to not …

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 …

The World’s Largest Procurement BPO Engagement Realizes Its Vision

Outsourcing Center, Patti Putnicki, Business Writer

16th Annual Outsourcing Excellence Awards—Best Financial Services: Deutsche Bank and Accenture The world’s largest procurement BPO engagement has realized its vision. “Working as one cohesive team, we over-delivered on our business case and we’re still on an upward trajectory. Eight years after initiating the largest procurement BPO engagement in the world, we’re here, we’re successful and …

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