Research & Insight

Global Service Delivery

The Evolving Product Sourcing Value Chain in China – Part 2

Thomas Keenan and Geofrey L. Master, Mayer Brown LLP

The entire sourcing value chain for consumer products sourced or manufactured in Asia has become increasingly interconnected and mutually reliant—ownership of physical manufacturing assets and intellectual property rights has become more ambiguous and contentious. With ambiguity over ownership and rights to manufacturing assets, customers lose the key leverage of mobility. While brand companies were able …

Under the Radar: A Look at Oft-Overshadowed ITO Trends

Outsourcing Center, Patti Putnicki, Business Writer

If information technology outsourcing (ITO) were a movie, cloud, analytics and mobility would be the headliners. Although this trendsetting triad is having a dramatic impact on how services are consumed and how companies operate, a number of other significant trends are emerging in the information technology outsourcing space. This article focuses on those unsung heroes …

How Cloud, Competition and a Maturing Market are Transforming ITO

Outsourcing Center, Patti Putnicki, Business Writer

In the world of IT, Cloud has been the media darling, taking center stage in every conversation and publication. While it’s true that Cloud is a major trend in and of itself, its adoption has caused a domino effect in the industry as a whole. The advent of utility-based pricing, in combination with a more …

The Retail Revolution: Big Changes in Store

Outsourcing Center, Patti Putnicki, Business Writer

The past few years have not been kind to the retail industry. Sluggish economies, shrinking margins and a more cost-conscious consumer have taken their proverbial toll. “We’ve seen retail sales increase by 5 percent to 6 percent, yet profits declined from 3.5 percent to 2 percent.  So, even though stores are selling more, they’re making …

The Evolving Product Sourcing Value Chain in China — Part 1

Thomas Keenan and Geofrey L. Master, Mayer Brown LLP

The product supply chain from China is not what it used to be. Over the past 20 years, Chinese consumer-product manufacturers have become increasingly sophisticated and capable of taking on more “value-adding” tasks or segments of the product creation supply chain and have moved from mere manufacturers to multi-functional suppliers. In doing so, they have …

Managing Enterprise Mobility in a Bring-Your-Own-Device World: Trends, Challenges and the Role of Outsourcing

Outsourcing Center, Patti Putnicki, Business Writer

It is the era of the 24/7 employee – but no one seems to be complaining. Cloud computing, collaboration convergence and the need for access-on-the-go have driven a surge in mobility technologies. Instead of wanting to “get away from it all,” people want to take it all with them – accessible through the lightweight devices …

Award-Winning Outsourcing Relationships — Three Key Ingredients in their "Secret Sauce"

Linda Tuck Chapman, President, ONTALA Performance Solutions Ltd.

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. …

Keeping Your Head in the Clouds: Creating an Effective Cloud Strategy

Outsourcing Center, Patti Putnicki, Business Writer

If you were ranking the most talked-about topics of the year, Cloud Computing would probably rank pretty high. But, in most cases, that talk hasn’t translated into a groundswell of action. According to a recent Alsbridge eSeminar survey, one of the stumbling blocks appears to be the initial planning – namely creating a viable Cloud …

BPO Study’s Surprising Findings on Value and Long-Term Intent in Outsourcing Relationships

Outsourcing Center, Kathleen Goolsby, Senior Writer

Buyers of outsourced 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 …

Action Plans for Managing Attrition in an Outsourcing Service Provider’s Resources

Outsourcing Center, Kathleen Goolsby, Senior Writer

Change sometimes brings unintended consequences. When outsourcing relationships several years ago took on the characteristic of delivering services from one or more offshore locations, an unintended consequence was “talent wars” and attrition. Not managing attrition among a provider’s ranks leads to unsatisfactory service delivery and higher costs. How can the parties manage this dilemma? Should …

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