CPG/Retail | Outsourcing Center

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 …

“Let’s Go Shopping:” New Mobility Strategies Entice Consumers Back Into Physical Stores

Outsourcing Center, Patti Putnicki, Business Writer

Why go to a store when you can purchase online? Thanks to innovative mobility strategies, consumers will soon have plenty of reasons. Instead of focusing efforts on lackluster mCommerce, retailers are now looking at mobility solutions as a means to enhance their customers’ in-store experiences, drive loyalty and increase per basket sales. “We’re seeing the …

Mobility’s Coming of Age: All Grown Up and Changing Business for the Better

Outsourcing Center, Patti Putnicki, Business Writer

Before cloud, mobility was in its infancy—a means of obtaining email, calendar and contacts on the go. People who relied on desktop computers for communication were unchained. For salespeople, this was awesome. But, for the rest of us, the business apps we needed required too much processing power to travel with us. Then, along came …

Business Applications Get the "Cool" Factor

Outsourcing Center, Patti Putnicki, Business Writer

Admit it. We all loved getting emails on our Blackberries when mobility first burst on the scene. And back in the day (maybe four years ago), most of us thought of our smartphones as portable computer Mini Me’s, giving us things like mobile banking, mCommerce and a means to book a reservation or check for …

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 …

The Mobility Phenomenon: The Megatrend that’s Changing Everything

Outsourcing Center, Patti Putnicki, Business Writer

Can you even remember what it was like to have to be in a “place” to make a call? When a flat tire meant a search for a pay phone? When email was something that accumulated between Friday and Monday, until the office computer was powered back on? It’s hard to believe that when the …

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 …

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 …

Procurement Outsourcing Is Hot — Even for Hybrid Strategies

Linda Tuck Chapman, President, ONTALA Performance Solutions Ltd.

Procurement outsourcing is the least understood but fastest-growing outsourcing story. The market is heating up and there is a lot to learn. What should you outsource? What should you retain — and why? If you decide to outsource, what should you do internally before outsourcing? How can you implement a hybrid strategy in your procurement …

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