Research & Insight

Risk-Reward

Overcoming the Winner’s Curse

J Ben Trowbridge

Unlike most auctions, both buyers and service provicers in an IT outsourcing transaction pay if the winning service provider offered an irrational price to get the deal. Stephen Dunn offers tips to buyers on how to avoid the winner’s curse.

Top 9 Innovation Trends in Outsourcing for 2015

Outsourcing Center, Staff Writer

Robotics, Analytics or Multi-channel enagagement? This report explores the innovative practices businesses are implementing in their outsourcing agreements. It is based on 100 in-depth interviews with senior outsourcing buyers. More than four fifths (83%) of buyers say they have experienced innovation in their outsourcing relationships Nine in ten (92%) say their outsourcing partners want to …

How Big Data is Becoming Predictive, Helping Executives Make Better Decisions | Article

Outsourcing Center, Beth Ellyn Rosenthal, Senior Writer

Businesses have always wanted a crystal ball to predict the future. Now they can almost have one if they combine Big Data, analytic prowess and deep domain and process knowledge. For the first time, analytics is becoming predictive and can help executives make less risky decisions that affect their corporate futures. The key is you …

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

Outsourcing Center, Patti Putnicki, Business Writer

It’s hard to find a business enabler that’s evolving as quickly as Big Data analytics. 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 for a new marketing mindset, where targeted offers are not only …

The F&A Forecast: 14 Challenges and Six Solutions | Article

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 …

Five Steps to Customizing Service Level Agreements | Article

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 …

What Causes Outsourcing Failures? | Article

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 …

A Pioneering HR BPO Engagement Succeeds through "The Simplicity of One" | Article

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 …

The Next Generation Shared Services through BPO

Dennis Winkler, Director, Jim Matthews, Managing Consultant, Alsbridge

Executives are all asking similar questions of their shared service organizations (SSO): “How do I get to the next level of shared services and realize more value?” “How do I change my SSO model to expand services and go global?” “How do I drive continuous process improvement initiatives?” “How do I deal with social media …

Connect with our Sourcing Advisor

"*" indicates required fields

Let’s talk more

Consult Form

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.