BPO Archives

The Current Challenges of eProcurement

Outsourcing Center, Beth Ellyn Rosenthal, Senior Writer

In the current real world of eProcurement, linking the computer systems of buyer and suppliers is just one of the challenges facing eProcurement. Getting employees to use the procurement tools already in place is another. And reengineering the process is a third. Overcoming these difficulties -which are widely agreed upon as inhibiting the ongoing development of eProcurement – is the focus of a dedicated procurement outsourcing team at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)’s Business Process Outsourcing group.

Healthcare’s Biggest Challenge

Outsourcing Center, Kathleen Goolsby, Senior Writer

Behind closed doors, discussions about the biggest challenge for both providers and payers in the healthcare industry are not about HIPAA compliance. It’s about how to be profitable. Given the numerous industry problems besetting companies, revenue has been drastically cut, and most have lost millions of dollars for several years in a row. The solution, as many are discovering, is for organizations to become more efficient. And the only way to accomplish that objective is to outsource non-core business processes and take advantage of outsourcers’ expertise and technological resources.

Outsourcing is Taking Three Forks

Outsourcing Center, Kathleen Goolsby, Senior Writer

Traditionally, outsourcing has been IT oriented. Today, however, outsourcing is taking three different paths. I see outsourcing falling into three distinct categories: the traditional IT suppliers,† the application service providers (ASP), and the business process outsourcing (BPO) suppliers. Different currents are buffeting each sector. Historically, IBM, EDS and CSCformed the top tier of the IT …

Outsourcing Now Has Ebusiness Component

Outsourcing Center, Beth Ellyn Rosenthal, Senior Writer

When buyers decide to outsource today, you can bet ebusiness considerations are part of the contract. Paul Cofoni, president of the technology management group at Computer Science Corporation (CSC), says he rarely sees an outsourcing proposal that doesn’t have a substantial ecommerce component. Companies want to create a business-to-business (B2B) exchange, use ebusiness to enhance their supply chain management, or simply make it easier for their clients to have access to them…

Big Companies Embrace Multi-Process BPO

Outsourcing Center, Beth Ellyn Rosenthal, Senior Writer

The trend to outsource non-core business processes is ‘irreversible,’ says John Barnsley, global leader for Business Process Outsourcing for PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), and is steadily moving to include multiple activities. Barnsley attributes an overall increase in acceptance of BPO as an important strategic tool to the rapid transformation in technology. Constant change, accelerated by the Internet, has altered companies’ risk equations.

Equity Creates ‘Sticky’ Outsourcing Deals

Outsourcing Center, Beth Ellyn Rosenthal, Senior Writer

Information technology is moving from legacy information into a commodity. This inexorable shift is altering the nature of the relationship between buyer and supplier. That has been a pretty big change in the market last year, says Bob Chaffin, contract manager of IS for General Motors Corp. in Detroit, Michigan. Today, vendors must differentiate themselves in the marketplace and create an important distinction between their value added abilities and the commodity they are selling…

Double Digit Growth for BPO

Outsourcing Center, Beth Ellyn Rosenthal, Senior Writer

There was a huge up tick in business process outsourcing (BPO) in 2000, says Julie Giera, vice president at Giga, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based research and advisory firm specializing in the technology industry. She attributes BPO’s double digit growth to the popularity of Web-enabled offerings. BPO soared because companies are seeing the benefits of using an application service provider (ASP). Giera defines the ASP model as application rental over the Web.

Erin Brockovich Meets Top Gun Sales

Outsourcing Center, Beth Ellyn Rosenthal, Senior Writer

The Every Woman’s Company needed 30 top salespeople nationwide for the roll out of its financial seminars for women. The company signed Erin Brockovich (the real person, not Julia Roberts) as its spokesperson. But the company found out quickly putting together a sales force was as easy as, well, as battling a big California polluter.

The Pitfalls in Becoming a BPO

Outsourcing Center, Beth Ellyn Rosenthal, Senior Writer

ASPs have proven they are an efficient and cost effective way to share expensive applications. The most successful ASPs have made customer service a bedrock of their business. So it’s natural when a good client asks an ASP to help take on a related business process, the supplier wants to agree.

What Exactly Is BPO?

Outsourcing Center, Kathleen Goolsby, Senior Writer

What a great question! Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) has generated a number of definitions. Before I tell you my definition, I want to describe the history of outsourcing to show how the term business process outsourcing came about.

Research & Insight

BPO

The Current Challenges of eProcurement

Healthcare’s Biggest Challenge

Outsourcing Now Has Ebusiness Component

Big Companies Embrace Multi-Process BPO

Equity Creates ‘Sticky’ Outsourcing Deals

The Pitfalls in Becoming a BPO

What Exactly Is BPO?

Connect with a Sourcing Advisor at Outsourcing Center

Let’s talk more

Consult Form