Congratulations and welcome to Christa, Ned, Tom and Jamie!

May 22nd, 2013

Amigos – it gives me great pleasure to announce some imminent new analyst arrivals at HfS, in addition to announcing the promotion of a couple of guys who’ve been instrumental in the development of this business, which has literately sprung from nowhere in three years to the monstrosity it has become today…

Christa Degnan Manning joins HfS Research as Vice President to lead the firm’s Human Capital Management Strategies research practice addressing both technology and services dynamics. Christa joins from American Express where she was a leader with the firm’s managed business travel services. Prior to AMEX, she led the Human Capital Management Practice at AMR Research (Gartner), and the Procurement and Category Management Practice at Aberdeen Group.  She was one of the few analysts at AMR who never took any crap from me… she is feisty, smart and fearless.

Ned May joins HfS Research as Senior Vice President to spearhead the firm’s research coverage of Technology Enabled Business Services, where he will research the impact of mobility, big data and cloud technologies on business and IT services. Ned previously led worldwide IT services research for analyst IDC and most recently worked in the new media industry covering the impact of new technologies on publishing and information.  His official name is “Edward” and is known as the “Frat Boy” by his former UK IDC colleagues.   He is also a great writer, thinker and all round guy.

Tom Ivory is promoted to Chief Operating Officer of HfS Research, where he will oversee the company’s commercial operations, events and marketing functions, in addition to contributing to the overall research strategy. Tom has overseen 300% growth in HfS revenue performance in his two-and-a-half year tenure. He previously worked in senior commercial roles at OpenText (Metastorm) software and the Corporate Executive Board.  Tom has thrown himself hook, line and sinker into HfS and been a real part of our growth story.  Just don’t be fooled by the angelic features…

Jamie Snowdon is promoted to Executive Vice President, Research Operations, where he will manage the core HfS research analyst team, oversee the HfS Blueprint supplier evaluation methodology, price benchmarking service, market sizing and forecasting, and research processes. Jamie has successfully overseen the firm’s establishment of its Market Index forecasting during his 18-month tenure, in addition to developing the firm’s PriceIndicator benchmarking service that focuses on IT services and BPO pricing. He previously worked in research leadership roles at NelsonHall, IDC and Input.  Jamie is knows in business as the “Ginger Ninja”… the quiet research assassin who can produce research from practically anything.  He has also promised he will finally get a mugshot done which involves a collar and tie… however I’ll believe it when I see it.

Being able to attract and develop this level of talent is critical to supporting our growth plans. The research industry has been both disrupted and transformed by the whirlwind availability of information and data in recent years, and maintaining a distinct voice above the noise has never been so critical.  Research must be more about talent with a unique vision than dull reports and mass-produced trends, if the analyst industry is to thrive and prosper in today’s environment.

Finally, we wouldn’t be anywhere near close to where we are today without the support from YOU. So thanks :)

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Ensure you keep calm during transition…

May 18th, 2013

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Corsello OnDemand… on talent management, modern marketing and a little bit more

May 16th, 2013

"It's not all about social media, it's about everything we do being very integrated". Jason Corsello is VP, Strategy at Cornerstone OnDemand

About a decade ago, when I was chugging along in the old-school analyst business, I hired a kid from the West Coast to learn the ropes.

I think he was just looking for any old job to get him to the East Coast, but, hell, he seemed smart and was willing to work for a lousy wage.  After a glamorous relocation (I recall we put him up at the Holiday Inn at Logan Airport for 2 weeks), I threw him some god-awful analyst report on HR technology platforms and said, “can you write something better than this crap”.  He’s never looked back.

Jason Corsello didn’t just turn out to be a great analyst and one of the original HR bloggers, but he’s now honing his knowledge to be a real strategist in modern marketing plying his trade for leading strategy and marketing for Cornerstone OnDemand, one of the hottest Cloud-based HR tech firms on the Nasdaq today, specializing in talent management.

I asked Adam Luciano, HfS analyst covering customer experience management, to connect with Jason just to discover how he approaches marketing strategy in today’s environment, and learn a little about Jason’s too…

Adam Luciano (HfS Research): You’ve had a very colorful career to date – can you share the highlights?  How did you end up doing marketing at Cornerstone?

Jason Corsello (Cornerstone OnDemand): Phil and I worked together as analysts at Yankee Group (back in the day) and I spent a lot of time researching technology and – more specifically – the HR technology market. I left Yankee and joined a top consulting firm [now part of Appirio] servicing the Fortune 1000 companies, like Starbucks, Nike and Dell with helping create their whole HR and talent management strategy. Essentially we looked at the best ways to recruit, manage and train employees by leveraging technology.

Then, two years ago, I decided to join Cornerstone OnDemand. At the time, Cornerstone had just gone public, and was one of the top three vendors in talent management. In the last year, two of the top competitors have been acquired by Oracle and SAP, now making us the leader on the best-of-breed side in talent management. I joined Cornerstone in the role of  VP of strategy and corporate development – meaning figuring out the three-year plan for the business and the buy-build-partner perspective. In year one, we did an acquisition, launched a number of new products and initiatives and formed some very unique partnerships. In the last year I’ve now taken on responsibility for marketing for the sole reason to better articulate our strategy and then communicating that to the marketplace of customers and key influencers. I have been leading our global marketing efforts for about six months now and am really trying to change and embrace all of the new models of marketing today.

Adam: Why the human capital management industry? What’s the appeal?

Jason: I probably never would’ve thought I would be in some sort of HR-related field, but I think most people would probably agree that it’s [HR] not very efficiently run at most companies. From the way HR recruits, to the way they manage performance, to the way they train people is still very inefficient. A number of companies typically spend anywhere from 60-70% of their overall capital expenditure on salaries, so to me there is a lot of inefficiency today that technology can have a huge impact on. Technology is drastically changing the HR industry, much the way it did in the past with the CRM industry.

Ten years ago, Cornerstone was focused on delivering online learning and training via virtual and online classrooms.  Today, Cornerstone helps organizations do everything from recruiting and sourcing the best talent, to training and developing employees and partners, to managing the performance of individuals and teams.

What we are now seeing is that the market is shifting once again. There’s so much embedded data in Read More »

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So… are these the world’s best outsourcing advisors?

May 8th, 2013

The IAOP has announced its 2013 “best outsourcing advisors”, and kudos to my former employer, Deloitte, for coming top.  Credit has to go out to Peter Lowes and his Outsourcing Advisory Services group for their achievement.  In addition, KPMG’s Shared Services and Advisory Group, led by Cliff Justice, finished in second place – a strong showing and justification of their 2011 acquisition of EquaTerra.

Click to Enlarge

The biggest surprises, however, are the absences of ISG (formerly TPI), the largest transaction advisor of outsourcing contracts, and PwC, one of the leading management consulting firms actively operating in the sourcing industry.  I asked both firms how they had managed to miss the “Top 20″ and they simply responded that they had declined to participate.

In addition, I am still trying to figure out how a firm can call itself “Elix-IRR” (and who, exactly, is Elix-IRR?).  Am also curious how Avasant can finish third – they seem like nice guys, but are they really ahead of the likes of Alsbridge and E&Y?

And why does the rest of the list seem to be made up largely of law firms?  Do these guys actually advise on outsourcing, or just do the legal stuff?

Oh questions, questions, questions…

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Replay of last week’s webinar: A Tour of Robotistan Outsourcing’s Cheapest Destination

May 5th, 2013

The premise of utilizing software robots running on virtual machines has become more of a reality than you might think. As seen in the print edition of The Economist and also discussed during last week’s HfS webinar, the attraction of employing robots is on the rise and HfS Research is paying attention…

Check out the replay of our recent HfS webinar here:  view the recorded Webinar

Want access to just the slides? Here you go: blue prism webinar slides.

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The dreamSource files… There are too many kings of bullsh*t who still sail through these training certifications

May 3rd, 2013

And over at dreamSource, where everyone needs training…

 

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The dreamSource files… Gartner only focuses on “step 1″ for outsourcing. We’re all way beyond that

May 2nd, 2013

And over at dreamSource, where 82% of the buyers have never completed a training class for outsourcing or shared services governance…

How could you fail to trust these gentlemen? Infosys' Vivek Sharma and Ashu Tandon

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The dreamSource files… I can train my people to have technical skills, but I can’t give them a personality transplant

May 2nd, 2013

And over at dreamSource, where 48% of the buyers have experienced strategic skills becoming more important than tactical skills for managing their outsourcing engagements, since they embarked on their initiative…

Rajesh Bhutani (Coventry Healthcare) and Debbie Polishook (Accenture)

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The dreamSource files… it’s not fair to place the change management onus onto the provider, it’s our accountability to change

May 1st, 2013

And over at dreamSource, where 72% of the buyers work in company’s where the CEO on down focus predominantly on cost…

Gianni Giacomelli (Genpact): with beerTim Madderom (Axis Capital): with redwineStephen Dubner (Freakonomics author): gesticulating

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The dreamSource files… you really think, in three months, you can transform what took us 30 years to build?

May 1st, 2013

Welcome to dreamSource, where 73% of providers worry they may get fired for only delivering what was agreed in the contract…

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If there’s something strange with your processes, who ya gonna call? Ghoshbusters…

April 28th, 2013

Afraid of no processes: Genpact's solution head Shantanu Ghosh

Anyone close to business services over the last decade would have crossed paths with one little guy with a huge brain:  Genpact’s Shantanu Ghosh.  While everyone is familiar with Genpact’s current CEO NV “Tiger” Tyagarajan, and retired former CEO, Pramod Bhasin, Shantanu has frequently been the guy cobbling together the internal teams and the solutions to make it all happen.

I have had many conversations with Shantanu over the years and each time I have come away inspired by someone who is so intimately involved with so many clients and issues in the process delivery industry – he really lives and breathes this stuff.

So when we had the chance to hear his inner-most thoughts on the future drection of the services business, we couldn’t resist sharing them with you…

Phil Fersht (HfS): Shantanu, you’ve been one of the brains behind Genpact’s rise to the pinnacle of the BPO industry in the last few years. Please tell us a little about your background and how you got into this business. Did you always want to be a process guy?

Shantanu Ghosh (Genpact): Thank you very much for saying that Genpact has reached some stage in the BPO business. My background is that of a functional finance expert. I spent my early years in accounting at Pricewaterhouse, then a decade with Unilever in various functional finance roles. Then I spent five years with GE, first at the business level and then at the corporate country level as the CFO. I had reached a stage in my career where I had done the whole functional side of the game, and I wanted really to drive a business. Genpact at that time was just contemplating becoming an independent commercial BPO organization, and moving to the company has provided a huge opportunity for me to come and grow the finance and accounting service line as a general Read More »

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So if the rockstars have gone, what’s left in the analyst industry?

April 28th, 2013

SVP and Research Fellow, Customer Satisfaction

As we revealed last week, most of the big analyst personalities have seemingly fled the analyst industry…  many for the riches on offer from their vendor clients, clearly seeing more ROI from employing them, as opposed to purchasing their firm’s services. However, this hasn’t prevented the remaining legacy purveyors of analyst services from making a living.

So what’s left in these firms after the rock stars have left the building?  Let’s examine the cast of characters that many of us frequently have the good fortune to meet in briefings, conferences, airport lounges, hotel bars, psych wards etc.

Mick Jagger Analysts:

Not all the rock stars fled… some stayed well past their sell-by-dates, clearly not mentally prepared for a foray into the real world.  They still drift around analyst firms, making occasional appearances in executive briefing sessions (or sometimes just walking out of them halfway through).  Their research productivity is usually about one thought-piece a year, which is usually miles from reality, but everyone tells them Read More »

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Hear Phil Fersht talk to Bill Kutik about analysts, HR and outsourcing…

April 28th, 2013

Hear Phil Fersht talking to HR Technology’s godfather, Bill Kutik

Click to listen to the recorded interview on iTunes

You may recall our announcement to the world, over three years ago, revealing the launch of outsourcing analyst firm HfS Research… and we first mentioned this on Bill Kutik’s irreverent radio show.

Tune in to listen to our latest conversation and you’ll hear more about:

  • The current state of the research business and why recent entrants, such as HfS, are playing with the traditional analysts;
  • What’s happing in HR Outsourcing, and why it’s becoming more of a niche-process industry today;
  • Why HR is fast-becoming one of the most dependent business functi0ns of technology to be effective;
  • Why firms are more likely to do outsourcing in a good economy than a bad one;
  • HfS’ new Blueprint methodology for assessing vendor performance – and why it’s such a game-changer.

Click here to listen to Phil and Bill

Produced by Knowledge Infusion, an Appirio company, and hosted by independent industry analyst Bill Kutik, selected last year as one of the world’s “Most Powerful HR Technology Experts,” the bi-weekly interview show provides leading HR business content and insight into up-to-the-minute trends.

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Achieving new-world innovation: promote your innermost qualities to the world unashamedly

April 28th, 2013

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Is the day of the rock star analyst officially over?

April 21st, 2013

There’s been a lot of backchannel lately regarding high profile analyst departures to vendor organizations, with Thomas Otter, Gartner’s hugely popular VP for Human Capital Management, hopping to SAP’s recent acquisition, SuccessFactors.

Naturally, SAP’s competitors are all freaking out because they’ve invested so much time and attention in Thomas, while Gartner can’t be happy as its clients shouldn’t care whether they’re buying Bill or Ben… they should be buying Gartner.

What’s worrying, is the recent succession of high-profile analyst stars making vendor moves, for example, Jim Holincheck’s switch from Gartner to Workday, Stephanie Moore from Forrester to Ameritas Technologies, Mickey North Rizza from Gartner to BravoSolution, and even one of HfS’ early stalwarts, Euan Davis, to Cognizant, as the latest examples.

Having worked in the big ticket analyst world myself with IDC and AMR (leading up to the Gartner acquisition), I can vividly recall the changing attitude of analyst firms towards their high profile analysts, who commanded top-dollar for their clients to have them on the end of the phone.  When I Read More »

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Why American firms are more progressive with outsourcing than the Europeans and Asians

April 18th, 2013

Why is it always the Americans at the head of the queue when it comes to increasing quarterly profit margins?  But, even more intriguingly, why are they also leading the way when it comes to attempting to improve their capabilities when they outsource?  Our recent State of Outsourcing Study 2013, conducted with the support of KPMG, clearly shows the differing mission-critical business motivations across the main three global regions, when it comes to ITO/BPO:

Click to Enlarge

So, in our true style of insulting everyone from every continent with sweeping generalizations, let’s take a closer look:

North American Enterprises:

Simply put, these firms are a lot more experienced with outsourcing IT and business processes, and a good proportion of them are today showing a good deal of maturity as a result.  Much of this is because outsourcing has traditionally been a game for the large corporates to play… and most of the large corporates are based Stateside.  Moreover, the biggest “lever” of attractiveness over the last Read More »

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The dreamSource countdown continues… Meet Mads (Part II)

April 12th, 2013

Madelein Smit is ready for dreamSource... are YOU? (Click to learn more)

If you have recovered from the mental impairment caused by the really awful governance dancing, it’s time to get back to the serious discussion about the narrowing onshore/offshore cost gap, and the diversity issues in sourcing…. so let’s visit the final part of our recent interview with Madelein Smit, outsourcing head at the global logistics giant, CEVA Logistics…

Phil Fersht (HfS): Madelein, in our previous discussion, you talked about a watershed period for sourcing arriving in 2013, with the narrowing cost differential between onshore and offshore talent. Do you think that is going to have a noticeable impact on how a company like yours is sourcing its BPO?

Madelein Smit (CEVA Logistics): We are in a very cost-driven environment, so we will keep sourcing in a way that suits our need. One thing that has happened over the last three years in the accounting space, five years now in the IT space, is that we have built up valuable partnerships with our partners. And I do think we are at the point where we have moved beyond labor arbitration in both of our agreements, and are driving much higher value-add. I don’t think wage arbitration will impact this year in existing engagements in which there is active engagement by both provider-side Read More »

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The dreamSource countdown… Meet Mads

April 9th, 2013

Picture the scene - it’s day three of the HfS 50 event in Boston last October… three days of perpetual debate, fueled by a seemingly endless supply of red wine and caffeine.  Yes, just the perfect time to have an hour’s education on next-gen performance management strategy.

Step-up Madelein “Mads” Smit, head of both IT and F&A outsourcing for CEVA Logistics, who – sensing the moment, took it upon herself to play the Gangnam video at full blast.  Now, if you’ve ever witnessed a room full of hungover middle-aged governance professionals attempting to get-down Gangnam style…

Warning – the following clip may cause serious psychological damage:

Needless to say, Mads just had to be asked back for a second round of performance-enhancing antics, this time at the forthcoming dreamSource extravaganza…. so without further ado, let’s find out more about what Mads is all about, besides her undoubted skills singing and dancing…

Phil Fersht (HfS): Good morning Madelein, would you please give our readers some background on yourself, your career and why you are doing what you are doing today?

Madelein Smit (CEVA Logistics):  Hi Phil! I got started in outsourcing as a youngster. I was originally an accountant at PwC, and traded in that job when someone said, “There’s this thing Read More »

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Outsourcing Executives: What’s your career narrative?

April 4th, 2013

If ever I am lost for words to introduce an article, then I am now lost for words.  So without further ado, here is Deadly Deborah… and definitely with the handbrake off…

Outsourcing Executives: What’s your career narrative?

Deborah Kops is, always was, and always will be, Deborah Kops (click for bio)

I’m obsessed by careers. I spend time trying to make sense of the various and sundry twists and turns that the life’s work of those in our industry seem to take. And I look closely for patterns. Will leaving a secure position in a global firm for a start-up end in happily ever after? Does a stint in a Tier 3 provider indelibly affect a career path?  After all, if Ecclesiastes 1:9 is right, there’s nothing new under the sun, or as the saying goes, history always repeats itself. So colleagues, do any of these career narratives resonate? Or is this article just the fanciful creation of someone who is absolutely at the end of her career rope?

Having recently decided that there are four major career narratives for our shared services executive cousins, I’ve turned my attention to outsourcing (read: sell side) executive career trajectories. In a segment of the global services industry with much more nuance (and opportunity), It seems to me that in every outsourcing executive’s career, there is an event, or a decision, or some other such driver that will profoundly impact his or her career narrative.

So read the 12 narratives I’ve observed in outsourcing executives. And have a good laugh if they don’t cut too close to home:

1. The mid-life crisis career narrative: Around the age of 40, some well-established outsourcing executives become frustrated with a), corporate bureaucracy; b), a stalled salary band; or c), the fact that they have years of experience on the man or woman they report to. And if their peers (especially their batch mates) are making money hand over foot starting their own companies, the itch to throw security to the winds and join a start up is compelling. So the itch takes over, and the leader leaves a good job to join the ranks of the challengers, crossing fingers that he’ll make enough money to pay off the mortgage and put the kiddies through school.

2. The yo-yo career narrative: Yo-yo career narratives characterize those executives who start out in ITO, hone their sales or management skills, are tapped to run a BPO gig because their skills are Read More »

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Innovation discovered… on the London Underground

April 3rd, 2013

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