Monthly Archives: March 2010

A thundering week in Orlando!

March 30th, 2010

Thanks for all of you who helped support the first public appearance of the Horses for Sources research organization in the lovely Orlando last week for SSON’s “Shared Services and Outsourcing Week” event, which achieved over 900 delegates

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Coulter tackles Justice

March 30th, 2010

Among the regulars we all expect to see such as IBM, Accenture and CapGemini, was KPMG. KPMG? Yes, and represented by Cliff Justice. Cliff is KPMG’s new US Leader, Shared Services and Advisory. This isn’t the first time that a major accounting services firm has placed a bet on getting into the shared services and outsourcing advisory business

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Is a “private cloud” an oxymoron?

March 30th, 2010

The term “private cloud” is a misleading way of describing hosted services. In fact, it is an oxymoron. It is a term that is used by providers of hosted services in order to hold onto lucrative contracts and prevent the loss of customers to companies that provide public cloud services

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What’s that noise? Is it Donald Sutherland… or the delicate sound of thunder?

March 29th, 2010

Cloud’s not simply about outsourcing the heavy-duty computing grunt – it’s about the delivery of real business services, enabled by the applications needed to support them, and powered by the requisite computing and network infrastructure to host and deliver them. Moreover, Cloud computing represents a crucial next layer of cost-elimination from the corporate infrastucture. While many moons off being actual reality, the seeds have been planted and we see entire industries scurrying to develop applications, datacenters and managed services to support it.

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Why innovation in global business operations is critical for survival

March 27th, 2010

We would argue that achieving innovation in the global support operations of businesses, is often the only lever most firms can pull to remain competitive in this economy. In most cases, it’s not enterprises’ products and services that have to change, but the speed and efficiency with which they can adapt to the changing environment, that now provides the competitive edge.

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The sourcerers of Savannah

March 26th, 2010

it’s not too late to make the trip to the charming Georgian town of Savannah for next week’s Global Sourcing Summit. The Horses will also be present, co-leading session on Cloud Computing Delivery with Mayer-Brown, in addition to hosting an all-star panel entitled “The Future State of the Sourcing Industry: what the future holds, and how on earth we can manage it better”

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We’re letting our research do the talking – see for yourself

March 24th, 2010

Unlike other research entities who stick their stuff behind a paywall, we’ve decided the proof is in the pudding, because we want people to actually read our stuff and call us up. So as a gesture of thanks for all the support we’ve received during our first month on the job, we’re giving away three pieces of our latest research to give you an idea of what we’re all about.

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Surviving the Aftermath of a Lift and Shift Transition

March 22nd, 2010

Well, now you’ve done it. Instead of fixing things first, you outsourced your processes almost completely intact. The result? Your junky processes are now in the (hopefully) capable hands of your lower cost vendor and, not surprisingly, the outcomes are the same.

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The myth-busting continues

March 18th, 2010

There’s been another scintillating debate on the “Innovation” topic. If you have a few minutes, we suggest you visit the recent piece entitled “Busting the innovation myth” submitted to us by a top advisor choosing to remain anonymous. A couple of insightful and accurate views were contributed by Equaterra’s COO Mark Robinson and CSC’s Predisent of global sales and marketing, Peter Allen

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Bill and Phil… uncensored, unfettered, unrestrained

March 17th, 2010

Horses for Sources Founder and CEO, Phil Fersht, is interviewed on the future of the HR Outsourcing industry by HR Technology Columnist Bill Kutik on the Bill Kutik Radio Show. Tuned is today at 12.00pm Eastern Standard time: http://www.billkutikradioshow.com

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Professor Atwood saddles up to the ITO podium

March 16th, 2010

Industry veteran Mike Atwood joins Horses’ as Expert Contributor for IT Outsourcing strategies.

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Busting the innovation myth

March 14th, 2010

“Innovation” has been amongst the most used—and overused—buzzwords in outsourcing for the last three or so years. Until clients and providers can have an honest conversation about what it takes to innovate, and what to do with the results, I don’t think it will ever happen. I’ll stop short of saying it’s impossible, but entire galaxies of stars will have to line up. Read on to understand why…

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Seeking a New Normal in Outsourcing Delivery (Recorded webcast)

March 13th, 2010

HfS Webcast: Seeking a New Normal in Outsourcing Delivery (recorded) | March 2010 [emember_protected]Click to view[/emember_protected]

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Seeking the “Normal Normal”… here’s the re-run

March 13th, 2010

Here’s the re-run of the webcast we conducted with or friends over at Global Services Media and SSON, where we surveyed the intentions of 1,055 buyers, intermediaries and vendors on current outsourcing industry dynamics

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Can Recruitment Process Outsourcing empower a more flexible, scalable workforce?

March 11th, 2010

Most companies would never have dared move the management of their entire recruiting function over to a third party, but the squeeze of this post-recession economy, combined with fresh thinking from company leaders and a willingness to explore global sourcing models in business functions that can benefit from added expertise and flexibility, is moving services such as Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) up the corporate agenda for many firms.

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Horses for Sources and the Shared Services & Outsourcing Network (SSON) Create Alliance to Provide Unique Analyst Insight and C-suite Forums for Senior Operations Executives

March 9th, 2010

Horses for Sources, the leading analyst advisory organization focused on outsourcing strategy support, has teamed with the Shared Services and Outsourcing Network (SSON), to provide a unique platform for senior outsourcing buyers to access knowledge and peer advice. As part of the new alliance, senior operations executives in SSON’s premium community can benefit from research being provided by Horses for Sources, including all aspects of Business Process Outsourcing, shared services and governance strategy.

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Avoiding sourcing catastrophes, Part II

March 8th, 2010

Everyone loves to save some money, and often the misalignment isn’t felt for the first couple of years. Striking a deal that optimizes cost generally sub-optimizes other aspects.

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NorthgateArinso buys its way to top spot in Enterprise HRO – and it only cost them $100m

March 4th, 2010

So one of the worst-kept secrets in the HRO business finally came to fruition today, when the British HR services provider NorthgateArinso acquired Convergys’ HRO business for $100m.  By our calculations, that gives the newly-formed entity a 15% market share of the enterprise HRO market (engagements with firms greater that 15,000 staff).  We’ll confirm this fact when [...]

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Avoiding sourcing catastrophes, Part I

March 3rd, 2010

In the world of outsourcing, the stories of catastrophe are legendary, and the statistics on how often it occurs are not very reassuring. What is it about the strategic services sourcing space that makes it so prone to issues? Even if things don’t end in public catastrophe, the stories of mutual success are just not that numerous. The question remains: how does one avoid catastrophe?

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Why we’ve formed an analyst organization

March 2nd, 2010

Today, Horses for Sources became more than a blog. Today, it becomes an advisory analyst organization focused exclusively on researching global outsourcing strategy.

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