HfS Research has partnered with ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) to conduct the largest-ever global study of finance professionals to understand adoption trends, experiences and dynamics of shared services and outsourcing for the finance function.
The outsourcing industry is a labor arbitrage bubble waiting to burst. And today’s smartest buyers and service providers are poised to fatally pop it and build a better future.
Our core mantra at HfS has always been to tackle the issues and complexities of global sourcing through the eyes of the buyer. One analyst who has spent nine years of his life doing just that, leading BPO governance for the $62 Billion healthcare payor, WellPoint, is our Governator himself, Tony Filippone. No single person in 2011 has written to – or talked with – more buyers about their governance challenges, and we are delighted to reveal to the world today his elevation to Executive Vice President of HfS’ research team.
So how do you take shared services leaders and blend their expertise with the outsourcing governors? How do you go from fragmented service delivery with multiple points of contact, to a global governance model with a rationalized and centralized administration of third-party service providers?
What is motivating buyers to outsource in this current climate? While eliminating cost is still is a huge fundamental, buyers are even more focused on achieving greater flexibility to scale their global operations as a prime motivating factor. Clearly, many executives are getting more experienced and skilled at driving an sourcing initiative, and are confident they can use the endeavor as a change agent to promote and implement much-needed change in their businesses.
Part II of our Charlie Aird interview, where we talk about the future of the sourcing industry, the Global Business Services framework he’s spearheading, and a little insight into how he views the changing environment for Big 4 consultants and boutique advisors.
Part I of the HfS Research interview with Dr. Charles Aird, Global and US Practice Leader for PricewaterhouseCoopers Shared Services and Outsourcing Advisory
Welcome to Part 2 of the Don Schulman interview, where he talks to us about whether shared services are really dying, the changing role of advisors, and where he sees the BPO industry moving in the future, and what he means by “verticalizing the horizontal”.
Fed up with all the puff and fluff? Comatosed by the motherhood and apple pie? Ready to get the real deal? Well, your pain will be over on August 4th, as we bring you the ultimate unfiltered schmaltz-free one-hour debate on the future of the outsourcing industry.
Earlier this year, HfS Research leveraged its vast network of global enterprises to solicit the opinions of buyers and providers of outsourcing attempting to understand how they view the role and importants of change management for outsourcing engagements. The web based survey was completed by 237 respondents with 96 buyers and 141 service providers.
While we were having some in-depth discussions with Microsoft’s CPO, Tim McBride, it became apparent how important niche specialist BPOs, such as Alpar’s firm Denali, are to the global sourcing mix for many organizations. So we thought we’d take a few minutes to have a discussion with Alpar about the future of the procurement function and the role of the CPO.
In the past, outsourcing was still a unique, foreign and scary activity, and it was always easier for buy-side executives to bring in consultants to make their decisions for them – especially as there were so few trusted data-points and information sources widely available in the industry to support decision-making. Executives didn’t want to get fired for making bad decisions. However, today they know they’ll get fired for the wrong decision regardless of who made it – whether it was theirs’ or McKinsey’s
Outsourcing of IT and business process has always been a game for large enterprises, where well-executed large-scale employee transitions have resulted in profitable endeavors for both providers and buyers. But while the large buyers like saving the money, it’s actually mid-market sector ($1bn-$3bn revenues) which is getting a lot more out of the experience
HfS Research’s “State of Outsourcing 2011″ study of 1335 industry stakeholders, conducted with the Outsourcing Unit at the London School of Economics, points to a marked turnaround in outsourcing intentions as global economies reach a period of sustained (albeit limping) recovery. For many organizations today, clearly the short-term counter-recessionary measures have been executed through to fruition, leaving business function leaders under renewed pressure to seek out new operational strategies for driving out cost and improving global effectiveness.
If you participated in our State of Outsourcing 2011 survey, you may have been anxiously monitoring your inbox for a notification that you’d won the iPad 2. Well, the anticipation is over, and we can announce that the winner of the drawing is Stephen Kincanon, Vice President – Shared Services at Sara Lee Corporation. Congratulations, Stephen!
Our State of Outsourcing 2011 study reveals huge untapped potential for future outsourcing right across both IT and business functions, so surely this means the market is set to explode and we can wield new hockey-stick growth projections? Perhaps… but a few things need to happen first. Let’s investigate…
Join us for a Webinar on June 2 at 11:00 am ET If you follow us closely, you’ve probably already read our research study on the Latin American global sourcing industry, The Latin America Sourcing Landscape in 2011: How Latin America Powers Global Services Delivery. After that taste of the study, we’re sure you’ll want more. [...]
We couldn’t wait to sit down with Tony for a podcast recording to hear what’s in store for you in the coming months
IG President and CEO Dawn Evans will join HfS Founder and CEO Phil Fersht, along with HfS COO Esteban Herrera, new HfS Research Governator VP Tony Filippone, and HfS VP of Marketing Mark Reed-Edwards for an hour-long look at HfS. You’ll find out more about the exciting new partnership between HfS and SIG. we’ll discuss the HfS research agenda, what’s in store for 2011, and how you can get involved, access the research and collaborate with HfS analysts and other SIG members about next practices for sourcing and business
Please welcome Mr Anthony Filippone to the hallowed ground of HfS analyst, industry thought-leader, and, most notably, the role of Governator-Extraordinaire
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