Category Archives: Outsourcing Advisors

Aird aired. Part I

September 25th, 2011

Part I of the HfS Research interview with Dr. Charles Aird, Global and US Practice Leader for PricewaterhouseCoopers Shared Services and Outsourcing Advisory

Too many providers and advisors are being myopic with their clients and failing to understand their business pressures

September 21st, 2011

Our latest study shows that many buyer executives are, in actuality, in violent disagreement with many provider and sourcing advisor executives that they their business leaders are too “short-term focused”

9 Comments

Want to get smart about sourcing for Cloud?

September 14th, 2011

This report authored by HfS Research and Loeb&Loeb provides both Business-function and IT executives with a detailed assessment of Cloud adoption strategies, an analysis of business benefits, concerns, challenges and contractual issues that need to be addressed and discusses the key service providers provisioning Cloud Computing services in today’s market.

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Cheap and quick please! Wizening buyers are seeking help from easily-accessible sources

September 13th, 2011

When we ask them buyers they’re foraging for help and information with outsourcing strategy-making in the coming months, the results are simple: they are turning to whatever sourcing are most easily-accessible and inexpensively-available to them

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Will a Double-Dip Recession reverse the trend of buyers “delaying outsourcing” during a slump? Here are 10 factors to consider…

August 22nd, 2011

Organizations have always been wary of outsourcing during recessions. While today it delivers cost-reduction to clients in spades (proven emphatically during our recent state-of-outsourcing study), many organizations have proven, in the past, to push it down the priority-list of radical cost-reduction measures, when they fear for their very existence. However, with the threat of a “Double-Dip” recession very much a grim reality, HfS believes this cycle is likely to be broken.

9 Comments

Meet The Don of BPO (Part 2)

August 1st, 2011

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”.

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The biggest political threat (yet) to the outsourcing industry

July 9th, 2011

The Swiss, in their typically punctilious fashion, now have an “Anti-PowerPoint Party” with the self-stated goal of having the number of boring PowerPoint presentations on the planet to decrease and the average presentation to become more exciting and more interesting.

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The undisputed facts about outsourcing, Part 5: Decision-makers increasingly reliant on peer-networking and research than traditional channels

July 3rd, 2011

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

8 Comments

The undisputed facts about outsourcing, Part 3: With outsourcing demand at unprecedented levels, can new buyers get across the finish-line?

June 12th, 2011

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.

7 Comments

Libertarians, Outsourcing, Lobotomies and FINRA

June 4th, 2011

FINRA is the largest independent regulator for all securities firms doing business in the United States and its recent proposed rule changes are rattling the world of outsourcing. So what happens when you mix these proposed FINRA regulatory rule changes, a well-known outsourcing partner from law firm powerhouse Loeb & Loeb, LLP, and the HfS Governator?

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HfS Podcast: The Governator holds court

May 9th, 2011

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

So what on earth does the future hold for sourcing advisors?

March 2nd, 2011

Last week’s outsourcing advisory bombshell wedding between KPMG and EquaTerra may well prove to be a turning point in the way buyers are serviced in the future. Management consultants need to have deep experience, knowledge and data on the operational guts of outsourcing, while boutique advisors need to offer a much broader consultative value proposition for clients who are tackling global operational issues. So what on earth does the future hold for sourcing advisors?

3 Comments

EquaTerra + KPMG – a new era, or a new error for outsourcing advisory?

February 22nd, 2011

So… has KPMG made a wise move purchasing EquaTerra, and how will this impact the industry?

22 Comments

Let’s cut through the fluff and discover what’s really going in the sourcing industry

January 25th, 2011

The “Amazing Horse Race” is the ultimate public bloodbath of the sourcing industry, as the “Buy team” defends the title it gloriously won last year in Edinburgh. However this time it’s not going to be quite as easy…

2 Comments

TPI + Compass: a new direction for outsourcing advisors, or more of the same?

January 8th, 2011

With the increased focus on outsourcing advisory services from management consultants such as Deloitte, KPMG and PwC, the souped-up TPI/Compass creates a super-boutique that can compete effectively in the market for the complex enterprise engagements that require a lot of hourly-billable heavy-lifting. There’s little doubt this merger helps bolster TPI’s credentials as a serious player, now the big boys fancy their piece of the action. However, when we look at the current enterprise needs for outsourcing support, we see a dire need for enterprises to receive a mixture of consulting advice and data, served up in a less expensive, easier-to-digest format, than the $500-per-hour model.

10 Comments

Real-estate Ron runs the rule on REFMO

December 23rd, 2010

Sourcing professionals should be very interested in REFMO because it is the second or third largest spend category of any company. Only recently has there been an opportunity to integrate the function. EquaTerra’s Ron Walker talks to HfS Research to explain more…

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Congratulations Esteban!

December 22nd, 2010

We are pleased to announce the promotion of Esteban Herrera to the role of Chief Operating Officer for HfS Research. His vast experience advising sourcing customers, combined with his energy, enthusiasm, sense of humor and entrepreneurship will make him a popular pundit and analyst for HfS readers.

9 Comments

Cloud is changing the future of outsourcing: 1000 organizations have spoken

December 19th, 2010

Gone are the days when CIOs demanded their shareholders underpin massive technology investments in ERP and infrastructure. Those investments have been made, and most CEOs intend never again to make capital outlays of that ilk on technology. Enter the Cloud. This is driving a new inflection point in the provisioning of business services, that goes far beyond straightforward outsourcing.

14 Comments

Is TPI’s Index reflecting the real BPO industry picture?

December 16th, 2010

As a result of TPI’s recent Q3 outlook, several industry colleagues expressed concern that TPI wasn’t reflecting market reality, with particular reference to their claim that the BPO industry had taken a 15% nose-dive in 2010. New HfS Research data that encompasses all current Finance & Accounting (F&A) BPO engagements, reveals two key factors that cause us to question the reliability of the latest TPI Index’s BPO outlook.

11 Comments