Category Archives: Procurement, Engineering & Supply Chain Outsourcing

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

May 2nd, 2013
How could you fail to trust these gentlemen?

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

Leave a comment

HfS Market Index shows Outsourcing of IT and Business Processes to Grow by 4% in 2013

February 22nd, 2013
Jamie Snowdon is Director, Market Forecasting and Data Products at HfS Research

Yes, you heard it here first, folks: outsourcing expenditure is mushrooming at the warp-speed clip of 4% this year to surpass $950 Billion, and expected to average a 5% clip each year through 2017

2 Comments

Outsourcing may be battered, bruised and vilified… so why is only a twentieth of enterprises planning to reduce it in 2013?

January 27th, 2013
Outsourcing-new-dawn

Make no bones about it: 2012 was a pretty dire year for the industry known as “outsourcing”. However, brand new data from our State of Outsourcing 2013 Study conducted with the support of KPMG, and the largest-ever research survey focused on IT and business function outsourcing, clearly shows that the majority of enterprises are not only aggressively focused on increasing their outsourcing portfoilios, but many are now taking a more mature and realistic approach.

23 Comments

Matthew Eatough approximates his US strategy

September 13th, 2012
The Windy City braces for a new storm coming from across the Atlantic...

Eighteen years ago, one man had a vision to take on, improve and ultimately manage the procurement function for British companies. And what better to call his firm, than the “buyingTeam”?  I mean, what else are you supposed to do when you’re in the procurement services business?  However, when the affable Matthew Eatough decided to expand [...]

Leave a comment

Caught in the xeno-bamia crossfire, these are dangerous times for the “outsourcing” industry

July 15th, 2012
Don't you just love the name...

The industry currently known as “outsourcing” is currently under its greatest-ever attack. President Obama has made attacking Bain Capital’s promotion of itself once as a “one stop outsourcing shop”, the focal point of his re-election campaign. And this is a serious attack – he has $512m in campaign money left to burn, and only $25m a month is currently being spent on attack-ads from both parties – the worst is yet to come. So how should the “outsourcing” industry deal with this?

24 Comments

Want to keep with the “outsourcing” status quo? Love staring at a spreadsheet all day? Then Blueprint 2.0′s not for you…

June 24th, 2012
HfS50-Boston-final-hfs-blog2

Life been just dandy since you took 30% off your department’s fixed costs, that you’ll never need to do anything much again in your career… except stare at a spreadsheet? Just love keeping those lights on and squeezing penalty payments of your provider? No need to improve anything, because the way your firm does this is just, simply, perfect?
Then you won’t need to waste time with us and leading buy-side organizations from the HfS 50 Executive Council in Boston this October…

Leave a comment

SAP ruptures the procurement universe by scooping up Ariba

May 22nd, 2012
Are we in the Cloud yet?

With its $4.3 billion cash offer, SAP answered every procurement technologist’s question, “Who is going to buy Ariba?” While this acquisition will rupture the procurement technology universe, HfS believes the real question that supply chain and finance professionals must ask is, “Now that SAP finally has a credible commerce network, can I eliminate and automate processes I’ve been busily outsourcing?”

3 Comments

The end of outsourcing as we know it… Part I

May 2nd, 2012
Its-no-longer-all-about-outsourcing

At the end of the day, it’s not all about outsourcing and it’s not all about shared services; it’s about focusing on how to globalize processes, how to transform finance (and other) functions, and how to govern it all in a global business services context. There is no dominant model, it’s more about achieving the right balance across all delivery models to achieve the best business goals. In conjunction with global accounting body ACCA, We spoke to 682 large organizations currently running finance in either an outsourced or shared service framework (or both) – and the results are emphatic: those organizations relying predominantly on outsourced delivery, or predominantly shared services, are viewing their finance delivery performance much more skeptically

22 Comments

Missed the recent Procurement BPO slug-fest?

April 15th, 2012
The-Procurement-Pugilists

Missed last week’s down-and-dirty Procurement BPO slug-fest between LA’s Tony “Turbo-Charged” Filippone and Long Island’s Bill “Bomber” Humber? Don’t sweat it, as here’s the replay of these two Industry heavy weights

Leave a comment

Flashback kicks the myth of Apple invincibility squarely in the jewels

April 10th, 2012
Because that's where the money is...

YOUR APPLE DEVICE MAY NOT BE AS SAFE AS IT APPEARS…

Leave a comment

More P’s and less Zzzz’s – Say hello to Proxima and Procurian!

February 20th, 2012
Buying Team becomes "Proxima", ICG Commerce,"Procurian"

Pure-play procurement outsourcing heats up, triggering two name changes among procurement-focused service providers

2 Comments

Sal’s six stages of sourcing: BPO’s Generations

January 14th, 2012
Mike Salvino is Group Chief Executive, Business Process Outsourcing, for Accenture

The BPO industry has been going though an incredible evolution since the first major deals was cast, barely more than a decade ago, that it’s high time we took stock and take a good look at the phases – or generations – through which our industry has progressed. And there are few people who have lived and breathed these generational shifts more closely that Accenture’s BPO leader, Mike Salvino.

10 Comments

Smackdown: Where is BPO going?

January 5th, 2012
Like a typical extended family at Thanksgiving, the buy family and the sell families cussed and discussed about the trends and challenges buffeting BPO. They passed the peas and offered some pretty unbridled opinion and insight. Click to download the highlights

One of the highlights of 2011 was that great web-debate on the Future of BPO where 1,100 people across the globe dialed in to hear from our buy and sell families. Here were the highlights…

Leave a comment

Infy procures Portland to soup up its sourcing

December 20th, 2011
Do you procure this australian as your lawfully wedded category specialist?

InfosysBPO has made its first substantial investment in the sourcing and category management space, picking up the lead Australasian provider Portland Group for $37m.

Leave a comment

If you were too hungover to join our predictions webcast, here’s the replay and the deck

December 18th, 2011
View-our-predictions-replay

In case you missed our joint webcast with Ed Caso of Wells Fargo Securities on Friday, fear no more, as here’s the replay

Leave a comment

IBM embellishes its B2B commerce empire… by acquiring Emptoris

December 15th, 2011
wedding-dress

Emptoris’ well-regarded user interface and strong brand recognition among the procurement crowd make it an idea mate for IBM’s technology-driven focus and market leading procurement BPO capability. While the integration of Sterling, DemandTec, and Emptoris will take some time to become “smarter commerce”, there will be some immediate upsides.

Leave a comment

Announcing the HfS 50 Sourcing Blueprint Sessions

December 13th, 2011
HfSBlueprintSessions

This is going to be a defining two-day working session for power-brokers of the outsourcing industry, where leading buyers of both ITO and BPO services will confront today’s critical issues impacting outsourcing, to establish a Blueprint for the industry in 2015. And this time, we will have a vendor/buyer face-off session where leaders from six of the major service providers will join the debate.

2 Comments

As InfosysBPO reaches the $500m mark, is it ready for the big-time?

November 20th, 2011

InfosysBPO is now a major BPO contender in the global marketplace, having quietly gone about building its BPO business streams since its inception via the buyout of FAO provider Progeon, exactly five years’ ago and expects to reach the landmark of $500m in revenues this year. HfS has always been encouraged by the firm’s approach to developing both horizontal and vertical BPO services, and its focus on leveraging its IT heritage to augment its value proposition. Infy is by no means the biggest player in the BPO business nor does it want to be, but it has been able to establish itself as a smart and very respected player in the BPO business.

9 Comments

Don’t miss today’s web-debate – The Future of BPO

November 20th, 2011

Are you ready for our next installment of HfS’ Live and Unfiltered series, broadcast live infront of the HfS Research community?

1 Comment

Capgemini collects Vengroff Williams to slip into third spot for global Finance & Accounting BPO

November 15th, 2011

Capgemini has made a major move towards strengthening its position in the global F&A BPO market by today acquiring Vengroff Williams and Associates – and leaping to third in the market share spot for F&A globally

9 Comments