Category Archives: Sourcing Change Management

April truths about outsourcing: Finance leaders are looking to providers’ capabilities more than ever, but are they really prepared to change?

April 11th, 2012

Service providers are in pole position to provide the value clients need, however, there needs to be some give-and-take on both sides to move beyond mere “augmentation”

5 Comments

The great outsourcing sham redux

March 29th, 2012

So we managed to whip up a tidal wave of emotion and opinion when we made the call that the “outsourcing industry”, in its current state is, quite frankly, a sham. When over 30,000 people read something, there’s a reason why… so let’s drill down into what this all means

10 Comments

Negotiations and the deals we make: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

March 20th, 2012

Here is the good, bad, and ugly of recent deals where we’ve coached clients

4 Comments

Which industries are more inclined to outsourcing versus shared services?

March 5th, 2012

Secular changes to industry environments are crystallizing options for businesses and driving more radical and actionable behaviors from executives under pressure to deliver continual productivity improvements. The radical impact outsourcing can potentially have on business performance is clearly becoming more attractive to those businesses in the throes of tackling fundamental challenges and opportunities to their business environments.

14 Comments

It’s time to stop knocking Orlando… where else can we find innovation?

February 21st, 2012

After many lost nights’ sleep trying to seek out that elusive morsel of innovation, it has finally dawned on us: where better to look than the Magic Kingdom? So after writing a personal letter of apology to both Jeb Bush and Mickey Mouse (was an easy copy/paste) we are delighted to announce that HfS is making an Orlando tribute tour to SSON’s magical 16th Annual Shared Services & Outsourcing Week

2 Comments

Are YOU ready to re-define sourcing? Then join the biggest and baddest bevy of buyers in NYC this April

February 14th, 2012

After one year, our elite peer group of sourcing buyers has doubled in size – making this our biggest, baddest and most discussion-rich meeting to date.

Leave a comment

India’s Sourcing Leaders: The new Phoenicians?

February 7th, 2012

"We'll give you maximo innovation at the lowest prices..."

The Phoenicians were among the greatest entrepreneurs of their time who dominated the trade of the ancient world and founded colonies throughout the Mediterranean. We will never see the likes of them in the modern business world, where a nation of business hungry folk could possibly develop their own real estate within today’s Global 2000 organizations through savvy barter of their own wares. Or will we?

21 Comments

Are you achieving sourcing success with your finance? ACCA and HfS have teamed up to find out…

February 3rd, 2012

Are you achieving sourcing success for your finance function? Click to take part in our survey

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.

1 Comment

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

The Sourcing Raj Part II: “You don’t have to be Indian to be a global outsourcing provider!”

January 9th, 2012

Would you kindly stay on the line to complete a brief customer satisfaction survey?

We complete our investigation into the dominance of India in the world of outsourcing, and whether or not the game’s up for non-Indian providers to come back into the picture

19 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

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

December 18th, 2011

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

Congratulations to Tony “Governator” Filippone, HfS’ new Head of Research

December 12th, 2011

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.

8 Comments

It may be for life, but will there be innovation, as TCS inks the mother of all insurance BPO deals

December 9th, 2011

For better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, until many missed SLAs do us part.

TCS’ insurance services delivery subsidiary, Diligenta, has become wedded to in a 15-year, $2.2bn, 1900 employee life and pensions BPO engagement with the UK’s Friends Life. This represents the largest life and pensions BPO engagement by a considerable margin, eclipsing the $1.1bn Prudential contract awarded to Capita in 2007. We believe this move from TCS signals a sea-change in the industry with regards to the growth strategies and ambitions of the leading BPO providers.

Leave a comment

SAP + SuccessFactors = Great for SAP, but could restrict growth potential for the HR services industry

December 4th, 2011

"I'll show you how I feel about your license model..."

With SAP’s move to “Cloudify” its software portfolio with the $3.4bn acquisition of the darling of HR software, SuccessFactors, we do not believe this is particularly good news for BPO service providers and services clients

23 Comments

What are Business Platforms and why they represent the future of outsourcing

November 14th, 2011

"Please mind the innovation gap"... click here to find out what Business Platforms are and they represent the future of outsourcing

The ability to develop some best-in-class processes as “Business Platforms”, whether they focus on horizontal or vertical process clusters, is becoming a real differentiator in the market, as buyers seek more standardized solutions from their outsourcing engagements. The gauntlet being laid out to providers, with these Business Platforms, is their ability to support their clients’ transitions quickly and inexpensively. Simply selling “products” is not the concept of business platforms – it is the provider’s ability to work with their customers to facilitate and support the ultimate business outcomes of managing the processes associated with the Business Platform offering.

12 Comments

The three tenets of Global Business Services execution: customer alignment, accountability, and economies of scale

November 10th, 2011

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?

Leave a comment

Why outsourcing professionals must stay in touch with the 99%

November 6th, 2011

Governments are very capable of passing measures very quickly to restrict outsourcing if things get really bad – and they won’t have any choice if the 99% demand it. All outsourcing stakeholders – buyers, providers and advisors – need to focus, more than ever, on helping organizations approach outsourcing as one supporting component of a holistic solution.

11 Comments

Double-Dip Dynamics, Part II: The new tenets of outsourcing – process standardization, global flexibility and better technology

October 29th, 2011

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.

12 Comments