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Category: Buyers’ Sourcing Best Practices
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Firing-as-a-Service is becoming AI’s ugliest business model. Stop demanding providers buy your business.
The services industry has arrived at its most uncomfortable inflection point yet, with too many service providers competing for deals and greedy enterprises exploiting AI to squeeze them to the limit. In short, too many enterprises are outsourcing their downsizing and their lack of AI acumen to services firms, and avoiding having to deal with the internal transformation themselves. If this continues to escalate, the result will be a broken industry, deeply short of talent, and a cutthroat culture that few will want to work in. And while we definitely get some vibes from the late '90s and early 2000s from those massive "take the people" deals, which kick-started the whole global outsourcing industry, the difference this time is the elimination of roles to machines, as opposed to a redistribution of talent to lower-cost locations. What we used to call "you mess for less" is fast becoming "your debts for less".Read More
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The Services-as-Software™ Framework: Building Sovereign Intelligence in the Age of Rented AI
Services-as-Software™ is the HFS operating framework that enables enterprises to build Sovereign Enterprise Intelligence by capturing and codifying human expertise, then continuously improving it through execution. Our Services-as-Software™ Enterprise Intelligence Model connects leadership intent with business execution through six tightly integrated layers, all guided by a clear strategic objective. Every organization begins with an outcome it is trying to achieve, whether improving customer experience, accelerating product innovation, reducing risk, or transforming operational performance.Read More
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When your lift-and-shift still stinks: How AI can finally fix the mess you outsourced
Let's be blunt... your outsourcing engagement stinks pretty bad. You’re three years into your five-year deal and you’ve got a low-cost service provider managing your old ways of working, complete with manual approvals, 23-step handoffs, meager 3% annual efficiency improvements, and weekly Excel wars. If your KPI dashboard looks cleaner, that’s only because you’ve spent more on Power BI. But here’s the good news... AI might finally be the disinfectant we’ve been waiting for.Read More
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Vibe Coding is the production engine that turns the Services-as-Software from vision to reality
Vibe Coding is the production engine that makes Services-as-Software real, and it will decide the winners of the next decade. Enterprises can no longer afford to treat AI as bolt-ons or outsourcing-lite. Services-as-Software is a new operating model where AI agents, LLMs, and Vibe Coding collapse the gap between software and services, shifting the economics of IT from people and licenses to reusable, outcome-based digital service layers.Read More
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Don’t hide behind AI to trim your belly fat. Start redesigning your workforce
Microsoft, Amazon, Citigroup, UPS, Google, McKinsey, Deloitte, PwC, and many others have all recently laid off staff under the AI smokescreen. The headlines say it is about automation and AI readiness, but that is not the whole story... not even close.Read More
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If you can’t move your people, then move your code — Services-as-Software is the new trade route
If you can’t move your people, then move your code — Services-as-Software is the new trade route with agents supercharging our workforce. Protectionism isn't just disrupting your current vendor relationships—it's fundamentally transforming how services are delivered to your organization. As more governments try to lock down supply chains, labor markets, and data flows, service providers are left with no choice but to accelerate their shift toward Services-as-Software. Read More
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Are we finally ready to ‘UnBPO’ ourselves?
Firstsource just put BPO on notice. It’s not just talking about transformation—it’s daring the entire industry to burn the old playbook.Read More
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Commercial banks seriously need to up their digital game to meet the B2B needs of their customers
HFS conducted a significant deep-dive Horizons Study into the needs of commercial banks and the best IT and business process service providers to support them: HFS Horizons: The Best Service Providers for Commercial Banks, 2025. This report evaluates the capabilities of 22 service providers across the HFS commercial banking value chain based on a range of dimensions to understand the why, what, how, and so what of their service offerings.Read More
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From Physical to Digital Labor: Will Salesforce’s AgentForce 2.0 replace traditional jobs and outsourcing?
Salesforce’s AgentForce 2.0 signals a new era of digital labor, redefining how enterprises manage productivity, outsourcing, and internal workforce models. By integrating AI-driven Digital Workforce Equivalents (DWEs) into its platform, Salesforce positions itself as a cornerstone of the agentic AI revolution, challenging traditional IT and outsourcing paradigms. We believe this release signals a clear path toward the services industry’s shift toward Services-as-Software.Read More
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2030 HFS Services Technology Vision: The Future is Services-as-Software
By 2030, we will be engaging with services primarily through technology, minimizing human intervention and maximizing efficiency. In fact, services will barely even be services anymoreRead More
