Category: Captives and Shared Services Strategies
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Double-Dip Dynamics, Part II: The new tenets of outsourcing – process standardization, global flexibility and better technology
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.Read More
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Aird aired. Part II
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.Read More
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Aird aired. Part I
Part I of the HfS Research interview with Dr. Charles Aird, Global and US Practice Leader for PricewaterhouseCoopers Shared Services and Outsourcing AdvisoryRead More
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Meet The Don of BPO (Part 2)
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". Read More
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HfS Live and Unfiltered, Part I – The new buyer-provider outsourcing debate series is right here!
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.Read More
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Listen to Cassandra when it comes to sourcing change management
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.Read More
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Meet the sultan of strategic sourcing
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.Read More
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The undisputed facts about outsourcing, Part 5: Decision-makers increasingly reliant on peer-networking and research than traditional channels
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'sRead More
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The undisputed facts about outsourcing, Part 4: Mid-market buyers are enjoying better outsourcing outcomes than enterprises
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 experienceRead More
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The undisputed facts about outsourcing, Part 3: With outsourcing demand at unprecedented levels, can new buyers get across the finish-line?
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.Read More