Category: Sourcing Best Practises

  • GBS (Global Business Services) is dead. Long live GBS (Generative Business Services)

    March 16, 2024 | ,

    For more than two decades, Global Business Services (GBS), the centralized service delivery model leveraging a mix of internal shared services and/or 3rd party outsourcing, has been a tried and tested modus operandi for large enterprises to save costs, drive process discipline and improve compliance.However, with the rapid advent of real generative AI capability, the current GBS model is dated, fails to deliver much (if any) value beyond cost and efficiency and has struggled to create viable career opportunities for ambitious talent.  Let’s face it, GBS is still stuck squarely in the back office and fails to provide a career track for the best and brightest to pivot their firms into the generative AI era.Read More

  • Services firms are out of runway. They must forget Labor Arbitrage and conform to Technology Arbitrage

    December 10, 2023 | ,

    The fundamental value creation lever in the legacy Labor Arbitrage era has been the centralization of people in a global delivery model. The fundamental value lever in the Technology Arbitrage era is all about architecting and orchestrating the rapidly changing technology ecosystem in line with the client’s business model. It’s past time for the IT and BPO Services industry to jump to a new S-curve driven by Technology Arbitrage if they wish to get back to another season of hockey stick growth.Read More

  • Entering a decade of Total Enterprise Reinvention… Julie Sweet on creating value in the Generative Enterprise

    November 01, 2023 | ,

    As part of our GenAI Leaders Series, we got time with Accenture CEO Julie Sweet to talk about how the $64 Billion dollar corporation is approaching GenAI.Read More

  • As ChatGPT goes Enterprise, here are Ten GenAI Reality Checks you need to take…

    September 03, 2023 | , ,

    Barely ten months after its birth changed the world of technology, OpenAI unleashes ChatGPT Enterprise, where enterprises now have "Enterprise-grade security and privacy, unlimited higher-speed GPT-4 access, longer context windows for processing longer inputs, advanced data analysis capabilities, customization options, and much more."Assuming the 20 enterprises that road-tested ChatGPT Enterprise experienced these benefits in double-quick time, you have to take a serious look at scaling up GenAI tools or risk getting left behind with the most hyped technology since the Internet came to be... here are 10 reality checkpoints you must considerRead More

  • Krithi’s first TCS re-org… One step forward and two steps back?

    August 03, 2023 | ,

    Is the new TCS org structure really going to propel the company forward in the AI-driven era where scarce skills in areas such as GenAI are at a premium and intra-company collaboration and training are more critical than ever?  Does having an all-male leadership team send the right message to clients and employees, where diversity is so important to its culture and enticing the best young talent? Phil Fersht and Saurabh Gupta look into new TCS CEO K Krithivasan's first major re-organization of his TCS tenure.Read More

  • HFS doubles down on Dana!

    July 25, 2023 | ,

    With a background in Anthropology and IT, Dana Daher brings a unique human-centered perspective to the world of technology. In her new analyst role with HFS, she will collaborate on key research areas impacting clients across Employee Experiences, including HR technology, EX services, automation, generative AI, DEI, and sustainability.Read More

  • IBM’s acquisition of Apptio can shine if IBM Software and IBM Consulting work together to deliver cost-managed innovation at speed

    July 21, 2023 | ,

    HFS believes this is a good deal for both IBM and Apptio. IBM didn’t have much spend data; therefore, there is little overlap in terms of products. The ambition is bold. But the Holy Grail of operations is having an operational single pane of glass that includes automation and AI. If IBM can integrate all those acquisitions and get all that telemetry data out of its often highly specific domains, it can achieve strong differentiation in the market. Conversely, Apptio had hit a sales plateau as it struggled to scale its sales reach. Getting $4.6bn for hitting a plateau is too good an opportunity to turn down.Read More

  • A modern-era lift and shift: Danske Bank seeks massive cost-to-income ratio improvement with the help of Infosys

    As the IT services industry braces for a slowdown in 2023 with large deals taking eons to get completed, Infosys adds some renewed hope to ambitious service providers that big, meaty deals can still get thrashed out, with a 1,400 employee $450 million outsourcing engagement with Danske Bank.However, rather than basing a deal's value on tangible cost takeout from onshore–offshore employee displacement, firms like Danske have to look to other metrics to justify the cost. Those metrics are tied firmly to the technology and talent (aka “digital”) capabilities Infosys can bring to the table to make Danske a more innovative, efficient, competitive—and ultimately profitable bank.Read More

  • Why lazy transactional lawyers should be very scared of GPT-4

    June 10, 2023 |

    In the land of the blind, the one-eyed lawyer will not be king for much longer. ChatGPT is exposing lazy people compared to smart, diligent ones, and lawyers are no exception to the rule – everyone is being held to account by their ability to use LLMs properly and professionally. Read More

  • Which providers lead sourcing and procurement services in 2023?

    The latest Sourcing and Procurement Horizons report is a snapshot of leading procurement service providers' sourcing and procurement services capabilities. The aim of CPOs is to realize the value of procurement beyond costs and savings. We assessed 10 service providers on their capabilities across a defined series of value propositions, execution and innovation, go-to-market strategy, the voice of the customer, and alignment with the HFS OneOffice criteria.Read More