Fresh from a scintillating summit on Amelia Island in Florida a couple of weeks ago, the Sourcing Interests Group (SIG) is venturing across the pond for its next shindig – its Regional Roundtable meeting in London on May 4 and 5, 2011.
SIG goes on tour to London Town… meet Euan Davis (HfS), Jamie Liddell (Outsource Mag), Michael Stock (formerly of the BBC), John Transier (Unilever) and Dr. Bernd Huber (Google)
And for all you savings-savvy sourcing sentinels, we have secured a saucy 20% discount for HfS readers: Enter the promo code HFS2011UK and select “Non-SIG Member”, when you register here.
This event represents SIG’s first major foray into the UK, and it promises to set new sourcing standards, featuring integral discussions on global business operations strategy, sourcing, shared services and BPO, led by the following renowned sourcing practitioners:
Dr. Bernd Huber, Head of Google’s eSourcing Center of Excellence
Michael Stock, former Head of Business and Partnership at the BBC
John Transier, Unilever’s Global Head of Finance Shared Services
Euan Davis, Managing Director of HfS Research’s European Practice
Here are the main details you need to know:
The Regional Roundtable will kickoff on Wednesday, May 4 at 6:00 PM and will run through 9:00 PM, with cocktails and appetizers, and a panel discussion on on sourcing, outsourcing, offshoring and nearshoring that will include include Jamie “Lid-lifting” Liddell (Editor of Outsource Magazine), and HfS Research’s Managing Director for Europe, Euan Davis. We are assured this cocktail-infused discussion will leave no lids-unlifted.
Thursday, May 5 will run from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM (yes, you get an extra hour’s kip in the old country), will focus on today’s burning sourcing topics, ranging from government requirements and new legislation affecting business and sourcing, smart supply-chain systems at the macro level, innovative sourcing strategies, governance excellence… and lots more.
The day will start with presentations from SAP, Ariba and SNR Denton, followed by three breakout roundtable sessions, each with different top-of-mind issues on the table; each attendee has the opportunity to attend all three roundtables throughout the day.
Dr. Bernd Huber (Head of eSourcing Center of Excellence for Google) will discuss how Google has evolved over the last 3 years with using eAuctions and how you measure the performance and get the maximum out of eAuctions, as well as various eAuction formats and strategies and their sustainability for procurement.
Michael Stock, formerly of the BBC, and Unilever’s John Transier will lead discussions for the group on smart governance and offshoring and how to govern complex global business operations in today’s environment.
We have secured a 20% discount for HfS readers: Enter the promo code HFS2011UK and select “Non-SIG Member.” Register here.
Join Euan Davis and our friends at SIG for what promises to be a right ol’ sourcing knees-up.
As we clearly pointed out last Autumn, it was going to take one serious investment to get Gen down the aisle. And, as we even more accurately predicted, firms such as Cognizant, weren’t going to make this move anytime soon. Moreover, we can officially proclaim, declare, announce and validate: HfS used to be conceited, but now we’re perfect (ahem).
So why did Genpact buy Headstrong, in the third-largest acquisition ever made by an India-based provider, since Wipro picked up InfoCrossing for a cool $600m in 2007, and HCL-Axon for a similar sum, the following year? And, most importantly, what does this mean for the immediate future of the BPO business?
IT-enabling BPO is getting increasingly important – especially within some high-growth verticals such as financial services
I recall a recent roundtable where eleven insurance sourcing executives were present, all of whom had mature BPO offshore-centric engagements for their insurance-specific processes (e.g. rules-based underwriting and claims processing). One main aspect all of them agreed on: we can only get so far with people-only processes, we need to IT-enable them to find new productivity improvements and business value.
The same applies for several other vertical markets, for example clinical data management in life sciences; but especially in the banking and financial services industries, with processes such as mortgage processing, asset services, trade settlements management and capital markets accounting. Moreover, as the following data from our new Finance & Accounting BPO report illustrates, an increasingly majority of F&A BPO engagements require some form of IT-enablement – especially those engagements of a smaller scale and with middle-market clients, where buyers will leverage the BPO initiative to upgrade their platform, or have the provider introduce its own “wraparound” application layer that will have some pre-developed optimized workflows:
BPO specialists must incorporate IT-enablement and technology management capabilities – and they can be very effective at it
As we’ve seen many of the IT services giants leap into BPO, they have all played on the fact they can provide BPO solutions underpinned by their wonderful IT capabilities. However, when you talk with some of these IT services providers, you’ll quickly find their IT superstars view their BPO groups as some strange assortment of weirdos who like doing things such as processing paychecks and invoices. Meanwhile, some of the pure-play BPOs have actually proven highly competent at helping their clients IT-enable their business processes, whether it be through managing third-party application development, or deploying their own workflow tools.
That isn’t to say all the IT services firms are poor at IT-enabling their BPO, because some are getting very good at it, and even cross-train IT personnel to specialize in BPO deployments. However, some BPO specialists, such as Genpact, have proven capable at IT-enablement, and the Headstrong acquisition demonstrates the firm’s appetite to stay at the forefront of the market. BPO engagements need to be process-led with IT supporting the capability to develop repeatable, scalable and best-in-class processes. That’s the only way these providers can build scale and make decent margins, which in turn allows them to focus on helping their clients find new sources of productivity and growth.
Genpact has set out its stall to compete, not to get bought
There’s no doubt the recent speculation surrounding Genpact’s future hurt the company – and morale hasn’t been too great as a result. That’s just business when you’re a market-leader in a high-growth market with a large number of prestige clients. Speculation of being an acquisition-target doesn’t bode well in deal pursuits, where the last thing prospective clients want is to select a provider to manage their intimate processes, when they may become absorbed by a provider with a completely different culture.
There’s been little doubt Genpact needed to either merge with a strong IT services major, or look to acquire greater IT competency itself. Clearly the latter scenario has won out, with Genpact shelling out $550m on Headstrong. And, while many people have been somewhat confused about this move, what other play was Gen to make, to enhance its IT-enablement competency? Most of the second-tier IT services firms are over-priced (even though Headstrong wasn’t a bargain), and aren’t offering much more than bums-on-seats IT scale. Patni may have been interesting, but iGate won that battle, even though a Genpact-Patni merger would have been a stronger proposition. History is history, and Genpact can now shake off the rumor-mongers and move on with a fresh impetus and attitude with this new direction.
So what are the plusses and minuses?
Plusses:
Headstrong is up the road from the Genpact HQ in Noida, allowing for staff training and easier cultural assimiltion (lots of cricket and football matches). Also, easy to poach staff from neighbouring EXL (just kidding).
Bolster’s Genpact’s industry footprints, positioning and capabilities in the burgeoning capital markets, financial services and healthcare payor verticals at a critical time when competition is very hot from the likes of Accenture, Cognizant, IBM, Infosys and TCS. Financial services has actually been declining at Genpact for the past couple of quarters, where it’s been booming for everyone else. This slide should now be quickly arrested.
Genpact can now own and grow and run its new capital markets and financial markets vertical separate from banking and insurance – the need for institutional knowledge is key for specialization.
Headstrong adds some genuine IT consulting muscle.
Not a lot of client overlap; dilutes GE concentration to less than 30% of total revs on pro forma basis.
Strengthens Genpact’s onshore delivery in the US, UK and Japan – three of the major growth markets for BPO. Also brings China and Europe to the table for driving further growth.
Dampens speculation of them being acquired for a while – only a very small handful of providers could now afford Genpact.
Minuses:
The acquisition was a little “lumpy”, even with a 20% growth rate forecasted and undisclosed profitability (but everyones’ overpriced right now).
Will stretch the current Genpact management model with the expanded onshore presence and capabilities.
Headstrong doesn’t have proprietary platforms that can be immediately leveraged.
Genpact still needs to examine further IT-centric acquisitions to broaden its full-service global capabilities – its cash resources have been heavily depleted after this, hence it will need to look at stock-swap deals.
All-in-all
We were, initially, quite surprised – and curious – with this move, but the more you look into the motives and fit, the more you realize it’s an important forward step for Genpact, at a critical juncture in its corporate development.
What competitive reaction can we expect?
The IT services providers with struggling BPO businesses will be nervous by this play. As we mentioned last year, BPO requires significant investment and patience – and the stakes just got that bit higher. However, we may finally see some BPO investments in the $500m-$1 billion range, with the small number of remaining BPO pure-plays looking increasingly vulnerable. We will also see an acceleration in acquisition of financial services captives, some of which will likely become public knowledge soon.
Exciting times for the BPO business! What do you think?
Our recent research on Latin America’s emerging sourcing presence has generated a lot of buzz – not to mention a huge number of downloads. Today’s piece in CIO – “IT Outsourcing in Latin America: 9 Things Your Vendor Won’t Tell You” – sparked some further thinking from HfS analyst Esteban Herrera, who has lived and breathed the LatAm experience. Over to you, Esteban…
Esteban Herrera, Chief Operating Officer, HfS Research (click for bio)
The truth about Latin American outsourcing
Market activity and our recent research have created quite a bit of buzz around Latin America. In my view, it’s about time we have the debate and expose the pros and cons of nearshore destinations. Today’s CIO.com piece, for which I was interviewed, is a good example and accurately portrays some of the challenges of outsourcing in Latin America. However, I find myself, for the first time ever, empathizing with politicians and celebrities who claim to be “quoted out of context.”
The article does reflect some of my statements, but not all of them, and I find myself in disagreement with some of the headlines and conclusions. So allow me to clarify a couple of thoughts, lest people think I woke up yesterday and changed my mind about the vast services potential of the Latin American region.
While more follow-up is often required (by American standards) I’ve always found the total time-to-deliverable in LatAm to actually be shorter than with India, because the wheels of productivity are greased by cultural understanding and proximity, and the fact that when people talk neither party is half asleep.
I don’t know that prices have risen fast. If anything, our research indicates they rose far slower than in India. But small populations of desirable talent invariably lead to wage pressure. The good news is that in those places (like Chile and Costa Rica) we’ve seen pretty much the top of the market.
Saying no is a good thing! For my 10 years as an advisor, my catch phrase to clients was “pick the provider that says no.” Saying “no, we can’t do that,” is an indication of honesty, transparency, and true partnership.
I don’t buy the physical security argument. Baltimore is a more dangerous city than Sao Paulo. Detroit has more murders per capita than any Central American capital. I don’t see anyone refusing to visit GM’s headquarters based on security concerns.
Like any destination, Latin America has its challenges. But at HfS, we’ve come to see the region as a highly desirable component of a global services portfolio, whether you are a buyer or seller.
Stephanie Overby and CIO.com did us all a favor by increasing awareness and highlighting the challenges of the region, which are real. I am seizing the opportunity to highlight that the advantages are real too!
So, armed with that info, HfS VP of Marketing Mark Reed-Edwards got together with Esteban Herrera, HfS COO, and Euan Davis, Managing Director of our European Research Practice, to discuss the region and its development in the global sourcing industry.
Listen to the podcast:
[podcast]http://www.horsesforsources.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/LatAm-Podcast.mp3[/podcast]
And while you’re about it, why not browse some of our recent research on the LatAm region…
Just when you thought you’d had enough sensational news for April 1st, Esteban Herrera, who covers Energy and Utilities industries for HfS, shares his thoughts on Wipro’s big acquisition today…
Wipro CEO, TK Kurien, and his new best friend
Today’s news that Wipro is acquiring SAIC’s Oil & Gas Technology practice for $150M appears to be another complementary addition by the Indian ITES industry’s most aggressive acquirer, provided it’s not a great April fool’s joke. In fact, the funny thing here is that SAIC, long positioned as a leader in this space, has a practice that is only worth $150M. Either SAIC has been excellent at marketing itself as a bigger presence than it was, or Wipro got a steal of a deal.
The motive for the purchase is not difficult to speculate: Upstream Oil & Gas is notoriously conservative and very challenging to penetrate as a new provider. Even if they outsourced their entire back office, that spend is a rounding error compared to their capital and operating budgets for pulling valuable stuff out of the ground and moving it to where their downstream friends can get it to you and me. In addition, Big Oil & Gas has been relatively slow in its embrace of offshore, in part, again, because the savings just aren’t a big enough percentage of the whole pie to get very excited about. Add to that a typically insular, homogeneous and long-tenured workforce and you get one of the toughest walls for offshore firms to climb.
SAIC’s long-term relationships with Tier 1 and mostly Tier 2 upstream Oil & Gas companies and predominantly Western presence, will give a balance and a good entry point to Wipro’s vertical. Wipro will have to work hard to reassure suspicious existing customers to avoid losing them through change of control clauses or non-renewals. The typical challenges of all acquisitions will still apply (culture, financial integration etc.). It is not clear how much of the SAIC portfolio is IT infrastructure business, but at that valuation, it cannot be huge, so we suspect there is more consulting capability and domain expertise than a contribution to Wipro’s effort to win India’s Big 3’s race to win in that space.
We doubt that SAIC customers will see much of a change, other than perhaps some more frequent visits from their friendly Wipro sales reps. Wipro’s customers will gain access to a lot of specialized expertise that may not have been there before.
Esteban Herrera covers Energy & Utilities industries for HfS Research (click for bio)
SAIC employees will probably see the biggest changes, and this is something buyers need to look out for—the last thing you want is to be paying for a provider that spends his or her time looking for a new job or is otherwise distracted with M&A concerns. Wipro paid over USD $100,000 per employee in this transaction with no guarantee that most of them will stay (or that Wipro will want them). One has to wonder what would have happened if it had instead raised industry base salaries by USD $33k and gone out and recruited 1000-1500 industry pros. The customer base might not have come with the investment, but it certainly could have captured the best talent in the business and built a formidable, and perhaps more sustainable, Oil & Gas business.
Esteban Herrera (pictured here) is Chief Operating Officer for HfS Research, who overseas HfS’ coverage of Energy and Utilities markets. You can read our new reports on the Oil and Gas and Utilities industries later this month
At HfS, we’ve had enough of service providers and their clients raving about how bloody wonderful they all are.
“We have a world-class global delivery operation that guarantees our clients first transformation, then innovation”, said one provider. Yep – we were actually told that!
“Our experience with XXXXX was amazing. They were so responsive and helped us transform our global processes in a way we could never have dreamt when we started out”, said the CFO of a Fortune 1000 outsourcing client. You have to wonder where his next job is being primed…
“We have this incredible culture of driving value to our clients, by making our employees feel empowered to find new thresholds of performance for our clients everyday.” Don’t these guys have the worst attrition in the business?
Meanwhile, one SVP of sourcing (after a few bevvies) did confess to us recently, “I have 5 providers and they’re all c**p. They all oversell and under-deliver. I have given up on any of them doing anything close to what I want them to do, so spend my time squeezing their rates. If they’re going to deliver c**p, we might was well pay them c**p.” Well said, old chap! Another pint?
And other buyer (this one actually sober) stated “If my account rep turns up one more time in my office trying to sell me something, I am going to get his entry card to our building taken away”. Uh, oh…
Yes, folks, it’s time to separate the puff from reality, so HfS Research has finally come up with a spectacular new methodology that – once and for all – will expose this behaviour to industry in all its naked glory…
Introducing the HfS Research Painsharing Paradox
Yes, forget gainsharing folks, this is all about painsharing. We’ve deployed an air-tight methodology for placing those pesky providers in their true position in industry, based on their acumen to serve up fluffy puff, correlated by their expertise in messing up all their client engagements:
The Painsharing Paradox Methodology
A Painsharing Paradox (PP) starts its life with a market definition and inclusion criteria. It’s proposed to our group of chief analysts, who are in charge of determining what markets are PP-worthy, whether or not the market is defined in a reasonable way, and so forth. In other words, analysts can’t decide to arbitrarily write a PP, and there’s oversight and a planning process, and an editorial calendar that lays out PP publication schedules for the entire year.
The rest is simple. We figure out which providers have the biggest budgets, and then produce a draft PP – the bigger the marketing budget, the further they are positioned over to the upper-right corner of the grid. Then the bidding process starts. Depending on how much we like them, how many first class boondoggles we’ve been treated to, and how much hard cash they’re prepared to pony up, we’ll maneuver them down the grid towards that hallowed lower-left quadrant, where everyone wants to be.
However, if we feel the provider hasn’t done enough to make us feel special, or once subjected us to two horrible days in a Red Roof Inn in New Jersey (which stays long in the memory), or – heaven forbid – didn’t stump up a nice sum of dough for our coffers, we may decide to leave them stranded in that dreaded right hand corner – sharing the pain of humiliation, with the pain they have subjected on their clients.
And that’s the Paradox… stay tuned for our first one, coming soon. And providers, we have a special PayPal account set up especially for your generation donations – simply email us at [email protected] to get started. Happy painsharing, folks 🙂
Oh, and by the way….
Please tell us you didn't fall for it again?
And while we’re reminiscing about falling for April Fools’ gags, here is 2010’s classic:
For those of you who’ve been close to the volatile world of HR Outsourcing, since it leapt into life in 1999 when BP and Exult tied the knot with “E-Enabled HR” (ahem) – there haven’t been too many constants.
I can barely recollect all the providers which dipped their toe in the market before either running for the exits kicking and screaming, or selling off dismally-performing business units. I can also barely recall the number of people who came, saw, conquered, and subsequently disappeared from the face of the earth, after dabbling in one of the most contentious areas of outsourcing we’ve witnessed to-date. I also struggle to remember the number of executives whose careers were either made or broken by doubling-down on that wonderful HRO value-proposition.
However, one face that has been ever-truly consistent – and constantly smiling – during this entire roller-coaster of HR navel-gazing… has been Keith Strodtman, who has been the face of global HRO provider Ceridian through so much of this market volatility.
Yes, HRO’s smoothest man has become part of the HfS analyst family to embark upon a brave mission to define, analyze and expound upon the Future of Work, and how HR service delivery needs to rise up the the challenges of a fast-changing global work environment. Of course, that is when he’s not predisposed to feeding the elks at his Dad’s farm… So without further ado, let’s hear from HfS’ new Research Fellow for HR Services and the Future of Work, Keith Strodtman himself…
The Future of Work – Who Will Lead?
For the past several years I have been thinking a lot about the future of work. Then, when Phil Fersht and I started talking about me joining the HfS Research team as a Research Fellow, I figured this was a great opportunity to start a bigger conversation on the topic and its impact on HR departments, service providers, and employers more broadly.
While most of us frequently think about the future, for me, I never really sat back and thought, beyond the obvious, about how or why the world of work was changing. That changed in 2004 when we invited Thomas W. Malone, the Patrick J. McGovern Professor of Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management to give a presentation on the Future of Work at a customer forum. Tom had just released his new book, The Future of Work, which examines the how new technologies enable companies to unleash the creativity and innovation of the people in their organization.
The key technology outcome that Malone was talking about is the falling cost of communication. Just as the lower cost of communication, think the printing press, helped enable the development of decentralized, democratic governments and markets over the past few centuries; today’s technology is lowering the cost of communication and collaboration in business. Companies are deploying technology that makes it easier for employees, customers, and partners to share information and ideas.
Just sharing ideas and information will not produce success. Companies must organize effectively to capture the innovations that come from the improved flow of information and ideas. They must enable workers to make important decisions, respond to customers, and quickly develop products that meet customer needs. Malone argues that a more decentralized organization, or at least decentralized decision-making, supported by technology, is better able to do respond to customers needs more quickly. It seems like a logical argument to me and there are good examples of companies who are doing this today.
Again, many companies are well down the path of evolving the future of work. The outsourcing industry would not be what it is today without technologies that allow us to move information around the world quickly and at low costs. Many companies use social media to promote their products and get customer feedback. Some have even implemented internal social tools to make it easier for employees to find and share information and ideas. Frank D’Souza, CEO of Cognizant, in his recent interview with Phil Fersht, gave an example of a mobile solution that Cognizant developed for a global consumer product company to allow their delivery people to collect competitive information as they delivered products to retail outlets.
Keith Strodtman, HfS Research Fellow for HR Services (Click for bio)
Okay, so I think we can all see how technology can enable changes in the future of work but there are many other drivers of the future of work. Big macro factors like:
Globalization of the world economy
The speed of change
The aging of the workforce
Millennials in the workforce
Flexible work arrangement, free agents, crowdsourcing, etc.
An increased focus on corporate responsibility
And so on.
Each of these topics alone could and have been the topic of many blog posts. Maybe I’ll get to that later. None-the-less, I believe that visionary leaders who organize and engage their companies to take advantage of these factors will become the “company of the future”. The most successful companies will organize in ways that enables them to capture the best information about their customer’s desired outcomes and unleash the innovative talents of their employees and partners to meet those desired outcomes. Today’s technology makes it a lot easier to deploy such and organization.
So what’s next? Companies need leaders to start thinking about the future of work as part of their business planning processes. Given my background in the HR services industry, I am hopeful that HR leaders will play a big role in this thinking. They are well positioned to understand the capability and talent of the organization. They also have access to more enabling technology they ever before to help engage the entire workforce in creating the future of work at their companies. Maybe your HR service providers help you? If HR doesn’t step up, then maybe someone from finance or procurement will (smile).
Keith Strodtman is Research Fellow for HfS Research, with specific focus on the HR services industry and the critical factors that are shaping the future of workforce development in today’s environment. Before joining HfS Research, Keith spent 8 years as the leader of the HR Outsourcing business at Ceridian, one of the largest HR service providers in the world. Prior that he was director of HRO solutions at PricewaterhouseCoopers and was at Fidelity Investments during the launch of their HRO business. You can access Keith’s full bio here and contact him here.
Everywhere we go lately, we encounter Outsource Magazine editor Jamie Liddell, as the newly-launched publication looks to get serious in the US and European markets.
Most recently, we saw him at SIG’s summit on Amelia Island in Florida, where he successfully flooded the event with copies of his publication before disappearing to the bar, where the real business was conducted. I, personally, have enjoyed reading Jamie’s stuff over the years – he’s one of the few commentators in our industry who injects personality and humor into his craft, and avoids the dry, passionless, jargon-laden and nauseating verbiage to which we are so often subjected.
So, we’re happy to announce that we’ll be seeing even more of each other now: HfS and Outsource Magazine have formed a research-media partnership.
Jamie Liddell, Editor, Outsource Magazine
Here’s how it will work:
Outsource will feature key HfS research and insight in the magazine. In fact, you can see our first contributions right here;
Jamie will contribute a monthly industry column for HfS. “Liddell lifts the Lid” will, in Jamie’s inimitable style, uncover things you might not have thought of. Look for this coming soon. We coined the title, so lids will get lifted…
Outsource Magazine will promote HfS’ key “State of the Outsourcing Industry” survey to its readership;
Outsourcing Magazine team to treat the HfS analyst team to a round of drinks next time we see them;
We probably agreed to some other stuff as well, but these are the main things.
We’re excited to inaugurate this partnership with Outsource and look forward to opening up a dialog with Outsource Magazine subscribers. And we’re anxiously awaiting Jamie’s lid-lifting contributions to HfS Research…
We watched this little movie during the “HfS 25” get-together this week in Dallas… sometimes we have to think a bit more laterally about motivating staff – it’s not only about metrics and money. Enjoy.
If you can achieve a smattering of these elements, you might actually return home thinking “that wasn’t such a waste of time and money, now, was it?”
So we were excited to attend the SIG Summit last week–our first event since we signed our partnership. Esteban Herrera, HfS COO, collected his thoughts on how the SIG Summit compared with typical industry shows. Take it away, Esteban…
The SIG Summit in Review
As you might guess, in the analyst world we attend a lot of industry events, but only last week did I get to attend a SIG summit for the first time, to celebrate and introduce our exciting new partnership. I was absolutely not prepared for what I saw. SIG is a true membership organization, whose members are both serious and proud. The “non-commercial” commitment is honored by all attendees. The summit is fun, but real work gets done.
The differences between the typical outsourcing convention and SIG’s Summits are so stark I had to put them in a table:
Typical Industry Show
SIG Summit
Trade show atmosphere with booths, and untold environmental damage caused by hundreds of thousands of pages of brochures nobody will ever read
No booths, no brochures, no selling. Even the event agenda and information is available as an iPhone App—death to the paper program!
Attendees want business, or a new job
Delegates want knowledge and they like their job
Sessions led by salesmen and publicity-seekers
Sessions led by experts
Attendees skip most sessions because there is so little to learn
Delegates plan on attending almost every session, and are genuinely disappointed about the ones they miss
80% Sellers and 20% buyers. Oh, who am I kidding, its more like 97/3, and the 3% buyers are all there because they are speakers (or looking for a new job)
At least 75% of Delegates were buyers
Sometimes I leave these shows feeling dirty
I left feeling enlightened
Sponsorship is King
Content is King
Inevitably, someone on the conference organizer’s staff has a Charlie Sheen-style meltdown
Dawn Tiura Evans and her world-class staff are composed, helpful and run a simply flawless event
Evenings and networking tend to be—ahem—adult oriented
A family-friendly event through and through
Entertainment consists of seeing which young provider sales person will get drunk enough to put his foot in his mouth first
Entertainment consists of a Brian Olsen painting a portrait of John Lennon to his music in real time (as well as Marilyn, Ray Charles and more…) and then raising over $15,000 for a worthwhile charity by auctioning them off
I have to confess it was fun, also, to have so many delegates approach me about getting their hands on our research, the recently published Latin America report in particular. SIG members now get all our behind-the-firewall research as part of their membership.
Whether you are a buyer or provider of outsourcing services, if you appreciate what we do here at HfS Research, you owe it to yourself to check out a SIG membership as well.
