{"id":1675,"date":"2010-05-17T08:19:00","date_gmt":"2010-05-17T08:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/projects\/horsesforsources\/innovation-purgatory1-051710\/"},"modified":"2010-05-17T08:19:00","modified_gmt":"2010-05-17T08:19:00","slug":"innovation-purgatory1-051710","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsesforsources.com\/innovation-purgatory1-051710\/","title":{"rendered":"Innovation? The BPO industry needs to escape from purgatory. Part I"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Forgive me father, for I hath missed gain-share opportunities…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

While there’s a lot of puff coming from several\u00a0providers, expectations are not being met when it comes to the\u00a0actual\u00a0achievement<\/em> of innovation within many\u00a0Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) engagements.\u00a0 Consequently, this\u00a0improves the options for the\u00a0first-time BPO buyer to select a provider that\u00a0can demonstrate\u00a0a proven track record of innovation, but what about the second-time buyer, firmly-rooted in BPO purgatory?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our brand new\u00a0survey* of 588 shared services and outsourcing executives, studying the current achievements of\u00a0innovation within BPO,\u00a0serves up a major does of realism to the global sourcing industry:\u00a0 buyers want it, but they are not working effectively with their providers to achieve it.\u00a0 And many buyers\u00a0and\u00a0providers are pointing the finger at each other.\u00a0 So why should we care?<\/em><\/p>\n

Innovation is becoming a critical component when it comes to BPO<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

In the past, many buyers shied away from innovation because they were so laser-focused on achieving operational stability within their BPO environment. Many claimed that they would have to sacrifice meeting service levels if they tried to tinker with their processes to find new ways of achieving better outcomes.\u00a0 However, when we \u00a0look at how those buyers with significant influence over BPO decisions <\/em>are viewing innovation today, the importance being placed on innovation is distinct:<\/p>\n

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Close to half of enteprises’ operational leadership\u00a0today now view the achievement of\u00a0innovation as a critical component of their BPO strategy.\u00a0 With most providers operating within a similar price-band today, this is clearly becoming the major differentiator for the first-time BPO buyer, as we first discussed in our “New Normal in Outsourcing Delivery”<\/a>\u00a0study, ealier this year.<\/p>\n

First time BPO buyers can select proven innovators, but the second-time buyers have a challenge on their hands to escape BPO purgatory<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

As the following data illustrates, both buyers and service providers of BPO services are equally disappointed with each others\u2019 provision of resources and technology to meet their expectations of achieving innovation. Considering 38% of enterprise customers view innovation in BPO as critically important to their operational leadership, with a further 50% viewing it as quite important, this is becoming a major concern for the future of BPO services:<\/p>\n

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While the present disappoints, hope for future innovation\u00a0is abundant<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

While\u00a0buyers are clearly not seeing a lot of business value beyond operational delivery today, they see abundant potential for innovation in both generic processes and industry-specific domains.\u00a0 <\/em><\/strong>Major findings, which will be featured in a forthcoming HfS Research report, include the following dynamics:<\/p>\n