Contract

Outsourcing in the public sector: unnecessary fear?

Posted: 05/26/2016 - 21:11

Once more, the validity of outsourcing in the public sector has been brought into question.
Just this week, the National Audit Office released a report on the UK government’s programme to transfer back-office functions to two shared services centres. The report outlines that although savings were made, so far to date, it has not achieved value for money.

The boomerang outsource

Posted: 05/26/2016 - 00:49

Offshore outsourcing is controversial. No news there. For over 15 years customers have been moving services offshore as part of their global souring strategy. In the early ’00s businesses couldn’t offshore quick enough. Opponents of offshoring frequently quote the loss of domestic jobs, damage to economies, poor communication and quality, while proponents insist it facilitates competition and actually makes economies more efficient. But amid the furore, there is a rise in organisations returning from offshore.

Implementing a successful multisourcing model

Posted: 04/09/2016 - 03:10

A multisourcing contracting strategy is designed to break entrenched relationships with key technology providers and create a suitably tensioned environment where the business can access a wider range of service providers offering greater innovation and price competition, but without compromise to continuity of service or service integration. Significantly, it recognises at the outset that different providers will be involved in the end-to-end services, and addresses both the challenges and opportunities this presents.

A new way to serve and contract

Posted: 04/01/2016 - 19:55

The world of sourced services is developing rapidly. Gone are the long-term, rigid forms based on lease funding and assumptions of slothful corporate evolution. The cloud, rapid innovation and globalisation have put paid to that. So what emerging trends of the sourcing market are noteworthy for commissioning directors?

Robots 

Delivering contracts with teeth

Posted: 04/01/2016 - 19:52

All too often, businesses are faced with bold promises about the services they will receive from their outsource providers; they are drawn in by the “ideals” pitched to them and ultimately, find themselves disappointed with the outcome as those services fail to live up to expectations.

Navigating the uncertain new world of outcome-based outsourcing

Posted: 03/14/2016 - 20:28

The days of paying supply chain outsourcers by number of FTEs are on their way out. In that purely cost-based model, the OEM’s interests – keeping hours low to contain costs – are inherently pitted against their managed service provider’s – putting more FTEs on a project to maximise revenue. Instead, OEMs are now exploring outcome-based models, where sellers become partners who share the risks and rewards of achieving their goals.

Beyond the traditional ZOPA: how to create value in complex deals

Posted: 02/26/2016 - 06:37

You’ve all been told that to create value in your negotiations and get the “best” deal for your organization you need to expand the pie, not just haggle over the limited and fixed number of pie pieces. But no one has really demonstrated pie expansion – value – for commercial contracts – until now.

AI 101: an introduction to automation and artificial intelligence in outsourcing

Posted: 01/27/2016 - 21:22

The traditional view of outsourcing has tended to see cost reduction as one of the primary drivers for any customer. The idea that the ‘total cost of ownership’ of a particular business function over the term of the outsourcing contract should be lower is very often part of the business case. Similarly, seeing outsourcing as a means of transforming a collection of assets on the balance sheet into a recurring service charge, and reducing (or at least apparently reducing) capital costs is another common refrain at the outset of deals.

Stewart Macaulay: pioneer for relational contracting

Posted: 07/14/2015 - 09:00

Stewart Macaulay – Professor of Law Emeritus, University of Wisconsin Law School – occupies a unique place in the evolution, awareness and acceptance of relational contracting. In fact one might safely argue that he helped set relational contract theory in motion in 1957, with the publication of his famous article, ‘Non-Contractual Relations in Business: A Preliminary Study.’ He was 26.

Trumping Price-Only with Best Value

Posted: 01/02/2014 - 07:49

It is likely that no other subject gets as much attention when two companies are entering, or extending, their outsourcing business relationship as the effort to come up with a fair pricing structure. Money is money after all, and money talks. You know the drill by now: the conventional procurement process pits buyers and sellers on opposite sides of the table – and there’s no way around it, right? Wrong!

Getting to the real-life win-win

Posted: 10/04/2012 - 07:09

This article originally appeared in Outsource Magazine Issue #29 Autumn 2012


After two years of blogging for Outsource I hope readers have at least heard of Vested Outsourcing and maybe even read one of our three books. But perhaps you have some doubts and concerns, so you are still waiting on the sidelines. All too often we hear, “I like the theory of Vested, but does it really work in the real world? Are companies (especially ones people have heard of!) adopting the Vested approach?”

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