Sourcing

Digital strategies without the hype: fundamentals for effective implementation

Posted: 01/20/2017 - 00:42
Author:

Undoubtedly, digital has huge potential: to fundamentally transform the business operating model; to unlock the “impossible challenge”; to greatly accelerate change; and to intimately connect a company to its customers in real time. However, digital can also expose a company’s inner contradictions, reveal hidden pockets of poor performance, and even lead to perceived core capabilities being seen as critical weaknesses.

Life Lessons: Kit Cox

Posted: 01/17/2017 - 02:02
Author: Kit Cox

Kit Cox is the founder and CEO of UK-based BPO software company Enate, and a long-time observer of and commentator upon the international outsourcing space. He's also, now, the latest professional to come under the microscope of our Life Lessons series: we're in your hands, Kit...

What has been the single most significant development to impact your profession or area of business during your career, and why?

Black swans - and the price we're paying today

Posted: 01/17/2017 - 00:20
Author: Bobby Varanasi

The sourcing industry has so far had a spectacularly wonderful run. Twenty-five years of constant change, dynamism, technical competencies; business-aligned, people-centric, and bottom-line focused; intrinsically able to deliver on all promises made. As with any journey, bumps and roadblocks are expected. Navigating them painstakingly has created heroes of many an organisation, spilling over benefits into the developing world, and capital markets.

Seven is a lucky number, but procurement success takes more than luck

Posted: 01/06/2017 - 20:59
Author: Kay Ree Lee

It’s clear that procurement has evolved over the past several years. And it continues to evolve. Digitisation has helped take it from what was viewed as a back office function to a key differentiator and value driver. But why have some procurement organisations soared with the change while others lag behind?

What do winners know that others don’t? What makes some procurement organisations more efficient or effective, more successful, more innovative, more on top of their game?

Think differently

Life Lessons: Gautam Singh

Posted: 01/06/2017 - 20:57
Author: Gautam Singh

Gautam Singh is the co-founder and CEO of The Smart Cube, a global analytics company. A first-generation immigrant who worked and built his way up to become the head of a respected international organisation, he's full of Life Lessons - and keen to share them with our readers in the next instalment of this series: over to you, Gautam...

What has been the single most significant development to impact your profession or area of business during your career, and why?

Regulating outsourcing creates surprising vendor opportunities

Posted: 01/04/2017 - 08:42
Author: Chris Niccolls

During the election, Donald Trump said that he would stop work from leaving America, and would tax offshored products at 35%. Weeks before Trump is sworn in as President of the United States, he is hard at work wheeling and dealing with American corporations. Will these deals tell us about the “Trump Plan” for outsourcing? Let's dive right in and see!

Why South Africa can capitalise on Brexit

Posted: 12/03/2016 - 03:33
Author: Gareth Pritchard

Recently I attended the Brexit & Global Expansion Summit in London, an event that brought together politicians, businesses and investors for discussions on the investment implications of Britain’s tectonic decision to leave the EU.

One of the sectors we discussed in depth was offshoring and outsourcing. No one has a crystal ball, but what is clear is that Brexit has challenged so many fundamental economic assumptions about the value proposition for a British business operating a customer service centre in the UK.

TBM: time’s up - are you ready or not?

Posted: 11/04/2016 - 19:54
Author: Nigel Hughes

I remember attending the first technology business management (TBM) conference in 2012. Back then, the concept of this new data-driven framework, which would help measure and manage IT budgets, consumption and value, was new and exciting. Speakers and delegates talked at length about how TBM would respond to the need for financial transparency, deliver data that could drive decision-making at the highest levels, and unpack the consequences of decisions made in the past.

Q&A: Ed Hansen, Morgan Lewis

Posted: 10/29/2016 - 00:11
Author: Ed Hansen

We caught up with Ed earlier this month at the SIG Global Summit in Carlsbad, California (where he also participated in our most recent Outsource Talks webinar: see below for more) to get his take on current trends in the space, his critical input into SIG's Executive Immersion Program (EIP), and the evolution of the role of the lawyer in sourcing and outsourcing - and much, much more...

EMEA sourcing market enjoys a strong third quarter in 2016

Posted: 10/28/2016 - 04:11
Author: John Keppel

We’ve just published the latest ISG Index, which reveals that the Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) market saw solid regional growth in 3Q 2016. Combined third-quarter ACV reached €3.1 billion, up 22% over the previous quarter, with traditional and as-a-service sourcing contributing equally to the gains - both up 10% year-on-year. In addition to the increase in value, the volume of activity went up. The 494 contracts awarded in the year to date represent a 13% uplift – a record high in the region.

Outsource talked - live from the Summit

Posted: 10/20/2016 - 05:51
Author: Jamie Liddell

I always love hosting our Outsource Talks webinars – but today’s was even more enjoyable than usual, featuring as it did three remarkable professionals gathered together in the same place, rather than dialling in as is customary. Having Morgan Lewis’ Ed Hansen, Ivalua’s Gary Malhotra and Outsource columnist Thom Mead round a table here at the SIG Summit in California was a unique pleasure, generating as it did a delightful degree of interaction alongside the anticipated thought leadership.

Surviving Brexit, the staff augmentation way

Posted: 10/11/2016 - 03:03
Author: Robert Barbus

Experts agree it’s too soon to say what the mid-term effects of Brexit are going to be on the UK and European economy. Despite early signs of business and consumer confidence shrugging off doubts, we can surely all agree that we’re about to go into a period of major, structural change for the UK and the rest of Europe - which suggests the best response strategy business leaders can have is maximum flexibility.

Procurement excellence redefined

Posted: 10/04/2016 - 07:04
Author: Kay Ree Lee

Procurement today is a different game. Once viewed as a back-office task, it has emerged as a key differentiator and driver of business value. And to execute it well requires totally new ways of thinking and acting.

Best-in-class organisations understand this. And they are tapping technology, big data and digital networks to fuel a simple, more collaborative source-to-pay process that is changing the game.

Moving Beyond Savings

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