Technology

Walk a mile in your BPO provider's shoes

Posted: 08/05/2016 - 19:54
Author: Adam Cummins

Organisations that enter business process outsourcing (BPO) transactions inevitably experience challenges with BPO providers – often resulting from unmet expectations, difficult transitions and erratic steady state delivery. While it is reasonable to expect the value promised by a provider to be delivered quickly and consistently, walking a mile in a BPO provider’s shoes can help buyers understand the typical challenges BPO providers face when taking over execution of business processes from their clients.

Introducing 'Sourcing Architecture': next-generation sourcing and procurement transformation

Posted: 08/05/2016 - 19:52
Author: Sanjay Chadha

Sourcing and procurement (S&P) leaders continue to reference efficiency, effectiveness and continuous improvement of operations as a high priority. Most will admit that continuous optimisation is not a destination, rather a journey that has become increasingly complex. Today, an agile S&P organisation that effectively aligns with the needs of the business is critical to establish. S&P organisations want to embrace accelerated decision-making, improve productivity and spend visibility, and implement tighter controls for supplier performance.

Live Wires #8: Late or leapfrog?

Posted: 07/29/2016 - 00:11
Author: Paul Morrison

An almighty fight is raging for control of the RPA software market. Who is the market leader? Which is the best product? Which features really stand out? There are a number of names in the frame, but one name Daniel Dines wants you to hear is UiPath. He is its founder and CEO and he spends his day spreading the word globally about what his software can do. We caught up with Daniel, to get his perspective on RPA and the world of smart automation.

Are you ready to outsource your CIO?

Posted: 07/27/2016 - 02:34
Author: Dean Coleman

Outsourcing has always been a key component of the technology sector; however recently it has been not just basic IT services, but key CIO roles taken on by outsiders. The term ‘virtual CIO’ (vCIO) is gaining increasing momentum, and refers to an individual or service that is charged at an hourly or flat rate fee for the provision of services that incorporate technology and business strategy. vCIOs are particularly popular with small and mid-sized businesses, because they make the strategic guidance of an expert affordable.

Sunshine, happiness and webinars

Posted: 07/21/2016 - 09:55
Author: Jamie Liddell

The summer sun blazed down upon London today, a raging nuclear inferno of staggering power – yet it was as a mere birthday-cake candle when set alongside the brilliance of the panellists on this afternoon’s Outsource Talks… Yes, today saw the fifth episode of our webinar talkshow, and if my introduction might be considered just a fractionhyperbolic we were nevertheless treated to a feast of outsourcing opinion and insight, wit and wisdom – and a few chuckles – which made for a fantastic hour’s listening and, overall, a very worthy addition

Pokemon Go means business: why B2B needs to get its game face on

Posted: 07/19/2016 - 21:00
Author: Al Tepper

Pokemon Go signals the mainstream arrival of augmented reality (AR). From here on in, virtual reality (VR) will always be the poorer cousin – or bridesmaid if you will, and never the bride – in the fight for digital’s push out through the screen into reality.

This new (albeit long-pending) medium of AR will have a huge impact on local and B2C advertising. In fact you might argue it already has, adding billions to the valuation of Nintendo after just a week since Pokemon Go launched – a truly remarkable week.

Live Wires #7: Giant shoulders

Posted: 07/15/2016 - 19:53
Author: Paul Morrison

A lot of the talk of RPA today is about bright new names challenging the established order: plucky newcomers forcing their way past the giants of outsourcing and technology. But what do the giants themselves have to say about this? Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is one such business, and it turns out they are not sitting around waiting for their business models to be hollowed out. Live Wires met Vijay Damle, VP and Head of Business Process Services, to get the TCS perspective.

It isn't a technology play

Posted: 07/11/2016 - 20:01
Author: Bobby Varanasi

Business services are usually at the core of organisational endeavours, structured to build and manage a variety of workflows and dependencies in a concerted manner. The end goal for all such services is the smooth functioning of an organisation, built around some strategic goals usually manifested in revenues, growth, competitiveness and shareholder value. Over the course of more than two centuries, industrial advancements – enabled through scientific and technological innovations – have assisted with building and sustaining complex workflows, products and services.

TBM: from measurement to a core business function

Posted: 07/09/2016 - 09:53
Author: Nigel Hughes

IT reaches far and wide within organisations, particularly in the case of large enterprises, but it can be difficult to understand exactly what it does and how it is having an impact, especially when it comes to measuring return on investment. Enter Technology Business Management (TBM).

Simply, TBM provides an end-to-end view of the delivery of IT, capturing how both resource and cost are being consumed by the business. This facilitates more informed conversations around IT spend and helps demonstrate IT’s strategic value to the rest of the business.

A tale of two outsources: good versus bad

Posted: 07/07/2016 - 03:02
Author: Nancy Van Elsacker

More and more facilities and IT organisations are outsourcing their services. They may have a lot to gain; for example, outsourcing these services can lead to leaner organisations less bogged down by technical pursuits. Unfortunately, outsourcing does not always improve efficiency, and when done badly can have a negative effect on services. The following are two examples that help explain how IT and facilities organisations handle outsourcing, and what this can mean…

Outsourcing services gone wrong

OPINION: Look away, look away, look away, Euroland!

Posted: 07/01/2016 - 19:57
Author: Simon Boardman

Maybe Daniel Decatur Emmett will forgive me for “borrowing” some lyrics from his iconic 1850s American folk song, ‘Dixie’. I do this to encourage British business to look further afield for IT outsourcing services, as encouraged by Brexit. The USA and its domestic or onshoring companies represent a great but seldom considered alternative.

Q&A: Joe Musacchio, PeopleTicker

Posted: 07/01/2016 - 19:52
Author: Joe Musacchio

Outsource: Joe, thank you very much for joining Outsource today. We always begin interviews by asking for a little bit of an introduction to yourself and your organisation for our readers – so, over to you…

Joe Musacchio: I am the CEO of PeopleTicker. PeopleTicker is a rate and benchmarking tool, we cover salary and contingent labour benchmarking. We basically help companies that want to know how much somebody costs, for projects, individuals, recruitment, sourcing, and procurement.

Q&A: Haitao Qi, Devott

Posted: 06/15/2016 - 04:55
Author: Haitao Qi

Haitao Qi is the CEO and founder of Devott, the leading Chinese research and advisory firm focussed on the country’s technology markets and business services, whose annual Devott Global IT & Sourcing Summit (DGITS) is now the largest of its kind in China.

Hybrid management for hybrid clouds

Posted: 06/15/2016 - 01:56
Author: David Grimes

The hybrid cloud model is here to stay for the foreseeable future. While a full public cloud infrastructure has worked well for some pure-play digital companies such as Netflix, most enterprises are finding that in spite of the benefit, not all workloads should move to the cloud. In fact, not all workloads can.

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