Shared Services & Outsourcing Blog

Deborah Kops: Sourced & Shared | Master retail politics to scale shared services and outsourcing

2/16/2012

Deborah Kops Sourced & Shared | Master retail politics to scale shared services and outsourcing Those of us with a front row seat watching the US elections quickly grasp that, however many Superpac

Deborah Kops blog: Sourced & Shared | Rebadging the Captive: 5 basic rules for captive-to-outsource transfer

2/8/2012

“Some of us manage our offshore operations as the French managed their colonies, while others consider them as the British managed their empire.” D. Kops, SouringChange For offshore captives, moving work to an outsourcing provider

Deborah Kops Blog: Sourced & Shared | Will Offshoring Really Be an (American) Political Football?

1/31/2012

Will Offshoring Really Be an (American) Political Football? Those of you who listened to Obama’s State of the Union speech last week might have caught three references to the evils of outsourcing. And if you’ve taken a gander at

Deborah Kops Blog: Sourced & Shared | The Year of the Shared Services Center

1/24/2012

I declare this year “The Year of the Shared Services Center.” There’s a phenomenon going on that the sourcing numerologists are just starting to surface—a trend towards pursuing shared services as a first sourcing step, as opposed to diving

Deborah Kops Blog: Sourced & Shared | “Acme Outsourcing Provider…we’re no worse than anyone else!”

1/17/2012

“Acme Outsourcing Provider…we’re no worse than anyone else!”

Outsourcing and the Industrialized World – Here’s to the Future

1/5/2012

There are two Dans, as far as I’m concerned. One is Brown and the other is Pink. Brown is good for spine-tingling action; Pink is great to make you think. I am talking, of course, about Daniel H. Pink, author of four provocative books about the changing world of work, including A Whole New Mind, and Drive.

Foreign Investment Growth

12/9/2011

Here’s some data you really need to know about: IBM’s Plant Location International has just released its report on foreign investment across the globe. Translated, that means who is setting up centers, and where? And how big are these centers? Some really mind-blowing stats to quote at your next executive council meeting. That’s all for now – short and sweet.

Recruiting for “Big Data”

12/1/2011

Listening to early morning radio today, I was interested by a segment on recruiting the right talent to work “big data” and if you are not familiar with this term, write it on a post it and stick it on

Strategy for uncertain times

10/4/2011

Uncertainty is nothing new – but it fades at times. Right now it is all around us. The McKinsey Quarterly reminds us of this in its recent “Classics” series, saying that executives usually underestimate uncertainty, instead, imagining a future certain

HR Portals

9/29/2011

Whenever I speak with leaders of an HR services center I am impressed with just how much data they need to support. From the new graduate trainee to the CEO, you can be sure that everyone will, at some time

Human-Powered-Care

9/13/2011

A lot of exciting ideas are traveling across my desktop at the moment. Just today, I came across the phrase “human powered care.” Okay, it was in relation to an online photo printing business, and it was talking about “free

Super-Sized Shared Services?

8/26/2011

As an industry worth over AUD$1.3 trillion, superannuation funds regularly make headline news here in Australia, and with the SuperStream reforms making their way through parliament, the last few months have been no exception. Simply put, SuperStream is designed to

Centralization

7/11/2011

To Centralize or not to Centralize – that is the question. Not something Macbeth would have asked but very much top of organizational leaders’ minds. The dilemma of whether the gains of centralization are worth the pain it can cause

Opening Up To Outsourcing In Oz?

6/27/2011

It is no secret that, historically, Australian businesses have been more apprehensive towards outsourcing and offshoring than their European and American cousins. Having begun its life as an (albeit paradisiacal) outpost of the British Empire and remaining, for the most

Reconciliations – your next opportunity?

6/20/2011

The focus of this week’s SSON webinar, which I just hosted, was bringing reconciliations into a shared services environment. Given this industry’s obsession with data, automation, standardization, and error minimization, I was not surprised to see that over 200 people had registered. What

“Facebook” for business processes

6/13/2011

There’s a lot of talk out there about how social technologies will impact business. (And here is a brilliant video clip on how real this social revolution is.) At the recent Shared Services & Outsourcing Week, an automated poll question

Genuine Gen Y

6/7/2011

Contrary to popular belief, being born after 1980 does not magically entitle you to innate knowledge of social media. Having spent most of my Friday afternoon in the Sydney SSON office being laughed at by Gen Z for mistaking ‘tweeting’

Meta-Leaders

6/3/2011

“Meta leaders…seek to influence and activate change well above and beyond established lines of their decision making and control. These leaders are driven by a purpose broader than that prescribed by their formal roles, and are therefore motivated and capable

Parallel Universe

6/3/2011

McKinsey's emails never fail to catch my attention. From a broader business perspective they manage to strike just the right balance between hard facts and emotional connection. Or at least for me. Recently, their regular members' email appeared in my

Staying on top of local compliance issues

5/25/2011

I had an interesting morning, hosting this week’s free SSON webinar on “achieving local compliance in a centralized shared services environment.” Of the four models outlined by the presenter, David Lewis of BDO, it seems most companies today are still

G6 feeling the love in Amsterdam

5/19/2011

SSON's G6 tradition continues in Amsterdam at Shared Services & Outsourcing Week 2011. In what has become one of the most widely anticipated sessions at Shared Services & Outsourcing Weeks around the world (!), the stage at Amsterdam's Rai conference center (May 11, 2011) was set for the big-wigs (all of them voted in by you, readers) of the sourcing world to face the questions of SSON's moderator, Deborah Kops.

Cloud Claptrap!

3/28/2011

In the immortal words of the “Public Enemy” – don’t believe the hype. Many vendors in today’s market will speak volumes about cloud computing and will try to convince executives that they must understand the offering to carry out their

Want to know about global sourcing? Then we'll lend you Anand...

1/29/2010

Whether it's cash management in Casablanca, or payroll in Patagonia, there's one guy who'll have a Harvey Ball polished and ready for you. Enter Everest Group's rock loving, paint balling enthusiast, Anand Ramesh, who lives and breathes global sourcing

The Industry Speaks, Part I: it's not all about cost anymore, outsourcing provides a powerful change-agent

1/29/2010

So it's time to drip feed the intentions and experiences of 1055 buyers, intermediaries and vendors into the global sourcing industry. We'll be discussing the results from our "Seeking the New Normal in Outsourcing Delivery" in full at

Searching for the cloud? Then look to the Highlands...

1/28/2010

My earliest memory of outsourcing was ringing to complain about a utility bill and getting a polite, but calmly authoritative, Scottish girl at the end of the line. I knew immediately that I wasn't going to get a ton of

Alsbridge doubles-down on data-rich consulting with TAG acquisition

1/28/2010

We've had a huge amount of debate concerning the future direction of outsourcing advisory services, and today, we can exclusively reveal a sea change in the advisor industry landscape with Alsbridge's acquisition of TAG, the leading life cycle expense

Weekend recap: the 'new normal' in the outsourcing delivery business

1/28/2010

Thanks to all of you who participated in December's survey "Seeking The New Normal in Outsourcing Delivery". In total, 1051 companies gave their opinions, with a strong mix of buyers, intermediaries and providers participating to give us an unprecedented

Adieu to a research legen

1/8/2010

Right on cue with our discussion earlier this week, the "void" just got bigger as software analyst legend, Bruce Richardson, announced his departure from the analyst community to take on the role of Chief Strategy Officer at software giant Infor. Known in

Getting even more Ruest... Part Dieu

1/8/2010

And now time for the long awaited second part of our interview with our francophonic snowboarding services stud Sebastien Ruest, IDC's Veep for Global services research. (Vous pouvez accéder à la première partie ici). And ladies, please no more emails

The great analyst roll-up is on... who'll step into the void?

1/8/2010

So the "great analyst roll up" is in full swing, with Gartner's announcement today to acquire another competitor, this time the Burton Group, for 56 big ones. This comes hot on the heels of my former firm, AMR Research, also

New Year's outsourcing resolutions for service provider

1/8/2010

Wouldn't it be refreshing if some outsourcing executives decided to try doing a few things differently this year? Here are some suggestions... Stop using the word "transformation". Start trying to be different from the rest of the pack, or at

Sitting on a shrinking business and afraid to change

10/29/2009

"Most of our managers are happy sitting on a shrinking business" bemoaned a senior executive the other day. Sound familiar? I hate to say this, but too many senior executives I talk to these days adopted this survival mechanism

So where next for the Galloping Hooves?

10/26/2009

"You are going to keep doing that blog aren't you?" seems to have been the most frequently asked question I've had since I changed my day job. And a few people have asked whether I can still credibly run this blog,

Why you sometimes may need to fine-tune your innovation plans...

10/26/2009

Outsourcing Drawn into the Product Lifecycle Vortex

10/15/2009

Over the past several days I've been working through a thought process with several colleagues relating to the recent rush by product companies to "beef up their services business" through the acquisition of outsourcing service providers. I've concluded that the

Business and friendship: it's all about professional respect

10/12/2009

You can't understate the importance of relationships in business especially sourcing, where it's all about cultural fit and working relationships. In business, it's not always about liking people, it's about being able to trust and work with them. Sometimes, you will

Consulting the Oracle: Tibor's talktrack (Part II)

10/12/2009

In the second part of this two part interview, Oracle's Tibor Beles discusses how service providers can be successful at platform BPO offerings, how the broader BPO industry can improve, in addition to discussing the shifting dynamics with software licensing

Consulting the Oracle: Tibor's talktrack (Part 1)

10/12/2009

We've had a number of discussions with some of the SAP executives over the last few years regarding its highly publicized BPO partner program. Meanwhile, there's been a crack Oracle team quietly working on developing its own BPO strategy, led by its enigmatic

First Perot-Dell and now ACS-Xerox ... Two Sides of the Same Coin?

10/7/2009

I've been asked more than a few times recently whether the recently announced acquisitions of Perot (by Dell) and ACS (by Xerox) were a surprise. In all candor, I am not surprised in the least that Perot and ACS

Insecurity is the modern corporate disease

10/5/2009

In 1597, Sir Francis Bacon coined the famous phrase "Knowledge is Power". While knowledge does create power to the beholder of that knowledge, it can rarely be harnessed effectively until is it shared with other entities. In today's business

Bittersweet

10/5/2009

As many of you close to me already know, after 14 years in the analyst and management consulting community, I am going to take a little break and make a few changes. I'd like to thank publicly AMR Research

Xerox copies Dell's example and acquires ACS, but again, where's the fit?

10/5/2009

Is there a recurring theme here? US based giants with faltering commodity business models from yesteryear, making very late plays to get into the IT BPO services business? While I could see some synergies between Dell and Perot, this one's

Forget Platform BPO, it's really about the Business Services Cloud (Part II)

9/30/2009

We inspired a lot of offline debate when we discussed the challenges facing BPO providers delivering so called "Platform BPO" solutions. Bottom line, if BPO service providers are competing for commodity services engagements which are underpinned by software platforms that are widely

The Dell finally tolls - but is this the right fit?

9/23/2009

So Dell finally made its major play into the IT services enterprise arena announcing a $3.9bn deal for the Texas based Perot Systems. Unlike the HP EDS mega merger of last year, there is a lot less overlap between the merging

The art of blog: credibility is in the eye of the beholder

9/23/2009

Mark Stelzner roused some passions last week with a great blog post discussing how some traditional media are highlighting the need to regulate bloggers with possible "conflicts of interest". For example, Workforce Magazine's online article discusses the impact of controversial HR bloggers, such as Cheezhead's Joel

Shifting to the Real World

9/18/2009

Ok, I shared the nuances of my journey to land a new role in the global souricng industry and it's time to shift my focus on this blog to the real world experiences I am enjoying. Changing jobs is never

Tankety Tank Tank ...

9/18/2009

From the road my first lesson learned from a mega Provider is that the seemingly simple things (like role announcements) can be problematic. That said, I am thrilled to be back in the game and eager to make a difference.

Stratifying the Provider World

9/18/2009

In my post of Wednesday I characterized the nature of the employment discussions I held with a small number of enterprises that might be considered the "buy side" of outsourcing and offshoring. As promised, this post will describe my experience

Stephanie Moore's Law

9/18/2009

One of the most prominent industry analysts in sourcing over the last decade plus has been Stephanie Moore. Steph started out at Gartner, before spending time at Giga, and most recently Forrester Research, where she built an industry wide

Creating and capturing continuous improvement…

9/14/2009

This week, all eyes are on our Business Improvement manager, not least because he has just got engaged (congratulations to Andrew & Kelly ). Aside from this he is focussing a lot of his time on looking at continuous improvement