May 10th, 2008
Whom do you trust for balanced outsourcing advice?
I wrote a piece entitled “Blog-culture is ripping up the rule book for the outsourcing services and technology media industry” a few weeks’ ago which raised a few eyebrows. OK, it’s a litttle biased and I was on my high-horse, but it did raise several questions on where people go to get balanced, insightful information on the outsourcing industry that they can rely on. So, please vote here for your preferred three information outlets on the poll to the left side-bar. And please be honest ![]()
May 3rd, 2008
Are we reaching an inflection point of business globalization?
Are we reaching an inflection point of business globalization?

April 25th, 2008
Outsourcing highlights for April
Highlights from the award-winning outsourcing blog Horses for Sources for the month of April:
Quest for an Organic Approach to Offshore Outsourcing
Cost-cutting measures for troubled companies in these tough economic times
How severely will the expiration of India’s STPI tax scheme impact the Indian outsourcing industry?
March madness: little advisors, Starbucks redux, F&A is bubbling back… and EDS gets active
HROWorld 2008: An industry re-inventing itself
Blog-culture is ripping up the rule book for the outsourcing services and technology media industry
March 31st, 2008
Looks like I’m next…
You can now offshore me.
Am thinking of re-training as a plumber
… you can’t offshore them
… can you?
March 22nd, 2008
Spring outsourcing talk
Some excellent recent outsourcing discussions:
Can HR Outsourcing rediscover its froth despite a 97% success rate?
Taking control of your vendor relationship
Can outsourcing be a catalyst for driving down the cost of healthcare?
Is your outsourcing vendor really your partner?
Is your industry over-networked?
What to look for in a sourcing advisor
The death of Indian outsourcing? Don’t make me laugh…
The low-cost outsourcing advisors are on the march…
Managing talent in these economic conditions
Happy Spring
Phil.
March 6th, 2008
Indian outsourcing redux
Feisty discussion on where Indian outsourcing industry is headed. Is it dying, or maturing… what is your experience?
February 25th, 2008
Outsourcing in a downturn
Podcast: Outsourcing in a Downturn: Yours’ truly discussing the potential ramifications of an economic downturn on outsourcing trends with AMR Research’s CEO Tony Friscia.
February 19th, 2008
Outsourcing links for February
Will China’s Internet purges inhibit their knowledge services industry? : Interesting commentary on the fact that the Chinese government is working extremely hard to increase its level of censorship and keep the Chinese Internet-world sectioned off from the rest of the world.
Human Resources Outsourcing: Where’s the Value? : Great insights on the purpose and value firms have experienced outsourcing their Human Resources function.
The NASSCOM 2008 Diaries: More Fog on the Windshield : AMR Research’s legend, Bruce Richardson, on his experiences and takeaways from the recent NASSCOM event in India.
Renewal Strategies for ITO Relationships : Peter Allen, TPI’s thought-leader on all things outsourcing comes up with some interesting strategies for firms looking to get more value from renewing their relationships with their IT outsourcing provider.
February 16th, 2008
Should your firm offload its offshore operations to an outsourcing provider?
Some interesting debate going on regarding whether firms which have already established offshore service centers (termed as “captives”) are better off selling these centers to outsourcing providers. It would be interesting to hear your views - especially if you work with offshore staff within your own firm - on whether you’d prefer to have these staff work directly for a service provider, where they are contracted to perform stipulated services, as opposed to being part of your organization. The following 10 questions are posed to help firms understand what is the best option for them:
1) Is the work being performed in the captive truly core to our business, or could we move it over to a third party?
2) How much risk are we exposing to our business by transitioning the captive operations over to an outsourcer? Can we work with the outsourcer to manage the transition process to ensure there is a smooth transition of people and operations?
3) By selling off our captive, how much can we save over a 5 year period?
4) What is our option-value in the future if we want to take some of these operations back in-house?
5) How severe is our attrition rate, and how does this impact running costs and quality?
6) Is the captive truly a part of our global organization, or is it really a distant support center that doesn’t play a core role in day-to-day business operation?
7) How much management time, and how much cost, is spent flying senior executives over to offshore locations to oversee low-value processes such as accounts payable, help deck support etc.?
8′) How much experience with offshoring do our firm’s senior executives currently have, or are they learning it by trial and error and substantial cost to our organization?
9) How complex is it to transfer knowledge from our parent operations over to our offshore operations? Wouldn’t it be cleaner and easier to move the work to a third party outsourcer, who will take on the work they are contracted to do?
10) Is it worth keeping our captive, but re-locating it to a more appropriate location? And what are the costs / benefits associated with doing that?
Phil Fersht is an acknowledged and well-recognized industry analyst and advisor across Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and IT services worldwide. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
Recent Entries
- Whom do you trust for balanced outsourcing advice?
- Are we reaching an inflection point of business globalization?
- Is it time to dump the term “outsourcing”?
- Outsourcing highlights for April
- Looks like I’m next…
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