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raditionally, IT infrastructure outsourcing buyers wait a few years into their multi-year contracts to benchmark the costs of their services. This can be a costly mistake. Here’s why.
Everyone knows prices for services across all infrastructure towers historically have been declining year after year.
The outsourcing service providers know their prices will decline because of three things they can somewhat control:
- Productivity improvements tied to better processes and people
- Moving processes offshore to take advantage of labor arbitrage with remote infrastructure management
- Technology advances
But the providers really have no idea how… Read the rest
While the typical benchmarking clause in an outsourcing agreement provides the opportunity to benchmark the services, many clients find third-party benchmarks to be expensive, disruptive and time-consuming. In addition, the outcome can be unpredictable, as results may just as likely confirm that a vendor’s price is market competitive, and no savings are to be had. Further, third-party benchmarks by their nature pit client against vendor – making them all but impossible to complete – and risk damaging what otherwise might be a good working relationship.
There is a better way. Clients looking to confirm market competitiveness are increasingly relying on… Read the rest
Predictive analytics have been used in actuarial services in the insurance industry for many years now. However, given the nature of the insurance business and the market, it is now used in various other functions in the insurance industry – to enhance customer experience and satisfaction, for sales and marketing, to improve operational efficiencies and to reduce costs. In business, predictive models exploit patterns found in historical and transactional data to identify risks and opportunities.
Insurers gather and store a tremendous amount of data. Information from a variety of sources, including applications for policies, premiums and claims contain vital intelligence… Read the rest
As the job situation in America stubbornly refuses to improve, people look for scapegoats. We in the outsourcing world have long been a prime suspect.
Now two professors at M.I.T have just published a book that serves as a beautiful rebuttal when people blame outsourcing for the lost jobs. In their eBook, “Race Against the Machine,” the professors predict more jobs for machines, not people. In other words, it’s automation, stupid!
Erik Brynjolfsson, an economist and director of the M.I.T. Center for Digital Business, and Andrew P. McAfee, associate director and principal research scientist at the center, are experts on… Read the rest
What will the future bring in terms of HR technology? Jason Averbrook, co-founder and CEO of Knowledge Infusion, and Naomi Lee Bloom, managing partner, Bloom & Wallace, attempted to define that future during the second annual “Great Technology Debate” at the HR Technology Conference and Exposition in Las Vegas on October 4.
Here are some nuggets from the lively 90-minute discussion. N.B: Their sage insights are universal, applying to technology in general.
About HR data and analytics:
Bloom: “We have a bunch of sludge sitting at the bottom of our databases. HR has postponed the inevitable. But now is… Read the rest
Today’s harried IT managers and CTOs must support the applications that keep the lights on in the business, find time for IT innovation, AND answer your questions about why you can’t change your password. In many cases, they spend up to 80 percent of the time answering your questions and fixing desk top problems that you inadvertently created because you’re not an IT person and somehow messed it up. (Yep, that would be me.)
Add in Moore’s law and companies discover the desktops they own are almost as outdated as a manual typewriter in just 36 months. Where can they… Read the rest
If I hear one more person complain that outsourcing is the major reason for the seemingly intractable U.S. unemployment rate, I will scream. I live in Las Vegas, which has one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation. Here is a quote from a letter to the editor of the local paper dated July 13:
Headline: “Nation’s jobs have gone overseas to the detriment of the U.S.”
Letter: “All I hear is, “Where are the jobs? The answer is they are overseas. … I don’t see other countries sending their jobs to the USA. How come?”
The jingoistic… Read the rest
When was the last time you purchased a home? Last year? A few years back? Five, perhaps 10 years ago? Did you hire a realtor, or did you go the whole way through on your own? For most people, domestic and internationally, the decision to purchase a home is one of the single most important and largest financial transactions a person makes and experiences. As a potential home buyer, you have limited knowledge (even within the locale in which you focus your search). At best you have a handful of experiences in the process (and those are usually a few years removed), and you lack access… Read the rest
Ask a handful of experts today, “What is Cloud Computing?” and you will likely elicit a wide and varied range of responses and definitions. For a provider, simplifying their explanation of cloud would cause them to lose a competitive advantage over others in the industry. Making a decision regarding the best option for cloud computing is a complex and perplexing decision due to a number of reasons.
Selecting a cloud computing provider can be a challenging adventure. You must decide why to engage your operations using this type of service, select the business processes and applications to be delivered in the… Read the rest
I remember 2003 and 2004 because that’s when most companies I interviewed about outsourcing arrangements started talking in earnest about “taking a partnering approach” to get more value from outsourcing. Since 2006, many have talked about their successes in partnering. But here’s the reality; they were only partial successes.
Partnering helped them get through the transition phase easier and helped them try to resolve challenges in a win-win manner; but when the business situation changed and thus impacted the buyer’s savings or the service provider’s margins, most of them still hit a wall despite the partnering approach.
There were foundational
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