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Add in Moore’s law and companies discover the desktops they own are almost as outdated as a manual typewriter in just 36 months.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
To me, it’s always good business to do well by doing good. That’s the spirit in which Wipro established its rural BPO program in Manjakuddi, a village with a population of 2500. A large percentage of the 54 employees live in a house with a thatched roof. The village is six hours by car from Chennai.
The mover and shaker behind this project is Puneet Chandra, global head and vice president, Corporate Business Services, who was moved by the work of two institutions:
- The Azim Premji Foundation, whose goal is to educate the girl child in rural India
- Swami
From the start of time, when economic troubles occur, the hardest-hit find a scapegoat. Today, there are many scapegoats. But outsourcing is certainly on the list.
IMHO, American companies that outsource are contributing to that public perception. Chuck Collins, a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies, just co-authored a report entitled “The Moral Measure of the Economy.” One of the findings was that many of the nation’s largest 100 companies refused to disclose the breakdown of their workforce between the United States and other countries. From that he concludes, “They don’t want the public to know how aggressively… Read the rest
Do you remember back when sushi was a new concept in eating in the West? “Raw fish? Why would anyone want to eat raw fish?” But then we sampled it and before long it became so mainstream that you can find a sushi bar almost anywhere. While no where near as ubiquitous as sushi, Infrastructure and Software as a Service (IaaS and Saas) followed a similar path, with initial reluctance lending way to taste tests within a growing number of organizations.
But Business Process as a Service (BPaaS) is a very different type of meal. The light eaters – small… Read the rest
Manish Dugar is the new head of Wipro BPO. Dugar takes over at a watershed moment. “The near future features a volatile and dynamic economy. Thanks to technology and scientific advances, geography is history. Now, what happens in one part of the world impacts the whole world,” he observes.
The senior vice president has had a front seat for the growth of offshoring. He was there when it was all about labor arbitrage. His goal: to lead Wipro BPO through the next phase: producing business-based outcomes. Wipro calls this Business Function Outsourcing (BFO). “We are no longer a commodity player,”… Read the rest
Wave 5 of the technology revolution is upon us. (Preceded, of course, by mainframes, client/server, desktops and then the Internet.) Cloud computing is a key component of this new wave.
Contracts, of course, form the bedrock of beautiful outsourcing relationships. How do you contract for cloud services? Are cloud contracts different from contracting any IT service?
In his book “Cloud Sourcing the Corporation,” Ben Trowbridge outlines a list of concerns. He points out that many of the current cloud providers have business-to-consumer roots. “Their current contracting practices place much emphasis on the provider and not enough on the corporate customer,”… Read the rest
While the typical benchmarking clause provides the opportunity to benchmark the services, many clients find third-party benchmarks to be expensive, disruptive and time-consuming. 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 screening benchmarks (often referred to as “pre-benchmarks” or screening benchmarks) that help… Read the rest
Stop people on the street and the answer to that question is obvious. Of course!
Does this happen to you, my outsourcing colleagues? You go somewhere. Start talking to people. They ask what you do. You mention outsourcing. And then you have to don a bomb suit like the munitions squad wears to shield you from the ugly invective that follows. Specifically, they are furious that American companies are using outsourcing service providers who are then offshoring the work.
This is 2011. We’ve been offshoring for a decade. I am still amazed at the misunderstandings out there about the… 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
The middle managers of any established business have the responsibility to operate the core of the business, and hold a wealth of knowledge about what works well versus areas for improvement. When sourcing becomes an alternative for any part of the business owned by middle managers, it is imperative to involve them and make use of their deep understanding of the operating requirements.
Engaging middle managers in the details surrounding the sourcing process will:
- Enlist their vast operational knowledge
- Convey your value and trust in them
- Keep them well informed so they can communicate appropriately to the broader
Recent Comments
“Great interview with a top professional! Shared. Mel, alldayPA ”
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