A rising dollar and strong Asian competitors shook up the Aussie BPO sector

There are parallels between the Australian outsourcing sector and the Australian car industry. I saw an article in our local media and saw immediately the common theme with the Australian outsourcing sector.

In the mid-1960s, when Australia’s trade minister Sir … Read More

Putting the spotlight on the business services sector

The business services sector and its contribution to the UK economy can sometimes miss out on the recognition it deserves, because the rarity of reliable statistics make the scale of the market and its rate of growth difficult quantities to … Read More

OPINION: Offshore or off course for the UK?

It’s time for a re-think on offshoring. A decade or so ago it may have made sense for UK-based organisations to send some of their jobs and business processes to areas of the world where labour costs were lower. There … Read More

Exiting from a big deal mid-term

(This article was co-written with Mike Henley, an expert in shared services and outsourcing at PA Consulting Group.)

When IT outsourcing arrangements are underperforming, the impact on client organisations can be significant. Users can be prevented from doing their jobs, … Read More

Governance: practical steps to making it work

Profit warnings are nothing new to the outsourcing industry. Looking at the end of Q1 2013, FTSE support services and FTSE software and computer services companies are again the sectors reporting the highest number of profit warnings. With the sourcing … Read More

The shaky negotiator: vendor dilemmas

In almost all cases where small businesses go to external software development firms to build products or internal IT systems there is always a contract negotiation situation. In that, price becomes a very sticky point of contention. This happens in … Read More

Has HR rushed too quickly to the service centre?

Once upon a time, HR were viewed as fluffy people people, or at worst, pen-pushers who took your holiday forms. Today, apparently, they’re a faceless department, a phone number, a web portal… HR as we knew it has been killed … Read More

The critical nature of planning

Planning is one of those words that instantly fill people with dread, but if you want to move up the corporate food chain it’s something you will have to get good at – and fast.

The age-old adage that “failure … Read More

Contract negotiation: better the devil you know?

As companies approach the end of contract with an incumbent supplier, they must decide if it is in their best interest to renew or cast a wider net.

Alsbridge research and experience suggests that if a client is broadly satisfied, … Read More

SIAM: managing complexity

(This article was co-written with Greg Jones, an expert in shared services and outsourcing at PA Consulting Group.)

These are complicated times for the CIO. Businesses demand ever-faster change and operate under tight cost constraints with the expectation of excellent … Read More

Key drivers for managed print services

Despite the age of digital communications and prevalence of smartphones and tablets, few organisations actually operate a paperless work environment with many continuing to rely on printing to support business activities. Yet a poorly managed print infrastructure can lead to … Read More

Relationship management in five minutes

Relationships between organisations such as partnerships, alliances and collaboratives, are a prevalent way of working in these days of globalised, outsourced and specialised networks of organisations.  Whether in the public or private sectors they are notoriously hard to manage and … Read More