By Dan Berthiaume
When selecting a location for BPO service delivery, there are some standard metrics most BPO buyers use to determine the best location. However, “standard” does not always mean “right.” Just as in so many other areas of business, sometimes the common wisdom in the BPO realm is outdated, distorted or just plain wrong.
By Kevin Church
Latin America has received lots of buzz in recent years as a preferred location for shared services operations. An educated and affordable labor pool, business friendly climate, and the necessary infrastructure all make Nearshoring a very attractive option. At the same time, companies establishing new shared services centers have migrated directly to process-centric structures to maximize the benefits of their service-delivery model. One such process model, Purchase-to-Pay (P2P), can provide significant benefits to organizations if an integrated process is established and the appropriate technology is in place to support it. As such, the collaborative workforce and the high rate of technology adoption in Latin America make it an extremely attractive market for P2P solutions.
Managing Outsourcers: When SLAs Don’t Do the Job
May 1st, 2012By Robert L. Scheier
Service level agreements (SLAs) are the heart and soul of many outsourcing contracts. They define what the provider must deliver and their penalties for failure, in anything from application uptime to the time required to solve a customer’s problem on a help line.
But at least as currently defined, SLAs often fall short of detecting (and, more importantly, correcting) problems quickly. That was the message at the recent SIG Spring Summit from Senior Corporate Counsel Richard English of Ingram Micro and Shaalu Mehra of Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton, who helps the electronic distributor negotiate outsourcing deals.
Neoris CEO on Brazil, Bilingualism and Future Expansion
April 27th, 2012
By Filipe Pacheco
Neoris started as a true Latin American outsourcing company, as a spin-off company of Cemex, one of the biggest businesses from Mexico’s infrastructure industry. Although that beginning occurred very far away from Brazil, a little over a decade after the company started its operation in Brazil, it increasingly focuses its global strategy in the country as one of their biggest opportunities for growth in the world – especially when considering SAP services.
Such attention helps to explain the recent visit of Claudio Muruzabal, global CEO of Neoris, to the SAP Forum recently hosted in São Paulo.
By Luke Bujarski
Distinguishing between domestic and export driven business is becoming increasingly important to vendors operating in LatAm. How are Brazilian banks outsourcing their back office? Why is Mexico’s manufacturing industry rebounding and what technology solutions are producers looking for? Is Colombia’s telecoms market the next big opportunity? Likewise, multinational enterprises will be looking for those service providers best suited to support their specific industry, as they invest in these oft complex markets.
Why is Pharma Outsourcing on Fire?
April 25th, 2012Patrick Cogny of Genpact explains the reason global pharmaceutical are grasping for global outsourcing partners.
The Ten Best Moments of Nearshore Nexus 2012
April 25th, 2012
By Kirk Laughlin
More like a big bang than a quiet rumble, the Nearshore Nexus 2012 show last week seem to fall right in line with the electricity of Times Square, New York City. The conference, only in its second year of production, got off to a rousing start with the former President of Colombia Alvaro Uribe – and in the opinion of countless attendees – never seemed to lose a beat until we closed the main session and joined together for the “After Dark” reception. The day was studded with important moments – here are just a few that we wanted to make note of:
Nearshore Nexus ’12: A Historic Day Filled with Passion and Purpose
April 23rd, 2012Nearshore Nexus – the ‘home conference’ for the thriving Latin America BPO and IT industry – created a huge splash last week in New York City. Capturing the passion and energy of over 200 executive attendees, twenty sponsors and attendees from 15 countries in the region is a tall order – but our photographer managed to distill the full-day program into this colorful pictorial..
India Losing Cost Advantage Over Latin America
April 23rd, 2012
By Robert L. Scheier
Hourly labor costs in the Latin American Nearshore are still slightly higher than in traditional low-cost leader India. But other factors such as faster time to market and simplified communications often still make the Nearshore the better choice, according to speakers at the Nearshore Nexus outsourcing conference in New York City last week.
Make Vendor Selection Process “Visible and Transparent”
April 20th, 2012
Ahluwalia was among 25 experts speakers at yesterday's Nexus conference.
By Patrick Haller
When it comes to making sourcing decisions, buyers have many things to consider. They need to look beyond the surface cost benefits and truly evaluate if there will be synergy between their organization and the outsourcing provider that will lead to mutual successes not only in the short-term, but well into the future. Vishal Ahluwalia, Executive Director-Head Outsourcing/Off-shoring WMA Ops at UBS Wealth Management, a recognized global sourcing evangelist, has been effectively implementing and managing outsourced vendor relationships for close to twenty years.
