The Brazilian Proposition for Service Desk and Field Services
March 27th, 2012By Francisco Blagevitch
The IT market in Brazil is run by more than one million professionals, accounting for $95 billion in income in 2011, which is equivalent to 4.4% of the national GDP. The scenario points to continued growth, mainly because Brazil has shown itself to be an important player in many areas worldwide. The eyes of the world have turned toward us; we live in a time of a strong and vibrant economy, with constantly increasing capacity, along with one characteristic that makes us very different from other cultures: our willingness to serve.
When Managing Remotely, Relationship Is The Key
March 23rd, 2012
By Michael Blankman
Decisions to outsource critical functions are never easy and there is a lot of internal inertia to overcome, but it is often hard to ignore the numbers. Outsourced relationships will always require a substantial remote management component. Successful remote management is not possible if the relationship isn’t sound. It is the difference between a glossy presentation and the real world.
Is Latin America Doing Enough For Its Economies?
March 14th, 2012
By Robert L. Scheier
The more than 700 attendees at the MIT Latin America conference March 10th in Cambridge heard a lot of upbeat talk about economic prospects for Latin America in general, and emerging markets throughout the southern hemisphere.
Take C.A.R.E. of Your Customers
March 5th, 2012
By Rosanne D’Ausilio
Last year CBS Sunday Morning had a segment on customer service. Presented was a typical actual scenario where an older woman went to the office of the company that had screwed up her phone service. She asked for a manager or supervisor, was told to sit down, and then two hours later was told that that person had left the office.
Does that sound familiar?
‘Why Agile?’ and Other Questions Before Outsourcing an Agile Project
February 29th, 2012
By Uyadan Banerjee
1. Why do you want to do the software project in Agile mode?
Potential reasons include:
(A) You are already engaged in IT outsourcing and have a good working relationship with the outsourced vendor. You have successfully used Agile internally and want to extend it to outsourced projects.
(B) You want to outsource a new project because you do not have internal bandwidth to work on the requirements for it or the actual development. You expect that outsourcing will help you overcome the bandwidth limitation and Agile will help you to evolve the requirements through multiple iterations.
Creating a Wildly Successful Outsourcing Program
February 24th, 2012
By Linda Tuck Chapman
Outsourcing is serious business and will have a long-term impact on your company’s future. Let’s improve the odds that it’s a positive one! Your customers and shareholders shouldn’t and won’t differentiate who delivers their services – your company or a third party. So the time you invest in planning your outsourcing program and sourcing the right service providers is time well spent.
Globalize and Optimize Your Shared Services Operations
February 22nd, 2012
By Brad DeMent
Shared services operations (SSOs) have transitioned from a simple means to gain quick cost savings to a critical component of corporate strategy. Historically, transactional services offered such as accounts payable processing, payroll, and IT help desks have been no-brainers for domestic SSO inclusion. The new norm for SSO has expanded to smaller, higher-value services such as accounting, budgeting, financial reporting, HR recruiting, and application development. This expansion has companies asking, “Why service only one country with SSO? What can be leveraged to service a region, or even all global locations?”
Outsourcing Is Risky: Don’t Let It Keep You Awake
February 13th, 2012
Develop a strong risk management process and you won’t have to worry much
By Jagdish Dalal
I am always amused when business development people or IT outsourcing providers ask their prospects, “What keeps you up at night?” Then, they take that input and promptly develop a “value proposition” that is supposed to make the client sleep soundly! Soon the conversation goes to what value proposition they can offer to the prospect – and every attempt is made to avoid any conversation about risks associated with the solution or about risk mitigation options.
Call-Center Heresy: Treat the Customer as Priority #2
February 8th, 2012
By Dan Berthiaume
Everyone seems to have at least one story about a nightmare experience dealing with telephone customer service. The fact that many call center providers are located in countries where language and customs are significantly different from US norms only exacerbates the problem. Some experts recommend that companies outsourcing call center functions attack the problem of poor customer service by focusing more attention on serving the needs of customers. But is that always the best strategy?
Get More Accurate Outsourcing ROI in Six Easy Steps
February 8th, 2012
By Jerry Durant
Everybody wants ROI from their outsourcing projects. Many (on both the buy and the sell side) claim it. But relatively few have the knowledge or background to calculate it correctly. This not only makes it harder to make good decisions, but saps the credibility of whoever is doing the calculations.
Far too many operations and procurement professionals try to calculate ROI without a sufficient understanding of it.
