Can You Really Afford Benchmarking?

It’s a lot of time, resources and patience if you’re just looking for the right number. John Masley, Senior Manager, KPMG Shared Services and Outsourcing Advisory Just about every outsourcing contract has a benchmarking clause. The threat of the word itself strikes fear in most providers. Objectively, can your business really manage the time-out, direct and indirect [...]

Driving Innovation through Collaboration

Lee Ayling, Partner, Sourcing Advisory, KPMG in the UK Karene House, Principal Advisor, Sourcing Advisory, KPMG in the UK How are you driving innovation with your outsourcing providers and, if you’re a supplier of outsourced services, how are you delivering innovation for your clients? What’s working and what’s not? How do you measure its impact [...]

Cloud Computing: Concepts Clear but Capabilities Questionable

Stan Lepeak, Director, Global Research, KPMG Shared Services and Outsourcing Advisory In the KPMG 2Q11 Sourcing Advisory Global Pulse survey, we polled the firms’ sourcing advisors as well as leading third-party business and IT service providers to assess the skills of typical end-user organizations around various cloud computing capabilities such as understanding the  technical underpinnings [...]

Outsourced and Optimised the Back Office? What’s Your Next Competitive Advantage?

Jonathan Burr, Sourcing Advisory, KPMG in the UK Back office functions, such as Information Technology, Human Resources and Finance and Accounting, have executed complex and innovative strategies to deliver cost savings and improved service levels which seem commonplace today. With improved efficiency having already been achieved through activities such as the creation of shared service [...]

Outsourcing Location Analysis: An Assessment of Alternative Locations to India

Claudio Altini, Managing Director, BPO, Europe & Asia Vivek Nijhon, Head of Global Sourcing As organisations outsource an ever-greater number of services, offshore locations for service delivery beyond India are increasingly of interest to buyers. There are numerous drivers for this requirement, such as spreading risk, in terms of cost inflation or disaster recovery for [...]

The UK Independent Banking Commission’s Interim Report – and Outsourcing

Noel Cullen, Principal Advisor, KPMG in the UK The recently published UK Independent Banking Commission’s (IBC) interim report has recommended that major banks separate their retail operations from higher-risk activities. Were such a requirement introduced, changes on this scale would have a significant impact on banks’ IT strategies. Change of this nature would almost certainly [...]

The Case of the Not Yet Ready UAT Environment

Jeri Lykke, Senior Manager, Shared Services and Outsourcing Advisory Picture this: you’re the client leader of a mid-market, multi-process human resources outsourcing (HRO) implementation. The project has been preceding well with requirements defined, configuration and conversion activities running as planned, and your team has prepared a thorough testing plan and test cases ahead of user [...]

Developing an End Strategy for Your Outsourcing Contract

Nico Boot, Executive Director Europe and Asia Pacific Most organisations make the mistake of drawing up new contracts based on negative experiences in the past. A better way to determine the appropriate option when a contract comes to an end is to carry out the final annual review of the sourcing strategy, look ahead at [...]

Applying LEAN Management Principles Improves IT Outsourcing Effectiveness

Rudolf Liefers, senior advisor, Sourcing Management In past decades a large number of IT-outsourcing contracts were signed and transitions made. The business case for outsourcing was often made around efficiency, cost reduction and more predictable service levels. In the following years, additional goals were incorporated, such as quality management and regulatory compliance. This often shifted [...]

The Art of the Deal: Watching Out for Challenges to Outsourcing Deal Consummation

Stan Lepeak, Managing Director Global Research Key topics addressed in EquaTerra’s 4Q10 global Pulse survey, the results of which were delivered during a webcast on Wednesday, January 26, are the most impactful  trends in the business and IT services marketplace for 2011, especially those related to cloud computing and insights into how the outsourcing market [...]