The Outsourcing Blog..."Horses for Sources"

TPI loses its talisman

One of the grandfathers of the outsourcing industry is Peter Allen (see his recent interview with us), who has established himself over the years as one of the pre-eminent thought-leaders, practitioners and faces of the industry.  Peter has also been one of my closest industry companions in blogging on global sourcing issues, with his popular "Consider the Source" blog-journal.  He has also been the consistent face of leading sourcing advisor TPI. 

Yesterday, Peter resigned from TPI to pursue other opportunities in the industry, after many years with the firm.  There is no shortage of suitors for his services... and I look forward to hearing where he lands.  Peter wanted to share his personal thoughts with Horses readers at this time:

"The global outsourcing and offshoring industry needs to step up to a new level of performance. The sources of leverage that can bring value to companies far transcend wage arbitrage. I want to help bring to reality a new class of leverage - of investments, platforms, and solutions."

"It has been a privilege to work alongside my colleagues at TPI. A twenty-year record of great outcomes for clients and providers alike is the product of commitment to a culture of value creation for all participants. We do that."

"The current global recession is an awakening for the industry - as much opportunity for redefinition as it is risk of irrelevance. I really believe that the winning equation is one that maximizes the power of leverage to the benefit of productivity. That means that buyers and providers adopt new models for partnership to weather variances in economic conditions."

These are critical times for the outsourcing advisors. The process of managing outsourcing transactions has increasingly commodotized over the last couple of years, and the recession has only exacerbated this issue.  The sourcing advisors need to focus on helping clients disrupt their current global business infrastructures, help them execute after the transaction and manage the ongoing outsourced environment. 

People like Peter understand this, and I hope advisory firms like TPI continue the work he has done in helping drive these new areas of competency, and hiring consultants who have other skills than solely deal negotiation.  Those that focus purely on cranking out transactions will struggle to grow in this new environment.

Good luck Peter - I know many people in the industry join me in wishing you well on your future journey.

Is this "2001 all over again" for outsourcing?

As we've predicted, based on our surveys, many tough discussions with buyers and general chit-chat, sourcing evaluation is now picking up, and we can expect to see a wave of deals in Q4 this year and Q1 next year (and beyond). 

First, the sourcing advisors, management consultants and analysts get busy with their clients showing much more urgency, and then we can expect to see some deals happen.  Based on my conversations with the advisory community over the last couple of week we're now in that former category.  I've even had a couple of people come to me with the question "Is this 2001 all over again".  My answer is:  "In some ways yes, but the types of deals and the global delivery execution is markedly different this time". 

Now why is this?

Post 9/11 we saw a major spree of ITO, call center and end-to-end HR BPO wave.  ITO worked, call center is stuttering with offshore value, and HR BPO - in its past form - failed 

The IT infrastructure outsourcing deals were onshore mature contracts with established providers such as IBM, CSC and HP, experienced at driving economies of scale with their delivery models. The application development and maintenance deals back then were among the first to truly leverage offshore

It’s time for disruption, not stagnation

2009 is going to be remembered as the year of cost-containment. Most client discussions are not very sexy – it’s largely about cost, as opposed to innovation or revenue generation. McKinsey recently revealed 70% of its current client engagements are cost-reduction focused, only 30%focused on revenue-generation (the opposite of a year ago).

I strongly believe our businesses, while being diligent about cost-containment, must use this opportunity to make fundamental changes to their business operations in order to emerge more profitably in the future. Simply ripping away cost elements and failing to improve access to global corporate data and processes, is a massive wasted opportunity to be more competitive over the long-term.

I wrote recently about how the lay-off culture that has afflicted both the US and UK in recent years, where many firms treat their labor as a variable cost that can be scaled-up or down at will, depending on the next quarterly forecast. I cannot stress enough the damage this can cause to businesses as the economy recovers. One common theme that has dominated discussions with business leaders recently has been their surprise at the amount of visible cost they have been able to take out of their businesses as they move from a revenue-generation to cost-containment strategy.

It’s not solely the cost of labor that is highly visible – it’s the costs of technology, travel, infrastructure, real-estate etc. that can often be easily driven-down in a desperate business climate. Less visible are costs associated with poorly-integrated business processes and procedures, of dated analytical tools, of ERP systems incapable of supporting global process templates, and so on.

Outsourcing drivers in today's climate: large companies want to globalize, mid-sized companies seek expertise

I wanted to share some recent dynamics from our new survey of outsourcing adoption intentions in mid-2009.

While the onus on firms today is to drive out as much cost as they can from their businesses (close to four-fifths view cost-reduction as the primary driver for outsourcing), other factors are becoming crucial for companies’ planning as they evaluating outsourcing business models, notably globalizing their businesses more effectively, re-engineering business processes, and accessing expertise from service partners.

If there's one thing this recession taught us, it is how integrated global economies and markets are today, how businesses need to adapt to move in and out of diverse regional markets, and how they must make rapid decisions to invest or divest global service / product lines in order to prosper.  Read more over at Think Global...

Being Frank about Global Sourcing: An interview with Cognizant's CEO (Part II)

Since Part I of the Francisco D'Souza interview, I've been assured Frank has improved his golf handicap. Now he'll discuss his views on how ITO service providers can differentiate themselves, the convergence of IT and BPO solutions... and a few other tidbits...

PF: How can ITO providers differentiate themselves in today’s market? Is it by vertical focus, or other elements?

FD: Given the extraordinary pressure that clients are under, I think that the key to differentiation is to focus on how to make clients’ businesses stronger. Rather than focusing on technology, process or methodology, I think providers need to really understand a client’s business drivers and then sell and deliver solutions that further those business objectives. As I said before, clients are facing both cyclical and secular pressures. As a result, depending on the client, their objectives of outsourcing will be very different. Some clients seek to improve efficiency or effectiveness. Others are looking to use outsourcing as a enabler of innovation. Still others are looking at outsourcing as a tool to gain access to the best talent in the world – regardless of where that talent is located. And of course, given the significant secular changes we are seeing, many clients are looking to outsource as a way to enable agility and transformation within the organization.

Being Frank about Global Sourcing: An interview with Cognizant's CEO (Part I)

Observing the rise of the new wave of service providers over the last few years, the one that has scared the living daylights out of all of the incumbents is Cognizant. 

Now a $3bn company with deep footprints in the world'slargest global financial institutions, consumer businesses, manufacturing and healthcare organizations, Cognizant can no longer be considered an upstart.  It's now part of the industry elite; quietly and cleverly aligning its value proposition to the post-recession era.  As CEO Francisco D'Souza points out,  we're in a time of not only cyclical change, but also secular change.

I've had the pleasure of talking with Frank a few times over the last couple of years and have been impressed by his high-energy, thoughtful and common-sensical approach. I was even more surprised when I received emails from an "FDSouza" on the Horses... took a couple of times for me to realize who this guy was.  To cut to the chase, Frank is one of the youngest IT and BPO industry leaders of the modern age, having risen through the management ranks of Cognizant to assume the role of President and CEO at the beginning of 2007 when the company was announcing its landmark Kimberly-Clark engagement.  And when Frank isn't busy hacking his way around the local golf course, or playing with his kids, he managed to find some time to share some of his views of the global sourcing industry with us...

Can 6-sigma really help execute an effective sourcing process?

One major service provider that has quietly - and very effectively - grown its US presence over the last couple of years is HCL.  And behind the scenes is a very classy guy, Debashish Sinha, who pulls the strings across its US sales, marketing and operations units. 

Anyone dealing with HCL these days is always glad to have Debashish around (despite the fact he organized their last industry event in Orlando).  Prior to HCL, Deb has consulted for both Conscient Partners and NeoIT, in addition to being Gartner Group's principle analyst for IT services and sourcing.  And when he's not comparing the subtle nuances of Malbecs or flying planes (not simultaneously, I assure you), he has some excellent views on the effectiveness of 6-sigma methodology in a sourcing environment.  Over to you Deb...

About four hundred years ago, Galileo Galilei noted that “We must measure what can be measured, and make measurable what cannot be measured,” a philosophy now embodied in the well-tested axiom “You can’t manage what you can’t measure”.

So how about managing the Sourcing cycle? How do you actually measure Risk, or Internal Readiness, or even effective Governance?

One potential option could be to use Planning for Six Sigma tools to “make measurable what can’t be measured”. After all, it’s still one of the most prominent approaches for managing by measurement.

Join the Horses on LinkedIn

Yes, there is such a thing as a free lunch... Horses For Sources' official LinkedIn Group, the aptly-named "BPO and Offshoring Best Practices Forum" now has 5,700 members. This is a forum for leading sourcing practitioners to share their experiences, views, opinions, best practices and lessons learned in the worlds of IT outsourcing, Business Process Outsourcing, Shared Services and Offshoring. You also get a free subscription to the Horses Digest. And it's FREE FREE FREE. Am I the most charitable person you know?

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Executive ADD: The disruptive scourge of social networks in the services industry

When you try and quantify the impact social media is having on industry, it's actually quite alarming how dangerous this medium can be on our lives and our careers. 

We discussed the impact of blog culture over a year ago, but the speed by which social media has crept into our daily activities, already dates many of the opinions expressed back then. The information world has altered radically, and this economic environment is accelerating the speed of change.

As an analyst in global services industries, my job is to get across insight and opinion to as wide an audience as possible.  A couple of years' ago, if I'd produced an article or report, I'd probably send it out to about 100 people... that was the extent of the audience with which you would typically deal, and you'd rely on your firm's marketing department to disseminate press releases and media advisories to drive more eyeballs to your craft. 

The Campbell chronicles: an exclusive interview

If the Queen was handing out honours for outsourcing, then "arise Sir Kevin" would be a likely outcome.  However, unless Accenture can grant him a British passport, even their PR heavyweights may struggle to pull that one off.  

Kevin Campbell is a legend in the outsourcing business (I refrained from saying "the Tiger Woods"...), having begun his career with the old Andersen Consulting business in the 90's before making his name as the COO of Exult, the protagonist of HR BPO, where he because synonymous with many of the early multi-process BPO deals for clients such as BP, Bank of America and International Paper. 

Upon Exult's sale to Hewitt in 2005, Kevin found himself returning to his roots with Accenture, where he how has been elevated to overseeing the firm's entire $9.2 billion global outsourcing business, when he's not watching re-runs of the Packers and terrorizing his kids. 

I managed to catch-up with Kevin recently, and was surprised to hear he's a regular visitor here, so convinced him to share some of his views on the industry with us...

Shaping your career in this sourcing industry

There's one character in the sourcing business those "in the know" know... Larry Janis.  When senior management look to hire or poach key talent, Larry is known as the discreet man with the black book.  He's also a great guy, and agreed to post a few suggestions on what sourcing executives should be doing to shape their careers in this environment.  No-one in the business knows the hiring dynamics of buyers, consultants and service providers as well as Larry...

PF: Larry – you’ve been a lead search consultant in the sourcing industry for many years. In terms of roles and openings both buyers and service providers are looking for, what’s changed today?

LJ: The stress in the global economy has certainly changed in the outsourcing provider space. Add to this, HP/EDS merger/acquisition, the Satyam scandal and staff reductions at several of the major providers. As a result, both the

Why the lay-off culture is far more damaging than offshoring

Ever since President Obama proposed to change the IRS tax code that regulates how US corporations declare income from international activities, I've been thinking about other measures governments can take to slow the recession and help businesses become less myopic with how they navigate these rough waters. 

Reading between the lines, he appears to be targeting a revenue grab, while making political overtones against companies which use offshore resources.  However, he's simply penalizing firms from being more productive with their exports.  Sure, there are issues with tax fraud from havens such as Bermuda or the Caymens, but this is primarily an issue with individuals, not large enterprises. 

Why penalize a US conglomerate for manufacturing diapers in Brazil for the

Going green with sourcing...

Folks - if you happen to be drifting around New York City on 3rd June, swing by the Philippine Cultural Center to hear some interesting discussions, including my friend and colleage Dr Stephen Stokes (pictured), author of the infamous piece "The Green Transformation of Indian Outsourcing: Heading for the Clouds, But Doing So on a Low-Cost and Carbon Budget".   

The event entitled "Global Sourcing After the Meltdown: In Search of Sustainability" is being organized by my good friends Christine Bullen and Wanda Lopuch at the Global Sorcing Council.  For more information click here.  You can also contact Wanda directly here.

Talk tracks for the day are as follows:

How to get two whales in a mini...

When I got a call from the Shared Services & Outsourcing Network crew back last Fall (Autumn) to run a session at their European Shared Services Week in Budapest this month, my immediate response was "how the expletives are you going to convince operations executives under severe cost restrictions to show up at a 3-day boonie in Budapest in the midst of the worst recession since Harold got clipped by an arrow in Hastings in 1066?"

One of my favorite jokes (and I do have a rather strange sense of humor), is "How can you get two whales into a Mini"... and the punchline is "Along the M4 Motorway and across the Severn Bridge".   If you don't understand this joke, click here.  I am going to add to that one:

"How do you get 400 senior operations executives, 200 of whom lead shared services operations, to show up in Budapest in the middle of the worst recession in post-biblical times?"

Yes, they managed to defy gravity, common sense and many other undefiable factors

The Kraft of Outsourcing: Learnings from Lee Coulter (Part II)

During  Part I of Lee's interview, he talked about the development of the global sourcing industry and how companies were now approaching sourcing strategy in today's economic climate.  In more Blackberry-smashing style, Lee goes on to discuss his theory of "innovation" within outsourcing relationships, and delivers some tips on how operations leaders can improve the performance of their service providers (without resorting to baseball-bats, water-boarding or enforced transition workshops at Epcott).

PF: Lee, what is your theory of "innovation" within outsourcing relationships, and are we really seeing it in today’s engagements?

LC: I have a pretty simple theory of innovation. We aren’t seeing it today because most of the clients today didn’t buy it. Somehow we believed that

Globalizing the business is the key to outsourcing today

As we discussed last week, it's clear that many companies will continue to move into outsourced business environments, despite the recession and political pressures to keep work onshore.  While some firms find it hard to make radical decisions in a downturn, others are clearly seeing how critical it is to operate as a global business. 

If there's one thing this recession taught us, it's how integrated global economies and markets are today, how businesses need to adapt to move in and out of diverse regional markets, and how they must make rapid decisions to invest or divest global service / product lines in order to prosper.  Outsourcing doesn't provide all the immediate answers, but it does help create the vehicle for clients to become more nimble and capable at a global level.  Check out our thoughts based on new survey data over at Think Global...

The Kraft of Outsourcing: Learnings from Lee Coulter (Part I)

There is only one Lee Coulter.  Service providers tremble at the very sound of his name, consultants run for the hills... practitioners flock for advice.  And when he isn't performing carpentry or attempting cordon bleu, Lee has the small task of being SVP for Kraft's shared services, where he is a key leader of the firm's corporate transformation program "Organize for Growth".  He is responsible for Kraft's IT services, global finance and HR shared service centers, in addition to the firm's BPO activities.  He even once threatened to smash up my blackberry.   

On a more serious note, Lee has a practical and experienced perspective on how enterprises today should approach global sourcing, and we have enjoyed his exuberance and candor in our buyers' group meetings.  Today, we are blessed with the first part of a lengthy interview with Lee, where he is discussing how practitioners should approach global sourcing in this economic climate, how to select and engage the right service partner and how to decipher and execute innovation (yes, I said it) in a global sourcing environment...

PF: Lee, we’ve been through some major developments in the world of global sourcing over the last decade. As a senior operations leader in one of the world’s largest multinationals, what, in your opinion, has worked, and what hasn’t?

LC: Let me start by saying that the global sourcing industry has proven its most basic value proposition, and that is a huge success. There are many skeptics of

Take part in our Budapest debate next week... from your front room

This Tuesday, we're holding a "World Exclusive", with a distinguished panel of Horses-readers being webstreamed live from the 9th Annual European Shared Services and Outsourcing Week in Budapest Hungary.  For those of you unable to make the conference, you will have a chance to take part in the debate via a live blog-cast streamed to a computer near you.  I do hope you can partake in the banter.

*World Exclusive* Horses For Sources - Live From Budapest

Deciphering The Business Value Of Tomorrow’s Sourcing Strategies In Today’s Economic Climate

Exclusive: Outsourcing poised to rebound

I wanted to share a few early snippets from our global sourcing adoption study, which we've been running over the last 2 weeks.  And thanks to Global Services Media, Vinnie Mirchandani, William Mougayar, Jason Busch and Dennis Howlett, who have all contributed in helping us reach close to 700 respondents, of which we had 127 enterprise buyers for IT, supply chain, finance, HR and other BPO services.

Go to Think Global to read more...

Contemplating the BPO industry with Wipro's Ashutosh Vaidya

One of the most enthusiastic leaders in the BPO industry is the man who has overseen Wipro's rapid rise in recent times:  Ashutosh Vaidya.  In-between playing squash, watching cricket and clocking up a ridiculous quantity of airmiles, Ashutosh has overseen a series of Finance & Accounting, HR and supplier management wins that have moved the service provider into the BPO industry's top tier.  I asked Ashutosh to share his views of the current state of the BPO industry and what steps need to be take to ensure the continual growth of the business in these times.

PF: Ashutosh, we’ve been through a tremendous development in the world of BPO over the last decade. What, in your opinion, has worked, and what hasn’t?

AV: Indeed the BPO world has come a very long way over the past decade. In fact, 2009 really marks the 10th anniversary of the meaningful 3rd party BPO

Contemplating the BPO industry with Infosys' Ritesh Idnani

When he's not tinkering with his fast-cars and rock music, Ritesh Idnani has emerged one of the key guys behind Infosys' prominent rise as a leading BPO provider.  But's it's not been an easy ride...when you get up close, you can start to see some grey hairs creeping in to defy those baby-face looks.  I've known Ritesh for a number of years and thought it ample time for him to share his views on the development of the BPO industry and what holds for the future in these crazy times...

PF: We've been through a tremendous development in the world of BPO over the last decade. What, in your opinion, has worked, and what hasn't?

RI: The emergence of outsourcing is not a new phenomenon. It has been practiced by corporates from the 60’s, but it is only in the last decade or so that corporations have recognized the phenomenon and actively engaging in outsourcing as a lever to reduce the effect of non-core activities contributing to the wrong side of P&L .

Kicking off the "Innovation" discussions: Oracle's Roger Turnham

One of the nicest guys in the BPO industry is Oracle's Roger Turnham.  He's been Oracle's brains-behind-the-scenes since BPO was a mere twinkle in Larry's eye four years' ago.  Many of you have been dazzled by Roger's Texan charm as the software giant develops its BPO partner program for service providers.  He also has some very interesting views on innovation strategies that can add significant value to a BPO engagement.  I am going to hone in on the "I" topic over the coming weeks, and asked Roger to kick off the discussions... over you you Mr T:

Innovation: What’s in a Name?

Over the past four years I’ve sat through BPO panel discussions on innovation, I’ve listened to some of the world’s largest BPO customers complain that they can’t get it, while BPO providers claim great success in delivering it. Either somebody’s lying or the word is like evolution: It’s so broad a word that it can mean anything you want it to. To extend the analogy: Evolution is a word that means everything from change over time to the origin of matter, to a cosmic explosion that created everything, to why some of us are big and others blond and – my personal favorite – how goo turned into you. If “innovation” is like evolution, it can mean anything, or everything, or nothing.

So, what is it?

The politics of offshoring: all talk, no action

Many of you whom I've been interacting with lately know I'm concerned by the degree of protectionism from some politicians and a handful of organizations; namely the TARP-funded financial services firms and a few from the healthcare sector.  We recently discussed many of these issues here. 

Professor Bob Kennedy, who heads up the William Davidson Institute, a non-profit research and educational institute that focuses on business and policy issues in emerging market economies, has been keeping very close tabs on these issues and I asked him to contribute his recent experiences and views with us.  Bob also has a new blog up and running entitled "Services Shift", and has recently released his new book, adorning the same name.  Over to you Bob...

Why No Regulation of Offshoring: Untangling the Gap Between Rhetoric and Action

Picking up on Phil’s April Fool’s day post, I wanted to share a few thoughts on why we see lots of anti-offshoring rhetoric from politicians, but (thankfully) very little actual policy.

Taking the industry temperature

You can spend hours analyzing how the global sourcing industry got to where it is today, but in today's climate it's more important than ever to reach out to the industry at large to get the real deal on what's going to happen next.  Your voice is crucual, so please spend a few minutes filling out my online survey and I'll share a summary of the findings with you in return.

CLICK HERE TO COMPLETE THE SURVEY

 

Join the Horses' socially-networked BPO forum

Yes, there is such a thing as a free lunch...

Horses For Sources' official LinkedIn Group, the aptly-named "BPO and Offshoring Best Practices Forum" has just passed its first anniversary, and 5,000 members. 

This is a forum for leading outsourcing executives to share their experiences, views, opinions, best practices and lessons learned in the world of business process outsourcing and offshoring.  You will also get a chance to participate in our forthcoming "State of the BPO Industry" online survey next month. 

LinkedIn has just expanded the group's capacity to 8,000, so we can start letting more of you in... whether you want to find out the cost of a mainframe developer in Buenos Aires, chit-chat with other services-nerds, or just can't wait to find that dream job (ahem).  You also get a free subscription to the Horses Digest.  And it's FREE FREE FREE.  Am I the most charitable person you know?

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Highlights from SIG

TPI's Bill Huber was busy on the blog all last week at the Sourcing Interests Group show and has good summaries of some of the key sessions.  For any of you who missed the show, I suggest you follow the progress of the group under the excellent stewardship of Dawn Evans.  To pack a place as well as she did - in this market - is a phenomenal achievement.  The fact the event was organized in Baltimore was a master-stroke... people don't feel guilty going to events in Baltimore :)

SaaS: Outsourcing out-of-control?

SaaS is effectively the same as outsourcing - you're handing control over business processes to a third-party service provider.  However, while SaaS delivery shares many similarities with outsourcing as a delivery model, there are serious caveats buyers need to consider. Read more over at Think Global.

Was it really that believable?

I'm still getting emails / tweets and calls from all sorts of people wanting to talk about the "sensational news" yesterday, on what was a record traffic day on the Horses.  And if I haven't already made it plain enough, it was an April Fools joke.  And while it was kinda funny, what hit home was how believable the story was. 

Yes, protectionism already is the number one impediment to outsourcing growth over the next few months, but we're never going down anything like the crazy lines outlined in the post.  What's nervy, however, in this era of rapid change, is the fact that so many people fell hook, line and sinker for that little prank.  It made me realize how prepared so many people are for sensational changes to their way of life.  And if you feel I went too far I do apologize, but everyone seems to have taken this in a good spirit.  I really feel we need a sense of humor and a few laughs to help out out of this tough time...

 

The soon-to-be-appointed head of the outsourcing disciplinary committee

Horses Exclusive: Obama to ban offshore outsourcing

Folks - I can exclusively reveal  - and you heard it here first - that President Obama will shortly be announcing a blanket ban on the offshoring of US jobs.  My government insider tells me that he will take the following measures:

• Any employer seeking to replace US staff with an overseas employee will have to prove it was unable to source a US employee for the role for a period of 90 days, where the position was widely advertised on national media;

• A task-force of leading US-headquartered outsourcing service providers, including IBM, ACS, CSC and HP, will be tasked with assisting US firms with their backsourcing initiatives, their fees being footed by a proposed budget ammendment that is likely to total as much as $50 billion;

• Leading outsourcing service providers which are not US-headquartered, and have more than 50% of their employees based outside of the US, will have their US trading licenses revoked and will have 30 days to wind down their US operations;

• All jobs that have moved offshore within the last 8 years, that are currently being performed for any US-domiciled organization, are to be replicated back to a US location within the next six months.  The US government will reimburse 20% of the reinstated onshore employee's salary to their employer upon completion of their first year of employment;

• CEOs who fail comply with the ruling will face a disciplinary panel headed by Lou Dobbs. 

So the battle is on between the USA's onshore locations.  Who will win out?  Albuquerque, Detroit, Nashville, Jacksonville, El Pazo?  Love to hear your thoughts...

Blogs and Research on outsourcing: are you getting what you need?

When I made the move back to research from the sourcing advisor world last January, many of you may recall providing input into what research you wanted.  This blog has proved to be a great medium for driving debate and cultivating ideas - in fact, someone even said recently this was becoming the "Huffington Post" of the sourcing industry. 

But blogs are not research reports, they let you test the temperature, get the high-level insight, but not always the deep-dive data points that we all need to base decisions.  I wanted to share with you some research highlights we've been putting out at AMR Research over the last year or so, and would love to get more feedback from you on what you want to see in the coming months:

Think before your retain: is IT impeding many companies' survival in this economy?

I had this private debate with a number of peers in other analyst and consulting organizations recently, and wanted to share some of the discussion points with you all here.

In our recent discussion "Think before you fire: The cost of replacing IT talent", we discussed the issues facing  many companies who were too trigger-happy to scale back their IT wage-costs, and ended up spending a lot more in the long-run when replacing the valuable knowledge of their business systems.  At the same time, we see even more firms held back by IT departments that have failed to move with the times - and none more so than mid-market firms that simply cannot afford to employ the best quality IT staff.   And while we can debate the fine points about business processes moving to offshore or fully outsourced models, you sometimes forget how critical IT is to getting things done. 

Global business on a Knife-edge: Bonuses, H-1Bs and Naïve Protectionism

Has the world gone mad? Or is it just the US Senate? One month after Senators Bernie Sanders and Chuck Grassley pushed their amendment through the Senate making it tough for TARP recipients to hire H-1B* or L1 visa holders, we use the same TARP cash to pay retention bonuses to the very people who got us into this mess in the first place. We could create many, many more jobs with that bonus cash than we’d ever had “saved” by blocking a small minority of H1-B applicants.

The original intent of the Sanders/Grassley amendment barred all recipients of TARP funding from hiring any H-1B workers. However, the amendment was

Where should outsourcing vendors invest their marketing dollars in this climate?

Being an analyst, you get a broad view of all the entities competing for the same service provider dollar. You also get a good perspective on how service providers can get the best bang for their marketing buck. And being a blogger, you also pick up a strong sense for the effectiveness of media outreach, but I'll save that discussion for another time.

There is no one-stop support shop for vendors to find and attract new clients, and influence the market - they need to gauge where they need to build influence, using both direct tactical measures - i.e. speaking at conferences or advertising, and indirect measures - i.e. influencing influencers or subliminal branding. The current pull-back in discretionary spending from vendor marketing budgets is seriously exposing the bloated array of firms feeding off the vendor marketing-dime, and with a lot less to go round, we're going to see some firms exit the market, some market consolidation, and others simply going out of business. We'll also see some boutiques linger around the industry because their owner has no idea what else to do, and his only costs are living and travel expenses, and maintaining a website.  Desperate times call for desperate behavior and none more so than for many of those entities forging their living selling to IT services and BPO firms.

Time to put banking executives on trial?

As the sheer magnitude of the unfettered lending and borrowing that has taken place over the last few years continues to unfold, I am hearing more and more calls to put banking and government executives who failed to prevent this (or knowingly encouraged this) on trial.  I am inclined to agree with them.  The BBC's Robert Peston just put out an excellent analysis of HBOS's final earnings report as a discreet entity:

This corporate division generated losses of £6.8bn in 2008 from loans and advances to businesses of £116bn.  It has had to write off an average of 47% of those loans in this area that have gone bad. Almost 12% of all its corporate loans are now classified as impaired or damaged. And as a percentage of the total corporate lending book, the impairment charge is just under 6%.  On the basis of those statistics, HBOS appears to have left a big bag of money open on the pavement with a sign saying "borrow what you want".

How can you give out over $100 billion in bad loans?  In Spain, for example, their banking system, which has been one of the least affected by the crisis, operates using dynamic provisioning, where each loan mustbe underwritten with capital in the banks' reserves.But what has transpired in the US and UK banks is tantamount to executives knowingly driving their businesses into the ground at the expensive of getting fat and happy themselves.  It's like hundreds of these executives were riding tigers without knowing when to get off. If I hear one more jingoistic anti-offshoring argument about the fact that a whole industry should be tarnished because a single service-provider was caught cooking the books... how about a whole industry cooking its books?

Source like an Egyptian

My colleague Dana Stiffler had some fun in Egypt this week, as a guest of Egypt’s Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA).  Check out her observations at Think Global.

Get your finances in order before you outsource?

When I talk with firms about outsourcing, the conversation almost always circles around whether the client should sort out its internal processes before it can consider outsourcing opportunities.  In most cases for large global enterprises, transformation can be carried out concurrently as part on an incremental outsourcing transition.  However, for mid-market firms which may not have the resources, technology or the expertise as larger enterprises, moving too much of its back office too quickly to a third-party can often prove more damaging to the business than any savings generated.  That is not a risk you want to take in a cut-throat economy, where you may not have a chance to recover from poor decisions.

To this end, an old friend of mine, Bill Rieke, shared his experiences with CFOs of mid-market firms trying to drive cost-efficiencies into the financial processes.  Bill is a respected veteran of the BPO industry, having worked on multiple international engagements with Convergys and subsequently Genpact.  He now works independly with firms as an advisor with BPO and process optimization.  Over to you Bill...

In American Heartland, Optimization Finally Brings Hope of Accounting Transformation

Did Slumdog wipe the Satyam slate clean?

Lee Ann Moore sent me this interesting analogy of Slumdog's Millionaire's success at the Oscars, and whether it could enhance India Inc's image in the wake of the Satyam scandal and the "Buy America" protectionim we're seeing at the moment...

The post-Academy Award media has declared 2009 the year of India. Will that hold true for outsourcing and Indian workers? Perhaps this push is just what our political leaders need to keep protectionism policies at bay. It is too late to impact the recent bailout package that bans recipient companies from hiring H-1B workers, many of whom are well-educated Indian nationals. Can this Oscar favorite change our attitude toward work in India?

How could our sentimental side not cheer for all the Jamal’s and Latika’s of India who grew up in an impoverished country and work every day to create a better life for themselves and their family? Granted the movie presents a well-written yet fanciful tale, but it helps us understand a unique and beautiful culture. Only time will tell if Hollywood can help the American worker minimize his fear of losing a job to India or perhaps treat the tech support personnel with a bit more respect. Shall we track the call center escalations pre and post-“Slumdog”?

There are many challenges in understanding how a global economy will benefit the American worker and corporations. Thomas Friedman’s recent post, The Open-Door Bailout, provides a compelling argument for open borders and challenging Americans to focus on innovation over fear or job loss. Perhaps the emotional appeal of “Slumdog Millionaire” will allay the fears of the American worker and challenge Washington to think and act global.

Can Cloud transform Outsourcing?

Is the mainframe making a comeback under a fluffy guise?  Join the debate over at sister-blog Think Global. 

Doing nothing is not an option

Some excellent feedback and comments from you regarding our recent discussion about the cost and delivery models sourcing advisors need to deploy with cost-constrained clients.  Lee Ann Moore of sourcing advisory firm Equaterra, has shared some experiences her company has been finding in this market, and offers some alternative services advisors can deliver, beyond trying to crack a wall-nut with a sledgehammer.  Lee Ann is one of the behind-the-scences brains behind the rapid rise of the firm since 2003, being the company's first employee and Chief Marketing Officer.  Over to you Lee Ann.

"Corporations are in a state of flux and uncertainty. Many of our clients are announcing layoffs and going through divestitures, mergers and acquisitions – activity that places pressure on their sourcing organizations that often exceeds capacity and capability. These companies must demonstrate productivity improvements and cost savings now. Doing nothing is not an option, and many organizations avoid a doom loop by using flexible advisory services when they cannot afford full-time employees or consultants for business transformation projects.

What's happening to sourcing advice?

I have never (I repeat never) witnessed such an intense level of interest in global sourcing than the current environment.   I simply am struggling to find the time to do anything but take calls from companies in deperate need of working out their sourcing options.  In fact, if anyone wants to send me compeling guest posts, be my guest, as this thing is creeping into my weekends far too much these days ;)  However, I have been alarmed with the recent retrenchments that several of the leading sourcing advisors are being forced to make.  Their problem is simply the cost model - if large engagements close out with nothing immediate to re-staff the advisors, they simply cannot afford to keep them on the bench.  What worries me is how buyers are getting their advice and direction. 

Bottom-line, buyers are being forced to avoid spending on consultants unless deemed absolutely essential, and investing a few hundred grand on getting the support, methodology, data, ideas, knowledge and experience they need, seems to be beyond many firms at the moment.  So what are they doing?  The answer is scratching around for snippets of wisdom, being courted by service providers offering "free" evaluations, turning up at industry events hoping for free info and joining LinkedIn groups hoping for a silver bullet solution for helping them through the sourcing maze.

So what's the answer?  

Think before you fire: The cost of replacing IT talent

There’s currently a certain sense of déjà-vu within the IT community, as companies look at shaving even more cost out of a function that has been battered since the 2001 dot-com bust. However, when we look at the lessons of the past, you do have to question companies which decide to sharpen their knives once more when they address their IT costs. Companies need to offset the cost of every layoff with the cost of replacing that talent when the economy improves. It is not so much who is left standing, but rather who is in position to grasp the brass ring of prosperity when it returns.

If economic conditions improve in 2010, then the amount of costs saved by releasing an employee may only be $50-100K by the time all the lay-off costs are incurred. How can you put a price on replacing the inherent business knowledge of that staff member when you re-hire a replacement? It may take another year or two to get the replacement up-to-speed, and will not only end up costing you more, but may also impede your executives from accessing critical data in a timely fashion. The overall cost of replacing that staff member could easily be three times the costs saved by laying her off. And these easily-identified direct costs are only the beginning; the costs incurred to your culture and morale can prove even more damaging.

There are lessons to be learned from those who did it right and those who failed to do so during the recession of 2001. The frequently cited observation by George Santayana warrants consideration, “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Furloughed IT employees in the RIF of 2001 were often reluctant to return to their previous employer. Having been viewed as expendable, the trust and bond between the two may have become a casualty. Often the company belatedly discovered the employee was not at all expendable.

NASSCOM: Pushing the Reset Button on an Industry, But Hush-Hush on Satyam

We are priveleged this year to have AMR's own Dana Stiffler at the NASSCOM show in Mumbai.  What a time to be at the heart of the Indian services industry with the recent Mumbai terror events, the Satyam saga and the current economic crisis...  How is India Inc. responding? Over you to Dana:

NASSCOM President Som Mittal opened the group’s 17th annual leadership conference with praise for the resilient city of Mumbai, as the packed house observed a moment of silence for the victims of the city’s terrorist attacks last November. It’s a watershed moment for NASSCOM and the industry in general and Mr. Mittal struck just the right tone in his opening comments: cheerful, welcoming, resolute. Addressing the attacks and Satyam’s challenges up front, he told us it was time to reset expectations.

As for specifics, Mr. Mittal announced that NASSCOM will reconvene its ethics and governance committee. He also highlighted green technology

We are priveleged this year to have AMR's own Dana Stiffler at the NASSCOM show in Mumbai.  What a time to be at the heart of the Indian services industry with the recent Mumbai terror events, the Satyam saga and the current economic crisis...  How is India Inc. responding? Over you to Dana:

NASSCOM President Som Mittal opened the group’s 17th annual leadership conference with praise for the resilient city of Mumbai, as the packed house observed a moment of silence for the victims of the city’s terrorist attacks last November. It’s a watershed moment for NASSCOM and the industry in general and Mr. Mittal struck just the right tone in his opening comments: cheerful, welcoming, resolute. Addressing the attacks and Satyam’s challenges up front, he told us it was time to reset expectations.

As for specifics, Mr. Mittal announced that NASSCOM will reconvene its ethics and governance committee. He also highlighted green technology

Want to offshore yourself?

IBM is now offering employees, who would otherwise face layoffs from their North American jobs, the chance to work abroad through 'Project Match'. Destinations include Argentina, Brazil, China, Czech Republic, Hungary, Mexico, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Turkey, and United Arab Emirates. IBM will also help with moving costs and provide visa assistance. While some cynics will sneer at this scheme, at least Big Blue is doing something proactive to support at-risk staff, and also promote moving much-needed onshore talent into their emerging country delivery centers. Furthermore, maybe they'll pick up some good work habits and bring them home to the States when the economy improves?

Alliance performs some spectacular Satyam ambulance-chasing

I was stupefied to observe Alliance Global Services, a privately-held IT services shop, join the Satyam ambulance-chasers by promoting it's "IT Partners Bill Of Rights".  Alliance is hoping to get 100,000 signatures supporting some version of its bill of rights and to have the document serve as a platform to establish a "global ethic consortium for IT services vendors":

1. The right to demand transparency throughout every step of an engagement -- from sales to contracting to delivery and termination
2. The right to fully understand the nature and character of an IT partner and the service that it provides to them
3. The right to fully understand the financial viability of an IT partner
4. The right to be made aware of any impending legal charges against an IT partner, should they arise, as soon as they occur
5. The right to arrive at a mutually agreed upon definition of the term "trusted partner"
6. The right to expect a clear contract that defines fees and expenses up front before any agreement is signed
7. The right to terminate a relationship with no financial penalty in the event of any admitted fraudulent activity
8. The right to demand the existence of a truly independent board of advisers
9. The right to expect the presence of an independent financial auditor accompanied by a set of checks and balances
10. The right to demand accountability for any actions taken within the scope of a technology project or as part of a firm's broader business practices

While I cannot argue with any client requesting any of the above from an IT vendor (or any client of any services supplier in any industry for that matter), this media-marketing is shamelessly exploiting the Satyam situation to market its own services and take advantage of media-hounds hungry to add fuel to this controversy.  One vendor cooks the books and suddenly the whole world of offshore outsourcing is crooked? Would this action really have prevented Ramalinga Raju doing what he did?  Puh-lease!

Beware of Satyam ambulance-chasers

Been inundated with calls from several Satyam competitors circling their clients like vultures... read my thoughts over at Think Global.

The Horses spawns a partner: Think Global

Amigos - I'm excited to announce the launch of a sister-blog to Horses for Sources : here ariseth "Think Global", with focus on global delivery strategy, BPO, supply chain and IT services trends.  My firm, AMR Research (God bless 'em) has admirably tolerated the Horses for a long time now, until finally asking if I'll consider extending my verbosity to our research content, to which many of you do not gain access.  I've kicked this off with complimentary access to a new research article entitled "Beware of Myopic Cost Cutting: Use Outsourcing To Be More Competitive in This Economy".

I've always used the Horses platform as an outlet to knock around views, cultivate ideas and take the industry temperature.  So many of you have been part of that.  And, while we might not always have been 100% accurate, we've collectively generated so many gems of insight that I frequently read our commentary to add some color to what I am thinking - and I know many of you do the same. 

The power of the blogsphere is truly extending to the analyst world.  And while some of the other analyst firms have pushed their blog strategies for a while now, I am (for once) going to brag that none of them have come close to cracking the blogging code.  Over here we have, and it's time to take it mainstream.

Horses will not be going away, but will run in tandem with Think Global.  I hope you take a little time to pay a visit.

While you're there, please also check out the blogs from a couple of AMR's industry legends, Bruce Richardson and Kevin O'Marah.  I'll see you over there...

PF.

Satyam: It was like riding a tiger, not knowing how to get off without being eaten

A great quote to cap a sad story for Satyam's Ramalinga Raju, who resigned as Chairman today. 

Following the recent issues regarding Satyam’s financial irregularities, India’s IT-BPO services industry finds itself under increased financial scrutiny from Wall St analysts and corporate clients. However, while Satyam has a major challenge ahead to maintain its market position, and is a likely takeover target, we do not believe this fiasco will have longer-term ramifications for the Indian services sector, as long as Satyam’s creative accounting turns out to be an isolated incident and not a more pervasive problem across the sector.

Satyam’s existing customers will ask questions, but are unlikely to switch suppliers, unless Satyam loses a large number of crucial operational staff in the coming weeks. However, Satyam is now at a disadvantage in winning new business in the short-term as it struggles to shake off the current controversy. Plus, some customers renewing existing agreements will be evaluating alternative service provider options, in the wake of the uncertainty surrounding Satyam’s future. Its new leadership needs to move fast to right the ship and placate corporate accounts, and likely prepare the firm for an imminent takeover – the firm’s stock just hit a new all-time low. With Satyam’s strength across software service areas, particularly high-margin enterprise application services – we believe potential suitors include

Emerging from the rubble of 2008: BPO has a breakthrough year

Much more fascinating than trying to predict what, on earth, is going to happen in global sourcing in 2009, is trying to make some sense of 2008's non-stop chain of events. However, emerging from the rubble has been the maturing of the BPO industry, as several global service providers have striven to consolidate their market positions, anticipating further growth in BPO services in 2009.  The premise being that buyers are quickly becoming more accepting of radical change to their global business models that not only drives down operating costs, but also enhances their competitive position.  

How has BPO emerged as a vehicle to achieve these goals?

BPO matured as buyers took on a bottom-up approach to adoption.  For the first time, we have started to see BPO engagements being adopted in the right way.

Preparing for '09: It IS time to dump the term "Outsourcing"

You may recall the discussion we had earlier this year regarding whether it is time to stop using the term "Outsourcing".  The general consensus among many of you (including myself) was that we are stuck with the phrase and we shouldn't go out our way to dress-up global sourcing with other, more relevant, terminology:

"However you want to spin it, your staff will view it as outsourcing, and the more you try and disguise the taboo term, the more suspicious your staff will be that you are simply trying to ship them out for lower-cost labor"

With the dramatic changes in our corporate climate and political attitudes in recent months, I believe it's now time to change our well-worn phrase.  The core issues being:

1) Poor comprehension of global sourcing. Too many people associate "outsourcing" with greedy corporate leaders only interested in slashing costs, with little regard for employee livelihood. They have pre-conceived notions that organizations have forgotten about their people, and only care about the bottom-line.  I can assure anyone that is not the case with the majority of companies with whom I speak with daily. 

Horses outsourcing predictions for 2009

Yes, it's that time again folks, when analysts and other industry wannabe needle-movers come up with some profound verbiage that they think gets everyone excited for a few days, and hope no-one re-reads in 6 months.  Well... I occasionally do some research in my spare time, so here are some thoughts on what we can probably expect to see happen (just don't bookmark this page and hold it against me):

Low-hanging fruit outsourcing with immediate cost-savings will be strong.  As we discussed and surveyed here, it's areas where enterprises can streamline initial costs over a contract and get an immediate impact on the bottom-line.  That's bread-and-butter application outsourcing, high-arbitrage BPO areas such as F&A and vertical-specific analytics (that KPO stuff).  I am also expecting increased adoption of procurement BPO models as increased procurement and supply management work is moved offshore, and buyers can benefit from labor arbitrage to underpin the transformation costs that have held back adoption in the past.