Point of View Papers

TPI’s advisors are your eyes and ears in the sourcing marketplace, understanding the intricacies of industries and geographies around the globe and lending their expert perspective on topics that may impact your decisions on outsourcing, offshoring, shared services and internal service optimization.

What emerging issues should you be prepared to think about? Practical considerations versus hype? Turn and return to TPI’s Points of View for our “on-the-ground” perspectives designed to help you make informed, effective decisions that stand the test of time.

Aon and Hewitt: The HR Consolidation Wave Continues
by Rosemary Collins, Partner and Managing Director, HR Services
Although the merger of AON and Hewitt came as somewhat of a surprise to observers of the human resources outsourcing (HRO) marketplace, TPI’s HRO experts believe the move makes sense amid the ongoing consolidation we’ve witnessed among service providers. This TPI point of view details what the merger means to the overall market and to current and prospective clients of the new AON Hewitt.

"Bank in a Box" — What it Was, What it is Now, and Why You Should Care
by Paul Duckham, Director, TPI
Today’s bank in a box (BiaB) solutions may offer non-bank companies and commercial banks the opportunity to move nimbly into new markets and business segments, or even to improve the cost basis of current services, without a significant investment in staff or technology. This TPI point of view describes the evolution of BiaB solutions and offers recommendations for organizations looking to take advantage of this rapidly maturing area.

Beyond Call Tracking: The Importance of Taking the Critical Next Steps
by John Magliocca, Senior Advisor, TPI
Many enterprises capture intricate details of their customer contacts through call tracking, yet often spend too little time analyzing calls and taking steps to improve operations based on the data. This TPI point of view suggests a five-step model for implementing a strategy that can lead to dramatic improvements in several operational areas as well as overall customer satisfaction.

Captive Versus BPO Outsourcing: Five Critical-Path Decision Factors
by Stephen Kopp, Partner & Managing Director, CFO Services, America
Should we outsource our domestic shared services processes, or run them ourselves in a low-cost offshore location? Which will provide the best mix of quality, efficiency and lowest risk? Many companies looking for the next significant step change in shared services are struggling with these questions. This point of view answers these questions and more for leading-edge companies looking for the next stage of improvement.

Cloud Computing — How to Make Rain NOW
by Kevin Smilie, Partner, CIO Services, TPI
“Clouds, clouds everywhere, but what about the rain?”
The potential for cloud computing is compelling. For business it means faster access to technology and better alignment to demand. That equates to agility for business and can translate into significant competitive advantage. But like many rain events, they come in waves. Cloud computing for the enterprise will, as well. It will be some time before the last wave comes through and we begin looking to the next rain event on the horizon. What do you need to do now to get ready to put this rain to productive use?

Considerations When Preparing to Renegotiate an Outsourcing Contract
by David Howie, Director, TPI
Most outsourcing arrangements will be renegotiated during their term. These renewals and restructurings constitute a significant and growing portion of the outsourcing market. We estimate that in 2010 more than 500 large contracts will be renegotiated worldwide, representing a total contract value of more than $60b. In some cases, such renegotiation activity is driven by a change in service scope requirements or in volumes to be consumed. In others, the approaching end of the original term will encourage the client to seek refreshed and improved contractual conditions. More often than not, the client will also be seeking better prices. Though restructuring doesn’t necessary indicate dissatisfaction with the sourcing relationship it is a common driver, with most companies reporting that they receive less value than expected, often because their expectations were unrealistic to start with.

Contracting for “The New Normal” — Why Today’s Contact Center Services Outsourcing Transactions Call for Streamlined Agreements
by Tony Zmudzin, Director, TPI
Changes in the contact center services environment brought on by the economic downturn include a need to complete contract agreements much more quickly, more effectively and less expensively than in the past. Key to this streamlined approach is a thoughtful and purposeful integration of data collection, statement of work, service level agreement and business terms content. This TPI point of view explains ways to streamline sourcing processes that apply to contact center operations of any size.

Controlling IT Costs with Mergers, Acquisitions and Divestitures — Ask the Right Questions to Achieve Success
by Gary Emory, Director, TPI
The significance of information technology (IT) within mergers and acquisitions (M&A) events should not be underestimated. While the financial impact of IT may seem small in proportion to the total cost of the event, IT is an essential, highly visible component. This TPI point of view explores six fundamental questions that must be fully considered, including specific steps that should be taken to effectively manage IT to ensure the best possible outcome for any M&A event.

Deployment of Sourcing Strategy: What Comes First – Fix or Move?
by Dinesh Goel, Project Director, TPI
A common dilemma that organizations confront with pursuing sourcing strategies is whether to fix existing operations before shifting or whether to outsource first and then optimize. Because there are no easy answers to this conundrum, we offer a suggested framework to assist with a formal evaluation of fix versus move options, including potential benefits of both strategies.

Equipping and Empowering Corporate Strategic Sourcing Organizations for the Complexities of Outsourcing and Offshoring
by Mike Slavin, Partner and Practice Leader, Global IT Advisory Services, TPI
The changing nature and prevalence of outsourcing and offshoring within the corporate fabric of business support operations are placing emphasis on the need for deep expertise and breadth of insight among the leaders in these corporate centers of excellence. As a result, corporate strategic sourcing organizations are performing far more significant and pervasive roles in the lifecycle of outsourcing and offshoring approaches. New tools and resources are required to better equip and empower the Strategic Sourcing function to succeed in the world ahead. In this Point of View, TPI offers its perspective on market developments that have lead to a new level of organizational self reliance; how internal organizations can effectively prepare themselves to succeed with their missions; and signs indicating that a different approach would be a better fit.

A Global Economic Ethic: An Oxymoron or an Obligation?
by Bruce Everett, Senior Advisor, TPI
Globalisation offers financial opportunities and solutions, but it also presents significant ethical challenges. Outsourcing must serve a company’s self-interest without exploiting individuals, communities or the environment. In the shadow of the Global Financial Crisis, outsourcing has assumed a triple bottom-line responsibility that adds the environment and the community to the financial bottom line. This TPI point of view evaluates the ethical considerations inherent in outsourcing and global service delivery, while presenting five specific recommendations for navigating ethical outsourcing strategies.

The Great Procurement Outsourcing Debate: Important or Core Business Function?
by Bill Huber, Director, CPO Services
A frequent question about procurement outsourcing is whether or not procurement is a “core” function. Although there is little debate that procurement is important, whether the function and profession in their current states are truly core is comparatively murky depending on whom you ask. This TPI point of view suggests reasons that it might be more productive for organizations to ask themselves what strategy will deliver the strongest procurement capability for the company within the practical limitations of available funding, and what it will take to execute this strategy.

How the U.S. Subprime Crisis will Affect Indian Service Providers
by Kashyap Kompella, Advisor, TPI, and Thomas J. Sebastian, Project Director, TPI
The fallout from the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis is crossing oceans, and some of it has already landed on India’s shores. This paper describes among other topics, TPI’s view on how this will affect the smaller service providers, what a slowdown in discretionary spending on IT projects in India will mean to the service provider community, and how the market will be affected if the U.S. economy weakens the dollar against the Indian Rupee.

India Service Provider Tax Holiday End Draws Near: Cause for Concern?
by Thomas J. Sebastian, Project Director, TPI
For the past 10 years in India, considerable tax breaks have been extended to service providers to fuel the rapid expansion and export of IT and IT-enabled services. With the “tax holiday” ending in 2009 and several of India’s Tier 1 and Tier 2 service providers moving to organize into other tax-favored structures, how might this impact parties negotiating with India-based service providers? Get a concise view of how the India-based IT industry has grown via tax breaks and what the end of the “tax holiday” may mean for clients and the industry.

Managing Employee Redeployment — Creating Value Through Opportunity
by Sarah Seabury, Director, TPI
Corporate redeployments are becoming increasingly common globally, and the challenging European legislative environment requires companies to take an informed and proactive approach to these circumstances. By establishing a positive redeployment culture, companies may mitigate negative or conflicting communications, protect their brand identity and solidify the commitment of retained staff. This TPI point of view offers experienced advice for companies facing redeployments, including key issues to consider for initiating a professionally managed redeployment project to successfully navigate the complexities of European employment laws.

Monetization of Captives Fueling the Outsourcing Marketplace: Aviva’s Recent Sale of its Captive Illustrates Common Motivations, Benefits
by Sid Pai, Partner & Managing Director, TPI India
Aviva’s sale of its large scale, offshore captive operations to third-party service provider WNS is a case study for how parent companies can “monetize” their captive units to raise cash during challenging economic times. This point of view recaps the thought process behind this growing trend in the business process outsourcing (BPO) market, explains how parent companies and service providers can both benefit from monetizing strategies, and offers TPI’s view of the future for this movement.

Monetization of Captives: How Long Will the Opportunity Last?
by Dinesh Goel, Project Director; Rukmini Priyadarshini, Senior Research Analyst and Lubna Esmail, Knowledge Management Editor, TPI
This paper describes TPI’s view on the window of opportunity for the monetization of captives. During the last few years, captives – wholly owned subsidiaries set up with the goal of pro­viding services only to the parent company – have mushroomed in India and other offshore locations. This development has taken place in parallel to the strong growth of India-based service providers, as well as the rapid expansion in India of service providers based elsewhere.

Interestingly, in the recent past, parent compa­nies of some of these captives have sold or oth­erwise exited the majority ownership and the management of their offshore captive opera­tions, a phenomenon commonly referred to as “monetization.”

New Ways to Deliver Software Help IT Organizations Better Meet Business Needs
by Mike Voss, Director, TPI
Many IT organizations are being asked to “do more, do it faster and do it with less” — simultaneously — to meet the ever-growing demands of the business and play a vital role in a company’s ability to compete globally. These organizations often add resources or seek other ways to develop these capabilities quickly but have limited success due to aging systems or tight capital budgets. This TPI point of view outlines the combination of software delivery approaches that can provide the most effective application portfolios of the future.

Proceed With Caution When Outsourcing Large-Scale ADM Outsourcing in China
by Greg Blount, Partner & ADM Strategy Leader, TPI; and Paul Schmidt, Partner & Managing Director, Global Service Delivery, TPI
Executives considering outsourcing large-scale Applications Development & Maintenance (ADM) projects to China should consider the alternative with eyes wide open. While this emerging market may seem a logical place to send projects, buyers of outsourced services should be aware of several areas of concern that TPI has noted in the short- to medium-term. Also learn several positive factors about the capabilities in China along with tips for buyers who opt to look closer at outsourcing ADM projects there.

A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats?
by Duncan Aitchison, Partner & President, EMEA, TPI
The outsourcing market has seen a near seismic shift over the last two years in the geographic profile of market demand. No one is standing still.

For the majority of the past three decades the United States has been the leading buyer of outsourced services. In fact, just five years ago it comprised 66 percent of the outsourcing contract value. By the end of 2007, this picture changed dramatically. The United States accounted for less than 30 percent of the global contract value while Europe led by 50 percent in the same period.

Should Organisations put a size limit on their IT Outsourcing Contracts?
by Danny Jones, Partner, TPI
Recent debate within UK public sector circles suggests an interest in limiting the size of IT contracts in the sector. That this debate exists is not surprising, given the public failure of a number of large government programmes and concerns that the public sector still pays too much for its IT.

Six Easy Steps to More Effective Contact Center Performance Measures
by John Magliocca, Senior Advisor, TPI
Although data collection and reporting systems are critical tools for contact centers, merely having access to statistics will not ensure success in improving performance. Improper communication, unnecessary complications and inconsistent application of performance measures often cause the best contact centers to underachieve and contribute to the failure of key programs. Learn six tips that can boost your chances of operational improvement.

TARP Participation and Rising Unemployment: Implications for Outsourcing and Offshoring in the Global Economy
by Paul Duckham, Director, TPI
The Troubled Asset Relief Program that went into effect in the United States in late 2008 and continues in 2009 has U.S.-based businesses and market watchers around the world wondering what effect TARP will have on offshore outsourcing. This point of view by TPI Financial Services expert Paul Duckham recaps indications of note from business and government during the past several months and offers advice for companies wishing to continually review their outsourcing strategies to meet the challenges posed by global economic conditions.

The U.S. Senate Finance Bill: Potential Implications for Financial Services Firms and the Outsourcing Market
by Sean O’Sullivan, Director, TPI
In May 2010, the U.S. Senate passed a bill that would overhaul financial regulations in the United States at a level not seen since the 1930s. The legislation proposes to close gaps in regulation and to curtail some trading practices that many believe led to the 2008 crisis in the financial markets. Proponents and opponents of this bill have widely divergent opinions about its impact. This TPI point of view outlines major components of the bill and their potential implications for the outsourcing market.

Weathering the Storm During Irregular Operations in Your Customer Contact Center
by John Magliocca, Senior Advisor, TPI
Most enterprises maintain elaborate plans and procedures for disaster recovery and business continuity. It is not uncommon to see hundreds of pages of documentation dedicated to recovery, not to mention dozens of individual departmental documents outlining local procedures in the event of disaster. Far less time, however, is dedicated to the more likely scenario of “irregular” contact center operations. This TPI point of view describes a five-step process to plan for and improve performance related to these critical periods that all contact center must contend with.

Why the Contact Center “@Home Model” Has Finally Found a Home
by Mike McMenamin, Associate Partner & Director, TPI
During the past year TPI has seen an uptick in the number of clients and their service providers embracing the “@Home model” for contact center operations, whereby outsourced agents work from their homes instead of reporting to a centralized facility. This point of view details the market forces that have contributed to the growing acceptance and implementation of the @Home model and explains how this increasingly popular staffing option can help call centers reduce costs without sacrificing performance.