You’d think that down-to-earth procurement guys (and gals) would avoid the expense of renaming a firm, but within the span of less than five days two procurement outsourcing service providers did exactly that. Buying Team became Proxima and ICG Commerce became Procurian. The rationales behind their name changes are quite different, but both changes are a response to buyers' needs in the procurement outsourcing market.
Research
Our global team of analysts publish regularly on the key issues that affect buyers and providers.
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See our 2012 research agenda here.
Our Published Research
The value proposition of data isn’t in the gathering of it, but in the actual analyzing of patterns and taking action. Buried within mega data warehouses is the information that executives can use to unlock opportunities to grow revenue, make strategic decisions, build better customer relationships, and eliminate costs. For most business owners, obtaining this information is not a question of applications and hardware, which they may have in abundance. Rather, it’s the skillset of business owners to explore and analyze complex data to solve business problems.
Service providers have coined terms like “knowledge process outsourcing” for a wide range of services, from technical data warehouse implementations to Indian statisticians priced by the hour. Frankly, the mix of services confuses buyers. In this document, we will define analytics outsourcing and categorize the services buyers need.
This report portays service provider profiles for HfS Research's Business Platform Map for 2012. Through the Business Platform Map™ buyers, vendors and investors will be able to track, measure and assess the changing services business models and evaluate the progress of new offerings in the market. This document reviews the Business Platform Map survey results for 2012.
According to our data collected in 2011, one after another -- in fact, over 400 CPOs -- have made the decision to leverage procurement BPO to improve their scope, savings, and ROI, and they are finding incredible success. HfS Research collected detailed data points on more than 430 procurement outsourcing engagements, indicating that procurement outsourcing is a viable option for companies of all sizes. In each of the past three years, 60 new companies have leveraged procurement outsourcing services. This RapidInsight™ describes the scope of services CPOs are purchasing and the results they are achieving, while explaining why procurement outsourcing doesn’t have many of the issues faced by other BPO services.
In this report, we look at a few pressing legal and contractual risks that cloud services can introduce, some with roots in the IT infrastructure underlying cloud services, others based on the ways in which providers build, sell and support these services.
Buyers need to understand that running business applications on cloud services -- which for the purposes of this report refers only to SaaS, not Platform as a Service (PaaS) or Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) cloud offerings -- entails new IT security and business risks, notably around data privacy, compliance and reliability. Some of these differences arise from cloud provider business models and how those drive the structure of contracts and service-level agreements (SLAs). Others are inherent in the technology underlying these services. HfS Research examines several critical issues that buyers should keep top-of-mind as they plan any transition from in-house services or traditional IT outsourcing to cloud services.
Business Platforms are changing the traditional services business model by enabling customers to leverage business services through business outcome pay-as-you-go methods via the integration of Cloud Computing technology, SaaS and business process outsourcing. Business Platforms are providing customers with compelling technology enabled business process services that drive innovation, agility and reduce cost.
Through
the Business Platform Map™ buyers,
vendors and investors will be able to track, measure and assess the changing
services business models and evaluate the progress of new offerings in the
market. This
document reviews the Business Platform Map survey results for 2012.
This Rapid Insight outlines the nuts and bolts of business platforms, essentially the delivery and technology models that underpin the business platforms we reviewed as part of HfS’s Business Platform Map™ market survey. Buyers need to understand how services providers are building their business platforms. Too little client traction may indicate that the business platforms are not much more than a bespoke service that risks limited future funding.
In October 2011 IBM formed its new IBM Security Services division. This organization change coincided with IBM’s acquisition of Q1 Labs, a maker of security information and event management (SIEM) and log management products, two of the hottest products on the IT security shopping lists of large enterprises. The consolidation gathers IBM’s increasingly impressive security assets into a more cohesive whole.
To achieve substantially better results, the sourcing focus has shifted to areas where outsourcers can manage more complex processes, adopt technology changes, and provide domain experts to radically alter the business process outsourcing (BPO) value proposition. Leading sales operations professionals are looking to new Business Platform offerings from highly competent BPO services providers that bundle best-inclass technologies, people, and processes to improve business outcomes. One such set of outsourced services, Sales Performance Management (SPM), not only reduces operating costs but can positively impact revenues and streamline sales operations.
Almost every buying organization has a standard procurement process designed to purchase everything from office supplies to software and janitorial services to management consulting. Organizations then tweak this methodology to purchase more complex services, like Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) or outsourcing.
Where is BPO going? We now know, thanks to our Live & Unfiltered Part II discussion on November 22. Like a typical extended family at Thanksgiving, the buy family and the sell families cussed and discussed about the trends and challenges buffeting BPO. They passed the peas and offered unbridled opinion and insight.
For our Price Indicator clients, HfS has published the Q4 edition of the BPO Quarterly Price Bulletin. The bulletin includes several pages of key BPO pricing commentary gathered from our market research and our network.
For our Price Indicator clients, HfS has published the Q4 edition of the ADM Quarterly Price Bulletin. The bulletin includes several pages of key BPO pricing commentary gathered from our market research and our network.
Slides from HfS Research and Wells Fargo Securities joint industry webcast, presented by Phil Fersht, Ed Caso and Esteban Herrera, reviewing the key outsourcing dynamics of 2011 and made some predictions for 2012. The webcast recording can be accessed by ciicking here.
This year’s State of the Outsourcing Industry in 2011 report delves into how mind-shifts towards outsourcing are changing across industries, company sizes, geographies and business functions during a time where we have recovered from one Recession, only to be confronted with the prospect of another
Capgemini has significantly bolstered its capabilities in the competitive Finance and Accounting Business Process Outsourcing (F&A BPO) market with its recent acquisition of order-to-cash (OTC) services provider Vengroff Williams and Associates (VWA). Our only surprise at HfS is that is took so long for one of the top tier BPO providers to acquire the 45-year old heritage accounts receivables and OTC specialist.
This report examines how businesses view the changing world of work based on the results of an HfS Research survey, conducted in cooperation with HR Executive Magazine, of more than 400 HR and business leaders. We also researched information from a number of other data sources covering this hot topic.
This HfS RAPIDInsight offers buyers and providers of outsourcing services tips and successful techniques learned by practitioners (buyers, providers and intermediaries) over thousands of site visits to dozens of providers in more than 15 countries.
The current Euro debt crisis is further fuelling focus on outsourcing, with organizations across the region today viewing outsourcing as a proven vehicle for cutting costs and improving global flexibility.
A service provider’s account manager may be the most important position on the account team. HfS Research conducted a series of interviews with a variety of buyers and service providers to analyze what works well and what does not.
Turning processes on their heads to align them with corporate strategy is a challenge for the best of business leaders – especially when many are non-standard, fragmented, or even siloed.
HfS Research recently attended an analyst event hosted by Kenexa, a leading provider of recruiting and talent management solutions. Founded in 1987, Kenexa (originally named TalentPoint, Inc.) has grown rapidly through acquisitions (e.g., BrassRing, Salary.com, and Gantz Wiley Research) and organic growth over the past eight years.
Through experience, HfS understands that price benchmarks provide a host of benefits to both buyers and providers. From greater cost and price transparency to the strengthening of relations, the list of improvements is substantial. We are also aware that they can quickly undermine months and sometimes years of hard-fought trust between parties. With so much at stake, why do so few buyers and providers invest the time and energy to learn about price benchmarks and, more importantly, how to use them?
