Historically, outsourcing agreements included terms typically lasting five to seven years or even longer – with additional years tacked on as options exercisable only by the customer. But several factors suggest that a customer should think twice and at least consider shorter term deals with its service providers: The Deteriorating…
Judging from my 25 years of experience as an outsourcing practitioner, I believe there is widespread consensus among suppliers and customers that, promptly upon their execution, outsourcing contracts should be locked away in a file cabinet never to be looked at again until it is time for them to be…
When customers sign a contract with a service provider that will be holding the customer’s confidential data (for example, the customer’s business records, human resources data, personally identifiable information, protected health information, payroll data), in addition to laying out the service provider’s responsibility for protecting the data, customers focus on…
What does the ideal outsourcing procurement process look like from the customer’s perspective? It is a process that enables the customer to put in place a deal quickly and efficiently with a minimum of friction and achieves the customer’s business objectives. How often is this ideal realized? Not often enough.…
In previous blogs in September/October 2011 (Supplier Selection; Contract Negotiations; Relationship Management) I offered practical tips on how to manage and mitigate some of the risks that arise throughout the life cycle of a typical outsourcing. These risks may arise during the supplier selection process, in the course of contract…
ZDNet blogger, Michael Krigsman, reported recently that nearly 70% of IT projects fail in some important way: An eye-popping number! There can be endless debate on the actual failure rate of IT projects – the answer most likely depends on the criteria used to define “failure” – but a couple…
According to a report in the Economic Times of India, the Indian government has demanded that the European Union designate her as a data secure country. The request came in the context of current bilateral free trade agreement negotiations. An Indian government official is reported saying “Recognition as a data…
Enterprises that undertake serial M&A or outsourcing activity can find themselves with a diverse workforce with differences in pay and other terms and conditions of employment applying to different categories of employees across the business. This can lead to inefficiencies such as the cost of administering different benefit plans as…
Unfortunately, the new year does not hold much hope for reversing the disturbing trend of increasing federal, state and local taxes and surcharges that are applied to telecommunications services. It’s not unusual for enterprise customers to pay an additional 25-30 percent on their bill, depending on the types and locations…
Outsourcing attorneys spend many hours negotiating complex terms and conditions governing the delivery of IT outsourcing (ITO) and business process outsourcing (BPO) services. As good outsourcing counsel, we spend a lot of time imagining ugly scenarios and allocating the associated risks and liabilities. Often as not, the result is an…