Sourcing Speak

Want to learn about trends in BPO in the insurance industry? Please check out my contribution to the Post Online article here (subscription needed to access Post Online).

Under the previous 1981 Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 1981 (TUPE) and the EU Acquired Rights Directive (ARD) it was not clear whether the definition of a relevant transfer caught “outsourcing” activities where there was a change of service providers or a contracting in or out of services.…

Want to learn more about the key areas customers should consider as part of their cloud computing due diligence exercise? Read my recent article on the topic here.

Based on a 2011 Gartner study, numerous website and industry blog postings, and almost every executive I’ve spoken with, it seems that innovation continues to be lacking in outsourcing relationships. All companies want it, all providers promise it, and no one is happy with the actual results. The study offers…

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.…

Getting to the right price. If not the primary objective, it’s certainly one of the more important goals of any customer who has ever outsourced a piece of their operation. While striving for the lowest price possible, in order for the transaction – and long term relationship – to be…

Change is hard. Big change is harder. And big change in big companies is extremely hard. So it is not surprising that when it comes to large outsourcings, the amount of change can be a deal-killer. The friction costs of outsourcing can result in hurdles that are just too high…

The U.S. Department of Defense, General Services Administration and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have issued a proposal to amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) implementing Executive Order 13495 , which will require government contractors that take over service work from other companies to offer jobs to certain…

A key finding in the Trustwave 2012 Global Security Report is that in 76% of data breach investigations a third party responsible for system support, development and/or maintenance of business environments introduced the security deficiencies. This should concern any company that outsources the processing, storage or transmission of personally identifiable…

Starting on 26 May 2012 the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”) will begin enforcing sweeping changes to the EU cookie law put in place 12 months ago. By way of reminder, following a change to the EU’s Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive (the “E-Privacy Directive”) back in 2011, the rules…