The following headline recently caught my attention: “Bill would OK secret privatization, outsourcing of Florida agency functions” What is not news is that State and Local Governments (SLGs) are struggling to maintain the services their electorates are accustomed to. Blame declining tax revenues caused by the housing market bust and…
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…
Background on Economic Pricing Adjustments Outsourcing contracts often include mechanisms to adjust prices for inflation. Among the factors of production, the cost of labor is the most critical and is often subject to these adjustments. To account for rising production costs in a particular market,** service providers will typically ask…
News that Accenture Life Insurance Services has won an eight-year business process outsourcing (BPO) agreement with BNP Paribas Cardif may be a sign that the European life insurance and pensions market is set for increased outsourcing activity. According to Accenture’s press release, “Accenture will manage an important portfolio of BNP…
In the waning days of 2011, a measure was introduced in Congress directed at U.S. companies utilizing overseas call centers that may not have attracted much attention. However, given the current economic environment, industry press and at least one foreign government have taken note of the bill. On December 7,…
Making the decision to terminate an outsourcing agreement is often very difficult and is usually only pursued if enforcing existing rights is not sufficient to address a customer’s major concerns or renegotiating the agreement can’t achieve the desired outcome. If a customer begins to think about terminating an agreement, it…
We have previously discussed on this blog the increasing difficulty that offshore service providers are facing in obtaining U.S. visas for its employees that are non-U.S. citizens (see “The Buzz about Visas for Offshore Service Provider Personnel and the Link to On-Shore Hiring“). The rejection rate for H-1B visa applications…
In the wake of some extreme weather during 2011 (earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, hurricanes, and mudslides), what better time to review your disaster recovery and business continuity (DR/BC) solution and planning processes? In some cases, DR/BC planning is a legal or regulatory requirement, but even where it is not, common sense…
Because evaluating a service provider’s security posture is more challenging in the cloud, in Part Three of this article we looked at ways to evaluate a cloud service provider’s security prior to signing the contract and some of the issues between customers and suppliers created by the SEC Guidance. In…