OUTSOURCING, a necessidade de cortar os custos Imprimir

Em busca de uma melhor relação de custo x benefícios as organizações estão em uma constante busca de uma redução dos seus custos  de outsource.

July 25, 2008  

1.OUTSOURCING COST CUTS NO BARGAIN 

Concerned about a looming economic downturn, client organizations are pressing outsourcers for significant price reductions as they negotiate extensions of long-term deals, according to a recent Compass analysis of global outsourcing contracts.  

Over the past 12 months, Compass reviewed 120 global deals worth over $60 million each, and found that renewal negotiations are increasingly being driven by pricing pressure.  Companies are demanding rate cuts of 15 percent to 23 percent across the board, according to the analysis, without consideration of whether existing services are being delivered at a fair market price.  For their part, vendors are in many cases agreeing to price discounts up front – in exchange for long-term agreements.  

“A 20 percent cut across the board could drive many contracts to failure,” says Geraldine Fox of Compass.  “Clients are plucking aggressive price targets from the air with no due diligence around the competitiveness of existing service and with no regard to what the business needs.”   

Fox says such a strategy ignores the fundamental importance of aligning sourcing services to business requirements.  Moreover, the price cuts will eventually become unsustainable, resulting in a de-motivated supplier, a poor working relationship, and poor service quality.  

In a recent article in IT Business Edge, Fox discusses Compass’ perspective on the impact of the economy on sourcing strategies in greater detail. 

2.TRANSFORMATION OUTSOURCED 

Organizations seeking to implement significant operational changes are increasingly turning to Business Transformation Outsourcing (BTO) as a strategy, often combining offshoring of IT and business processes as part of the initiative.   

According to Nigel Hughes of Compass, a successful transformation initiative – whether or not it’s done through outsourcing – requires careful pre-project planning and a detailed analysis of the potential improvement opportunity. This makes it possible to quantify the benefits to be realized and to track the realization of those benefits as the initiative progresses. 

Hughes says companies that offshore business operations tend to be victimized by four key mistakes: equating low labor costs with operational efficiency; allowing processes to become misaligned with business requirements; an unwillingness to invest in improvement initiatives and systems, and failure to develop adequate governance mechanisms. 

Hughes is quoted in a recent article in Global Services magazine.  

Compass has recently published white papers on common challenges and key success factors in offshoring of business operations.  Click here to receive a free copy of these documents.  

3.THREE KEYS TO TELECOM SUCCESS 

Negotiating and managing contracts for telecommunications services presents a variety of challenges.  Not only are telecom contracts devilishly complex to begin with, vendor mergers and acquisitions confuse matters further, as many customers today are re-negotiating contracts with providers who are not the same entity they signed with.

Implementing emerging technologies can be equally trying:  How do you price a new service that hasn’t yet been tested by the marketplace?  How do you balance the benefits of innovation with the inevitable teething pains of untried services?

John Lytle and Susan Jones of Compass say an effective telecom management strategy comprises three elements: 

·         Comprehensive Market Knowledge of vendor capabilities, historical price trends, and service alternatives

·         The application of Benchmark comparisons to gauge proposals in a meaningful competitive context

·         Effective Contract Management that aligns telecom services to business needs in a cost-efficient manner

A new Compass white paper by Lytle and Jones discusses these three interrelated characteristics in detail. Click here to receive a free copy of this document.  

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