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What’s the future for finance shared services and outsourcing talent?

When I’m not obsessing about the lack of investment in change management when companies outsource, I worry about talent. Luckily, ACCA (www.accaglobal.com), the global accountancy body, is worried about talent of the finance variety, especially in light of the adoption of shared services and outsourcing models….and gives me the opportunity to put some of my […]
Deborah Kops
May 6, 2013
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What kind of a shared services leader are you?

Not too long I sat through a panel comprised of very experienced shared services leaders. And it hit me like a ton of bricks; although each was accomplished in his or her own way, every panelist’s path to leadership was very different. So I came up with a typology of career paths which represent the […]
Deborah Kops
April 17, 2013
Archive

Outsourcing Executives: What’s your career narrative?

If you missed this, blame it on the post Easter chocolate egg euphoria. Posted on HfS Research earlier this month by my friend Phil Fersht, I didn’t get much of a backlash. Now that tax time is over, perhaps you’ll have a swing at me. I’m obsessed by careers. I spend time trying to make sense of […]
Deborah Kops
Archive

What kind of a shared services leader are you?

What is the path that takes someone to become a leader in shared services, and how does a certain path have an effect on the level and type of change experiences by the shared services organization? To find out, Sourcing Change and sharedserviceslink.com collaborated this year and surveryed the shareserviceslink.com community. [gravityform id=”10″ name=”Download the […]
Deborah Kops
Archive

Picking on outsourcing execs AGAIN?

If you are so inclined, check out my latest contribution on HfS Research’s Blog. Since it’s April, and too cold in Virginia for my thoughts to turn to love, I substituted an examination of the careers of outsourcing executives. Seems to me that you can predict career narratives of many of our good provider friends. […]
Deborah Kops
April 4, 2013
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Do retained teams screw up outsourcing?

  Heaps of blame is placed on the outsourcing provider when a relationship goes south. You’ve heard the complaints.”Their salesmen oversell.” “The staff has no contextual knowledge.” “No one’s taking responsibility for following up.” “There’s none of that innovation they promised.” And while some of these complaints are valid, in many cases the client is […]
Deborah Kops
April 3, 2013
Archive

The Joys of Sourcing Intercourse

If you think the titillating title will transport you beyond the bounds of propriety, don’t bother to read on. I’m merely referring to the rush one gets from the standard definition of intercourse (according to Merriam-Webster): 1), connection or dealings between persons or groups; or 2), exchange, particularly of thoughts or feelings. Having just come […]
Deborah Kops
April 2, 2013
Archive

Luck o’ the Irish Outsourcing Leaders

Not too long ago I met an Irishman named Coleman O’Flynn at an outsourcing transformation conference. And as he was charming the dickens out me with his soft brogue, it hit me like a ton of bricks—look around at some of the leading business services transformation initiatives, and you’ll find more than your fair share of Irish […]
Deborah Kops
March 15, 2013
Archive

Making an outsourcing relationship better: that’s above my pay grade

  There seems to be a trend going on amongst outsourcing client types. It’s called the kick-the-can upward approach to fixing a flailing relationship. The game goes like this: client relationship manager and account manager agree that there are problems with the relationship. The client gripes, while his or her provider account executive expresses all […]
Deborah Kops
March 12, 2013
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Outsourcing industry—where’s your voice post Delhi?

It’s been over two months since the brutal rape that left a 23 year old woman dead. Yet when it comes to the outcry that magnified the treatment of women in India, I cannot recall one article or blog posted in a Western outsourcing mag or rag, one outsourcing client or advisor raising their voice, […]
Deborah Kops
March 5, 2013
Archive

The Religion of Outsourcing

  “Outsourcing is a religious decision. You either believe in it or you don’t.” So sayeth Alex Jablonowski, one of those client types who was an early adopter of outsourcing as chief executive of International Banking at Barclays. Alex has a point; some of us embrace the concept whole heartedly (often leaving in some room for […]
Deborah Kops
February 28, 2013
Archive

Farewell to the founding fathers (of the outsourcing variety)

There’s been a little-remarked upon trend going on over the last few years—the retirement of many of the founding fathers of offshore outsourcing companies. Since 2009 by my reckoning, there’s been a steady trickle of departures of some of the leaders, particularly in the BPO sector. What are the implications for the industry? Big integrated […]
Deborah Kops
February 20, 2013
Archive

“Call me maybe”– sales approach at outsourcing conferences?

Now I’m not always current on the latest pop (for me, the zenith of pop music was in the 70s, and everything’s been downhill since then), but I can hum Carly Rae Jepsen’s hit song Call Me Maybe. And, with the annual social rite of going to shared services and outsourcing conferences just about underway, […]
Deborah Kops
February 14, 2013
Archive

Outsourcing Relationships: Not Puppy Love

I’ve been obsessed about what constitutes a good outsourcing relationship for some time. Whenever I have the ear of a player in our outsourcing community, I leap at the opportunity to pick up another brilliant observation about what works…and what doesn’t when two parties come together to provide business services. Yesterday morning I was speaking […]
Deborah Kops
February 13, 2013
Archive

Shared services and outsourcing: Aren’t we just moving the deck chairs around?

  If you think about our efforts to transform business functions through shared services and outsourcing, are we just trying to make them more efficient and cost-effective? Are we really tackling enough change to make them more relevant to today’s business needs? In effect, aren’t business functions as we know them obsolete, and changing them […]
Deborah Kops
February 10, 2013
Archive

Legal: The Hardest Profession to Make Outsourcing Change?

The last bastion against outsourcing? Recently I sat down with Ed Brooks of the LPO Program to discuss the challenges of change management in the legal profession. Whether the perpetrator of the change is the GC, or law firm management, changing a profession that is mired in tradition, has historically been isolated from other corporate change, […]
Deborah Kops
February 5, 2013
Archive

Global Business Services at the Top Table? Servants don’t dine with their employers!

Over the past few weeks, it seems as if everyone is talking GBS, GBS, GBS.  Shared services organizations encompassing one function in a few countries with a center or two purport to be running global business services. Companies with transactional accounting processes operating around the world declare that they are GBS leaders. Sourcing leaders managing […]
Deborah Kops
February 4, 2013
Archive

Is Innovation in Outsourcing Insanity?

  I’m obsessed with the concept of innovation resulting from outsourcing. I’d love to find a real example of true, game-changing, big things that turn the delivery model on its head, taking clients to new heights of performance. But the risk aversion and contractual precision of the outsourcing industry work against innovation, not to mention […]
Deborah Kops
February 1, 2013
Archive

Buyers Forget that Outsourcing RFPs are Sales Jobs

Providers aren’t the only sellers in the outsourcing game. In fact, if a buyer doesn’t hold up his or her end when it comes to selling the opportunity, he or she risks a suboptimal relationship. Forget about the common wisdom that the relationship starts at selection and contract development—it actually starts the day that the […]
Deborah Kops
January 29, 2013
Archive

Welcome Home Outsourcing…Without the Welcome Mat

 For those of you who have read The Economist’s 19th January article “Welcome Home” I confess I am a week behind on my reading. The article joins a growing chorus of pundits and researchers such as HfS Research, for whom I co-authored a recent paper, who are declaring the era of foreign dominance of service […]
Deborah Kops
January 27, 2013
Archive

The Outsourcing Happiness Index

  Two weeks ago when I wrote a blog entitled “If my dashboard is so green, why am I so unhappy,” the fabulous Chris Gattenio of IBM tweeted about the article, saying new measurements were necessary to track a “happiness index” of sourcing clients. Well Chris, you got me thinking. Several years ago, I wrote […]
Deborah Kops
January 25, 2013
Archive

Revisiting the Sustainable Outsourcing Relationship Quiz

Several years ago, I developed an outsourcing relationship quiz, and posted it on the Shared Services and Outsourcing Network website. And it didn’t get much traction. But times seem to have changed. Seems as if every outsourcing client is more concerned about the quality of the relationship than ever before. So Ithink it’s time to […]
Deborah Kops
January 21, 2013
Archive

Shared Services Leadership Survey

Look around at the players in our shared services community, and you’ll see four distinct pathways to leadership. Each pathway corresponds to the level of maturity of the model, and at the same time is shaped by the business context in which the model operates. Which pathway characterizes your career? What kind of a shared […]
Deborah Kops
January 17, 2013
Archive

If my outsourcing dashboard is so green, why am I so miserable?

  How often are outsourcing relationships considered “performing” when it comes to meeting SLAs and hitting cost reduction targets, but when it comes to the service experience, the client (and sometimes even the provider) considers the deal an utter failure. Providers, take heed. The days of trading service for cost is over. Increasingly clients today […]
Deborah Kops
January 15, 2013

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