When a company decides to send all or part of its manufacturing offshore, the greatest shock and the source of highest concern often surrounds the timely delivery of goods to its customers. It makes little difference if those goods are a finished product or part of someone else's supply chain....
Aerospace represents, more than any other industry, a very extensive outsourced supply chain - about 80 percent of the airplane is now outsourced. Aerospace firms do so little of their own manufacturing, in fact, that companies like Boeing think of themselves more as large-scale systems integrators than airplane manufacturers. This...
When Bedford Genuine Parts, a truck after-market supplier, wanted to streamline its supply chain, it recognized the need to address issues of cost reduction and improved speed of response if it were to continue to compete effectively in the fiercely competitive commercial vehicle market. Much of the early discussion, which...
Outsourcing is a methodology wherein an external firm is appointed to execute strategic services or deliver intermediate products to an organization. The organization adopting outsourcing strategy wants to optimize costs and enhance quality by taking the services of an established external firm in that particular service or product domain. In...
From the executive summary: ‘Credentials verification has always affected hospitals, clinics, and preferred provider organizations, but there is a new foray into skilled nursing facilities and ambulatory surgery centers. Those seeking accreditation by quality agencies require the verification. It can become an obstacle to accreditation.’ The paper examines this issue....
A recent Act seeks to overhaul the organizational financial processes and practices. It establishes a new, independent board for the accounting industry, creates higher standards for corporate governance and audit committees and ushers in transparency in corporate transactions. To this end, the Act also affects the nuances of the outsourcing...
Offshore outsourcing involves procurement of strategic organizational services from external firm located outside the borders of the host country. Offshore outsourcing serves as a boon for medium-sized banks. It enables the mid-sized banks to effectively cut operational costs and become more competitive in the face of intense competition. The paper...
From the executive summary: ‘Manufacturers remain under extreme cost pressures. Outsourcing order-to-cash is a new way to help them cut costs by lowering their working capital and reducing profit leakage. Most manufacturers operate across multiple silos. They incur higher costs and profit leakage when the handoffs are poorly managed. Outsourcing...
Until modern day times, companies have been outsourcing only discrete segments of their supply chains to niche providers that specialized in activities like transportation or warehousing. A single company may have had to use numerous Third-Party Logistics providers (3PLs) depending on how large and complex its supply chain was. In...
From the executive summary: ‘The move to offshore work to take advantage of low cost labor is affecting every area of outsourcing. In the IT space, offshoring is making major inroads in the applications development and management area. The offshore service providers have made this area extremely competitive. In such...
From the executive summary: ‘Human Resources Outsourcing HRO was one of the most rapidly evolving outsourcing markets in 2003. 85% of American enterprises will outsource at least one component of their human resources functions by 2005, according to Gartner Dataquest, a Stamford, Connecticut research firm.’ The paper examines some recent...
Although a poorly managed sole source approach can fail to meet the buyer's expectations, organizations that take time to develop and lead a thoughtful approach can attain the desired benefits of a sole source approach. Five factors create a successful sole source approach to outsourcing. Several of these factors are...
This is a case study of AT&T. It has been seen that gain sharing is ringing up incentives for AT&T and Accenture. With competition growing among long distance and local service providers, AT&T, the communications services corporation, was examining creative ways to leapfrog its competitors and link its customers with...
This white paper is on the appropriate use of Sole Source Outsourcing. It covers a brief history, and then discusses how Sole Source approaches can derail. While it can help streamline the process, Sole Sourcing can also create unanticipated obstacles. Deciding to undertake a Sole Sourcing arrangement is just the...
Outsourcing is the strategy wherein an organization procures raw material or other processes from outside agencies or organizations. Such a strategy enables efficient management of costs. Using outsourcing strategy, the organization can focus on its core competencies. The paper examines the findings of a survey that promises high growth in...
From the executive summary: ‘Offshore outsourcing is booming these days. IT firms are getting coding and other work done in outside countries. This signifies cost savings but at the same time raises the issue of survival of the domestic workforce. The States are losing immediate revenue to offshore workers and...
This article highlights the concept of Governance. Governance is not just a consultants' buzzword - it is a critical element in ensuring the ongoing success of a procurement outsourcing relationship. In essence, it is the process of administering and monitoring the service provider to ensure the overarching goals set forth...
This article illustrates a case study of HQ Global Workplaces who has about 65,000 clients with nearly 480 offices in 19 countries. Over the years, the M&A activity resulted in HQ having no consistency across the portfolio of offerings to its clients. Technology such as phone systems and PCs varied...
Procurement outsourcing is one of the fastest growing areas of business process outsourcing BPO. The article outlines some practical steps to prepare an organization's procurement outsourcing strategy. A critical step in the formulation of a procurement outsourcing strategy is to segment ones spend categories into core and non-core based on...
From the executive summary: ‘Few outsourcing customers realize the potentially sweeping impact of change on an outsourcing relationship. In reality, many factors affect the scope of the services the customer seeks and the volume of the services the customer consumes.’ These changes have far-reaching implications on the service provider’s costs....
