Outsourcing Times

Insurers Cut Costs By Outsourcing

By Priya Jestin, Staff Writer

While most of us may still deride the outsourcing phenomenon, fact is we cannot do without it any longer. The main reasons most firms have taken to outsourcing is that it allows them to focus on their core strengths. In an insurance firm, most of the services including human resources, billing and transactional processing, are important but not necessary in the proper functioning of the core competencies.

So what can a business do to ensure that it focuses on its core competencies without having to trouble itself over the peripheral activities? It can use a business process outsourcing (BPO) provider. This not only reduces costs but also allows a business to grow as the enterprise can now focus on its core business.

Since this is extremely sound business advice, it’s not surprising to note that insurers have taken to outsourcing like fish to water. Research shows that the use of IT outsourcing and BPO is slowly growing.

Now, Outsourced Lawyers

By Priya Jestin, Staff Writer

How would you fee if all the jobs at General Motors suddenly moved to China? Chances are you wouldn’t think twice about it. Why? Because for quite a few years now, it’s been the Chinese, Taiwanese and others who’ve been at the helm of the manufacturing industry. Moreover, the manufacturing industry isn’t as paying as say the software or banking industries.

But if major corporations began to work with lawyers in India, you’d definitely have a big problem. That would be a breach of security and well, how can we trust these guys with important information? Well, if you didn’t already know, the practice has been on for some time now. Corporations like Oracle, Cisco and General Electric are some of the big names that have begun trimming their legal costs.

According to a recent report by Crisil Research and Information Service, the legal offshoring industry is expected to grow to $4.7 billion by 2012 in India alone. Of course, it’s the cost advantage. Who’d want to pay an American lawyer $200 or more an hour when you can get an Indian lawyer for anything between $50 and $70 an hour? If you want to go even cheaper, you could get an Indian lawyer working as a temp. It would cost $20 an hour or less, which when compared to $70 an hour for a temp in America, works out to the Indian’s favor.

Until quite recently, lawyers were immune to the offshoring phenomenon and didn’t have to worry about losing their jobs. This was mainly because their work was steeped in arcane U.S. law. It also often dealt with sensitive information companies feared could fall into the wrong hands. But that reluctance is fading now.

Change Is The Name of the Game

By Priya Jestin, Staff Writer

In outsourcing, the easiest part is signing on the dotted line, or doing the deal. And then begins the really hard part. Everything in the agreement may seem absolutely watertight and both parties in the relationship may think they have a really strong relationship going. However, what they don’t realize is that the rules of the game change constantly depending on various factors. Hence instead of trying to play by the rules, if the companies learn to adapt to changing realities, they will find their relationship growing stronger.

Now, adapting doesn’t mean trying to foresee and predict changes well into the future. You just cannot tell what the global scenario is going to be like five or ten years down the line. So, instead of wasting resources, time and energy trying to prepare for the future, your company must try other methods of maintaining and building a strong relationship. One of the best ways of strengthening a relationship is to build on it by creating a platform for information sharing and dialogue with vendors. Adaptability to changing conditions is another prerequisite to success in the outsourcing game.

IBM, US lay off 400 employees

Are you aware of the recent lay-off of the employees of IBM? Do you know that their headquarters for procurement in going overseas to china from the current one at New York?

The shocking news about the lay-off of 400 employees from IBM came up at the wake of this month! The company has accounted the unavailability of suitable position within the company for a period of a month as the reason for this lay-off.

Informationweek reports that the employees suspect the lay-off to have taken place with the Bladecenter team while an IBM spokesperson has denied saying that this suspicion was untrue.

Read one of our previous post titled 'IBM Outsourcing More Jobs' to know the details of work being outsourced by IBM!

IBM records inexplicable profit in the third quarter!

By Priya Venkatesh, Staff Writer

Have you heard of the third quarter results from IBM, the software giant? With the outsourcing boom on the move, IBM has reported a 4% increase in net earnings when compared to the previous year.

As per the reports from informationweek, the hottest global service Business of IBM that amounts to 50% of its total revenue has reported 3% increase in sales.  As per the report from Information week, Net value of the innumerous deals with IBM has accounted to around $10.5 billion this year. IBM promulgates a 9% increase in hardware sales and another 9% in software sales.

Click here to know the details of the major outsourcing contract signed between Disney and IBM.

CSC – Global Crossing initiate the real time implementation of IPv6

By Priya Venkatesh, Staff Writer

Have you upgraded your network to be compatible with IPv6? You and I may be thinking on the necessity to do so! We may not be aware of the need to make this move!

But CSC & Global Crossing together started an initiative towards real-time implementation of IPv6 Network in 2001. They took advantage of the enormous experience of CSC In IT services and the inexplicable expertise of global crossing in IP based network.

Targeting the federal customers, the joint venture expects the successful implementation of IPv6 Network by June 2008!

Read more on 'CSC renews seven-year outsourcing contract with Schroders' to know the details of CSC's another venture with Schroders.

Millstone Medical Outsourcing expands customer base

In an older post titled "Medical outsourcing catches on", I mentioned the growth of medical outsourcing. Here is a somewhat related news story.

Millstone's continuum of start-up solutions, integrated services, and contract packaging services have made the company one of the top outsourcing partners for orthopedic companies. Its wide range of services has recently attracted five medical device companies, which include Doctors Research Group, Inc., DVO Extremity Solutions, and Aesculap Implant Systems, Inc.

Joyce Ludwig, a Quality and Regulatory Consultant for Aesculap, sums up the advantages of tying up with Millstone:

Finding an outsourcing partner who has top-of-the-line operating space and the necessary experience to handle a function as critical as sterile packaging is not an easy task. We were impressed by Millstone's clean room facility and packaging capabilities and are pleased to have found a partner we can trust.

Yahoo Finance has more on the story.

Alsbridge in line for twin National Outsourcing Association awards

If all goes well, representatives of Alsbridge—the independent advisors on outsourcing, shared services, and offshoring—could be walking away with the Advisor of the Year and Outsourcing Professional of the Year awards on October 12 at the NOA award ceremony in London.

The award for Outstanding Advisor could go to Alsbridge because of its four-volume Practitioners Guide to Shared Services and BPO, the highly acclaimed Tripartite Charter for successful deal negotiation, and the recognition by the OGC for the Catalist Framework Agreement for Outsourcing Advisory.

The other award for the Outsourcing Professional of the Year could go to Howard Spode, Principal with Alsbridge Europe. Spode has played a key role in new business delivery and client-side advice for outsourcing/offshoring strategies.

For more on the achievements of Alsbridge, click here.

Tech service provider SI International bags $138 million contract

In an outsourcing agreement that will be spread over ten years, the US Patent and Trademark Office has opted to grant its pre-grant publication classification services to Reston, Virginia-based SI International Inc. The deal has pushed the value of SI shares upwards to $28.31 in NASDAQ trade. Reuters reports on how SI plans to execute the deal:

The company said it will recruit and train about 150 staff for the contract, and its new facility will be located in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

It takes two to tango: Wipro and Motorola in joint telecom venture

When two leading and highly successful companies form a common front to offer a service, it makes you stop and ponder, However, you must keep in mind that every company has its business focus and strongpoints, and when the strongpoints of two companies are complementary to each other, there lies a potential team-up of resources and expertise.

Wipro has excelled in delivering managed services, while Motorola has its expertise in mobility. The new venture, called WMNetServ, is a strategic move to combine their forces and provide viable telecom services to public and private network customers. Hindustan Times reports:

The joint venture will host a global network operation centre platform in India to integrate seamlessly with Motorola's network operating centers in North America and Europe to provide 24/7 network monitoring capabilities to customers.