The State of Sourcing

Service-level agreements (SLAs) are the backbone of any system. SLAs are defined and measured to quantify IT efficiency into business value. SLAs defined between customer and vendor do not just add contractual value but ensure critical business applications are running at all times and at high levels of performance.

ValueNotes and Anunta in a recent study found that CIO/CTOs  of the banking and financial sector feel the need to improve their IT performance. However, they do not consider service level agreements important. SLAs are treated as compliance and not as an integral part of IT operations.

Continue reading ‘Negligence in monitoring SLAs hurting banking and financial sector’ »

Having done a report earlier on e-discovery and document review, which is by far the most outsourced service in the legal services outsourcing domain, our next stop was most definitely going to be outsourcing of contract management – the next big thing in outsourcing of legal services. As we started speaking with the people who deal with contracts, some of the variations and facts that came out were mind boggling. Here are some examples –

• Contracts may need up to 5-10 drafts by conservative estimates
• Contracts may need up to a year to finalize
• Contract values range from USD 10 – 1,000 million
• Hundreds of types of contracts
• Legal team sizes ranging from 6 – 1000+
• More than 40 countries across which contracts are managed by a single firm

Continue reading ‘Contract outsourcing – outsource to manage better’ »

It’s never a bad idea to invest in technology… right? Well at least many service providers of the Indian market research outsourcing industry certainly think so. Technology has always played a vital role in market research. It helps make processes more efficient, improves the quality of work, reduces errors and thus leads to lower overall costs.

Continue reading ‘MRO providers stocking up on technology?’ »

Analytics is a relatively new buzz-word in the outsourcing industry with a lot of service providers offering these services, either as a pure horizontal across industries or as a vertical specific service. With marketing services being outsourced, usually in a bundled format with customer support and other BPO offerings to “sweeten” the deal, there are elements of marketing analytics coming into the outsourcing foray. In a new HfS Research report co-authored by ValueNotes, titled ‘Where Offshore Analytics is Heading in 2011’, we have focused on the emergence of ‘horizontal’ analytics across services such as sales and marketing.

To define marketing analytics, let’s take a look at these two terms separately –

Continue reading ‘Defining Marketing Analytics’ »

• Four in five publishers globally are already producing digital content
• PDF continues to be the most popular digital format, with a majority of publishers indicating that ‘universal’ accessibility was a driving factor for choosing formats
• Third-party bookstores/channels such as those offered by Amazon, Apple, Google and Sony  are preferred, but there is a growing need to develop online bookstores

These are some of the salient findings from our research on the state of digitization in the publishing world. The publishing industry underwent some drastic changes in the last couple of years – because of the global economic crisis and also, because of the rise of the digital market. This phase is also quite exciting. The report, sponsored by Qbend, has provided us with comprehensive insights on various aspects on how publishers are addressing the digital market. Based on over 200 responses from professionals working in the publishing industry, this report talks about the production, distribution, digital rights management and pricing of digital content.

Continue reading ‘New ValueNotes report: The current state of digital content’ »

It was the first quarter of 2009. We were interviewing service providers to create our report on “Offshoring in the Publishing Vertical, 2009“. One such interview has left a lasting impression on us. Not because the company was unique in its offerings. Not because the person we were talking to was exceptionally eloquent. But because of one statement that was a commentary on the things to come -

Continue reading ‘Technology in publishing: What next?’ »

The Indian higher education sector is in the midst of tremendous growth and change. The population demographic has created an unprecedented number of young people in this country. The scale of the problem that India faces in terms of educating and providing employment to her vast youth population, is unique. The sheer size of the problem has made education a subject of national debate, with the attendant glare of the media and public opinion. In the past year, giving further impetus to the debate is the political push by the Human Resource Development (HRD) minister, Mr. Kapil Sibal and his views on the need for reform in the Indian education system.

There exist great opportunities for the private sector to play a dominant role in the near future. With an eye on the future, a few weeks ago TiE (the entrepreneur network) set about hosting a seminar on private participation in Indian higher education. I was invited to represent ValueNotes, and moderate a most stimulating panel discussion, joined by the likes of Mr.Siva Ram Mallela (Founder of Knowledge Partners, Former Dean of New Initiatives at ICFAI University) and Mr.Chenraj Jain (Founder, Jain University). I’d like to share some of my thoughts on the subject,  enriched from the event!

Continue reading ‘TiEing up Indian Higher Education’ »

At the recent Global LPO conference 2010, held in New Delhi, the idea was to facilitate closer contact between buyers and vendors in the industry. The buyers spoke about their experiences and put forth their concerns. The vendors building upon experiences, offered advice to the potential buyers on how to approach, what to look out for, the value offered, etc. Among many other issues discussed, one that received attention from various speakers was – what do buyers and vendors need to do to facilitate a smooth and mutually beneficial relationship? 

The need to change and develop is something that cannot be stressed enough. For an industry as young as the LPO, and with the potential that it offers, the mantra is going beyond understanding customer needs. LPOs must stay ahead of the articulated needs. With most companies looking at outsourcing as a strategic move, they want it to contribute to their overall business performance. Outsourcing by and large has moved beyond the cost and labor arbitrage, and the same stands true for LPO industry. The idea is to move away from the tag of service providers to partners. Here we discuss just some of the many initiatives that LPOs need to take to start thinking and taking on the role of partners. 

Continue reading ‘LPOs need to think like partners’ »

Commented a respondent of our survey on ‘The Current State of Digital Content’. So,  how are things shaping up for digital formats, does everyone in the publishing industry feel the same way? Read on.

Changing the ‘format’ of content

The publishing industry has progressively been going digital. While selling digital content is recent, publishers have used digital production techniques/processes that are reliable, stable and efficient. Such processes, however, ended mostly in the creation of PDFs – that doubled as print ready files and/or a product that was to be sold digitally.

Continue reading ‘Device specific formats are horrible to support, and I hope they die!’ »

In August 2010, the attorney-general’s office in Connecticut, US began investigating pricing of digital content by Amazon and Apple – expressing concern over pricing agreements with publishers and its possible implications on consumers. The attorney-general’s office went on to find identical prices for titles distributed by Amazon, Apple, Borders and Barnes & Noble. So, what’s the deal with e-book pricing?

How do publishers price their digital content?

Continue reading ‘E-book prices set to drop’ »