Maximizing the Make-or-Buy Advantage: A Scenario-Based Approach to Increasing Resilience and Value

The context for make-or-buy decisions has become more dynamic, as manufacturers face dramatic swings in demand and the relative costs of sourcing locations. To maximize their resilience and value creation, leading manufacturers use a scenario-based approach to assess the implications of a broad array of sourcing decisions simultaneously.

How to Find a Manufacturer in China

You have a product idea and you want a manufacturer to produce it for you. But you’re on a limited budget so sourcing in China seems like a good idea. You know that China has many low-cost manufacturers. But how do you find the right one?

The Seven Deadly Sins of Outsourcing

While outsourcing is a powerful tool to cut costs, improve performance, and refocus on the core business, outsourcing initiatives often fall short of management’s expectations. Through a survey of nearly a hundred outsourcing efforts in Europe and the United States, I found that one or more of seven “deadly sins” underlie most failed outsourcing efforts:
1. Outsourcing activities that should not be outsourced
2. Selecting … [ Read more ]

Michael Porter

The short-term cost savings of outsourcing were very apparent, very attractive, and very seductive to companies [that] were desperately trying to improve their earnings per share quarter to quarter. But when you outsource something, you tend to make it more generic. You tend to lose control over it. You tend to pass a lot of the technology, particularly on the manufacturing or service delivery side, … [ Read more ]

25 Questions To Ask Before You Outsource HR

When you decided to start a business, it probably wasn’t the fun of keeping up with the latest employment regulations, tax issues, and OSHA requirements that lit your fire. Nevertheless, if you have even a single employee, you’re stuck with all that and more. You’re not alone and fortunately, where there is opportunity there are generally entrepreneurs with a solution. Enter the world of professional … [ Read more ]

Clayton Christensen

The outsourcing gurus have been…saying everybody ought always to do this. But it is really contingent on where you are on the spectrum from “not good enough” to “more than good enough,” relative to each tier of the market. It is when the product is not good enough that proprietary integration gives you a competitive edge. You cannot outsource and be competitively successful in this … [ Read more ]

Rethinking Manufacturing Strategy

Buffeted by years of offshoring, formidable Asian competitors and a global economic downturn, some companies are finding ways to make manufacturing in the U.S. a competitive advantage.

Talent Management and High Performance: Driving Business Value from HR and HR Outsourcing

Everyone’s talking about “talent management” today as a way to boost the performance of the human resources (HR) organization. But what are the elements of a talent management strategy, leveraging advanced HR outsourcing solutions, that can actually drive high performance for an entire company?

This article offers an innovative and practical approach to talent management—planning and executing an integrated set of management processes that generate greater … [ Read more ]

Navigating the Risks and Challenges of Offshoring

For American companies, sending work overseas has been a hit or miss proposition. The winners cite the cost savings and expertise garnered abroad. However, for the losers, offshore projects gone awry can result in lost intellectual property and/or disgruntled customers. With the rate of offshoring on the rise, supply chain experts at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School and other Atlanta-area outsourcing experts say for companies … [ Read more ]

Riding the Next Wave of Outsourcing

Low-cost-country outsourcing has become much more sophisticated, but that doesn’t mean outsourcing is the answer for every company. Not all products – and not all portions of a product’s supply chain-should be outsourced. Lasting competitive advantage requires a nuanced approach. You must consider internal costs and organizational processes in deciding what you send, where you send it, and how you operate. Even when outsourcing is … [ Read more ]

Execution is Everything: The Keys to Offshore Success

Companies continue to aggressively pursue offshoring, even in the face of negative onshore media attention. Why? Because offshoring offers potentially great rewards: It helps companies compete in a global age, creates value for their shareholders, and improves their operational performance.

Secrets of Offshoring Success

Even as offshore outsourcing has matured, best practices have been few. Now two top academics reveal the principles that should guide CIOs.

Global Sourcing in Innovation: Theory and Evidence from the Information Technology Hardware Industry

Economists, including Paul Samuelson and Jagdish Bhagwati, vigorously debate whether offshore outsourcing in high-tech industries helps or harms the U.S. economy. The main issue is whether insourcing countries, such as China or India, will catch up with and eventually outcompete the U.S. Moreover, the dearth of off shore outsourcing data has hindered the study of the impact of offshore outsourcing. To explore the impact of … [ Read more ]

Multisourcing: Managing a Portfolio of Deals

Forget everything you think you know about outsourcing. The promised results are not materializing and while companies continue to ink deals, they’re not the megadeals of the past. Today’s contracts tend to be smaller and shorter. As outsourcing deals change so must a company’s approach. It’s time to think of outsourcing as you do a product portfolio-with different strategies for different deals.

A.T. Kearney’s Global Services Location Index (GSLI)

The Index evaluates 40 countries as potential locations for the most common remote services, including IT services and support, contact centers, back-office support. Each country’s score is comprised of a weighted combination of relative scores on 40 individual metrics, which are grouped into three categories: financial attractiveness, people skills and availability, and business environment.

OutsourcingCenter

OutsourcingCenter hosts a wealth of free research, case studies, database directories, market intelligence, and ever-expanding content targeted to the information organizational decision-makers seek on emerging trends and best practices in outsourcing as a strategic business solution. The Center also hosts the monthly online Outsourcing Journal and BPO Outsourcing Journal, with more than 40,000 subscribers.

Increase the Success of Your Knowledge Transfer Effort

Knowledge transfer is one of the first tasks of transitioning to an outsourced model, but it’s sometimes overlooked or under-planned, resulting in a shaky start to the relationship. Here’s how to do it right.