Reducing risk by outsourcing

It is a situation many companies will have experienced: Profits are rolling in; shareholders are smiling and growth and expansion are on everyone's mind. In such times, the general feeling is that the company cannot add personnel and office space quickly enough. But such times may not last long, and when the market softens, the realization sets in that maybe the company overestimated their real estate needs. They find themselves locked into costly, lengthy and restrictive property agreements, and with lots of idle space.
 
The capricious nature of today's business climate is forcing many companies to look for ways to do more work with fewer resources in order to compete effectively. Under the pressure of competition, companies are now looking with a toothcomb at all business functions and those which do not contribute to profitability are either outsourced or discarded. Office outsourcing is now seen as one of the solutions to avoid long-term lease commitments that weigh heavily on the balance sheets of a number of corporations.
Global office outsourcing is emerging as a viable alternative to conventional property agreements and is gaining recognition among top executives as a way of creating a balanced portfolio of long and short-term property commitments. Using a third-party provider enables businesses to match their real estate needs to their business needs.
 
The need for agility in the marketplace and the demands of constantly changing business plans have resulted in the emergence of new real estate strategies, such as flexible office space, that alleviate the problem of having large amounts of capital tied up in property portfolios. Likewise, outsourcing office space gives organizations the necessary flexibility to relocate, expand or downsize without having to meet the stringent requirements of a long-term lease, while saving money.

After eyeing the Kenyan market for five years, the world's largest provider of workplace solutions, Regus, finally entered the country and is already pulling in big names. According to Ronal Samani, Regus Kenya Managing Director, Kenya's position as a growing economic hub in Africa presented the impetus for the company's decision to move here. Regus was established in 1989 with the first centre in Belgium and now operates in over 60 countries.

The company operates over 950 business centres, each providing full and part-time offices, business support services, meeting facilities and the world's largest videoconferencing network. Mobile and home workers can access mail, phone handling, and dedicated business addresses to convenient workplaces in major commercial hubs around the world.
 


Genpact named top Procurement Outsourcing Provider by Black Book of Outsourcing

Genpact Scores the Highest Marks in Supply Chain, Logistics and Category Management Categories

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Genpact, which manages business processes for companies around the world, today announced it has won the coveted position of highest ranking Procurement Outsourcing provider by Brown-Wilson Group's 50 Best Managed Outsourcing Vendors in 2007. The annual study, conducted by Brown-Wilson Group and The Black Book of Outsourcing (Wiley Publishers), recognizes excellence among global service providers that demonstrate leadership and outstanding performance in the areas of Supply Chain Management, Purchasing & Transaction Management, Category Management, and Logistics Spend & Contract Management.

The study surveyed over 3,500 senior procurement, supply chain management and chief financial and operating executives to benchmark enterprise procurement outsourcing and plans. Genpact scored the highest in 13 of the 18 unique ranking criteria, leading the Supply Chain, Logistics and Category Management categories. According to the independent rankings, Genpact exceeded expectations in categories such as improving customer efficiency and effectiveness, offering best-in-breed technology and process improvement, providing flexible pricing, driving operational performance in the breadth and depth of offerings, eliminating excessive buyer supervision with faster deployments, accurately representing service deliverables in marketing processes, providing highest level of security and data back-up services, and offering a high level of support and customer care.

In their recent Worldwide Procurement BPO 2007 Service Provider Analysis report, IDC commented that our strength has been more in the procure-to-pay back end than in the strategic sourcing and category management side, said Navanit Samaiyar, Senior Vice President and Business Leader, Procurement Supply Services, Genpact, The high marks given by our peers, customers and employees in the Category Management, Supply Chain and Logistics categories further support our continued commitment to provide a wider range of value-added services to our customers.

Research conducted by the Black Book of Outsourcing predicts the worldwide BPO market will hit $700 billion in 2008 as more companies focus on their core and embrace business process outsourcing. Procurement outsourcing is among the fastest growing BPO areas, prompting a projected increase to $6 billion in 2008. We understand that corporations are requiring a new breed of business partner as they focus more on their core business, says Samaiyar, Our sourcing and procurement services offer clients a complete end-to-end solution: an unmatched value proposition of service delivery and continuous improvement through our history of leadership and experience in Lean Six Sigma. We are pleased the Black Book of Outsourcings rankings have revealed we are the preferred vendor provider for comprehensive procurement outsourcing.

According to Doug Brown, Managing Partner, Brown-Wilson Group and co-author of The Black Book of Outsourcing, Genpact, the top ranking Procurement Outsourcing supplier in 2007, has earned the lead position due to its focus on comprehensive procurement sourcing and successfully managing their outsourcing relationships. Genpacts key differentiators were honoured with top client scores across multiple industries and markets. Clearly, Genpacts perseverance in delivering quality end-to-end procurement services is recognized overwhelmingly by users who selected the best-in-breed from a field of one hundred-twenty qualified competitors.

Genpact Procurement & Supply Chain Solutions serves global clients through four locations in India Hyderabad, Bangalore, Gurgaon and Kolkata. Genpact counts a major jet engine manufacturer, two top 10 auto makers, a medical device company and leading transportation logistics provider among its major Procurement & Supply Chain clients.

About Genpact:

Genpact manages business processes for companies around the world. The company combines process expertise, information technology and analytical capabilities with operational insight and experience in diverse industries to provide a wide range of services using its global delivery platform. Genpact helps companies improve the ways in which they do business by applying Six Sigma and Lean principles plus technology to continuously improve their business processes. Genpact operates service delivery centres in India, China, Hungary, Mexico, the Philippines, the Netherlands, Romania, Spain and the United States. Earlier this year Genpact was named Best Performing BPO and Best in Human Capital Development by industry consultants NeoIT and Global Services magazine.



Outsourcing no longer just for cost savings

Saving money is no longer the primary reason for companies opting to outsource their IT operations, new research has found.

A survey of UK-based Chief Information Officers (CIOs) by IT outsourcing consultants Harvey Nash found that three quarters of respondents listed responsiveness and flexibility as the primary motivations for outsourcing, ITPro reports.It also found that 53% of CIOs expected their IT budgets to rise in the next year and half of them anticipated spending 10% or more of it on outsourcing.

Paul Smith, Managing Director of the global outsourcing and software division of Harvey Nash, commented that the findings showed that "IT Outsourcing is here to stay".

In one of the latest instances of a large outsourcing contrast being awarded, Tenpin, the bowling operator, has signed a 4.2 million contract to outsource its sales and service operations to the Dataforce unit of Twenty PLC, it has been announced.