Perhaps the best example to use when talking about sustainability and performance is that of public sector organisations. Local government is a great example. Being part of the government they have to be seen to be green. They also have to work on a shoestring and provide a high level of service.
Recently, I was at the [...]

The last decade has seen IT outsourcing mature from being an innovative service for a few to a standardised utility that a wide range of companies take advantage of.
Outsourced services such as desktop and server support, which makes businesses more efficient, have been provided by external suppliers for so long that there is little left [...]

We often focus on reducing ongoing costs through outsourcing. It’s all about reducing the cost of operation through automation and possibly offshoring. But it’s not all that inspiring is it?
Outsourcing used to be about reducing costs and then the industry spent most of the past decade trying to reinforce the other reasons for outsourcing. Allowing [...]

For IT organisations in the business of creating solutions for their clients it has become almost second nature to assume that cost reduction is likely to be one of the key drivers of any major project or programme.
Demanding client organisations have high expectations when they ask their IT partners to create solutions, ideas and propositions [...]

Last month I launched a book of my Talking Outsourcing blog, which I write for Computing magazine.
Many readers showed up at London South Bank University to see me talk about the blog and what’s contained in the book – thanks to all of you who did come that evening and the evening was made all [...]

I’ve been writing on this blog and editing entries by other writers for just about all this year, however I have been regularly blogging for the British business and technology magazine Computing since 2006. My Talking Outsourcing blog at Computing has become one of the most popular blogs on their website – possibly because I [...]

Innovation is more than technical innovation - business innovation is also an important area, yet mostly ignored.
Innovation more broadly, is certainly welcome within the outsourcing industry. All too common, the industry is characterised by a “me too” mentality. Most vendors appear to only concentrate on price innovation and even that, not really very innovative. Take [...]

A recent examination of the UK higher education experiences in using wikis, virtual classrooms, Web 2.0, etc. has highlighted the obvious conclusion that the university experiences of undergraduates and academics will be radically different than that of their 2009 predecessors. One interesting point was that many students are often more advanced than their institutions in [...]

Innovation is a topic that is often raised in discussions about outsourcing, usually in the context that it’s impossible to contract for something as nebulous as innovation.
Well, it’s true that it can be difficult to write a contract that recreates the skunk works environment of everyone in the basement toying with new ideas that may [...]

To ensure a supplier can help clients manage risk and build better trust and partnerships the relationship needs to be supported by a good governance structure. Given my experience on outsourcing deals I would say that a good relationship is one that is well regulated and has incorporated a robust mechanism that allows flexibility for [...]