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 [...]

I have written elsewhere that risk is not a nebulous subject, or even difficult to understand and communicate. Indeed, it is something that we can apply relative measurements to and I would put forward a relatively simple system for quantifying risk. This can be used to prioritise actions, communicate and plan work.
Think about splitting risk [...]

Risk is inherent in all activities and by its nature is a fundamental aspect of both operational and project management. Good operational management is increasingly about identifying, controlling and containing those risks, a feature that project managers (using formal methodologies like Prince II or even informal standards) will be all too aware of. However, risk [...]

Since the start of the problems in the banking sector (let’s not go into how far back that goes), there has been a resultant push for more regulation to offset reoccurrences of the problem in all industries. The senior management in many companies will nowadays see regulatory risk alongside financial risk as the two key [...]

Clients are always asking their suppliers to help them to minimise the risk in their business and improve their return on investment. In recession, this is an even clearer requirement as organisations look to deliver business benefits quickly, whether they be through new products, increased sales or reduced costs. Whilst timing is always of the [...]

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 [...]

India’s ‘father of BPO’ Raman Roy was part of a session I was watching at the NASSCOM India Leadership Forum earlier today. I was interested in some of his comments on gainsharing.
Gainsharing is an innovative pricing practice that many commentators have suggested will increase this year. It’s when the company providing the service offers to [...]

I managed to speak to Andrew Kemp, Director of Group Planning and Analysis at BT, just after he had been speaking on stage at the NASSCOM India Leadership Forum in Mumbai.
Andrew had been talking about the management of risk, so I asked him how it works in the real world. He said: “We absolutely work [...]

What has the Satyam debacle done to the risk of global outsourcing?  In a recently published report for the UK Institute for Chartered Accountants I had divided risk into performance and relational risk.  Terrorist attacks in Mumbai and submarine cable snaps threaten performance. Relational risk, the risk of opportunistic behaviour on the part of vendors [...]