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2014 Outlook for the Global Services Industry

What will be the big stories in 2014 in global services? We believe the main themes of 2013 will continue this year but will take on bigger significance. Whether you’re a buyer or a provider, you need the following issues on your radar screen and need to be prepared for change over the next 12

Why the Avon – SAP News is Important for Your Business

Did you see the news earlier this week about the Avon – SAP relationship in Canada? The eye-grabbing headline, “Avon halts work on big SAP implementation, cites lack of ROI,” thrusts the deal to the attention of both service providers and enterprises planning or in the midst of business transformation deals. The services industry

Does SaaS Have to be Multi-Tenant?

We’ve been engaged in a lot of discussions recently around whether or not SaaS has to be multi-tenant. In trying to answer that query, we started with another question: What would a private SaaS look like? Typically when we think of Saas, we think of the multi-tenant platforms such as Salesforce, NetSuite, Ariba, etc.

Reflections on Impacts on the Global Services Industry in 2013

It’s the time of year when we turn our attention to reflecting on what happened over the the past 12 months and weigh the significance of the year’s events. I think we can showcase 2013 in five primary aspects. 1. Market growth First let’s think about the market itself. We began the year expecting

Will the Fed’s New Posture Have a Material Impact on the Global Services Industry?

After many years of reviewing and thinking through the implications, the Federal Reserve last week issued guidance to banks about the extent of their use of outsourcing. As The Wall Street Journal reported, the Fed raised red flags about state banks and bank holding companies using third-party service providers for information technology and bank

Obamacare’s Pulse in the Healthcare Services Industry

Will the troubles of Obamacare upend the robust growth that we have been experiencing in services in the healthcare space? It’s an interesting question, given that Obamacare’s march toward the looming January 1, 2014, launch date resembles a complicated traffic snarl with a lot of cars wrecked and not drivable. Let’s look at the

Murthy Prepares Infosys for Growth

When Infosys’ founder and former chairman N.R. Narayana Murthy returned in June, it was a clear sign that Infosys wanted him to guide the company in reinvigorating growth. But to do that, he would need to change the existing growth strategy. The new strategy that Murthy has adopted is now clear. He has decided

The KISS Advantage

There has been a lot of talk in the services industry around new pricing vehicles: non-linear pricing, outcome-based pricing, pricing for results and gainsharing, for example. All these new pricing models whipped up by providers have something in common: they’re complex. I’ve been in this industry since 1983. Here’s one of the important things

The Good and Bad News in Governing Cloud-Based Services

Cloud-based services are distinctly different from traditional outsourcing not only because of the obvious cost and agility benefits but also because they fuel the need for a different kind of management of the services. From a management perspective the governance is transformational because it allows the governance team to change their focus on how

What Can We Learn from the EXL-Travelers Contract Termination?

If you follow the news, you probably saw last week that three people working for EXL used some operational process materials about EXL’s client Travelers with a competitor of Travelers. Travelers found out about it and terminated the contract. We see companies terminating for cause all the time, but terminating a contract for breach