Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Global services outsourcing overview
- 3 Making the services outsourcing decision
- 4 Location and sourcing model choice in global services outsourcing
- 5 Managing global services outsourcing arrangements
- 6 Creating shared services arrangements
- 7 Services outsourcing and performance management
- 8 Services outsourcing and the spin-off arrangement
- 9 Learning from failure and strategies for recovery in business process outsourcing
- 10 Conclusion
- Glossary
- Index
- References
2 - Global services outsourcing overview
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Global services outsourcing overview
- 3 Making the services outsourcing decision
- 4 Location and sourcing model choice in global services outsourcing
- 5 Managing global services outsourcing arrangements
- 6 Creating shared services arrangements
- 7 Services outsourcing and performance management
- 8 Services outsourcing and the spin-off arrangement
- 9 Learning from failure and strategies for recovery in business process outsourcing
- 10 Conclusion
- Glossary
- Index
- References
Summary
Introduction
Services outsourcing has become an important feature of the global economy. Globalisation and advances in technology have allowed companies to transfer information technology, human resource, legal and accounting services to local and foreign vendors. Services outsourcing poses considerable challenges, and is more complex than manufacturing outsourcing. The unique features of services, such as the involvement of the customer in service delivery, service customisation and the need for physical contact, make services outsourcing extremely challenging. However, organisations have been pursuing a range of strategies to reduce the risks, and achieve the benefits that services outsourcing offers. Organisations have been redesigning business processes to retain customer contact services locally and to outsource routine, labour-intensive back-office services. This has involved adopting sourcing models with vendors to maintain control over critical outsourced processes, whilst leveraging the lower costs of vendors in emerging economies. Moreover, organisations have been increasingly looking beyond labour cost advantages and using global services outsourcing to access highly qualified staff in knowledge-intensive services.
This chapter provides an overview of the global services outsourcing phenomenon. A background to the growth in business services is outlined. An overview of services outsourcing is presented, which includes the types of outsourcing arrangement being adopted by organisations, stages in the outsourcing process, drivers of services outsourcing and the arguments for and against services outsourcing. The influence of service design principles on services outsourcing is examined.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Global Services Outsourcing , pp. 7 - 44Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010