Vital Distinctions Shape Tomorrow’s Outsourcing
It’s our privilege again this year to relate to you the stories of nine exceptional outsourcing relationships. Each exemplifies qualities and commitment that transform ideas into reality. In the world’s best outsourcing relationships, the shared vision of buyers and suppliers keeps them focused and unwavering in pursuit of their goals. Their paths are not without obstacles, but winners position themselves ahead of time for the right attitude toward challenges and opportunities.
The 2002 award winners are a new generation of outsourcing arrangements, for they illustrate how to strike deep in partnership efforts to achieve utmost value for both entities and make a wide strategic impact on a buyer’s organization. As you read their stories, we invite you to weigh each approach and then use the ones that best fit your company’s personality and give you the best chance of success with your business solutions.
Why the Winners Won
With a total of 121 nominations for the 2002 awards, we put in place a more stringent process of judging the nominations. Instead of categorizing the nominations into winners based on a primary outstanding aspect, this year we looked closely for examples of total excellence in all aspects of the relationship.
For each nomination, we examined written material received from the person who made the nomination; we also conducted extensive interviews of representatives from the buyer organization. The nominations were then pre-qualified according to nine weighted factors. The top four factors were (a) partnership approach at outset of the relationship; (b) flexibility from both parties on an ongoing basis; (c) both parties work together as a team to overcome challenges; and (d) use of outsourcing as a means to accomplish a new strategic objective, rather than just improving a process or reducing costs.
This process narrowed the list down to:
- 21 nominations for “Best of the Best” category (from which the six winners were ranked, with each then recognized for its most outstanding characteristics),
- six for the “Outstanding Applications Outsourcing category (which included applications development, ASP relationships and offshore relationships), and
- seven for the Best First Steps category (recognizing relationships less than one year old or still in their implementation/transition phases at the time of the judging).
Each judge submitted his or her choices, and the winners were selected by a majority of votes. These nine award winners, together with the stories of the runners-up and semi-finalists, comprise a portable library of valuable outsourcing advice and models. Some of their strategies are unique, and all are germane to success. For an even closer look at the characteristics of winning outsourcing relationships, be sure to order the free white paper, “The Snowball Effect: Characteristics of Outstanding Outsourcing Relationships.”
The Judges
Judging the nominations this year were:
Peter Bendor-Samuel is the founder and CEO of Everest Group, one of the world’s most prominent consulting firms. Bendor-Samuel’s expertise and thought leadership has shaped the methodology and solutions that Everest uses to assist its worldwide clients in capturing maximum value from their outsourcing and other business solutions. He also founded the online community, Outsourcing Center, an Everest company focusing on research and publication. He is the recipient of the 2001 Outsourcing World Achievement Award, recognizing his impact on the outsourcing industry as a professional who demonstrates innovation, breaks new ground and establishes standards on which others can build. He is also the author of Turning Lead Into Gold: The Demystification of Outsourcing, a book that shares his insights into the principles that make outsourcing work successfully and how buyers and suppliers can construct win-win relationships.
Barry A. Wiegler is founder and managing director of Sourcing Interests Group. The company, founded in 1991, is a globally recognized, highly respected forum for information sharing and networking for outsourcing, strategic sourcing and eBusiness. Wiegler serves as advisor in many of the company’s major outsourcing deals and strategic sourcing initiatives of member companies. He also serves as CEO of Key Consulting Group, helping companies with sourcing decisions, transition management, consolidation planning and implementation, interim management in IT and strategic sourcing.
Meredith Whalen is vice president for IDC’s Internet, ASP and consulting services research programs. In her tenure at IDC, Ms. Whalen has identified and initiated research around new services markets, and she has authored several best selling reports, including Internet Services: A Competitive Segmentation and Analysis, Worldwide ASP Review and Forecast, and IDC’s ASP Leadership Study. Ms.Whalen recently played a key role in defining IDC’s xSP taxonomy. She also has served in IDC’s Peripherals research group, where she spent three years covering the IBM AS/400 market and researched high-tech markets such as advanced visualization software, cellular communications, biometrics and intelligent transportation systems.
Rebecca Scholl, a senior analyst in Gartner’s Research organization, conducts research and provides consulting services in the areas of business process outsourcing (BPO), with a special focus on human resources outsourcing and finance and accounting outsourcing. Her work focuses on helping professional services providers understand end-user needs for BPO, differentiate their service offerings, develop innovative business models, target appropriate market opportunities, and define effective growth plans. Her responsibilities included creating business plans for companies entering new markets and performing strategic and competitive market studies. Before joining Gartner, Ms. Scholl worked for a French consulting and market research company in Paris (BIPE), where she specialized in the telecommunications and media markets.