Sourcing Insight

By Michael Rehkopf

The real deal on IT and business process outsourcing trends

A simpler way to manage finances when outsourcing

Sunday, June 22 2008 07:31 PM

How do you approach managing the finances of an outsourcing transaction?

The approaches I've seen span all the way from the simple "this is my budget, the supplier's fees will have to be within that, regardless of the contract", through to robust management of demand and capacity to support..... Read more ť

Bailing out before you start

Monday, June 02 2008 12:35 PM

You've been working on a potential sourcing transaction for months. It's not going well and you have to at least consider giving up. Not a pleasant thought, but why is it so hard to make the decision?

Putting aside the personal embarrassment that can come with a decision to shut down..... Read more ť

Making it work--HP and EDS

Sunday, May 25 2008 11:28 AM

I've intentionally stayed out of the fray regarding the proposed combination of HP's service business and EDS to see what sort of reactions it would generate.

Looking at this from a customer perspective, I would think that two key areas will be at the top of mind for most client executives.

Firstly,..... Read more ť

The 3C sourcing framework

Friday, May 02 2008 04:35 PM

As many of us have noticed, the labor arbitrage era as it relates to sourcing is rapidly coming to an end.

This period when productivity mattered less than the ability to throw cheap labor at transactional work is winding down. In the overall history of sourcing, the period of effort-based contracting..... Read more ť

Cloud computing--a new paradigm?

Tuesday, April 22 2008 04:05 PM

Have you checked out the computing power "rental" offerings of Amazon, Google or Microsoft, to name a few?

Fascinating stuff. I get access to computing power on a per unit per day type of basis. This gives me the ability to scale the computing power I use, up and down, to..... Read more ť

Lay the foundation for good pricing

Monday, April 14 2008 07:30 PM

What makes a good pricing structure? Can you confidently answer that question? Many people I talk to struggle with this question so let's consider a few fundamental points that help lay the foundations for a good pricing structure.

The first point is clarity. There should be clarity with regards to who..... Read more ť

Plan for the bumps so you won't be surprised

Tuesday, March 18 2008 07:54 PM

There are lots of articles, including on this blog, that talk about doing deals and managing deals. But, how often do these articles imply that if you do everything right there won't be any bumps in the road as you work with your outsourcer?

The reality is that whenever you run..... Read more ť

Identify tasks and responsibilities to make governance effective

Monday, March 10 2008 02:45 PM

Signing a deal is often considered the exciting and rewarding part of a sourcing arrangement. However, the long-term benefit and work comes from managing/governing external relationships so that the expected value is achieved.

While, as an article I recently read noted, outsourcing in IT has brought with it the concept of..... Read more ť

Internal departments versus outsourcing arrangements

Monday, February 25 2008 09:25 AM

How do arrangements with internal departments (eg. between a regional entity and a global shared services group) differ from outsourcing arrangements?

Historically, internal arrangements have often avoided topics such as invoice credits for failure to meet service levels because it was assumed that this was just internal money.

Likewise, challenges in..... Read more ť

Recent events highlight importance of privacy, resiliency

Wednesday, February 06 2008 06:00 PM

As we look forward into 2008, two key topics are at top of mind for senior executives. These are data privacy concerns and business resiliency concerns. And both of these have been highlighted around the world again this week with another potential leak of personal data as well as damage..... Read more ť

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About the blogger

Michael Rehkopf

Michael has more than 20 years of experience in operations, strategy and sourcing covering all major parts of the globe. He has also worked for Australian, Canadian, German and Japanese companies in both business process outsourcing and IT outsourcing.
Michael's industry experience includes the financial services, manufacturing, telecommunications and travel sectors. He leverages this diverse industry experience and his university background in accounting, IT and his Master of Dispute Resolution, to assist clients in the development of business strategies and the implementation of sourcing strategies. These include the associated evaluation, negotiation and organizational change.
Michael is currently a partner at TPI, the world's oldest and largest sourcing advisory firm. Prior to joining TPI, Michael held leadership positions with Siemens Business Services, OpenPlus International, Mitsubishi Electric and Netron.