Sourcing Insight

By Michael Rehkopf

The real deal on IT and business process outsourcing trends

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

2007 in review: India shines as a buyer

Tuesday, January 29 2008 12:55 PM

Much like last year, after returning from a long break during which the dust has settled on the data from 2007, it seems useful to review the sourcing market in the Asia-Pacific region last year.

Overall, 2007 showed growth in both TCV (Total Contract Value) and the number of contracts for..... Read more ť

Looking ahead

Monday, December 31 2007 05:13 AM

As we contemplate the last day of 2007, I thought this would be a good time to look ahead to next year.

What sourcing issues do you expect to face in the coming 12 months? Possible topics I can envision would include:.....

How has 2007 gone?

Monday, December 10 2007 10:37 PM

Even though we're not quite at the end of 2007, I thought now would be a good time, before people start heading off for their holidays, to revisit my predictions from early this year.

The first part of those..... 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.