Sourcing Insight

By Michael Rehkopf

The real deal on IT and business process outsourcing trends

Have we started to turn the corner?

Posted in Sourcing Insight by Michael Rehkopf on Monday, June 15 2009 11:08 AM

I'm back from some surgery--something we'll all be pleased to outsource to experts!

Making predictions is very risky, especially in today's economic climate. However, some recent trend data may be giving us some hints.

We typically look at quarter-on-quarter or year-on-year performance, but a slightly different perspective yields something interesting. In its sourcing industry bellwether TPI Index report, TPI looked at nine-month periods going back to third-quarter 1999, and revealed some striking similarities between the current outsourcing market and the one we experienced in 2001.

In both time frames, we had a nine-month period of unprecedented outsourcing Total Contract Value (TCV), followed by nine months of greatly reduced TCV. In 2001, those two nine-month periods were followed by almost five years of fairly steady TCV growth.

The current economic climate is certainly much more severe than the one we faced at the beginning of this decade, and we will have to wait for the data to come in over the next few years. However, we do have to ask the question of whether we could be embarking on the next period of sustained TCV growth after three years of fairly volatile TCV patterns?

What do you think?

Disclaimer:
Views and opinions expressed in this blog are the author's, and do not necessarily represent those of ZDNet Asia.

Talkback 1 comments

Have we started to turn the corner?
That's nice! Anyway, there's finally some financial news that will put a smile on most people's face â Al Qaeda is broke. The reports that Al Qaeda is broke came straight from the well on this one. Al Qaeda's head in Afghanistan, Sheikh Mustafa Abu Al Yazid sent out a communicae that they were almost bankrupt, financially. (They are definitely morally bankrupt.) They won't likely get any fast cash either, as funding sources for them are monitored. Osama bin Laden was wealthy at one point, and has vast land holdings, but the jihad is evidently very expensive, and they can't get enough to equip the mujahidin with. No payday loans are going to be made, as many benefit when Al Qaeda is broke. To read more, please visit personalmoneystore.com....
Posted by Ivy C on Wednesday, June 17 2009 05:27 PM

Latest in Blog Central

Subscribe to BlogCentral

Click this link to view this blog as XML.
Add this feed to your online news reader

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.