Everything you need to know about Supply Management BPO (but never dared to ask)

Folks - we're staging a webinar entitled "Supply Management BPO: Why Business and Technology Transformation is Critical for Long-Term Success". 

Joining me will be Ruby Jivan, BP's Procurement Operations Director, who has a lifetime of experience with global procurement delivery and more recently with BPO; Mickey North-Rizza, AMR's supplier relationship management guru (who also has a lifetime's experience in procurement).

Date:  Wednesday 22nd July

Time:  12.00 EST, 5.00 PM GMT, 6.00 PM CET.  1 hour.

Speakers:  Ruby Jivan, Procurement Operations Director, BP; Mickey North-Rizza, Research Director, Supply Chain Management, AMR; Phil Fersht, Research Director, Global Business Services & Outsourcing, AMR.

Register here

Abstract:  Phil Fersht and Mickey North-Rizza will discuss the latest market dynamics in supply management business process outsourcing, based on data from over 200 live engagements and multiple demand-side customer studies. They will discuss the challenges facing enterprises with supply management today as they tackle global delivery issues and whether outsourcing is a true option for them to provide access to new technology and process acumen. They will also touch-upon the service provider landscape and competitive dynamics fueling market growth. Ruby Jivan will talk to her own experiences with Supply Management BPO as head of global procurement operations for global energy magnate British Petroleum.

Attendees will be afforded time to pose questions after the webcast.

We look forward to hosting you on 22nd July.

Why No Regulation of Offshoring: Untangling the Gap Between Rhetoric and Action

Professor Bob Kennedy, who heads up the William Davidson Institute, a non-profit research and educational institute that focuses on business and policy issues in emerging market economies, has been keeping very close tabs on regulatory issues with offshoring.  I asked Bob to contribute his recent experiences and views with us.  Bob also has a new blog up and running entitled "Services Shift", and has recently released his new book, adorning the same name.  Over to you Bob...

Picking up on Phil’s April Fool’s day post, I wanted to share a few thoughts on why we see lots of anti-offshoring rhetoric from politicians, but (thankfully) very little actual policy.

There is certainly a heavy demand from the man on the street to “do something.” It’s easy to understand why. We have become accustomed to trade in manufactured goods and natural resources. But manufacturing accounts for only about 15% of US employment, and developing countries generally enjoy a fully-delivered cost advantage of 10-30%. This is disconcerting for developed country workers, and we frequently observe moves against trade in manufactured goods, such as spurious anti-dumping actions and “buy America” provisions in various pieces of legislation.

Services, by contrast, account for about 78% of U.S. employment, and developing countries enjoy delivered cost savings of 40-70%.