Outsource Magazine Issue 28 - (Page 56)

This issue: 25th AnniversAry; Account MAnAgeMent; outsourcing Works celebrAting silver; going for gold The National Outsourcing Association celebrates its 25th anniversary this year; Chairman Martyn Hart looks forward to plenty more. B ack in the late ‘80s, outsourcing was almost always a local, cross-town practice – a man on a moped couriering a tape reel containing the month’s payroll data springs to mind – but as the technology has driven forward, so has the expanse of things that can be outsourced (or shared even). Of course, liberalisation of the telecom markets was a game-changer, as the cost of sending a byte of data along a phone line dropped dramatically once competition was introduced into the equation. Nowadays, absolutely any business function or process can potentially be delivered by a partner organisation and reported on in real time. Which means that for many organisations, outsourcing is now the norm. The modern business environment involves firms of all sizes taking strategic decisions that leverage external capacities, capabilities, competences, knowledge and skills of organisations across the globe. Or more commonly, despite perceptions, those of companies on our own doorstep. The NOA formed in 1987, just at the cusp of outsourcing being recognised as an operational strategy. Back then, outsourcing practices were largely limited to local (UK) suppliers and contractors – this is still the major part of the industry, but, as far as the public is concerned, this seems to have been forgotten. Outsourcing’s image these days is synonymous with offshoring, as our recent study into The Public Perception of Outsourcing shows. Offshoring is not going to go away. Companies with the appropriate attitude to risk will always be tempted to bolster their operations with high-quality, low-cost work done offshore. But, in the year that NOA celebrates its Silver Jubilee, and the whole nation celebrates Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee, how patriotic are we feeling out there? For all of our 25 years, the NOA has been advocating excellence in outsourcing – we truly are the home of best practice. Just like the United Kingdom! We are the global strategic hub for outsourcing and shared services knowledge. There are many great offshoring destinations around the world. We need to make sure that the UK is positioned as the finest of them all, so given the intricate and complicated projects we undertake, we should also be positioned as the go-to-guy for high-end, complex work. So that both of these thrusts will ultimately prove lucrative for UK PLC. Not only do we have the skills and the knowledge base, other crucial factors are at play: our geographic location means that the UK is commutable from most places, our time zone means we are contactable on the same business day from just about anywhere. Maybe the UK public’s attitude to outsourcing would soften if they knew that there was a huge amount of inbound offshoring going on, creating well-paid jobs for British citizens. Celebrating existing projects, enticing and inciting a myriad more, and making sure they deliver the goods on a monumental scale: there is much work to be done. Please go to www.tinyurl.com/ onshoringsurvey to complete a short questionnaire around what the UK is good at, and what could be done to develop the UK’s position as the de facto global strategic hub for outsourcing. We hope to have that reverence secured by the time of the NOA’s Golden Anniversary, and still solidly in place by the time we ape the Queen and reach our Diamond Jubilee. To find out more about the NOA visit www.noa.co.uk 56 www.outsourcemagazine.co.uk ●●● http://www.tinyurl.com/ http://www.noa.co.uk http://www.outsourcemagazine.co.uk

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Outsource Magazine Issue 28

News
Deep Thought
John Seddon
At Your Service?
Plenty To Chew On
The Power of Two
Big Data
Invested Outsourcing
Tim Cummins
NOA Round-Up
LPO
Managing Knowledge in a Partnership
A Long Way Still To Go
Recruitment Process Technology
Let’s Talk About Our Relationships
Welcome
Great Expectations
Transformative Technology
The Future of Rightshoring
Top Ten
The Legal View
HfS Round-Up
Offshoring
Online Round-Up
Inside Source
The Last Word

Outsource Magazine Issue 28