Outsource Magazine Issue 29 - (Page 34)

Is the future made of automation and analytics – and Extreme BPO? The FuTure oF BPo Cathy Tornbohm, Gartner Cathy Tornbohm is Vice President BPO Research for Gartner, researching and advising on sourcing strategies for BPO in general and F&A BPO in particular. I n the 19th century, “…most large households had a still room for distilling spirits and here were brewed an exhaustive repertoire of items: inks, weedkillers, soap, toothpaste, candles, waxes, vinegars and pickles, cold creams and cosmetics, rat poisons, flea powders, shampoos and medicines, as well as solutions for removing stains from marble, for taking the shine off trousers, for stiffening collars and even for removing freckles.” Bill Bryson, in his recent book At Home, goes on to talk about sending your laundry home from the city on the train to be washed by your trusted servants! In his study of the history of homes it really struck me how much similarity there is between what has happened with how much organisations now outsource and the changes in what a stately home used to make for itself which it now sources externally because it can. This issue of evaluating whether the external world has a service worth buying will be a constant part of many an organisation’s evolution for the next ten years – so you'd better get good at it! FIGURE 1 “What does the future, that half of time, matter to the man who is infatuated with eternity?” – Emile M. Cioran 34 www.outsourcemagazine.co.uk ● ● http://www.gartner.com/ http://www.outsourcemagazine.co.uk

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Outsource Magazine Issue 29

Call Me Maybe?
Optimising Your supplier Portfolio
Application Development Outsourcing
Are You Fat?
The Future of BPO
Digital by Default
The Face of Finance
Procuring Excellence
The Importance of Being Secure
NOA Round-Up
Steering the Flow
Changing Shape
Legal Transformation
Getting to the Real-Life Win-Win
What’s the Point of Outsourcing?
outsourceXplores
Head-to-Head
The Legal View
Top Ten
NelsonHall Round-Up
The Oral Review
Online Round-Up
Inside Source
The Last Word

Outsource Magazine Issue 29