If you think that call centre outsourcing is all about cheap and cheerless phone support, James West argues it is a practice that is maturing, with a range of options helping businesses give the best possible customer service.   

Long duration contracts are being phased out, but careful negotiation remains crucial for all parties.   With companies agonising over their bottom lines, the downturn should have been a p

Offshoring and outsourcing are inherently risky, and companies need to draw up detailed macro and operational risk mitigation plans. Professor Leslie Willcocks looks at how the risk associated with offshoring locations is calculated, and on the opposite page considers how Egypt fares in a global context.

The transfer of services can bring some tricky redundancy issues. Divya Guha investigates the legal implications.   In tough times, streamlining a business and managing change can b

Close attention to user feedback will help improve each stage of the customer service lifecycle.   It’s the age-old dilemma, given new urgency by savage economic pressures: how to ma

Methodologies such as Lean Sigma can bring significant cost savings while improving customer satisfaction.   In outsourcing, maintaining the status quo should never be good enough. “

The idea of using a specialist IT services company is widely accepted in the developing world. Now the urgent need for greater flexibility and cost control is forcing the developed world to wake up to the benefits.  

Recent advances in telecoms technology have shown how a successful managed services relationship should be based on innovation.   Outsourcing, as Peter Pan might have said, can be

Using specialist corporate real estate service providers can bring much more than just cost savings, writes Paul Bray.   Real estate can be a millstone around the necks of major corporations. It often accounts for up t

Contract renegotiation is an ongoing process during which both parties should be open and honest with each other, writes Rod Newing.   An organisation and its business climate can change significantly during the term of any outsourcing contract. In the