No navigation.

Guy Kirkwood's BPO Backchat

27 dec 2004

Here at Antiphon Towers, we wish you all a very merry Christmas and a healthy (and wealthy) 2005.

We're just back from skiing in Courchevel and back at work (a bit) this week. Drop us a line and let us know what you want for the New Year.

16 dec 2004

Is Sarbanes-Oxley affecting your company's use of outsourcing? Find out from Michael Mensik and Robert Garesis of Baker & McKenzie.

12 dec 2004

2005: a big year for offshoring IT? ...or will it be the year we realise it's not really an issue after all? Ed Frauenheim takes the long view.

6 dec 2004

IDC analyst Khalid Irshad told silicon.com:

We've got very mature markets in countries such as Germany and France. There are simply too many companies and not enough opportunities.

Along with France and Germany - both overcrowded services markets with increasing pricing pressure - the UK and Nordic region are ripe for consolidation. The big players are dominating and pushing out the smaller players. This means to survive second-tier firms - which aren't faring well in this cutthroat market which is also experiencing the pains of economic recession - must merge with similar-sized or smaller businesses to compete against the big guys or allow themselves to be bought by a larger firm. Another factor leading to consolidation in the near future, said Irshad, is when companies aren't doing well their price tag "goes through the floor".

3 dec 2004

Nice piece by the editor of Computing, Michael Gubbins:

The answer to downsizing, offshoring and outsourcing is, according to the British Computer Society, "upskilling". The notion that increased technical and commercial proficiency might be the right way to deal with the emigration of jobs is worthy of serious consideration.

For a start, it recognises globalisation as an inevitability that cannot be fought or wished away. Outsourcing is part of the mix, permanently. There are still some who also cling to an illusion that places like India have nothing to offer but barely-skilled workers willing to accept rock-bottom salaries.

2 dec 2004

So not dead in fact. I have been so busy with Borderless, the SBPOA and the creation of bpoleader.com that the blog has not been transferred. Add that to problems with transferring domains... well you get the picture. I will hopefully be back and backchatting over the next week or so. Thanks for your patience.