Outsourcing: Joe Lawler, Chairman, President And CEO Of ModusLink (Part 6)

By Sramana Mitra and guest author Aditya Modi

Sramana Mitra: But Apple is an extreme case, right? They are very much about vertical integration and very much about an internally controlled kind of philosophy.

Joe Lawler: They are an extreme case, but they are certainly not alone; SanDisk has done the same thing over the past couple of years. This is a business that was outsourcing chip production for a long time and has now built their own facility, and they are operating their own facility because they saw what was happening to the cost curve, and they needed to come up with a different kind of answer. I think the point is that, I don’t see anybody reassembling and becoming a totally vertically integrated business. That is not happening and I don’t see that trend, but I do see that there is a selective in-sourcing and outsourcing that is going on. I think you will continue to see this. >>>

Outsourcing: Joe Lawler, Chairman, President And CEO Of ModusLink (Part 5)

By Sramana Mitra and guest author Aditya Modi

Sramana Mitra: The optimization you are talking about, the technology behind that kind of optimization, is that off-the-shelf technology or is it something you have custom built for your business? >>>

Outsourcing: Amit Shankardass And Andrew Kokes Of Sitel (Part 10)

By guest author Tony Scott

Tony: I think you have to start with [an open] mindset as the prerequisite; it is pretty hard to train someone to be open minded if they are not open minded already.

Amit: If you look at Andrew’s background, Andrew was born and brought up in the United States, but you’ve traveled in how many countries? >>>

Outsourcing: Amit Shankardass And Andrew Kokes Of Sitel (Part 9)

By guest author Tony Scott

Tony: So, looking at the next level – beyond middle management, or lower middle management, looking at the senior leadership – what do you think are the key strengths that are going to be necessary for your executive leadership team and their direct subordinates to develop so that you can continue to grow your company globally? Beyond that, do you think you have those skills on board today? If not, what are you doing to do to get them? >>>

Outsourcing: Amit Shankardass And Andrew Kokes Of Sitel (Part 8)

By guest author Tony Scott

Tony: We talked a little bit about [alignment of capabilities] in terms of being able to provide more total customer care, total customer cost of ownership, if you will. As you’ve done that, have you found gaps in the cultural approaches that your middle managers and senior managers take that have been more difficult to overcome? And as you’ve moved into higher-value services, how have you addressed those gaps? >>>

Outsourcing: Amit Shankardass And Andrew Kokes Of Sitel (Part 7)

By guest author Tony Scott

Tony: Are you moving toward even more of the secondary and tertiary locations in the countries in which you are operating? In the Philippines and India, are you moving more into more rural areas and setting up the infrastructure there to be able to support what you do, or are you looking for places where there is a tier 2 city that has the infrastructure and enables you to go in? How are you dealing with that? Is it both ways, or is it one way? >>>

Outsourcing: Amit Shankardass And Andrew Kokes Of Sitel (Part 6)

By guest author Tony Scott

Tony: [What you just said about offering speciality skills] goes back also to another point, labor rates. Seven or eight years ago, when outsourcing was really just trying to take off in a big way for call center outsourcing, the labor rates, if you focus on India or parts of the Philippines, were at X per hour. Today, my expectation is that labor rates for the kind of talent outsourcing companies now employ have increased by a significant percentage. India is always touted as the largest producer of engineering and technical talent out of universities, and second only to China in terms of the number of total graduates. But there are still language and other skill gaps in both places that make it difficult to hire individuals with the talent needed for outsourcing. >>>

Outsourcing: Amit Shankardass And Andrew Kokes Of Sitel (Part 5)

By guest author Tony Scott

Tony: There obviously has to be a match between the skill sets of the people, [not just a match] with the cost. Clearly, the people who provide technical support for inbound calls have to have specialized skills.

Amit: Absolutely, and this comes in in the way we go to market. You have to talk about the evolution, I liked the way you put it – the evolution of companies in adapting to this global sourcing model. Five, seven, or nine years ago, for labor arbitrage our value proposition was, “Hey, Mr. Client, we can help you lower your costs and sustain those lower costs.” Now we are pitching India, the Philippines, and Nicaragua, and the conversation really is, “Listen, Mr. Client. We can help you look at it not from the perspective of cost per transaction but from the perspective of the cost for a satisfied customer.” That process of changing from cost per transaction to cost per satisfied customer allows us to find the right places to deliver the right kind of work. It also allows us to drive our economic model, thus lowering the cost of service. We can now say, “Here’s your cost per subscriber, here’s your cost per consumer, and here is your cost for a satisfied customer. Or, your price booked for a satisfied customer.” >>>