Category Archives: Common Sense Contracting

Understand your own interests

The Regulators: Round 2 – Are Your Costs In Line With The Market… Which Market?

Posted on June 3, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

Yesterday we spoke a bit about the rise of “Regulators” in Fortune 500 Firms. In the past service managers would periodically see directives for firm-wide budget controls, freezes for new hires, or (during especially difficult economic times) special committees that … Continue reading →

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The Regulators : Who Are They And Why Are They Interested In You?

Posted on June 1, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

Most signs for the economy are looking up, and the pressure to reduce costs has reduced. However, as business is rising and new income producing staff is being hired, the new pressure for Corporate Services is to support these new … Continue reading →

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A Word To The Wise: Talk Isn’t Cheap!

Posted on May 5, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

When you plan to outsource your services, you must balance many competing needs. You need the best services at the best prices, and vendors need the best profits for their investors. You can leverage the lower cost of an offshore or offsite … Continue reading →

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Outsourcing Agreements: Price Is Just An Outcome

Posted on May 4, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

If this is your first outsourcing agreement, you’re under a lot of pressure to get it right the first time. Whether you work in the Procurement department or you manage the Business unit, you need to convert the complex parameters … Continue reading →

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Outsourcing Analysis Part III: Building Your Toolkit

Posted on April 26, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

For the last two blogs we have been building a tool to help you evaluate your current sourcing decisions, in other words where your staff resides and how they are employed (employees, temps, outsourced, etc.) to perform your business functions. … Continue reading →

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Outsourcing Analysis Part II: That’s My Core?

Posted on April 25, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

In our last Blog we talked about how we source for a function, which is to say the process of deciding (and executing) the “how and where” a function is performed. In the last few years the movement has been … Continue reading →

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Outsourcing Analysis Part I: How Far Out Do You Outsource?

Posted on April 25, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

Everyone talks about Outsourcing, but much of the time the talk seems to treat all Outsourcing as the same, with teh assumption that all projects end up with everyone working in a call center in India. Outsourcing predates India and predates “offshoring”. In fact, on of the … Continue reading →

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A Cloud Story III: Leapfrogging Isn’t Just For Kids

Posted on April 15, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

Perhaps the most important outcome of Cloud migrations, the real game changer, is that Cloud services can level the playing field. This is not necessarily good news for service managers in big firms. Fortune 500 firms are largely in the … Continue reading →

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A Cloud Story II: Data With A Side of Miso Pork

Posted on April 13, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

Yesterday we spent some time going over a brief definition of the Cloud, some of its history and why everyone is scrambling to adopt Cloud services. Today, we’re going to take a practical look at what it means to the … Continue reading →

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A Cloud Story I: The Coming of the Cloud

Posted on April 12, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

We’ve all hearing stories about Cloud based services and how they’re going to change the way we live and work. If you manage services in a large firm you’re probably hearing little snippets here and there about Cloud projects that … Continue reading →

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