• The Australian BPO market is expected to grow by 20 % over the next year or two.
  Get your copy of the Australian BPO research study now.
  Go to – http://thesauce.net.au/sauce-research
• The Australian Business Process Outsourcing Association (ABPOA) is hosting a Cocktail Reception in honour of a trade delegation from the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPA/P) and the Australian-based Philippine Trade and Investment Commission.

  We would like to invite ABPOA members and guests to attend, meet, and network with our friends from the Philippines. 



  Where: Level 15, NSW Business Chamber, 140 Arthur Street, North Sydney NSW 2060
  When: Monday 21st May from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm

  Tickets: To secure your place at this popular event, please register at
  Go To – http://abpoabpap2012.eventbrite.com

• Vocal Authenticity and Insightful Learning
  Transform your business through Vocal Authenticity and Insightful Listening

Use your voice to create more meaningful and trusting connections with others over the phone and face to face!

  Business Enterprise Centre

19/323 Castlereagh Street
Haymarket NSW
  Thursday 31 May 2012
  6:30 pm – 9:00 pm

Beverage and canapés provided
  Contact: admin@ccma.asn.au

• New Generation of UTM Firewalls Deliver Proven Enterprise-Grade Security to Small and Distributed Organisations. Dell SonicWALL TZ Series Provides Market-leading Security Combined with High Performance, Ease of Deployment and Broad Mobile Platform Support.

  The TZ 105 and TZ 205 provide an array of security features that deliver enterprise-grade network protection powered by Dell SonicWALL’s patented Reassembly-Free Deep Packet Inspection®. The only firewall in its class to truly enable mobile workforce with native SSL VPN remote access client for Apple iOS®, Google® Android™, Windows, Mac OS and Linux devices Delivers wire-speed Deep Packet Inspection performance and protection for today’s broadband connections.

The number of businesses outsourcing traditional marketing functions is expected to jump over the next 12 to 24 months from 9% currently to 21%, according to IBM’s ‘Australian Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Research 2012’.

The report, built from a survey of 216 businesses, rates traditional marketing as the fourth most outsourced business process, ahead of digital marketing, which is currently outsourced by a surprisingly low 6% of businesses. Intention to outsource online marketing over the next year or two is also lower than for traditional, with only 17% anticipating that they will seek external providers.

The greatest share of business for traditional marketing service providers came from the telecommunications and transport industries, with 33% and 31% of businesses in these sectors outsourcing at least one marketing process. In the future, suppliers should look to government and education sectors as their primary sources of outsource business in the future.

Adoption and future adoption of traditional marketing outsourcing across sectors

When it comes to online marketing, telecommunications and transport businesses are the highest current adopters of outsourcing, while, looking forward, telecommunications and banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) will increase their outsourcing the most.

Adoption and future adoption of online marketing outsourcing across sectors

The BPO report goes on to break down a number of sub-processes for both traditional and online marketing. Market research is the most commonly outsourced traditional sub-process, with 74% outsourcing this function, and also ranks as the sub-process most likely to be outsourced in the future.

Currently 32% outsource content development and 16% outsource campaign management; both of which are expected to be outsourced by more than one in ten who are yet to do so. Customer service is outsourced by 11% of business currently, but a further 21% intend to in the next 12 to 24 months.

Adoption and future adoption of traditional marketing outsourcing by sub-process

Digital marketing is an area where businesses are looking for support due the volume, velocity and variety of data that comes with the territory according to BPO CRM Leader for Growth Markets at IBM Australia, Peter Monk. “The data complexities around it are not something that organisations can or want to get their head into,” Monk says. “They’re saying it’s simply not why they’re in business.”

Social media has been a great influence in driving usage outsourcing of online marketing according to the report. However, the online marketing sub-processes most commonly outsourced currently include multi-channel management at 50%, analytics at 29% and content management at 29%. In the future additional businesses are most likely to outsource content management (21%) and reporting (21%).

Adoption and future adoption of online marketing outsourcing by sub-process

The research also examined online marketing strategies, discovering that most organisations (59%) outsourcing the function have some sort of online marketing strategy. However, these still appear to be in their infancy, with only 7% of organisations that currently outsource online marketing having a constant engagement strategy, and 14% having an active use strategy. One in five do not have a strategy in place and a further 21% have a passive online presence.

Get your copy of the Australian BPO research study now.

Go to – http://thesauce.net.au/sauce-research

By Martin Conboy of The Sauce

Most Australian companies don’t want to send business functions offshore, but many intend to outsource a lot more roles in the next two years and the primary aim isn’t to reduce costs, according to our recent survey.
The survey found 83 per cent of companies would prefer not to send work offshore.

However, increases in outsourcing were expected across a range of areas including finance and accounting, HR, marketing, reporting and analytics and print and document management.

In Australia, there are many businesses both large & small that have outsourced or are about to outsource a number of business processes. There is no doubt that the outsourcing market has burst out of the shadows in the last two years.

Outsourcing has become a valuable tool for businesses to deploy in a hyper competitive market. The drivers of change, from a lift & shift approach to a more considered business expansion opportunity means that organisations are beginning to see that by outsourcing their non-core business processes, they have a lot more time to spend on a core competencies; the work they know best.

Up to now outsourcing has received a bad rap. As a result, most Australian businesses, possibly out of fear of the unknown, have not properly explored the opportunities that it presents. Often mistaken for ‘offshoring’ it is only now that outsourcing and offshoring are having their day in the Sun.

As Ken Henry (Australian Secretary of the Department of the Treasury) noted as far back 2006: “Australia has much to gain from off-shoring – most obviously through a lowing of costs to business and ultimately consumers. Opposition to ‘offshoring’ is based on the same protectionist nostrums that were once used to support the high tariff wall that a generation of Australian policy makers has been busy dismantling. It may be dressed in a different garb, but it is no more respectable.”

Being apposed to importing services through offshoring is like being opposed to imports. It would mean if we followed it to its logical conclusion that Australians would be unable to have iPhones (Heaven forbid) travel overseas (Say its isn’t so) or drive well made Japanese or sexy European cars. (Wouldn’t happen!)

Australians don’t bat an eyelid by taking advantage of our high foreign exchange rate and grabbing a bargain on line, so how is that any different from buying a service online (via the internet).

Asia’s surging growth – including high demand for our commodities – has placed us close to the engines of global wealth creation. Prices for the commodities Australia sells to the world have never been higher, providing an unprecedented opportunity. So apart from reaping the benefits of outsourcing be it locally (In Country) or off shoring we should be spreading the love around to our Pacific neighbours.

Having said that there are some challenges as well, a recent report conducted for Deloitte Consulting by the Economist magazine indicated that across the Asia-Pacific region one of the major risks facing corporations was staff attrition and lack of human capital .in fact on average 25% of companies across the Asia Pacific region indicate this is a major area of risk.

Its no secret that we have a skills shortage in Australia and many BPO service providers have perpetual ‘Want’ adverts on all of the job boards. It follows that many companies are being pushed down the path of outsourcing and off shoring just to access available staff with the right skill sets.

Our own recent BPO Research report (The Australian BPO Report 2012) http://thesauce.net.au/sauce-research supported by IBM and Fuji Xerox Australia has revealed some interesting insights from the buy side of major Australian organisations. “ The report reflects the rapid pace of change and maturity that the Australian BPO industry has undergone over the last decade. It has evolved from pure cost cutting, to improved efficiency, to strategic transformation and an important part of business strategy,” said Russell Ives, Director, Global Process Services, IBM Growth Markets.

“The report highlights that Australia’s senior business community are aware of the benefits of outsourcing and decision makers are looking towards higher order benefits such as improving financial flexibility, driving free cash flow, strengthening customer satisfaction, increasing market penetration, expanding into emerging markets and taking advantage of the opportunities with a global economy,” said Ives.

Most outsourced business processes
The report highlights that while outsourcing decisions in the contact centre and customer service functions were by far the most widely reported, usually in a negative way, customer service functions are actually not among the top three of most outsourced activities. Human Resources, and Printing/Document Management were found to be the most outsourced functions (15 and 18 percent), followed by Finance and Accounting (13 percent). In the next 12 to 24 months, HR outsourcing is expected to grow to 23 percent.

Marketing and customer relationship management
Outsourcing of marketing processes including CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is predicted to grow by 21 percent within organisations that already outsource elements of this function. Of particular note is that online marketing is expected to nearly triple, growing from 6 percent to 17 percent, signaling major opportunities for organisations offering these kinds of services.

Cloud computing and outsourcing
Another trend emerging in the outsourcing sector is the increased use of cloud services. A large number of organisations are now considering cloud computing (35 percent) when making the decision to outsource; yet a marginal proportion (15 percent) of organisations have adopted cloud computing at an enterprise level as part of their outsourcing strategy.

The report highlights that increased mobility and Cloud will create a ‘free agent’ revolution in service outsourcing as the ability to work from almost anywhere in Australia becomes possible using remote mechanisms. This is particularly relevant for the mining industry, which operates over vast distances. In these scenarios, the value of Cloud services is even greater when it can be tailored to accommodate the unique elements of a particular industry.

So in conclusion we believe that Australia has moved past BPO 1.0 (Lift & Shift) and is sitting somewhere between BPO 2.0 & BPO 3.0 with its foot on the accelerator.

Get your copy of the Australian BPO research study now.
Go to – http://thesauce.net.au/sauce-research

By Mark Atterby – Senior Staff Writer

The amount of data in the world is rapidly growing at an exponential rate. ‘Big data’, is becoming a key basis of competition, underpinning new waves of productivity, growth, innovation and consumer services. ‘Big data’ offers a range of opportunities for organisations, but there are also some significant challenges.

According to research from McKinsey Global Institute, organisations and their management teams, in every sector, will need to grapple with the implications of big data. Those who ignore it will be left behind.

The challenges

Several issues will have to be addressed to capture the full potential of big data, according to the MGI research. Policies related to privacy, security, intellectual property, and even liability will need to be addressed in a big data world.

Through various online activities, most consumers leave an easy-to-follow trail of digital footprints that reveal who they are, what they buy, where they go, and much more. Organisations want this information to be able to gain competitive advantage and be able to offer the most appropriate offer at the most appropriate time. People can be very sensitive about how their details are used and how information about them may be exchanged between different organisations or across various information systems.

The privacy issues raised by ‘big data’ have yet to be resolved. In his book, Privacy and Big Data, Terence May states, “It is crucial that people are given the choice between opting in and opting out of the use of their identifiable personal data. Companies approaching customers need to be ”utterly transparent” about how they know what they know about a customer”.

Organisations not only needy to put the right talent and technology in place but also the structure, workflows and incentives to optimise the use of big data. As Chris Luxford mentioned, the challenges with big data is not so much around the software tools we have but our approach and lack of appropriate processes to leverage data from a range of sources. Access to data is critical—companies will increasingly need to integrate information from multiple data sources, often from third parties, and the processes have to be in place to enable this.

Too few organisations fully understand big data’s potential in their businesses, the data assets and liabilities of those businesses, or the strategic choices they must make to start exploiting big data. Organisations in Australia, except for the very large ones, are unlikely to have people with sufficient expertise and knowledge to develop and make use of ‘big data’.

The BPO and outsourcing industry has a significant role to play in assisting organisation to exploit the opportunities and mitigate the challenges associated with ‘big data’. Cloud computing will be the enabler to allow organisations to access the full potential of “big data”.

In the third and final part of this series we shall look at the opportunities offered by ‘big data’ and ‘big data’ analytics.

By Raffy Ayeng

The Philippines Department of Finance and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to set up “Knowledge Hubs” in chosen colleges and universities nationwide in order to support the continued growth of the information technology-business process outsourcing (IT-BPO) industry in the country.

The MoU, which provides technical assistance worth $650,000 to the IT-BPO sector, was signed by Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima and the ADB Board of Governors, on the sidelines of the 45th ADB Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors in Manila.

“IT-BPO is the fastest-growing employment and one of the highest revenue generating sectors in the country. In 2010, the country surpassed India in terms of voice related outsourced work to become the global leader in this area. The industry is now moving up the value chain from voice-based services [call centers] toward knowledge-based activities,” the MOU stated.

It further states that an educated workforce equipped with skills that meet the demands of high-growth industries would be needed to improve national competitiveness, move into knowledge-based services, and achieve and maintain rapid economic progress.

The three-year program aims to align the curriculum of higher education institutions with the needs of the IT-BPO sector through “a replicable and sustainable model of ICT-enabled knowledge hub for improved teaching and learning of IT-BPO industry-based curriculum in HEIs.”

A total of $500,000 will be sourced from the Republic of Korea e-Asia and Knowledge Partnership Fund by the ADB, while the Philippine government will provide the remaining $150,000 “in kind contributions.”

At least three hubs will be established in the country with one each in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, the MoU stated. All hubs will be ICT-enabled and provide “online training” to teachers and “digitized learning modules and study guides” for students.

The MoU said that at least 900 faculty members and 3,000 college-level students, of which at least 50 percent are females, will benefit from the program.

A steering committee chaired by the Finance department with members from the Commission on Higher Education, National Economic and Development Authority, the Business Processing Association of the Philippines and other government agencies, will also be established to oversee the agreement’s implementation.
The government aims to make IT-BPO a $25-billion industry by 2016.

Source: Chicago Tribune

By Nick Quin

Global strategies of any kind can be tricky. There are so many variables to consider that it’s all but impossible to achieve consistent outcomes and suit all business requirements with a single strategy. The situation is no different when it comes to technology and the Australian investment operations market.

There are standard requirements – compliance, risk management, cost effectiveness and the need to cater for growth – plus there are local defining factors. However, Australia remains one of a relatively small number of countries with compulsory superannuation. We also have an economy that has broadly held its own in the past few years despite global fluctuations. Then there’s the competitive landscape. Within the past decade we’ve experienced increasing levels of competition from companies offering investment advice, management and operational support. The number of outsource suppliers, and software and technology vendors ready to assist the industry have also been growing.

Together, these factors are creating far more choice about how investment operations are run. They’ve also given rise to a new set of challenges that demand operational agility, flexibility and responsiveness. The ability to leverage systems for efficiencies and to ensure best practices is more important than ever but it’s complicated by the need to also cater for local market requirements.

The two main technology approaches used by Australian investment managers are: to implement an in-house system (otherwise known as insourcing), or to turn to an external organisation with the right expertise and technology (otherwise known as outsourcing).

An argument for outsourcing
Outsourcing providers typically operate with a global technology strategy. Their platforms and systems are designed to provide a solid level of functionality for clients anywhere. Therefore they often appeal to funds that are growing and beginning to explore new asset classes. As a fund’s scope moves beyond the Australian stock market, requirements become more complex. Adopting a system already designed to cope with these wider needs can ensure built-in best practices and save a fund manager valuable time.

Outsourced systems can also be a cost-effective solution, particularly for start-ups and smaller funds but this kind of solution consistency may necessitate additional customisation to reflect local market conditions.
One additional factor peculiar to the Australian investment operations market is that right now outsourcing entails an element of uncertainty. In its 2011 report “The Future of Investment Operations in Australia”, global management consultancy, Investit, states that there is not enough revenue to maintain the current number of providers servicing the Australian market. Therefore consolidation is inevitable. The report suggests that as providers seek to increase the cost/benefits of their Australian activities there will be increasing pressure to more firmly adhere to their global platforms, resulting in the provision of simpler, less customised services. In addition we can expect a range of new service models that will allow providers to charge higher rates and increase fees.

These likely changes along with the mergers an acquisitions that have been occurring within the industry in recent years mean that investment managers need to carefully consider their operational requirements and system capabilities. If a fund plans to increase in size and complexity of operation, will the existing outsourced system be capable of meeting anticipated needs? Or, can the fund cope if presented with system or provider changes? Shifting outsource arrangements takes on average at least 12 months so it’s not something that can or should be rushed.

The argument for in-house IT
The alternative to the global technology strategy is to deploy an in-house system. Such offerings typically include the best of both local and global strategies. They offer the learnings, processes and flows gleaned from supporting investment operations clients around the globe but also provide scope for customisation to ensure that the systems reflect local needs and will incorporate an investment manager’s particular way of working.

This doesn’t mean that an in-house system is automatically better than outsourcing. To begin with, in-house systems take time to deploy. Moreover, many of today’s investment managers operate with legacy platforms that are inflexible, can’t adapt to today’s changing business strategies, new asset classes or are unable to readily expand to include acquisitions.

Whether insourcing or outsourcing, if the underlying platform involves a legacy system and its functionality starts to impact time-to-market or restricts business innovation, it’s time to acknowledge that the system has become an operational burden and needs replacing. Don’t wait until a failure before accepting there’s a problem, because once again, this kind of change takes time.

It all comes back to the fact that there is no universally correct approach. In times of market change such as now it’s essential to carefully evaluate business requirements and then match the right strategy for your needs. Look for something that can be relied on for the long haul. The best bet is to select a modern platform that has the faith of a vendor who continues to invest in research and development, enhancements and future functionalities. At the same time, it’s worth remembering that a well performing system requires more than vendor commitment. The investment manager also has a part to play. They must take responsibility for ensuring the right people are available to manage the system. They should also ensure that the software is populated with correct data because the better the input, the better the output and the performance of the fund.

Nick Quin is the regional sales director of SimCorp.

Source: Technology Spectator

By Shaun Drummond

Most Australian companies don’t want to send business functions offshore, but many intend to outsource a lot more roles in the next two years and the primary aim isn’t to reduce costs, according to a recent survey.

The survey produced by The Sauce and endorsed by the Australian Business Process Outsourcing Association and two large outsource providers, IBM and Fuji-Xerox Australia , found 83 per cent of companies didn’t intend to send work offshore.

However, increases in outsourcing were expected across a range of areas including finance and accounting, HR, marketing, reporting and analytics and print and document management.

The smallest growth was in finance and accounting, with 13 per cent of organisations outsourcing now compared with 17 per cent within one to two years.

The biggest growth was in marketing, jumping to 24 per cent from 9 per cent, supply chain management going to 16 per cent from 6 per cent and reporting and analytics rising to 18 per cent from 6 per cent.

Seventy-one per cent said the main reason for outsourcing was global expansion, followed by “scalability” and “going green”, with 83 per cent of companies in manufacturing seeing it as a way to reduce their environmental impact. Reducing cost was one of the least cited to outsource at 21 per cent.

At a forum in Sydney on last week, participants from the ABPOA, KPMG, IBM and Fuji-Xerox said the increases were off a low base, turning around a slow uptake of outsourcing in Australia.

“One of the reasons Australia has been fairly slow moving is that most Australian companies sit in he middle of the bell curve, they are fairly comfortable,” said Peter Monk, the director of global process services at IBM Australia & NZ.

“I think we have seen a few companies who are laggards who have been forced to do something because business as usual won’t work.”

KPMG’s head of shared services and outsourcing, Michael Smart, said Australia was a long way behind the rest of the world in its uptake of BPO.

Part of the reason is that it is “inherently more difficult than IT because a business process has a lot more tentacles in an organisation – even finance and accounting, even though there are many providers that can deliver that more effectively and cheaply through global delivery models”.

Martin Conboy, president of the ABPOA, said there were four stages of outsourcing: 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 and 4.0.

The first stage is “lift and shift” of transactional functions which has been done over the past decade.

The next stage is “process re-engineering”, 3.0 is moving expenses from a capital expenditure model to an operational expenditure model, and cloud computing is part of that shift. 4.0 involves the outsourcing of data and analysis.

“From this research we have found [Australia] has just passed BPO 2.0, we are not quite at BPO 3.0,” he said.

Current and future trends in Business Process Outsourcing

Source: The Australian BPO Report 2012

The Australian Financial Review
Get your copy of the report HERE

Part I of III
By Mark Atterby – Senior Staff Writer

The large scale gathering of data from a variety of sources and the application of sophisticated analytical tools to make sense of that data is quickly becoming the new frontier for organisations seeking competitive differentiation. The BPO and outsourcing industry is playing a pivotal role in developing the processes that overcome many of the challenges associated with ‘big data’ analytics.

Organisations in a variety of industries, ranging from finance to retailing to telecommunications, have started to engage in big data strategies over the last year. The reasons for engaging in ‘big data’ and the analytical methodologies being deployed vary dramatically, but it is driven by the need to leverage data from a variety of sources to achieve an accurate and universal view of the business in real time.

Chris Luxford, president Aegis Services Australia, states, “These days most organisations struggle to maintain differentiation around product and pricing. It is about the customer experience and the moments of truth the customer has when interacting with your organissation whether face-to-face, over the phone, the web, email or via a social media channel”.

“Big data analytics looks at how the various channels, customers use to interact with an organsation, can be empowered so the ‘moment of truth’ can be differentiated for that customer”.

What is big data and big data analytics?

The term ‘big data’ refers to data sets of structured and unstructured data that become so large that they become unwieldy. Big data sizes are a constantly moving target currently ranging from a few dozen terabytes to many petabytes of data in a single data set.

Enterprises are generating huge amounts of transactional data about their customers from their internal ERP, CRM and BI systems. Annually the CBA handles over 120 terabytes in customer emails alone. Fuelled by social media, Gartner predicts that worldwide IP traffic will quadruple by 2015.

Luxford comments, “big data analytics is not so much about the amount of data being collected. It’s about collecting data from multiple systems from within and outside the organisation and making it available in a visual format that allows people to make decisions in real time.”

At the 2012 SSON conference held in Melbourne, recently Mok Choe, chief technology officer, from the Commwealth Bank Group, gave a presentation on the big data strategies being deployed at the bank. The CBA believes ‘big data’ will make their business smarter, better, faster, stronger, by delivering the following results:

• Facilitating targeted growth, enabling margin expansion and predicting future demand
• Analysing customer interactions and behaviours for retention, reaction and competitive advantage
• Identifying economic trends, detecting fraud and threats and future customer preferences
• Supporting capital allocation, salesforce deployment and risk management

From BPO 3.0 to BPO 4.0
‘Big data’ is seen by many as the next strategic value-add for BPO and outsourcing. As organisations struggle with the challenges and opportunities offered by cloud computing and social media, there is an information explosion creating vast quantities of data. According to Luxford, the analytical, BI and reporting tools are available to tackle big data. What’s lacking are the processes with clearly defined objectives and structures, where there is insufficient understanding from business leaders of what big data strategies can deliver to their organisation.

Dr. Harish Kotadia, highlights how most organisations will struggle to analyse vast amounts of ever changing structured and unstructured data . There’s a significant opportunity for service providers to offer their client value added services in the area of ‘big data’ analytics, without heavy investments in specialised hardware and software. And it’s the cloud that will allow big data to be accessed anywhere at anytime.

In the upcoming issues of the sauce we will be examining the risks and challenges when it comes to implementing big data strategies and analytics, as well the range of services that will become available.