The Outsourcing Institute’s Roadshow (Innovations in Outsourcing & Surprising Challenges Being Faced)

Recently I attended my first outsourcing road show which was designed for buyers and providers of Outsourcing Services to openly discuss current challenges. Although a percentage of the road show was focused on unique challenges to the IT/application development space, most topics were very applicable to contact center outsourcing as well. This full-day event was very interesting, informative, and well worth the time for anyone in the NYC area.

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The Road Show was primarily focused on discussing Innovation in Outsourcing. With many years of experience on the supplier side of contact center outsourcing, I  admit I was completely surprised by the “innovation” challenges buyers spoke of. Essentially buyers appeared to have a hard time getting their providers to bring innovation and improvement to the table without ownership conflict and/or additional compensation.

While I can understand certain Intellectual Property concerns in the software development space, or even game changing innovation in the contact center space; process innovation and continuous improvement have always been part of the deliverable as a contact center service provider ( in the world I know).  Delivering value in the form of innovation and continuous improvement is an absolute obligation of the provider; as it is for any companies’ direct employees — this is not something to ignore or hold ransom for additional fees.

As for the Road Show itself, I encourage people to attend these events if available nearby!  It is great to have both buyers and providers speaking openly and freely without contract concerns or negotiations in front of them. I gained a better understanding of what is currently top-of-mind.

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