Industry Reports
Elix-IRR publishes reports on developments in industry, emerging trends and with a sourcing dimension, on a regular basis, including our annual perspectives on outsourcing and offshoring in various industries.
Here are some extracts from our past and current reports (click on a title below to download a PDF) or to get free access to our full reports click on the link below to register as a subscriber.
If you wish to discuss further any of the topics covered in these reports, please contact us here.
Trends in Outsourcing and Offshoring in the Financial Services Industry 2008-2011
Published November 2011
The Financial Services (FS) industry continues to grapple with the impact of the economic crisis. In North America, the industry has witnessed a decline in both ITO and BPO outsourcing activities from 2008-10. In contrast, in the EMEA and Asia Pacific regions, overall outsourcing activities have continued to grow apace.
So how are Financial Services companies changing their approach to outsourcing and offshoring to respond to these challenges? And what will the major trends be over the coming years? This second edition of Elix-IRR’s report on Outsourcing Trends in the Financial Services Industry examines the key outsourcing trends within the different regions and outsourcing domains. We examine the drivers and the operating models employed as well as the locations being explored.
In particular, this new report highlights how FS companies are now increasingly turning towards outsourcing as a means to leverage their vendor’s capabilities beyond traditional labour cost arbitrage to help deliver process optimisation and innovation. Additionally, through our experience of working in South Africa, the report contains a special focus section on our looking at Africa as an upcoming destination for captive and outsourced BPO delivery centres.
FSS Trend report 2011 – Summary Digest
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Do Joint Ventures work?
Published November 2011
As the economic downturn looks set to be prolonged, traditional sourcing arrangements have been exploited as far as possible and as companies’ confidence in sourcing arrangements grow they look for new ways to bring value to the bottom line from third party services.
One effect of this is that companies are increasingly looking at innovative ways to structure commercial arrangements with their more strategic service providers, aiming to:
- Incentivise vendors to improve performance
- Retain control of core assets while leveraging 3rd party skills to improve performance and cost
- Commercialise assets and turn a cost base into a profit centre
However, anecdotal evidence and hard-won experience often cause these models to be viewed sceptically by senior management perceived “failure” of the JV model has the potential, if unaddressed, to overshadow partnering considerations.
The intent of this thought-piece is to examine the reality of Joint Ventures:
- Analyse definitive sources and quantification regarding JV success and failure rates;
- Compare with acquisitions and even term contract outsourcing;
- Outline risk mitigants and approaches for your company to adopt to enhance chances of success
In conclusion, Elix-IRR’s review of the available data and our own insights from creating and running Joint Ventures and other commercial engagements across a range of industries and services lead us to the following key conclusions:
- There are many models of collaborative organisation: JV is only one of them and is not always the most appropriate – assess your needs and capabilities and be sure your company can fulfil its end of the venture
- Likelihood of Joint Venture success or failure is similar to that of other collaborative models. Such collaborative models tend to serve a purpose for a period of time…then they evolve.
- Potential risk mitigants are available; it’s smart to manage the key success factors and benefit from experience of those who have gone before
Trends in Outsourcing and Offshoring in the Financial Services Industry 2007-2010
Published October 2010
The Financial Services industry accounts for almost a third of offshore services, outsourced and captive. In the context of global recession, there continues to be growth in IT Outsourcing globally, but BPO activity has begun to falter.
Our inaugural report into Outsourcing Trends in the Financial Services Industry Report analyses how the Financial Services (FS) industry outsourcing and offshoring has evolved over the last three years and where we expect the industry to move next, using a blend of market data and our experience of working with leading banks and insurance companies across the globe.
The report observes a major trend in the number of FS companies preferring to outsource or create joint ventures with service providers rather than set up new captives. At the same time, the report reviews examples of banks and insurers that have started to in-source tasks in both the BPO and ITO space. The report also examines the dominant and emerging offshore centres and which are expected to play larger roles in the near future. The report also looks at the recent trend to ‘nearshore’ outsourcing and offshoring and the drivers behind it.
FSS Trend report 2010 – Summary Digest
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Emerging Markets and Countries for Outsourcing
Published October 2010
Outsourcing is not just and Indian game…as the established delivery centres in India, the Philippines and Eastern Europe are starting to hit challenges around inflation and access to talent, many other countries have started to push outsourcing in their markets as the offshore landscape diversifies.
This report on Outsourcing Trends in Emerging Market Report examines upcoming countries vying for prominence as offshoring destinations across all the major continents and assesses their relative strengths and challenges. The report includes detailed country profile for the ten of these locations, which have been selected for their potential relevance to the Financial Services industry across a variety of capabilities in IT and business processing: China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Jordan, Egypt, Mauritius, South Africa, Brazil and Chile
As well as Elix-IRR’s insights and assessments, this section also provides an overview of other market assessments and rankings of these locations.
Emerging Markets for Offshoring 2010 – Summary Digest
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Outsourcing and Offshoring Trends in the Retail Industry: 2007-2010
Published October 2010
Outsourcing remains relatively underexploited by retailers relative to other industries. The retail industry accounted for only 5% of all offshore services at the time of this report, confined largely to mature areas such as IT outsourcing and logistics.
This report highlights the shift away from large transformational deals to smaller tactical outsourcing contracts as a key trend in the Retail industry, giving examples of specific retailers who have now exited major deals as well as the major retailers who maintain sufficient scale to be able to consider captive offshore centres. Other trends examined in the report include offshoring by retailers who have traditionally shunned this approach and the move towards sourcing a portfolio of integrated services, driven by the increased complexity of a multi-channel retail environment.
Retail Research 2010 – Summary Digest
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Elix-IRR’s industry reports are always insightful and topical. I forward them to my team, and ask why didn’t we think of that before?
