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Blue-chip charts positive outsourcing journey

Blue-chip charts positive outsourcing journey

In a recent online conference held by the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP), Sun Microsystems assistant general counsel, Connie Brenton, set out her firm's experiences of using LPO. Her insights provide a variety of hints on best-practice and how major global firms can lay the groundwork for sound LPO relationships.

Sun's decision to use LPO was motivated by cost concerns that came to a head in 2005. Once the firm had accepted that it needed to drive down its overheads, it began to research the Indian outsourcing trade and take the measure of its potential benefits. An initial contract review process – outsourced in 2006 – ran into stumbling blocks that the firm was able to respond to flexibly. Ms Brenton hinted that, while too much had been left to chance on the initial project, the following one was rolled out and monitored in a more systematic fashion.

This new project was a large-scale document review process that was costed up from the outset, with a defined savings margin locked in place as a required target. Realising that the outsourcing providers would need to be steered through areas of specialist knowledge, Sun adopted a system that brought elements of central management into the outsourcing equation. The firm assessed the aptitude of its chosen Indian skills base, headed it up with a Sun project manager and provided training and templates necessary to complete the task. Sun was able to make savings of 78% relative to its budget – a result Ms Brenton described as, 'Wildly successful.'

Sun continues to use India-based LPO services. Ms Brenton states that, in the three years since Sun’s initial venture into the sector, the Indian skills base has noticeably matured.

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