IAOP PULSEcast

Inspiration AppliedKevin Parikh, COP, Chairman & CEO, Avasant, and Member of IAOP's Leadership Hall of FameIn today's hyper-competitive and tech-driven world, the pace of innovation is accelerating at an unprecedented rate, reshaping industries and redefining how businesses operate. This keynote explores how organizations can harness the power of next-generation technologies to drive innovation, enhance productivity, and achieve sustained growth. It will delve into the application of these technologies to optimize sourcing strategies, unlock new levels of efficiency and innovation, and transition from traditional managed services to tech-enabled, outcome-based service delivery models. Additionally, the discussion will cover how enterprises can build resilience and adaptability to thrive in an evolving market shaped by cost pressures, talent shortages, and geopolitical risks. Attendees will gain actionable strategies for navigating the evolving outsourcing landscape, developing innovation-led sourcing models, and positioning their organizations for long-term success in a digital-first world. This session is essential for sourcing leaders and decision-makers aiming to leverage technological advancements for strategic advantage.

In this episode, Mark Voytek sits down with Suzanne Leopoldi-Nichols. Suzanne is an expert on Next-Gen Shared Services (NGSS) and Global Business Services (GBS).  She is a seasoned executive leader with an extensive background in transforming and optimizing GBS organizations across various industries.  With more than two decades of experience, Suzanne has established herself as a strategic visionary, driving change, innovation, and operational excellence.  Having led over 17,000 employees on six continents, Suzanne possesses a deep understanding of diverse cultural nuances and of navigating complex global operations.  Her GBS experience spans a vast array of functions, including brokerage, customer service, call centers, finance, human resources, information technology, legal, marketing, procurement, payroll, real estate, and world-class sales support. Suzanne has held key leadership positions in renowned companies, including WPP Plc., United Parcel Service (UPS), Archer Daniels Midland Company, and American Greetings.  In these roles, she led initiatives to create world-class GBS organizations, streamline operations, and drive significant cost savings. Suzanne was inducted into IAOP's Leadership Hall of Fame in 2020.

In the first podcast in the series, IAOP's Chief Advisor of Thought Leadership, Mark Voytek, sits down with Kate Vitasek, an international authority for her award-winning research and Vested® business model for highly collaborative relationships. Vitasek, a Faculty member at the University of Tennessee, has been lauded by World Trade Magazine as one of the “Fabulous 50+1” most influential people impacting global commerce. Her work has led to 7 books, including: Vested: How P&G, McDonald's and Microsoft Are Redefining Winning in Business Relationships, Getting to We: Negotiating Agreements for Highly Collaborative Relationships, and Contracting in the New Economy. Vitasek has also been featured on CNN International, Bloomberg, NPR, and on Fox Business News. Follow the Vested movement at www.vestedway.com

This is the first episode of our new series called Next-Gen Showcase hosted by IAOP's Chief Advisor of Thought Leadership, Mark Voytek where we highlight cool tools in the marketplace referencing the role they play within GBS. In this episode, Mark sits down with Kit Cox, the Founder & CTO of Enate to discuss the SaaS platform that really enables businesses to get their operational ducks in a row, giving them full visibility over their end-to-end processes so they can see where the gaps are, streamline processes, and deliver work on time while harnessing the latest automation technology and now AI, too, to help those businesses ultimately work smarter and faster and become more agile.

From OWS23 Speakers: Peter George, Partner, Baker McKenzie Sam Kramer, Partner, Baker McKenzie The pandemic has had significant impact on outsourcing, particularly with respect to service delivery models and the work from home practices. In addition, the increased use of digital technologies, robotic process automation and artificial intelligence to manage pandemic risks is furthering these changes. This session examines how these changes have affected the process of negotiating Master Services Agreements and the terms and conditions that they comprise. Peter and Sam also review how changing delivery models impact security, privacy and liability allocation between buyers and providers and best practices based on what we have learned from the pandemic to future-proof outsourcing contracts.

In this episode of PULSEcast, IAOP's CEO, Debi Hamill, sits down with Susanne Richter-Wills, the VP of Partnerships EMEA at ScaleHub, to discuss crowdsourcing and the advantage of collective intelligence - both artificial and human - in bringing humans into the loop in new ways.

In the next installment of the 'sits down with' series, Debi Hamill, IAOP's CEO, has a chat on digital technologies, transformation and what it all means for the industry's future with Vinny Sanchez, the Global Co-chair of DLA Piper's Technology Transactions and Strategic Sourcing practice, who is highly recognized as a leading technology and outsourcing lawyer by The Legal 500 US and Chambers. Vinny advises clients in complex technology, strategic sourcing/outsourcing and commercial transactions, including post-contract matters that arise during these relationships such as implementation/transition challenges, governance, audits and disputes. A significant part of his practice also includes representing clients in digital transformation programs and supply chain management, including Nth party risk, business continuity and data and cyber risks. He also advises clients in technology acquisitions, divestitures, and joint ventures; strategic alliances and collaborations; and the commercialization of technology and data assets.

In the third installment of the 'sits down with' series, Debi Hamill, IAOP's CEO, has a chat with Sandrine Asseraf, Group Managing Director North America and ESG, Webhelp related to her specific focus on Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG). As a global outsourcer operating in over 55 countries, Webhelp is uniquely placed to implement scalable Impact Sourcing practices. Sandrine shares her experiences and addresses how to create an adaptable, impactful, and globally scalable model across multiple delivery locations.

IAOP's CEO, Debi Hamill, sits down with Kevin Parikh, CEO and Chairman of Avasant. Kevin is widely acknowledged as a global thought leader, futurist, and expert on digital business strategies, technological solutions, innovation and business transformation. An avid philanthropist, and Chairman of the Avasant Foundation, Kevin is dedicated to initiatives that support disadvantaged youth and women empowerment. Through the Foundation over 25,000 jobs have been created for youths to participate in the digital economy. He is a best-selling author of Digital Singularity - A Case for Humanity In this episode, Kevin shares a teaser into his vision for the future ahead and unveils his predictions for the future of work, and the way we live, engage and interact in what he envisions as the Imagination Age.

Debi Hamill sits down with, Michel Janssen, Chief Research Officer and co-founder of Everest Group's research practice to take a sneak peek at the results of our survey "It's Not a Talent War, It's a New Reality" that was recently completed in partnership with IAOP. This research addresses the major concern that all organizations want to get to the bottom of: What can be done to mitigate the impact of the talent shortage? Michel and his team will present the full findings during their session at OWS22 on January 5. Michel is particularly noted for his ability to put forward clever and challenging ideas based on his fact-based insights from across business and IT processes, sourcing models, and industries. Everest Group welcomed Michel back in 2017, after a successful decade serving as Chief Research Officer at The Hackett Group and Market Track. He is responsible for guiding the practice's research agenda and architecture and aligning its capabilities with the market's disruptive changes and next-generation demands. Michel is a current member of the IAOP Strategic Advisory Board (SAB) where he offers insights to help shape the direction of the association.

The need for businesses to be agile, innovative, and data-savvy to compete and thrive emerges loud and clear, but so, too, do concerns around privacy, security, and integration with legacy IT systems. In its sixth year, Baker McKenzie's Digital Transformation & Cloud Survey captures major trends and attitudes toward the use of data through a global lens of respondents in legal, technology, and procurement roles, across a large cross-section of major industries. Partners Peter George and Flavia Rebello present the key findings.

From OWS21 As organizations face unprecedented economic uncertainty and market pressures, a strong supplier eco-system is viewed as a strategic advantage today. It’s becoming increasingly apparent, especially in the post-pandemic world, that digitally-enabled businesses have a clear edge when it comes to managing and nurturing supplier relationships. Join us for this insightful discussion to understand how the digitization of contract and supplier management processes is redefining the customer-supplier relationship. Mark Voytek, Chief Customer Officer, SirionLabs and Eric Nicolaides, Chairman & CEO, Wildcat Equity Partners will discuss how digital transformation in this key area is unlocking significant enterprise value not just in terms of savings and efficiency but also through improved business outcomes and supply chain resilience.

In this PULSEcast episode, IAOP CEO, Debi Hamill, chats with Alex Rochlitz, Vendor Strategy and Execution Partner at Google, about impact sourcing and how it works in the outsourcing industry. Throughout his career, Alex has helped shape the outsourcing strategy and operations at some of Fortune 500s most notable brands. Now, at Google, he manages outsourcing strategy and execution for several key Google business areas. Ales is also a member of IAOP’s Impact Sourcing Knowledge Collective, and currently serves as the Vice Chair of the Global Impact Sourcing Coalition Steering Committee. Listen in as Alex talks about his intro to Impact Sourcing, how it has become a passion of his, and how he’d like more organizations to initiate Impact Hiring strategies. Alex will share his experiences and talk about organizations he thinks are excelling in Impact Sourcing as part of their overall corporate missions.

REGULATIONS & COMPLIANCE IN THE NEW NORMAL Moderator: John Bree, Chief Evangelist and CRO, Supply Wisdom Panelists: Alpa Inamdar, Head of Third Party Governance Advisory, BNY Mellon Michael Nacarato, COP, IAOP's Buy-Side Ambassador Jennifer Duest, Associate Director, Vice President, Corporate Insurance and Global Third-Party Risk Manager, Wellington Management Company LLP Leaders from the financial and insurance sectors discuss how regulations and compliance have to increasingly be included in ongoing governance. No industry is immune to it. Learn and interact with leaders as they discuss great practices that deliver stability and value to their enterprises as they address and solve for regulatory and compliance challenges.

Suraj Prashad, Vice President and Head of Strategic Sourcing, Hanover Insurance Mark Voytek, Chief Customer Officer, SirionLabs Most organizations today rely on a complex ecosystem of external third parties/suppliers. The traditional Third Party Risk Management (TPRM) approach has focused on the compliance and regulatory aspects - while still important, it’s not enough anymore. Companies need to think about TPRRM (Third Party Risk and Relationship Management) extending the focus to ensuring realization of the desired business outcomes from the relationship - deliverables, efficiency, savings, etc. Attend this session to learn how Hanover Insurance’s procurement function is driving the above transformational shift within the organization. An important part of this transformation has been leveraging AI-powered technology, including the Sirion Contract Lifecycle Management platform, to improve visibility and alignment across the supplier lifecycle - from pre-signature to post-signature.

PART 1 - Kevin Parikh, Chairman & CEO, Avasant PART 2 - Rawle Howard, AVP & Chief Procurement Officer, Howard University; Anupam Govil, Partner, Avasant; Joe Frampus, Partner, Avasant; Michael Serghiou, Director, Professional Services & Externalization, Merck In the era of Digital Transformation, our vendor relationships have become increasingly complex. The rapid adoption of digital technologies, flexible contracts, and platform-based services have necessitated a radical change in the global service delivery model. And now, the COVID-19 pandemic is further transforming our vendor relationships, pushing us to redefine our engagement strategies, restructure contracts and increase offshore delivery. We are witnessing a greater demand for transparency, business continuity assurance, and contingency management with our vendors. This calls for a need to govern our relationships differently. The new rules set by the continuously evolving business landscape forces us to rethink how we govern, and create adaptable, resilient, and responsive governance models. Led by an inspiring TED-style keynote and moderated discussion, hear valuable insights into the new Rules for governance, and how it will enable Business Agility, allowing you to navigate complex and continuously evolving technology and vendor landscapes.

Join us as we discuss what we’ve learned from working from home, what’s emerging and most importantly, what’s possible, with workplace expert, Kate North from Colliers.

The Covid-19 outbreak is first and foremost a health crisis that has impacted the lives of tens of millions across the globe. However, it has also had a growing and lasting impact on the global economy. The world that emerges post the battle may look very different from the one we lived in before the pandemic began, and will shape our world for years to come. This has certainly reshaped the sentiments of the end consumers towards shopping and their purchasing behavior in general. The retailers of today’s pandemic have been compelled to analyze the sentiment shift and re-draw/broaden their business strategies and technology interventions in order to revive and enhance the experiential value of the end consumers. But those retailers who were able to understand the economic/ consumer behavior in advance to the pandemic, invested heavily in innovative technological solutions to overcome the crisis. They were not only able to stop any disruption to their business growth but also saw significant positive traction. Does this indicate that today’s retail CIOs should realign their ‘Must Have’ priorities to 1) embracing innovation and 2) staying competitive with technology up-gradation? Should this prioritization be seen as an increased budget spend for technology refresh? This panel of experts discusses this obvious exemplification between active vs passive retailers in technology investment and how IT services and product organizations can transform their suite of offerings to be in line with increased client investment. Featuring: Jamie Head, Chief Digital & Technology Officer, Ocean Spray Vijay Verma, Executive Vice President, HCL America Inc. Kyle Andrews, VP/Founding Partner, Pretium Partners

Moderator: Jon Browning, CEO, Global Mentorship Initiative Panelists: Maryana Iskander, CEO, Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator; Dan Lang, Senior Vice Preseident, Sutherland; Stacie Herring, VP, Consumer Services Experience, Intuit Impact Sourcing not only presents enormous opportunity for professional advancement of marginalized communities through training and steady, fair-wage employment but it is also a business practice that, when done right, maximizes business outcomes. This session will feature panelists from the organizations blazing the trail in this space as well as personal stories from struggle and adversity to success through ingenuity, drive, and dedication. Join us to hear how impact sourcing is transforming business for the better and learn where to start at your organization.

The COVID-19 pandemic is more than just a health crisis; its ripple effect is impacting all of us and our work. Though there is no real playbook—and no predicting the future—at this pivotal moment, there are clear choices to make. Members of IAOP’s Strategic Advisory Board, representing the key stakeholder groups—buyers, providers and advisors—come together to discuss their experiences, trends and critical factors in an organization’s ability to emerge from the current crisis and push forward into a new era of economic recovery and opportunity. Moderated by Atul Vashistha, COP, Chairman and Founder, Neo Group & Debi Hamill, CEO, IAOP, panelists include: Ves Kjenstad, Vice President, IT Operations, Bristol-Myers Squibb Karen Bobear, Managing Director, Accenture Neil Hirshman, COP, Partner, Kirkland & Ellis LLP

Digital brings new, exciting market opportunities that increase service providers relevance. However, the increasing use of automation, AI/ML and cognitive computing are changing the outsourcing core, its people. Digital is not the same game with new rules. It is a new game. While traditional outsourcing responds to five client needs of advisory/decision making, staff augmentation, project-based capacity (short duration), cost-efficiency and gains of scale, these needs can now be filled by the web, robots, pay-as-you-go, AI/ML/ algorithms and the cloud. Join us to understand the new value added by emerging delivery models. Presented by Jan Erik Aase, COP, Principal Analyst and Global Head, ISG Provider Lens and Stanton Jones, Director and Principal Analyst, ISG.

This comes from a popular OWS2.0 session entitled Sourcing for Agile - A Deep Dive into Innovative Sourcing Methods to Drive Value from Agile Development and Still Hold Vendors Accountable for Outcomes, presented by Boris Abezgauz, Partner, PwC Strategy& and Skanda Janakiram, Manager, Strategy, PwC Strategy&.

Maura Hudson, COP, Senior Vice President, Colliers and Michelle Needles, Executive Managing Director, Colliers Unconscious biases are social stereotypes about certain groups of people that individuals form outside their own conscious awareness. Everyone holds unconscious beliefs about various social and identity groups, and these biases stem from one’s tendency to organize social worlds by categorizing. Join this highly interactive session where we will address the issue, share examples, learn how to avoid blind spots and create more inclusive thinking.

The IAOP Governance Chapter is pleased to present Enterprise Sourcing & Lifecycle Risk Management, featuring John Bree, SVP, Partner, Neo Group; Jennifer Duest, VP, Corporate Insurance & Global Third-Party Risk Manager; and Marica Imer, VP, Asc. Director of Finance Administration - Enterprise Sourcing both with Wellington Management Group. Moderated by Atul Vashistha, Chairman and CEO, Neo Group, the panelists discuss the rapidly changing world of digital convergence and dev/ops, traditional, episodic Risk Assessments.

Brought to you by IAOP's Women Empowerment, Leadership and Diversity Chapter.

The IAOP SRO Chapter held a webinar August 20, 2019 on The Evolution of Socially Responsible Outsourcing and why it is relevant now more than ever. Socially Responsible Outsourcing (SRO) can trace its origins back 75 years, but integrating SRO concepts and policies today can still be a challenge for BPO buyers and service providers. IAOP’s SRO Chapter presented a panel event to discuss how to implement SRO, why it matters, and examples of how it’s being implemented in today’s largest organizations. Attendees joined representatives from Microsoft, Sprint, Alorica, and others to learn how and why to begin their SRO journey.

IAOP's Voice of the Customer and the Sales/Marketing chapters held a webinar on June 19, 2019 and turned the tables by asking if a customer is a good customer rather than if a supplier is a good supplier. This was a high energy panel discussion between suppliers and customers, where we heard expectations of a Customer Sourcing Executive and Supplier VPs as they engaged in dialogue that will ultimately help the supplier meet expectations with the help. Moderator: Kyle Andrews, Partner, Pretium Partners; Speakers: Vijay Verma, Executive Vice President, HCL America, Inc, Michael Nacarato, IAOP's Buy-Side Ambassador, and David Althoff, Senior Vice President, Cognizant

Speakers: Michael Nacarato, COP, Transamerica and IAOP’s Buy-Side Ambassador; John Vonesh, Partner, ISG In this session excerpt from OWS19, John and Michael discuss the business and regulatory governance challenges impacting insurance companies, and how operational and technology strategies are being refined to meet those challenges. New and disruptive technologies will reshape insurers’ interactions with policy owners and producers. Technology service providers are developing offerings and capabilities for insurers in an increasingly competitive market.

A sneak peek into IAOP's OWS conference with a spotlight on emerging tech from Boris Abezgauz and Dan Priest from PwC Strategy&.

In this session, we discuss key opportunities and main market trends of the European outsourcing market in 2018, stressing the strengths of the market, which can be shared to support outsourcing initiatives globally, as well as openly communicate about leading trends and risks by sharing key resources for better understanding on both buyers’ and sellers’ points of view. Featuring moderator: Wiktor Doktor, CEO, ProProgressio and panelists: Vishal Khanna, Vice President, IQVIA; Susanne Richter-Wills, Director, BPO Solutions, Kofax; Marko Kovacevic, Chairman, IAOP’s European Outsourcing Council; Adrian Quayle, Managing Partner, Europe, Avasant; and Serge Librot, Partner, LivIT.

Host Amanda Safdar, IAOP's Director of Global Events, shares a recent panel discussion form EOS18 on the practical understanding of the current regulation but also its potential evolution.