Q&A: Keane's Laurence Shaw
As senior vice president of international operations for Keane, Laurence Shaw is perfectly positioned to observe the trends in global outsourcing. Shaw, a UK-based Keane veteran recently elevated to oversight of all offshore and nearshore operations in Keane's Canada, United Kingdom, and India facilities, suggests that China is certain to be the next frontier in offshoring-and that companies looking to outsource any part of their operations are a lot smarter about it going in that you may have thought. He recently spoke with Outsourcing Pipeline about the current market.
Do you find that companies, going into the process, know what they're looking for in an outsourcing deal, or do you need to educate them on the various aspects of outsourcing?
I'd say that 85 to 90 percent are already knowledgable buyers. They've done some homework or may have used some outside consultants to help them decide what they're looking for.
What are your customers generally seeking?
At Keane, we emphasize quality control, with predictable results; the benefits come directly from that. In a normal situation, you'll see 20-25 percent cost savings, but we can boost that to 40-50 percent as we start to deliver product improvements. And we're always based on what the customer wants to do. With a hybrid consulting/outsourcing model, we can actually allow the client to choose the speed at which they they want to move. To a great extentm that lets them get comfortable with the service levels they want without being locked into something they don't feel works for them.
Do customers have offshoring specifically on their minds?
Well, the trend actually goes back to 1996-97, which is when we established our Canadian operations. Actually, our move into India post-2000 came as a result of client demand; companies knew then that they wanted to take advantage of the market.
Does the European market have the same issues with offshoring that the U.S. has recently seen?
Not at all. The UK is much more accustomed to outsourcing; it's been a strong BPO outsourcing market for many years. They essentially have the same interest in outsourcing that U.S. companies do. As for continental Europe, it's much different; they're less able to take advantage of the offshore opportunities that exist because of the language difference. Most of the Indian providers are an English-speaking base. However, we have seen some lower-cost outsourcing springing up in Russia and the Eastern European countries that service companies in the Germanic nations.
Where does China fit into the global sourcing mix?
China has a couple of issues. Right now, if you're talking about standard toolsets-Java and other common platforms-their ability is equivalent to anywhere else. It's less so when you get into package environments-something like Siebel or SAP. And they don't have the language skills yet that you find in India, but that will change. In four to five years, they should be on par with regard to English. They're definitely the next big market. We expect to be there in the back end of the year with the first CMM-5 operation anywhere in China.
As the market for outsourcing grows, has that affected Keane?
Yes. Last year in our U.S. operation, we grew to between 700-800 employees; that's an addition of a couple hundred people. And many of those came from staff transfers from clients. That's good for us, and it's definitely a softer landing for the employees than being out of a job.
Outsourcing Pipeline
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