In business process outsourcing, enterprises need to ensure that their engagements are not only adding value but aligning with their overarching priorities. Watch this webinar where our pricing analysts discussed how enterprises can drive more value in their outsourced contracts amid the current global economic slowdown. They covered key strategies that address cost reduction and service quality improvements, as well as ways to drive positive business impact through digital and transformation initiatives in outsourced relationships. What questions did the webinar answer for the participants? What are enterprises’ top priorities as we dig deeper into 2024? What are the key value drivers for enterprises in business process outsourcing engagements? What is the total impact that these value drivers could bring in business process outsourcing engagements?

This Executive Brief is available only to Outsourcing Excellence members. For information on membership, please contact us A contract delineates the specific terms and conditions governing the services provided by a provider. Consequently, contracting holds significant importance in the strategic sourcing process, encompassing both new deals and renewals. This Executive Brief lists key commercial terms and conditions that enterprises should prioritize when entering into contracts with a provider. Additionally, it highlights associated principles aimed at maximizing the value derived from an outsourcing relationship. Scope All industries and geographies Contents This report covers key tenets of essential commercial terms and conditions, based on the analysis of contractual documents in recent outsourcing engagements. The report focuses on the following terms and conditions: Cost of Living Adjustment (CoLA) Foreign exchange adjustment Benchmarking Termination fee Audit clauses Note: Everest Group publishes Executive Briefs for senior executives from enterprises. These briefs address hot industry topics and particularly challenging issues of the day in an easy-to-digest format.

As we enter 2024, enterprises are under immense pressure to optimize their budgets and uncover potential cost savings. Over the past three years, businesses across the globe have struggled to stay within their budgets. In 2021 and 2022, we saw a sharp increase in pricing, and then budgets were slashed in 2023. We face a strong likelihood of an economic slowdown in 2024 and an uphill battle to deliver savings. Watch this webinar to learn current pricing trends and how enterprises can find greater value and lower costs in their outsourcing, cloud, and SaaS contracts in the new year. What questions did the webinar answer for the participants? Where is outsourced deal pricing headed in 2024 amid an economic slowdown? How can enterprises drive more savings from their outsourcing contracts? How can enterprises realize better value from their Cloud and SaaS contracts?

2022 was an unusual year for IT procurement category managers, specifically those managing software and cloud investments. We witnessed price hikes across the board from software and cloud providers, accompanied by enterprise budget cuts in anticipation of a recession. In this webinar, Everest Group’s software pricing expert discussed recent pricing trends, key tactics enterprises use to keep their software spend in check, and the outlook for software and cloud pricing in 2023. Our speakers discussed: Why do enterprises find software licensing negotiations to be challenging? What are the most commonly negotiated clauses in recent deals What are the best practices to keep software spend in check? What is the future outlook for software pricing?

This Executive Brief is available only to Outsourcing Excellence members. For information on membership, please contact us Negotiation is an important part of the strategic sourcing process, both in the context of new deals and renewals. It enables an equitable legal agreement between the enterprise and the provider(s). This Executive Brief describes how organizations can develop an effective negotiation strategy and execute it to achieve their sourcing objectives. It examines key points to consider, common misconceptions, the role of equitable terms to incentivize services delivery, components of an interest-based negotiation strategy, and a case study on how a large company negotiated with its largest services supplier. Scope All industries and geographies Contents This report examines the: Importance of negotiation in the strategic sourcing process Components of a well-structured negotiation strategy Key negotiation myths Note: Everest Group publishes executive briefs for senior executives from enterprises. These briefs address hot industry topics and particularly challenging issues of the day in an easy-to-digest format.

This report is available only to Outsourcing Excellence members. For information on membership, please contact us E-auctions are a powerful tool leveraged by the procurement function to drive cost pressures in competitive negotiations. Traditionally, e-auctions were used to source simple services or goods; today, they are becoming increasingly popular in the services outsourcing space. In this executive brief, Everest Group analysts share the benefits of using e-auctions for outsourced services, deep-diving into the process and best practices for running an e-auction effectively, and the pros and cons in conducting such events. Everest Group publishes executive briefs for senior executives from enterprises. These briefs address hot industry topics and particularly challenging issues of the day in an easy-to-digest format.

This report is available only to Strategic Outsourcing & Vendor Management members. For information on membership or purchase, please contact us Everest Group publishes executive briefs for senior executives from enterprises. These briefs address hot industry topics and particularly challenging issues of the day in an easy to digest format. In this executive brief Everest Group analysts share strategic thinking around planning a technology strategy for the source to pay process. The brief covers considerations for selecting the right combination of solutions, appropriate focus areas at various levels of maturity, and steps for successfully managing a hybrid portfolio of providers.

Value-based contracts are innovative agreements among life sciences firms, healthcare payers, and healthcare providers in which the cost of a therapy – whether a drug or a medical device – is decided based on the health outcomes from that therapy, rather than the volume of drugs/devices consumed. Such contracts have come into prominence in the US over the last five to eight years, with payers, patient groups, and governments increasingly urging drug and device manufacturers to demonstrate value from their offerings. This viewpoint examines the emergence of value-based contracting in the life sciences industry, the role technology can play in enabling such contracts, and what life sciences firms can do to prepare for effective value-based contracting. Scope Industry: life sciences Geography: global Contents In this paper, we: Look at the current state of value-based contracting in the life sciences industry Explore the business and technology components impacted by value-based contracting Lay out both business and technology roadmaps for enterprises to succeed in the value-based contracting model Share our outlook for value-based life sciences contracts Membership(s) Life Sciences IT Services (ITS)

This report is available only to Strategic Outsourcing & Vendor Management members. For information on membership, please contact us As Agile and DevOps adoption rapidly grows in enterprises, sourcing executives face challenges as they try to understand the nuances of contracting in this new model vis-a-vis traditional services. Given that the contract volume and complexity are likley to increase, it is imperative for sourcing executives to understand the nuances of Agile/DevOps and to learn to contract for a product that is difficult to define. In this research, we address some of the challenges in the current scenario by analyzing the “as-is” state of Agile contracting and how enterprises are signing contracts, including the following areas: Existing adoption and its challenges Contract tenets including Statement of work (SOW), pricing models, terms and conditions, etc. To scale Agile at an organizational level, we also discuss on the “to-be” state, or how enterprises can contract for scaled Agile and what the transformation journey should look like. Topics covered include: Scope definition and the importance of "definition of done" Managing vendor lock-in (speed vs. reliability) Removing the waterfall mindset and the inception of value-based pricing As a logical extension to Agile, we also touch upon contracting for DevOps, including some of the contractual keys, such as statement of work and service levels that need to be addressed in DevOps delivery. We conclude this report with some recommendations for the sourcing executives to consider when scaling Agile in their organizations. Scope and methodology of this report: We based this report on our interactions with sourcing executives, evaluation of Agile sourcing contracts, and interaction with suppliers managing day-to-day challenges of Agile delivery.

On September 27, Everest Group hosted a 60-minute webinar on Contracting for Agile. Questions addressed in the webinar: Is broad-based adoption of Agile Development real or hype? How does Agile impact the delivery model for outsourced services? How do pricing models need to evolve to capture value from Agile? How do Terms & Conditions for Agile contracts need to change to minimize risk and maximize value? What are some best practices to consider when negotiating and managing Agile contracts? As frequent delivery and customer satisfaction become the new currencies for IT organizations, a greater number of enterprises are embracing Agile and DevOps methodologies to rapidly deploy useful software. As traditional, Waterfall-based contracts are unable to manage the ambiguity and complexity related to Agile, the increase in Agile adoption is causing sourcing groups to reassess outsourcing contract templates. This webinar will provide Strategic Outsourcing & Vendor Management groups with practical insights for structuring and negotiating Agile contracts.