IAOP Chapter: Chicago

Meeting held January 21, 2010

A meeting of the IAOP Chicago Chapter, chaired by Founding Member Kirkland & Ellis LLP, was held Thursday, January 21, 2010 at their offices located at 300 N. LaSalle, Chicago, IL.

Continuing the “Lifecycle of a Deal” theme

3:30-3:45 pm: Welcome & Introductions

Neil Hirshman, COP, Chapter Chair, Kirkland & Ellis LLP

3:45-4:30  pm: Panel – “The Role of the Outsourcing Advisor”

Outsourcing advisors help organizations align the outsourcing strategy with strategic goals and objectives, providing guidance on the contracting process and thinking through governance, transition and overall supplier management leading practices. In addition, they provide assistance in structuring and negotiating outsourcing transactions for both customers and providers. This panel will discuss the role of the outsourcing advisor (both consultant and lawyer) from many different perspectives.

Panelists:

Faisal Yousuf, Principal, Booz & Co

Matt Smith, Client Executive, EquaTerra

Jay Desai, VP & Manager - Global Sourcing, Northern Trust

Jeremy Kloubec, Sr. Client Partner- Private Equity Practice, Infosys

Moderator: Neil Hirshman, Partner, Kirkland & Ellis LLP

4:30-5:55 pm: Case Study: “Moving to a New Provider - A Paradigm Shift”

Ashwin Devnani, VP Operations, TransUnion Interactive
Anurag Bhatia, SVP, WNS Global Service

This presentation will focus on the transition from one provider to a new provider and the challenges such a transition creates. The speakers will discuss:

    ● New vendor selection, ramp up, transition

    ● Understanding the Customer

    ● Why the Change

    ● Managing the Change

    ● Measuring the Change

5:55-6:00 pm: Meeting Wrap Up (including discussion of a COP Master Class in Chicago, spring 2010)

Neil Hirshman, COP, Chapter Chair, Kirkland & Ellis LLP

6:00-7:00 pm: Networking Reception hosted by Booz & Co

IAOP members wishing to attend the next meeting please email our chapter coordinator, Amanda Corbett at amanda.corbett@outsourcingprofessional.org.

If you are not as yet a member of IAOP and would like a guest pass for the meeting, please Request a Guest Pass.

IAOP Members:

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Most recent meeting took place on September 22, 2009 at 4:30 pm during the Global Human Capital Forum in Chicago!

The most recent meeting of the IAOP Chicago Chapter, chaired by Founding Member Kirkland & Ellis LLP, was held Tuesday, September 22, 2009 during the Global Human Capital Forum at the Marriott Chicago Downtown from 4:30-5:30 pm.

4:30-5:30 pm: The presentation by Neil Hirshman, chapter chair, “Hard and Soft Sides of Managing Talent in Outsourcing”

5:30-6:00 pm: Closing comments by Michael Corbett, IAOP’s    Chairman

6:00-7:00 pm: The networking reception hosted by the Chicago Chapter

Meeting held July 23, 2009!

This meeting of the IAOP Chicago Chapter, chaired by Founding Member Kirkland & Ellis LLP, was held Thursday, July 23, 2009 at the Chicago Yacht Club.

The program included a continuation of the lifecycle of a deal theme plus a discussion on ways to leverage IT and differentiate yourself in today’s market. Following the welcome and introductions delivered by chapter chair and founding member Neil Hirshman of Kirkland & Ellis LLP, Bill Fowler, Principal Consultant from Compass America, Inc, and Lee Coulter, former SVP of Shared Services at Kraft Foods, provided an overall understanding of what benchmarking is, issues to anticipate and critical aspects of the benchmarking clause during their presentation entitled “A Benchmarking Primer.”

The program continued with an insightful presentation from Sharan Hildebrand, Executive Director from The Symbio Group, entitled “Innovative Ways to Leverage IT and Differentiate Yourself in Today’s Market.”  Participants heard about innovative and creative ways to advance their outsourcing message, product or service offerings and then had an opportunity to discuss and share ideas that resulted from the round table discussions that were conducted after Sharan’s presentation.

The meeting concluded with a networking reception hosted by The Symbio Group.

Meeting held - April 30, 2009

A meeting of the IAOP Chicago Chapter, chaired by Founding Member Kirkland & Ellis LLP, was held on April 30, 2009 at their new offices located at 300 N. LaSalle, Chicago, IL.

Following Chapter Chair Neil Hirshman’s welcome & introductions, David Benoit and Jeffrey Rathgeber, Partners at Pelorus Advisors, provided an overview of the hidden risks associated with outsourcing transactions that are unsupported by proper currency risk management controls entitled “Currency Risk Management 101: How to Identify Forex Exposure Lurking in Global Outsourcing Transactions.”   During this informative presentation, they provided a framework for outsourcing customers to help them identify gaps in their provider’s currency hedging programs

Next, Sara Enlow with Vantage Partners shared some of the preliminary results of their research on the topic of “Offshore Relationship Management.”  Recently, they surveyed over 400 outsourcing professionals with experience in managing offshore relationships.  Respondents shared their perspectives on the top challenges inherent in offshore relationships and the impact of those challenges.  Sara shared key information on what successful practitioners are doing to address the challenges and get the most out of their offshore relationships.

Neil wrapped up the meeting with a review of upcoming IAOP events and as well as meeting dates for the Chicago chapter.  The meeting concluded with a networking reception hosted by Kirkland & Ellis, LLP.

Meeting held – January 22, 2009

A meeting of the IAOP Chicago Chapter, chaired by Founding Member Kirkland & Ellis LLP, was held on January 22, 2009 from 3:30 -7:00 p.m. at DePaul University, 1 E. Jackson, 11^th floor, DePaul Center North Café.  The meeting continued with the themes lifecycle of a deal and outsourcing locations and the agenda consisted of the following:

3:30-3:45 pm: Welcome & Introductions – Neil Hirshman, Chapter Chair

3:45-4:20 pm: Effects of the Economy on Outsourcing - Mathew Smith, EquaTerra and Sri Tanjore, Director Shared Services and Outsourcing Advisory Services, PricewaterhouseCoopers

With the economic crisis impacting businesses across the globe, it likely will have a major impact on the outsourcing industry.  This presentation addressed how customers and providers alike are addressing challenging issues including, protectionism, benefits evaluation with a sliding value of US dollar, and the new US government’s laws and regulations.

4:20-5:00 pm: Achieving Outsourcing Success Using Imaging, Business Process Management, Portals and Collaboration Technologies – Jeetu Patel, Executive Vice President, Doculabs, Inc. and Sharon Richey, Head of Global Resourcing, Royal Bank of Canada (Case Study)

Organizations are finding it increasingly difficult to manage the transition and transformation process in their outsourcing efforts.  Defining transformation processes is tedious, manual transitions are hard to manage, and service providers have difficulty living up to their service level agreements.  One area that shows promise is strategic investment in content – and process-related technologies such as imaging, business process management, portals, and collaboration.  Whether your effort involves pure IT outsourcing, BPO or KPO related activities, effectively planning your use of content- and process-related technologies can pay big dividends.  In this session, we learned industry best practices, with a case study that detailed framework for incorporating content- and process-related technologies within outsourcing efforts.

5:00-5:40 pm: Outsourcing to the Ukraine – Alex Golod, Managing Partner, Intetics Co. and Doug Grimsted, CEO, Aginity (Case Study)

We learned about the social and economic development of the Ukraine,  why the Ukraine is becoming a hot outsourcing destination based on its industry growth, its access to skilled well educated talent pools, and how the Ukrainian government supports outsourcing and in what regions, and then heard a case study from Aginity on how they have effectively outsourced work to the Ukraine.

5:40-5:50 pm: Regional COP Courses – Matt Shocklee, President and Chief Executive Officer, Global Sourcing Optimization Services (GSOS), LLC, U.S. Ambassador – IAOP

5:50-6:00 pm: Meeting Wrap Up – Neil Hirshman, Chapter Chair
6:00-7:00 pm: Networking Reception was hosted by Doculabs.

Meeting held - Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2008

This fall’s meeting was held as part of IAOP’s 2008 Governance Forum on September 9 at the Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile. 

The meeting was a huge success and the program consisted of:
-The joint presentation by Neil Hirshman, chapter chair and Jag Dalal, IAOP’s managing director of thought leadership on “Contracts and Governance: Oil and Water or Oil and Vinegar?”
 -Closing comments by Neil Hirshman and Michael Corbett, IAOP’s    Chairman
 -The networking reception hosted by the Chicago Chapter
 
Meeting Held Thursday, July 24, 2008

The July 24 meeting program continued with the “Lifecycle of a Deal” theme, focusing on transition issues.  A networking reception was hosted by Bridge Strategy Group.

The meeting agenda included:
IAOP and the Chicago Chapter: Let’s Take a Look at Progress!
Michael Corbett, IAOP Chairman

The Transition Challenge-- Managing the Successful Transition to Outsourced Services - Panel
Getting to contract is only half the work. The real challenge for organizations is transitioning services to an outsourcing provider. The effectiveness of the transition will in large part determine the ultimate success of the outsourcing relationship as it sets the stage for positive working relationships and achievable expectations. The panel will focus on the key challenges with transitioning services to an outsourcing provider. The challenges range from determining the client’s role in transition and planning to the people and organizational change issues.

Moderator: Scott Lever, PA Consulting
Panelist: Lori Blackman, President, DNL Global
Panelist: Robert Thomas, North American Foundational Services Leader| HRO Benefits Operations-Foundational Services Group, Hewitt Associate
Panelist: Tom Turci, Director – Offshore Engineering, Pitney Bowes Software Incorporated

Building Momentum and Change Management - Transition Case Study
Niel Simon, Partner, Bridge Strategy Group
Michael Wisner, VP Global Operations, Arthur J. Gallagher
Mr. Wisner directs Gallagher's multi-year transition of insurance processes to both captive and outsource providers in India and has navigated many of the classic phases of globalization including the tides of resistance. Mr. Wisner will share many of the lessons Gallagher has learned in recasting itself as a global organization including building organizational momentum and overcoming resistance.

Meeting Held Thursday, April 24, 2008

The Chicago Chapter of IAOP, bringing together business persons, consultants and attorneys involved or interested in outsourcing and working or living in the greater Chicago region, held its twelfth meeting on April 24 at the IBM Training Facility in the Hyatt Center. Kirkland & Ellis LLP partner and Chapter Chair Neil Hirshman opened the meeting and welcomed the attendees.

The twelfth meeting continued with the theme of the lifecycle of a deal. Chadd Parker, Legal Counsel - Resources from Accenture and Matthew Lovell, an attorney at Kirkland & Ellis began the presentations with a lively discussion about the key elements of an outsourcing contract and some do's and don'ts about the contracting process.

Next, Bud Mathaisel, CIO of Achievo drew upon his extensive industry experience in presenting on IT security and its impact on outsourcing. In particular, Bud explained the importance of ISO 27001 certification and the process for certification. The attendees actively engaged with Bud during his presentation and there was a great discussion about how different companies were addressing IT security issues.

Neil closed the meeting by requesting volunteers to host future meetings and to sponsor networking receptions. The next meeting is scheduled for July 24 at the Chicago Yacht Club with a networking reception sponsored by Bridge Strategy. The next meeting with continue with the lifecycle of a deal theme. Anyone interested in helping to plan the agenda for future meetings should contact Neil Hirshman at nhirshman@kirkland.com.

A networking reception sponsored by Achievo followed the formal meeting.

Meeting Held Thursday, January 24, 2008

The Chicago Chapter of IAOP, bringing together business persons, consultants and attorneys involved or interested in outsourcing and working or living in the greater Chicago region, held its eleventh quarterly meeting on January 24 at the South African Consulate. Kirkland partner and Chapter Chair Neil Hirshman opened the meeting and introduced South Africa Consul General Yusuf Omar, who welcomed the attendees and offered some preliminary remarks on South Africa.

The eleventh meeting continued with the themes of lifecycle of a deal as well as outsourcing destinations. The presentations began with a lively discussion on the best processes for selecting a provider, including the advantages and disadvantages of the RFP process. The panel was moderated by Matt Smith of EquaTerra and he was joined by panelists Elliot Bruns, Infosys, Walt Wojcik, former CIO and CFO of Northwestern Mutual and Ravin Asar, ABN Amro.

Building on that panel discussion, Praful Mittal of Booz Allen Hamilton provided a case study on a company with revenues of over $25B. Praful described the imperatives for them to transform and seek a comprehensive outsourcing strategy and how they went about seeking strategic partners to help in that journey.

The meeting then shifted to focus on another outsourcing destination -- South Africa (previous meetings had focused on Poland, India, China, Latin America, Philippines, Canada and Russia). After a brief introduction by Charles Manuel, Consul Economic, Yolande Smit from the Department of Trade and Industry of BPO in South Africa moderated a panel that consisted of Sandile Gwala, Deloitte, Andrew McNair, Merchants UK and Gary Bennett, Virgin Mobile. Each of them shared their insights on the outsourcing industry in South Africa in general and their personal deal experiences in particular.

Jeni Stamas, Managing Director, Membership then gave a brief update on the success of IAOP and its growth.

Neil closed the meeting by requesting volunteers to host future meetings and to sponsor networking receptions. The next meeting was scheduled for April 24, location TBA. The next meeting with continue with the two themes -- lifecycle of a deal and outsourcing destinations (destination to be determined). Anyone interested in helping to plan the agenda for future meetings should contact Neil Hirshman at nhirshman@kirkland.com.

A networking reception that included South African wine and delicacies, sponsored by The South African Consulate General, followed the formal meeting.