Although the term "robot"connotes visions of electromechanical machines that perform human tasks, the term as it relates to service automation refers to something less threatening: software that performs repetitive and dreary service tasks previously performed by humans, so that humans can focus on more unstructured and interesting tasks. In this article, authors Mary C. Lacity and Leslie P. Willcocks focus on "robotic process automation"-- software tools and platforms that deal with structured data, rules-based processes, and deterministic outcomes. They focus on this area (as opposed to more advanced automation technology known as "cognitive automation") because this is where most companies begin their service automation journeys. Currently, companies use robotic process automation for tasks such as those associated with validating the sale of insurance premiums, generating utility bills, paying health care insurance claims, keeping employee records up-to-date, and even generating news stories. In one case, the authors describe how a business process and technology services provider helped an insurance industry client automate a multistep process for processing premiums for new insurance policies. Humans still handle the unstructured parts of the work. However, the structured parts of the process, including finding errors, retrieving the online data, creating the official sales record, and notifying insurance brokers when the process is complete, are now managed by the robotic process automation software. By studying organizations that were early adopters in deploying software robots, the authors were able to identify three ways the companies generated tangible benefits: (1) by developing an approach to service automation supported by top management; (2) by initiating effective processes that deliver value to customers and employees; and (3) by building enterprisewide skills and capabilities.

In this teaching case, we challenge students to think about and discuss how the legal profession can adapt to disruptive forces caused by the globalization of skills and technology innovation. The case focuses on how one UK-based firm - Radiant Law - completely rethought the delivery of legal services. This 'new age' law firm continually tested the boundaries of new ways to leverage the value of global talent and technology. For example, it changed its pricing and sourcing models, adopted new technologies, hired freelance IT professionals globally to develop software to streamline its legal work, engaged outsourcing providers in India and (subsequently) in South Africa. After nearly 3 years in South Africa, Radiant Law contemplated switching its sourcing model again. The Radiant Law story supports discussion about challenges associated with global sourcing decisions and the present and future shape of professional work and services in an increasingly technology-enabled, globalized world.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. The number of companies that outsource critical business processes to outside suppliers has been growing significantly worldwide. In 2012, companies outsourced some $309 billion of services - activities including finance and accounting, human resource management, procurement and legal services - and the overall volume has been growing at a rate of around 25% annually. Although many organizations initiated business process outsourcing (BPO) as part of an effort to reduce costs or acquire new skills, it has since evolved into much more. In relationships companies classify as high-performing, service providers deliver substantial long-term improvements to the client's operating efficiency and strategic performance. These types of innovations require companies and service providers to work together. BPO providers do not need incentives to improve their own revenue or margins, but they do need them to focus on the client's performance. While partners may incentivize innovation by using mechanisms such as productivity targets, allocating innovation days and agreeing to gain share on innovation projects, innovation won't happen unless clients and providers implement a more comprehensive process that combines acculturation across different organizations, an engaging method for generating ideas, adequate funding and a system for managing change. Perhaps the most significant factor in BPO innovation, however, is whether the right people are in place to drive the dynamic innovation process. An effective leadership pair - one person from the client organization and another person from the provider organization - goes a long way toward invigorating the innovation process. In high-performing BPO relationships, the leaders are experienced and capable, with high levels of credibility, clout and power within their own organizations.

This case concerns a one billion (US) dollar 10-year global outsourcing project signed in 2007 to outsource major parts of the human resource (HR) function of a major multinational company. The client and supplier embarked on a large-scale implementation plan and ran into difficulties on meeting deadlines and delivering the systems required. The case focuses on the step-by-step phased roll-out in the client's Europe, Middle East and Africa region covering 44 countries. The case follows the many attempts to stabilise and deliver the project. In June 2010, the supplier sold its HR line of business to another supplier, which became responsible for the project. The case documents the strategy, governance, project management and escalation issues to March 2011, and asks questions about the practices exhibited so far, and future decisions on strategic sourcing, project management, de-escalating the problems and the retained capabilities needed by the client.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. In an attempt to increase both efficiency and service quality, more and more companies are outsourcing to third-party suppliers some key business processes, such as human resources, information technology, and procurement. The universe of potential suppliers is diverse and growing, made up of locally based specialists, offshore providers with comparatively low labor costs, and global suppliers who are able to apply sophisticated management techniques and technology. The challenge for clients is to understand their own requirements and to identify providers whose capabilities and objectives are best aligned with their particular needs. Draws on extensive research to identify three potentially critical areas of supplier competency: delivery competency, transformation competency, and relationship competency. By benchmarking supplier capabilities against its strategic and operational intent, a company can work to establish relationships that support its business objectives.

Large international corporations commonly engage in IT outsourcing. However, the process of evaluating, selecting, and subsequently contracting out or selling the organization's IT assets, people, and/or activities to a third-party supplier creates the possibility of a "Winner's Curse." This occurs when the supplier overpromises on what can be delivered for the contract price. This article presents a longitudinal outsourcing case study that explicates the often abstruse Winner's Curse, its effect on post-contract management and the relationship, and how it was alleviated by a mutual renegotiation of the terms of the deal. Building on auction and IT outsourcing theory, the article provides both a model of IT outsourcing processes and a Winner's Curse typology for understanding IT outsourcing ventures. To avoid the experience of relational trauma as a consequence of a Winner's Curse, this article identifies six lessons that client and supplier companies should consider before signing IT outsourcing deals.

Executives pondering which parts of their information technology (IT) function should be outsourced and which should be kept in-house usually ask themselves, Does the particular IT operation provide a strategic advantage or is it a commodity that doesn't differentiate us from our competitors? If it is a strategic service, they keep it in-house. If it is a commodity--especially one that a supplier claims it can provide inexpensively--they outsource it. If only the decision were that simple. Between 1991 and 1993, the authors studied 40 U.S. and European companies that had grappled with the issue of outsourcing IT. Their conclusion: The strategic-versus-commodity approach usually led to disappointments. Instead, the authors argue, a company's overarching objective should be to maximize flexibility and control so that it can pursue different options as it learns more or as its circumstances change. The way to accomplish that goal is to maximize competition. Managers should not make a onetime decision whether to outsource. They should create an environment in which potential suppliers--external as well as internal--are constantly battling to provide IT services.