There are “no bad decisions” when it comes to outsourcing, a panellist at this year’s Linedata Exchange Conference (LDX) said.
The statement came from Mark Seaman, senior vice president of Business Development and Advisory Services at Linedata, at a panel entitled ‘Creating Operational Resilience — Outsourcing across the Enterprise’.
Discussing the role of outsourcing in the asset management lifecycle, Jon Hunt, chief technology officer at Landsdowne Partners, stated that in the past decade outsourcing has become very popular across most areas of business, something which has been accelerated by industry adaptation over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Seaman added that “little pieces” of operations and technology have been outsourced for years, however there has been a shift to the outsourcing of more in-house processes as companies want to spend more time on value-added tasks rather than basic daily processes.
“Everyone cannot build a perfect operating system,” he said, but by combining their operations with other services firms can achieve a “perfect symbiotic relationship”.
Anup Kumar, executive vice president and business head of Linedata Global Services, stated that investors do not want to handle operational risks alongside investor risk, and therefore prefer firms, especially smaller firms, to outsource to credible service providers with proven expertise.
There have also been considerable changes in how companies are hiring as outsourcing becomes increasingly well-used. Seaman summarised that firms are hiring “overseers” not “doers,” and outsourcing manual processes, such as data gathering, to experienced professionals with long-term experience. By outsourcing necessary but not value-adding tasks, firms can focus more on finding new opportunities and increasing profits.
Although artificial intelligence and automation will be significant considerations in firms' hiring processes going forward, Kumar added that human checks will remain essential as the AI models are being trained.
Kumar stressed the importance of using the right execution framework when outsourcing, citing “talent circulation”, strategic intent, partnership alignment, governance and change management, along with complete training and understanding of the operating environment as vital for the success of operating model outsourcing.
Hunt highlighted the fact that companies must find ways to be resilient in the face of a challenging hiring environment, stating that although a minimum viable team size must be maintained in-house, difficulties with talent retention and financial considerations mean outsourcing is an appealing solution.
The panel concluded outsourcing is an essential part of the industry on multiple levels, allowing for firms to achieve a “controlled resilience”, and that its popularity will not slow down anytime soon.
Image: Vitalii Vodolazskyi 