The Business360 Blog

The Business360 Blog http://business360blog.com Outsourcing and offshoring research and other knowledge work Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:39:51 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en It’s our birthday! I’m not a great one for anniversaries but I thought I’d mark the fact that Business360 kicked off ten years ago this month. It’s been an adventurous time. We started right as the dot-com boom peaked (the market turned in March 2000), sucking away financing options for start-ups, and soon after ... http://business360blog.com/2009/11/it%e2%80%99s-our-birthday/ Getting Paid and Missing Bullets The other day a friend asked me about starting a business – he’d been laid off and was thinking about branching out on his own. Specifically, he wanted to know about cash flow and how long it takes to get paid – he had some money to get himself going ... http://business360blog.com/2009/09/getting-paid-and-missing-bullets/ Leveraging individual skills in a broader network Business360 is a network business. We are only as good as the people in the network and we work constantly to find people with strong skills and experience to add to it. Most people that join are happy to let us do the marketing and selling and we’re fine with ... http://business360blog.com/2009/05/leveraging-individual-skills-in-a-broader-network/ Getting work from the recession I was talking to a client the other day who had read my last blog entry (imagine, a reader!) and who pointed out that a bunch of the work they had given us was a direct response to the recession. Recession as demand driver, funny. But it’s true. I went ... http://business360blog.com/2009/05/getting-work-from-the-recession/ It’s nearly a depression, so why is business so good? I was expecting 2009 to be a terrible year for Business360 (it may be yet!), but so far business is surprisingly strong. We are up on last year, two of our top three months happened this year and the pipeline is looking fine. Sure, we’ve had some disappointments. Some clients have ... http://business360blog.com/2009/04/its-nearly-a-depression-why-is-business-so-good/ “So how do those cost savings really work? Can you give an example?” That's what I was asked, by email. Someone read my previous entry and wanted more details on how a company could truly realize savings on their research and related knowledge work, without a loss of quality. Here's a case study based on some client experiences - brace yourself as it's rather ... http://business360blog.com/2009/02/so-how-do-those-cost-savings-really-work-can-you-give-an-example/ Bringing jobs back home (in a small way) We had a little bit of good news this week - we've been asked to take over some outsourced research for one of the world's largest advertising conglomerates. That makes it sound like a big deal but it's not, at least not yet - it's perhaps 0.5-1 full time equivalent, ... http://business360blog.com/2009/01/bring-jobs-back-home-in-a-small-way/ Here come the cuts It feels like 2001 again, only worse. Clients are very cost conscious and looking to make savings wherever they can. Budgets are being cut and people are being laid off in large numbers. For researchers and analysts that are not absolutely essential to securing revenue, this can be ... http://business360blog.com/2009/01/here-come-the-cuts/ 2008: a good year to leave behind 2008 was brutal on many counts and I suspect most people will be happy to see it pass. Our two main markets – the US and the UK – suffered economic slowdowns, housing slumps, financial dislocation and more. In the US we’ve had twelve months of recession and things don’t ... http://business360blog.com/2008/12/2008-a-good-year-to-leave-behind/ Offshoring? You’re spoilt for choice The other day Gartner came out with its top 30 offshoring destinations. Unsurprisingly, India is the front runner but the range of choice is impressive: New contenders are emerging to challenge the Bric (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries' dominance of the offshoring market. While India was the "undisputed leader" followed by ... http://business360blog.com/2008/12/offshoring-youre-spoilt-for-choice/