When HfS Research and PwC issued their rambling Global Business Services report in July, I assumed it was a one-off, rushed into print before the vacations.
But their joint report The Three Tenets of Global Business Services Execution - released yesterday but dated October - blows away that theory.
It's not just verbose and boring. Much of it seems close to nonsense. The opening sentence is typical:
"While global sourcing has long been recognized as a complex activity, solutions have matured in a variety of categories that are frequently addressed as part of a Global Business Services strategy."
OK, I've only been working with clients in this space for a few years, but I have no idea what this means.
It seems a bit churlish to criticise a free report. But other folks, equally well qualified to comment, are publishing reports for free that are simply much better written - Accenture's report last month, for instance.
It's a pity because there's some good ideas buried under the wordage. But most of the thinking is confused, and, for my money, misses one crucial point: that process management - what Accenture terms the essential 'service management framework' - is central to success.
Disclosure - I spent six happy years at PwC's predecessors - at a time when text like this would have resulted in a court-martial ;-)
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