Global Outsourcing
Our global outsourcing practice is a sought-after, trusted adviser to companies involved in many of the largest and most transformational deals in the world. With decades of outsourcing experience—and consistently garnering accolades from publications such as Chambers and The Legal 500—our lawyers are leaders in global outsourcing based on deals, innovation, and industry thought leadership.
Our work for clients includes information technology (IT), human resources, call center, commercial operations, claims processing, finance and accounting, financial services (FS) middle and back office, procurement, legal, research and development, logistics, vehicle fleet, warehousing and facilities management outsourcing—including onshore, offshore, managed, and co-sourced solutions.
We are at the forefront of developments in outsourcing, including digital transformation, the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and automation into outsourcing transactions, and next generation business process outsourcing (BPO) arrangements.
We have experience outsourcing at every stage of our clients’ journey: from first generation offshoring, to complex transformations, establishing build, operate and transfer (BOT) captives and JV arrangements, through exiting and migrating arrangements back in-house or onwards to an alternative supplier or supply model.
Our clients benefit from a unified global team that scales efficiently—eliminating the friction that can plague disjointed operations. Operating seamlessly from hubs across North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, we provide our clients with exceptional service around the world.
We have proficiency in key sectors such as financial services (including insurers and life companies, asset managers and banks), life sciences, technology, retail, consumer products, manufacturing and transportation and logistics. For our regulated clients and transactions, our outsourcing team (with the support of subject matter experts where required) handles all aspects of regulation that affect the outsourcing model.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY OUTSOURCING
Our long history of helping both plan and execute complex IT outsourcing (ITO) contracts means that we can optimize outcomes that improve our clients’ bottom line while achieving ambitious business objectives.
We are proficient in all forms of ITO, including hosting, mainframe transformation, cybersecurity, application development and maintenance, end-user computing, network and telco arrangements. Many of the deals we work on are multitower, with clients seeking to achieve transformation through complex initiatives that require innovative contractual structures, and carefully planned negotiation processes and timelines.
Our mix of strategic acumen, operational efficiency, and technical and legal knowledge across the IT industry yields exceptional results for our clients—and, by extension, for their customers. We work with our clients to boost customer experience through innovative outsourcing transactions that can streamline the enterprise—extending from initial sourcing services to assessing vendor relationships and conducting negotiations—to save money and improve efficiency.
Beyond planning and implementation of the initial outsourcing transaction, we understand the long-term and relational nature of these agreements, and focus our efforts on ensuring the customer/supplier relationship is catered to over the lifetime of the agreement. We help our clients anticipate and proactively respond to change by preparing process-specific strategies and outsourcing contract structures that address any need for midcourse corrections.
BUSINESS PROCESS OUTSOURCING
BPO has witnessed tremendous expansion in recent years. Next-gen BPO includes the leveraging of automation, bots, performance tools, and other technology to optimize workflows and business processes, as well as to collect and analyze data to improve user experience (UX).
Next-gen BPO drives the development and implementation of transformative technology and the generation of critical business data. As such, the allocation of IT use and ownership rights invariably becomes a gating issue in outsourcing contract negotiations. Our team helps clients carefully consider what IP is being created, generated, modified, enhanced, or provided. We follow this with assessments of which IP is critical or competitive to the business, identifying what is important for our client to own or when to impose usage restrictions.
To help clients realize the exciting opportunities of next-gen BPO, our team guides the negotiation of outsourcing contract provisions that maximize benefits while minimizing risks. Our lawyers understand it is vital to ensure that any projected cost savings are firmly built into the pricing arrangement and—because transformation is paramount—those workstreams must be clearly defined and treated like other strategic implementation matters.
CLOUD SERVICE OUTSOURCING
Our team is at the leading edge of cloud-based issues, providing innovative outsourcing structures to implement and manage new technologies, protect and secure valuable assets, provide flexibility and scalability, facilitate compliance, and mitigate risk. Representing major software solution providers in areas ranging from medical technology and wealth management to the global travel industry, we collaborate with clients on the full range of outsourcing models in the cloud arena.
Our lawyers help clients take advantage of the accelerating use of the cloud for critical and enterprise-wide business needs. We know that a successful cloud or “as-a-service” (XaaS) transaction often requires long-term outsourcing arrangements that can be tailored as the enterprise’s business model advances. We help clients using such platforms and services to create clear and pragmatic contracts that are durable while allowing for adaptability.
The emphasis on practicality is crucial. For example, in the world of cloud outsourcing negotiation, pre-planning for termination events is an essential part of contracting with service providers and identifying key terms. Likewise, as IT increasingly moves to the cloud, traditional one-time license and equipment purchase agreements give way to long-term service agreements. Our lawyers have a command of the unique issues and important factors service providers and their customers face in such agreements.
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OUTSOURCING
As the cloud, automation, AI, XaaS products, blockchain, digital assets, and the metaverse create opportunities around the globe, an emerging trend involves companies driving the adoption of digital transformation. We support our clients in all aspects of strategic outsourcing in this arena, enabling them to effectively leverage technology and digital solutions to operate, modernize, and transform their businesses.
We work with leading companies from a range of industries in the creation of new go-to-market digital products by structuring and negotiating innovative development, integration, acquisition, strategic alliance, XaaS, and licensing models. We understand product development and deployment, focusing on how to derive benefits of innovation while managing risk, including IP protection, data analytics and monetization, privacy and security, continuity and resiliency, tax implications, regulatory compliance, and evolving market influencers.
It’s clear that AI is here to stay. Generative AI can be used to create new content informing the online customer experience, including audio, code, images, text, simulations, and videos. Companies can accelerate their digital transformation efforts by investing in this area, and we stand ready to help structure outsourcing agreements that advance those goals while keeping a watchful eye on potential liability.
SELECT MATTERS HANDLED BY OUR LAWYERS
- A global medical devices company on a series of outsourcings, including the client’s multisourced ITO arrangements (infrastructure and applications), a multitower finance and accounting, customer services, product support and human resources outsourcing arrangement supporting the client’s worldwide business operations, and other strategic transactions leveraging offshore capabilities
- A global pharmaceutical company on several transformative outsourcing transactions, most notably an innovative multisupplier IT outsourcing model, aligned to the client’s products and business lines, and a strategic alliance for clinical research services from one of the world’s largest clinical research organizations
- A leading health insurance company on numerous strategic outsourcing transactions, including several cloud migration arrangements, a cyber resilience transaction with multiple third parties, and the digital transformation of its claims processing operations
- A global financial institution on several outsourcing transactions, including the restructuring and insourcing of two BPO joint ventures with global vendors in order to insource circa 10,000 FTEs to facilitate the implementation of technology efficiencies through AI and automation
- One of the world’s largest wealth management companies in several strategic outsourcing and managed services transactions, including a long-term strategic partnership for a technology-driven approach to defined contribution plan administration, affecting five million participants
