Can Your Offshore Providers Deliver Business Innovation?

Wide gaps exist between what clients call innovation and what their service providers are building. Most clients want their suppliers to deliver value in their customer-facing, business-impacting work. But offshore providers still focus mainly on cost-saving and efficiency-boosting solutions. While gaps exist between the buyers and the sellers on the definition of innovation, firms need to appreciate the innovation value hierarchy and set expectations accordingly. To evaluate innovation's value for your company, Forrester segments IT services innovation into three categories and scales the value that each category provides. Sourcing professionals need to understand their provider's innovation preparedness and encourage them to build higher-end skills to deliver strategic, business-side innovation.