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Key Takeaways
- TKG’s Focus: The Knowledge Group (TKG) specialises in sourcing advisory and managed services aimed at enhancing outcomes for buyers in the outsourcing market.
- Independence: Operating as an independent entity, TKG avoids brokerage activities, ensuring transparency in its engagements.
- Data-Driven Insights: With a significant dataset built from structured RFP processes, TKG provides valuable insights into sourcing decisions.
- Benchmarking Tool: TKG’s benchmarking tool offers detailed pricing intelligence across various service types, geographic regions, and languages.
- Comprehensive Pricing Factors: The tool considers factors like training durations, contract tenure, and operational variables, such as work-from-home policies, to impact pricing.
- Informed Decision-Making: TKG’s data-driven approach empowers clients to engage in well-informed discussions regarding pricing and vendor selection.
- Cloud-Based Platform: The benchmarking tool is cloud-based, ensuring secure, anonymised data storage and access for subscribing clients.
- Cost Teardown Principles: TKG utilises cost teardown principles to uncover competitive pricing beyond simple negotiation outcomes.
- Audience Reach: The data from TKG appeals to both buyers seeking competitive pricing and BPO providers looking to better understand market conditions.
- Nuanced Vendor Selection: Effective vendor selection now requires a deep understanding of various factors, beyond basic criteria like cost or location.
- Ongoing Pricing Validation: Continuous dialogue on the validity of pricing is essential for clients to ensure they secure the best value from outsourcing arrangements.
- Disrupting Traditional Sourcing: TKG aims to challenge traditional sourcing practices by leveraging robust data insights, moving away from outdated, generalised market perceptions.
Key Statistics
- 2.5 Million FTE: TKG has mapped nearly 2.5 million full-time equivalents (FTE) across diverse service types and locations.
- Weekly RFP Processes: The organisation conducts multiple RFP processes each week, steadily building a standardised dataset.
Key Discussion Points
- Transparency in Sourcing: The importance of transparency in sourcing advisory services.
- Role of Independent Advisory Firms: The role independent advisory firms play in navigating complex procurement landscapes.
- Geographic Pricing Variations: How geographic variations impact pricing even within the same country.
- Holistic Vendor Selection: The need for a comprehensive, data-driven approach to vendor selection.
- Clean Sheet Accounting: The role of clean sheet accounting principles in improving the understanding of true sourcing costs.
- Evaluating Existing Contracts: The distinctions between sourcing services and assessing whether current contracts offer competitive value.
- Customer Service Pricing Evolution: How pricing in the customer service sector is evolving amid technological integration.
- Shifting BPO Sourcing Expectations: Changing expectations from organisations when sourcing BPO services.
- Cultural and Operational Impact: The significance of cultural and operational factors on service delivery and pricing.
- Advanced Data Analytics: The advantages of leveraging advanced data analytics for improved decision-making in procurement.
- Market Awareness: The necessity for ongoing market awareness to stay attuned to dynamic pricing landscapes.
- Innovating BPO Practices: TKG’s strategies to foster innovation and disrupt traditional BPO practices.
Podcast Description
In this episode of The CX Files, hosts Mark Hillary and Peter Ryan sit down with Joel Walker, co-founder and managing director at The Knowledge Group (TKG). They discuss the evolving BPO industry landscape and the challenges associated with vendor selection in 2025. The conversation highlights TKG’s cutting-edge benchmarking tool, which draws on extensive data to inform sourcing decisions, identify effective pricing strategies, and promote transparency in the procurement process. Key topics include the factors shaping outsourcing dynamics and the critical importance of data-informed decision-making for maintaining a competitive edge.
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