Read the case study on Proctor and Gamble - A Model of Innovative Outsourcing. offering contracts for new initiatives to the outsourcing partner.

For example, Accenture helped P&G develop the Decision Cockpit, an online portal through which global teams could share and analyze data in real time. Accenture had the knowledge and experience to scale the system, giving P&G greater agility. Furthermore, through the joint planning team, the two companies reduced the number of daily and monthly reports that some managers were required to review from 370 to 30. The innovation reduced management costs by 50 percent for some business units and saved over 400 miles of paper annually.

As a result of the success of this and other joint projects, P&G looked to Accenture to help consolidate and enhance the companys virtual solutions. P&Gs virtual reality centers are used to create and test shelving, packaging, and in-store design. In the past, explains GBSs Director of Business Intelligence Patrick Kern, a test group of consumers would go into a physical space we configured like a grocery store to go on a shopping experience. Watching their behavior in store and conducting a focus group after, wed learn why they chose what they chose and how packaging and shelf position impacted their buying decision. You can imagine how expensive it is to put up these stores, from setting up shelves for different configurations to getting all the product there.

The virtual solutions substantially reduced cost; however, P&G noticed that service delivery was highly fragmented as different outsource partners implemented the virtual solutions. So, P&G awarded Accenture a multiyear contract to manage all of P&Gs virtual solutions content delivery, freeing up P&G to focus on other areas of innovation. As a result of this long-term successful collaboration, the Outsourcing Centeran online repository of white papers, articles, Webinars, market intelligence, and news on outsourcingawarded P&G and Accenture the Outstanding Excellence Award in the Most Innovative category in 2013.

That said, P&Gs decision to outsource GBS initiatives cost thousands of Americans their jobs, white collar jobs that until the turn of the twentieth century had remained in the United States. P&G, along with IBM and Microsoft, led the pack in outsourcing U.S. jobs to India and other countries that were home to a workforce with sufficient technological expertise and English-language skills. However, in 2013, reports were leaked indicating that P&G was planning to backsourceor bring back in-housesome of the IT work it had been outsourcing. Some analysts argued that P&G was succumbing to pressure, like General Motors, to repatriate jobs and boost employment in the United States. Others argued that P&G was seeking to gain control over crucial IT functions that impacted its competitive positioning in the market.

Yet, even if P&G backsources some of its IT functions, it still remains deeply committed to outsourcing. By deeply involving its outsourcing partners in every stage of its projects, P&G promotes what they call a win-win strategy. Today, many analysts view Procter and Gamble as a model of successful outsourcing strategy.

Answer the following questions: 1. How did P&Gs decision to centralize and standardize global business services in the 1990s enable it to effectively outsource business services starting in 2003? 2. How has outsourcing benefited both P&G and its strategic outsourcing partners? 3. How does P&Gs strategic alliance management system help it avoid the pitfalls of outsourcing? What risks does the system not address? 4. Procter and Gamble generated $83 billion in sales worldwide in 2013. What advantage does this give it in negotiating outsourcing contracts with its strategic partners? Can smaller companies achieve similar outsourcing success with a smart outsourcing strategy? Why or why not? 5. What lessons can large companies and governments take away from P&Gs success with outsourcing?

Use MS Word formatted according to APA guidelines to compose your answers.