Previous Events

Predictions & Future-Proofing the Industry

The Global Technology & Business Services Council (GT&BSC) came together to understand how the industry navigates this time of really dramatic change. And that dramatic change comes from what's going on with changes of governments all around the world, the different geopolitical shifts, and of course, the impact that AI is going to be having on our industry.

The session highlighted a projected market growth for BPO, ITO, and professional services from $1.1 trillion in 2024 to nearly $1.5 trillion by 2027, emphasizing the need for service providers to adapt beyond traditional outsourcing models in an AI-driven environment. Experts underscored the importance of addressing the skills gap, enhancing customer experiences, and leveraging technology for operational efficiency.

Key discussions included navigating industry uncertainties, the significance of DEI and ESG in impact sourcing, and the role of continuous learning and collaboration among industry players.

Sustainable Strategic Sourcing Summit

The Sustainable Strategic Sourcing Summit brought together thought leaders, procurement professionals, sustainability experts, and technology innovators to explore the evolving landscape of the industry.

The focus was on how organisations can integrate Agile Sourcing, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Directive Reporting, ESG across the Supply Chain, Supplier Diversity, and Responsible AI into their sourcing strategies to drive sustainability, mitigate risks, and foster long-term value.

Agile Sourcing Working Group

Our goal is to bring together a diverse group of experts/advisors with deep experience in strategic sourcing to share insights, discuss common challenges, and collaborate on developing industry-leading best practices for agile sourcing for the whole industry to use, with the express aim that agile sourcing is more widely adopted when it is appropriate and always implemented well. We are aware that it is a minefield for many much of the time.

GSA Awards 2024

The Global Sourcing Association is delighted to announce the 2024 GSA Awards winners! The winners were announced on Tuesday 11th June at the GSA Awards Ceremony at the Richmond Hill Hotel.

Global Sourcing Association CEO, Kerry Hallard said:

“This industry continues to amaze me with the innovative and highly transformative programmes undertaken by partnerships around the world. The calibre of submissions continues to improve year on year and as a result of these Awards we have a fantastic new repository of examples of best practice.”

GSA's Festival of Sourcing & Launch of FormIGA

This year's annual Festival of Sourcing marked  the launch of our Industry for Good Day - where buyers, providers and advisors came together to discuss and agree how the technology and business services sector can do better for businesses, people and planet.

The UK launch event for FormIGA - the Joint Venture between the IAOP (US) and GSA (UK) that will mark the forming of the Industry for Good Alliance.

Impact Sourcing Webinar

industry that has given long-term and meaningful employment to all sorts of disadvantaged communities – In fact, the outsourcing industry has now created millions of jobs around the world and is a major contributor to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal (UN SDG) of eradicating global poverty.

Here at the GSA, we know there is increasing confusion around the term Impact Sourcing. We also know there is a degree of “social washing” going on. But we also know that lots of buyers want to have some of their work delivered by impact workers, to do their bit towards the UN’s SDGs and many service providers want to bring an impact workforce into their talent pools – but neither know where to start.

The Launch of GSA’s Service Provider Sustainability Index (SPSI) and ESG Digital Companion

The GSA’s SPSI offers an industry first global industry standard approach to ESG reporting that will enable the technology and business services industry – and all the players within it – to understand how well it is (they are) performing across the ESG landscape and where they excel and where they need to improve, with a specially formulated and weighted questionnaire designed for our industry.

North East Sourcing Summit

On March 7th, the GSA brought its sustainability symposium to Newcastle, hosting the North East Sourcing Summit in partnership with Aspire Technology Solutions.

Together, we shared best practices and thought leadership in the Technology and Business Services industry to advance sourcing practices.

GSA's Sustainable Sourcing Symposium

This year’s Symposium was hosted by our executive member DLA Piper and the theme was ‘Sustainable Sourcing’  We had over 20 distinguished industry professionals sharing their insights - involving buyers, service providers and advisors who brought thought leadership, best practice and real-life examples pertaining to the sustainable buying and delivery of technology and business services, as well as their views on the future of the industry.

GSA's Xmas Celebration

Predictions for 2024: Based on the outputs from the GSA- Global Sourcing Association workstreams, the discussions across the membership community and feedback at our lively and immersive Xmas lunch.

GSA UK Awards

The Global Sourcing Association is delighted to announce the 2023 GSA UK Awards winners! The winners were announced on Tuesday 4^th July at the GSA UK Awards Ceremony at the Grand Connaught Rooms in London.

Global Sourcing Association CEO, Kerry Hallard said: “I’m incredibly proud of our industry. It was fabulous to see just how much the industry continues to progress at speed. The consistent themes that came from the GSA Awards submissions were all very much on partnership, collaboration, co-creation and trust with teams working together to deliver real tangible benefits back to the business. Congratulations to all those shortlisted and of course, to the winners!”

Supplier Diversity Day 2023

Supplier Diversity Day consisted of a morning looking at the progress corporates have made and the challenges and opportunities they face through supplier diversity. Open to corporates to develop best practice and open to diverse suppliers to learn more. The afternoon focused on diverse suppliers, how to win RFPs and how to increase inclusivity and remove exclusivity. Open to diverse suppliers to learn from corporates and open to corporates to learn from the diverse suppliers.

Festival of Sourcing 2023

The Festival of Sourcing took a deep dive into all things modern sourcing covering topics that are affecting the industry. This includes Sustainability, Environment and The Journey to Net Zero, & Impact Sourcing. Industry experts shared their views but panel discussions were also to get different perspectives on modern sourcing such as the legal and analyst and advisor panels.

Procurement Outsourcing

Businesses today are opting for procurement outsourcing to improve efficiency, generate cost savings, reduce risk, and improve supplier relationships.

View our event here where we took a look at best practice as well as the opportunities and challenges faced when outsourcing your procurement function from real case studies.

GSA Standard Terms Launch

The GSA's intention in commissioning Standard Terms was to generate a generic supply contract which could be considered to represent a relatively balanced position as between the competing interests of customer and supplier in a procurement relationship, thereby creating a contract which sourcing industry participants could use with the confidence that the provisions are a reasonable middle ground.

Agile Sourcing

Agile sourcing requires a shift in mindset, maturity and openness and isn’t an overnight fix, but utilisation can deliver a great return on investment and optimise cycle times. This event demystified agile sourcing and break it down to its simplest form – a highly collaborative set of accelerators in the sourcing process.

In order to implement an agile sourcing strategy, companies should focus on developing the skills of their sourcing team, investing in technology that supports collaboration and real-time communication, and establishing clear processes and guidelines. First and foremost, it’s important to understand the key fundamentals of agile sourcing and then to pick the right projects to take down this path.

Buying and Contracting for New Tech

There is a huge demand from our buyside community to understand how contracting for new technologies is turning on its head and traditional approaches are no longer fit for purpose.

The GSA responded by bringing together an expert line up of speakers to present their views and engage in a provocative debate on what the professionals in our space need to be thinking about. 

Impact Sourcing: The Art of the Possible

If there’s one thing you should be looking at within your ESG strategy this year, it should be impact sourcing. The global technology and business services industry is very well placed to lead the charge in this area and make great strides towards eradicating poverty – a key UN Sustainable Development Goal.

Whether you are a buyer, a service provider or an advisor, you need to take responsibility here and with immediate effect – and we share how in this webinar.

Global Technology & Business Services Council Global Industry Predictions

The global technology and business services industry has enjoyed 2 years of huge growth, but is this the end of the road for double digit growth? With recent mass layoffs across several technology firms will we witness slowed growth, no growth or even an industry recession? Industry experts from around the globe gather to pool their thoughts on the future of the technology and business services industry.

Partner Event: Philippines’ Virtual International Innovation Summit (IIS)

Last week, CEO of the GSA, Kerry Hallard joined with her colleagues from the Global Technology & Business Services Council (GT&BSC) to speak at the Philippines’ Virtual International Innovation Summit (IIS), hosted by the IT & Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP) and organised in collaboration with Everest Group.  The panel addressed the global talent crisis, the great resignation, rising attrition rates and potential solutions to these issues we are currently facing as an industry.

ESG Adoption

There is an immediate requirement to understand sustainability throughout the supply chain with it being such a huge agenda item for the industry right now. Chaired by Kerry Hallard, CEO of the GSA, we hear from Hemant Puthli, Managing Director and Partner at Neo Group, Marcia Balisciano, Global Head of ESG and Corporate Responsibility at RELX and Becky Clissmann, Managing Director at the Chancery Lane Project.

Pricing & Attrition

According to Everest Group, 43% of service providers are actively seeking to increase prices on existing contracts. 12% have received an increase whilst 11% have been declined an increase. Globally there has been an average of a 6% increase in price requested by service providers.

Chaired by Kerry Hallard, CEO of the GSA, this webinar was dedicated to looking at the subject of pricing and we heard from speakers Ricky Sundrani, Vice President at Everest Group and Mark Crichard, Partner at RPC.

GSA Strategic Sourcing Symposium: Sourcing Predictions and 2022 Manifesto Launch

The GSA manifesto sets out the best practice it aims to develop and deliver over the next 12 months, as we plan for what will be our 35^th anniversary; our biggest year yet! Expect discussions on talent, wellbeing and attrition, changes to contracting, all things ESG, open talent and ethics in technology sourcing, among others.

Hear the GSA council present its round up on the year gone by, its predictions for the year ahead and its manifesto for its programme of work to support the industry moving forward.

GSA Strategic Sourcing Symposium: Emerging Talent 

Our industry is on a positive trajectory for growth, but we are in danger of not being able to fulfil the work that our customers are seeking, with the huge scarcity of talent we are currently facing. Overselling and underdelivering will create a negative reputation, not just for individual companies, but our industry as a whole.

We need to attract more talent into our industry and start delivering the work that our customers need...

GSA Strategic Sourcing Symposium: Responsible Automation and The Future of Work

Our industry is currently facing a global talent crisis. Automation must be seen as a key solution, freeing up skilled people to be repurposed across organisations. But which roles are being automated out and what new roles do organisations need to reskill for? Not only do we need to move on this today if we are to be able to deliver to the required programs of change, but we need to do it properly and ensure workers are being reskilled to address the needs for the future of work...

GSA Strategic Sourcing Symposium: ESG

ESG is a business imperative and supporting ESG isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s good for business too. But many companies are early stage in their own programmes let alone know how to evaluate the ESG ratings of their supply chains.

Companies are seeing ESG as a massive growth area, with PwC recently announcing that it would spend $12 billion over five years to create 100,000 new jobs aimed at helping its clients grapple with climate and diversity reporting. This huge acceleration of ESG focus addresses key issues such as climate change, human rights abuses and responsible resource...

GSA Strategic Sourcing Symposium: Open Talent Presidential Debate - Is the Service Provider going to Win the War on Talent?

We firmly believe that Open Talent is the biggest game changer for our industry since the advent of offshoring over 20 years ago. Our industry is facing a major supply and demand issue, with there being a talent shortage across much of the world. Businesses large and small are struggling to find the skills they require. Along with that, we’re in the epicentre of the great resignation, with the cost of attrition, replacement and reskilling being a huge burden for many organisations....

Lunch & Learn: Ethics in AI and Socially Responsible Intelligent Automation

Most of us don't realise how much AI is used in our everyday lives, making decisions that impact us every day. Companies have increased their focus to drive automation and data-driven decision-making across their organisations. As AI develops, instances of unfair outcomes have come to light. The procurement professional has a critical role in safeguarding their company and their company’s customers when procuring these technologies.

Sustainable Procurement Pledge (SPP) - Lunch & Learn 

In this session, Kerry Hallard, CEO at the GSA, speaks to Thomas Udesen, CPO at Bayer and Co-Founder of the SPP, as he introduces the Sustainable Procurement Pledge. Thomas will share why it’s important to sign the pledge and how doing so can change the future.

GSA & GSOS: Intelligent Automation Exchange Launch

The GSA has heard time and time again from our enterprise buyers that they want to partner with smaller, innovative businesses but they don’t know how to find them. So, we listened! The GSA is excited to announce its partnership with GSOS (Global Sourcing Optimization Services), a US-based boutique advisory firm focused on assisting unique start-up/early-stage companies involved in bringing digital innovation through intelligent automation to enterprises worldwide.

Open Talent Forum - Service Providers Embracing Open Talent

In this session, we spoke to George Gallant from Wipro who shared how Topcoder works, what the differentiator is, how it’s been integrated within Wipro, how clients are adopting it, what the benefits and challenges have been, and we’ll also take a look at how the service is likely to develop as human cloud models gain increasing momentum and marketplaces become ‘enterprise ready’.

Entrepreneurs Club - How to Respond to an RFP

The GSA is mindful of how important smaller players are in bringing agility, flexibility and innovation to its members’ organisations. There are plenty of blockers that don’t make partnering easy for either side. For the smaller players, it is difficult to initially find opportunities and then get a foot in the door, for a multitude of reasons, to include corporate due diligence processes and unrealistically high revenue levels required.

SourcingTech - Virtual Reality

This session looked at the art of the possible with Virtual Reality, which is set to be a game changer for business, and how the creation of a completely immersive environment can create massive opportunity. Our speakers shared their journey's in implementing virtual reality and what they think the future of this new tech looks like. 

Women in Sourcing - Supporting the Menopause

This panel discussed how companies can create a positive culture in the workplace to ensure women can be vocal about the menopause, can raise awareness of the symptoms and impacts of the menopause and detailed what resources are out there to support employees going through the menopause.

SourcingTech Series - Does Artificial Intelligence have Artificial Expectations?

In this webinar our expert speakers debunk AI myths and misconceptions, look at the right way to develop an AI strategy for your business, explain the challenges and threats faced along the AI journey and give some user case examples of AI in practice.

Click here to see more about this event.

5G 

The latest in the GSA SourcingTech series is all about 5G in the current climate. Our expert speakers provide a definition of 5G and how it differs from other new emerging technologies, the benefits and opportunities that 5G brings to business, the role of spectrum in 5G networks and how to bring this new technology into your Strategic Sourcing Function. 

Click here to see more about this event.

The Importance of Sales Trilogy in Partnership with durhamlane - Spend Time Where you can be Most Successful - It's up to you!

The last in the durhamlane trilogy of webinars to highlight the importance of selling, especially in the ever changing, increasingly virtual world we now live in. This webinar led by Richard Lane and Luke Robinson reveals how you can properly qualify the deals in your pipeline.

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Artificial Intelligence 

Part of the SourcingTech Series all about Artificial Intelligence. A collaboration of speakers focused on demystifying the use of AI and how to implement this technology.

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The Importance of Sales Trilogy in Partnership with durhamlane - How to Run an Effective Meeting

Part Two of the durhamlane trilogy of webinars to highlight the importance of selling, especially in the ever changing, increasingly virtual world we now live in. This webinar led by Luke Robinson focuses on the importance of preparation and mastering technology.

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The Importance of Sales Trilogy in Partnership with durhamlane - Selling on Value in a Virtual Environment

The GSA have worked in partnership with durhamlane to create a trilogy of webinars to highlight the importance of selling, especially in the ever changing, increasingly virtual world we now live in. 

Click here to see more about this event.