Future of Sourcing - China http://futureofsourcing.com/tags/china en Five Technologies to Future Proof Supply Chain Inspections http://futureofsourcing.com/five-technologies-to-future-proof-supply-chain-inspections <div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="http://futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/articles/5%20Technologies%20to%20Future%20Proof%20Supply%20Chain%20Inspections%20%281%29.png"><a href="http://futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/articles/5%20Technologies%20to%20Future%20Proof%20Supply%20Chain%20Inspections%20%281%29.png" title="Five Technologies to Future Proof Supply Chain Inspections" class="colorbox" rel="gallery-node-2084-JEnMSSV05Jw"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/styles/juicebox_medium/public/articles/5%20Technologies%20to%20Future%20Proof%20Supply%20Chain%20Inspections%20%281%29.png?itok=WgUpK4IO" width="624" height="325" alt="Five Technologies to Future Proof Supply Chain Inspections" title="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-intro field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"> <h1>Five Technologies to Future Proof Supply Chain Inspections</h1> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-related-news field-type-entityreference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Related news:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/new-trends-and-challenges-for-sourcing">New Trends and Challenges For Sourcing</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p>The COVID-19 pandemic has jolted digital transformation into overdrive, with technology adoption enabling businesses across industries to accommodate remote work and operations. But now more than 18 months into the crisis, businesses that source globally remain ensnared by rampant order delays, factory lockdowns, persistent transit challenges, rising costs and debilitating mass shortages.</p> <p>To raise resiliency and thrive post-pandemic, businesses with a global sourcing footprint must continue to accelerate the digital transformation journey. As poor quality and non-conformities can have severe impacts on business value, leading businesses will be the ones that innovate by implementing digital quality and supplier management solutions and driving real-time, data-based decision-making. This way, they can prevent risks of volatile supply and demand patterns, while still protecting essential quality and compliance measures as they rebuild their supplier networks.</p> <p>However, with so many tools and platforms on the market, choosing where to go next can be a daunting task. The following are five key technologies and functions that businesses should prioritize as they digitize inspections across their supply chains.</p> <h2>Cloud Computing and Remote Connectivity</h2> <p>With inspections being done offsite and often in multiple locations, businesses need easy-to-deploy software solutions that can be operated without extensive support from the IT department and can work within their existing IT ecosystem. Ideally, the inspection solution can integrate across devices on the cloud and plug in to existing PLM and ERP solutions via APIs. In doing so, data can be centralized, removing data duplication and the errors that can come with it.</p> <p>Another key feature for digital inspections is the ability to function offline or with limited internet connection. As brands diversify their sourcing footprint to new geographies, they must consider varying digital ecosystems. With so many factories and inspection sites lacking internet connectivity, platforms that require an internet connection are basically obsolete and potentially detrimental to the inspection process.</p> <h2>Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning</h2> <p>When it comes to safeguarding a business&rsquo;s sourcing footprint, the most valuable data is generated daily on the factory floors. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) help businesses achieve real-time visibility of vital metrics such as product quality, compliance and supplier performance. Through the use of these technologies the supply chain team can turn data from various sources into actionable insights, empower more informed decision-making and accurately assess risk that may affect their supply chain, now and in the future.</p> <p>An innovative application of machine learning and artificial intelligence for quality control is the use of voice command technology to perform time-consuming measurements. While still making headway in the supply chain space, voice tech has already proven itself to be far more than a passing technology trend.</p> <p>Most digital inspection platforms in today&rsquo;s marketplace use IoT-connected rulers and other automation measures. But these tools require businesses to additionally invest in dedicated devices for all factories and provide intensive training to all employees or suppliers involved in the process. When supply chains engage hundreds or thousands of parties, this becomes a costly endeavor.</p> <p>Moreover, the precision between devices is inconsistent, with up to a 10% delta between two measurements, according to QIMAone data. In the long-term, such a wide margin of error presents grim implications for quality control and process efficiency.</p> <p>Unless other connected devices that require additional costly investments and intensive training, measurements powered with voice recognition require minimal onboarding. Notably, there&rsquo;s a low learning curve as most people are already familiar with the functions of speech recognition technology thanks to devices like Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa. By infusing the inspection process with accurate speech recognition capabilities, the inspectors, armed with just a tablet or other mobile device, can simply speak up and upload their data directly and immediately to a cloud-based system.</p> <h2>Predictive Quality Analytics&nbsp;</h2> <p>Predictive quality analytics (PQA) anticipates the impact of high-risk events and pinpoints root causes, leading to reduced quality issues and a stronger pulse on products and raw materials. To be successfully deployed, PQA needs clean, reliable and standardized large amounts of data collected along the supply chain &ndash; from raw material factories to assembly suppliers, warehouses and retail stores</p> <p>Essentially, &nbsp;digitization enables easier and more effective data collection and analysis &ndash; core to supply chain decision-making, collecting insights at every touchpoint and illuminating real-time visibility from factory floor to shelf. However, while algorithms can be intricate and specialized, data must be accessible and actionable for a business&rsquo;s decision-makers.</p> <p>When data summaries are available and manageable in a single place, rather than across multiple systems that don&rsquo;t sync up or communicate with each other, businesses can continuously ingest insights and take action accordingly. For example, through performance tracking insights, they can review individual supplier and inspector metrics to easily identify the best and worst performers across their sourcing footprint. With risk radar, they can build a risk profile for each supplier and factory, which helps anticipate problems sooner rather than later.</p> <h2>Automation</h2> <p>To complement data analytics, automation should use a balanced model that empowers suppliers with intelligent design and third-party monitoring. There are three fundamental functions of automation: risk-mitigation, decision-making and reporting.</p> <p>With data-based decision-making based on AQL criteria, a platform can automatically suggest a result (pass or fail) and accept or refuse a shipment for pre-shipment inspection (PSI). Proactive alerts can be automatically triggered, along with corrective and preventative action plans to suppliers to identify the root cause and solve the issue as quickly as possible. Finally, an inspection report can be automatically issued and used in a standardized format populated with all of the data collected during the inspection.</p> <p>Moreover, a digital platform can change the back-end processes for how inspections are scheduled. A &ldquo;smart booking&rdquo; function leverages advanced risk management to automatically assign inspections to a business&rsquo;s internal inspectors or supplier&rsquo;s staff. When indicators show potential integrity issues &ldquo;on the ground&rdquo; with suppliers, the platform can trigger an inspection with third-party experts.</p> <p>By automating inspection allocation based on location, product expertise, teams&rsquo; schedules and severity of the issue, businesses maximize their resources and save time in the long term.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <h2>Collaborative Network</h2> <p>Whether navigating disruptions spurred by the <a href="https://www.supplychaindive.com/news/china-supply-chains-procurement-sourcing-resilience-vietnam/606321/" target="_blank">U.S.-China trade war</a> or the pandemic, businesses have learned that they cannot succeed alone and must prioritize supplier relationship management (SRM). Against volatile consumer demand and economic uncertainty, SRM is perhaps the single most critical differentiator that will decide supply chain success or failure.</p> <p>To successfully digitize supply chain inspections and assert strong SRM, businesses must loop suppliers into a computer-based collaborative network so they can bring together entities that are autonomous, geographically distributed and heterogenous in their operations. While entities may vary in culture, values and social capital, a collaborative network brings them together on a computer network so they can better achieve common goals.</p> <p>A collaborative network allows a business to bring their suppliers on board the digital transformation journey. This way, meaningful benefits are unlocked for all parties. For example, a digital inspection program can be bolstered by innovative features such as integrated inspector apps, actionable insights, automation tools, configurable workflows, API integration and interactive reporting. To strengthen supplier onboarding, many digital platforms also offer training courses on operational workflows and best practices.</p> <p>In <a href="https://www.qimaone.com/" target="_blank">QIMAone&rsquo;s annual survey</a>, supplier communication and quality were cited as serious issues by 59% and 41% of respondents, respectively. However, compared to their peers, businesses with highly digitized supply chains cut concerns of supplier communications and quality in half, according to QIMA data. Providing collaborative training and onboarding as part of digital transformation will help businesses overcome challenges and future proof their SRM framework, instilling the supply chain with the &ldquo;3Ts&rdquo; of trust, transparency and teamwork.</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/artificial-intelligence-ai" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Artificial Intelligence (AI)</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/machine-learning" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Machine Learning</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/qima" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">QIMA</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/china" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">China</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-addthis field-type-addthis field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style " addthis:title="Five Technologies to Future Proof Supply Chain Inspections - Future of Sourcing" addthis:url="http://futureofsourcing.com/five-technologies-to-future-proof-supply-chain-inspections"><a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_linkedin"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_facebook"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_twitter"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_googleplus"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_pinterest_share"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_reddit"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_email"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_print"></a> </div> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-region field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Region:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/regions/global" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Global</a></div></div></div> Tue, 16 Nov 2021 02:00:00 +0000 Sébastien Breteau 2084 at http://futureofsourcing.com http://futureofsourcing.com/five-technologies-to-future-proof-supply-chain-inspections#comments New Trends and Challenges For Sourcing http://futureofsourcing.com/new-trends-and-challenges-for-sourcing <div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="http://futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/articles/New%20Trends%20and%20Challenges%20For%20Sourcing.png"><a href="http://futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/articles/New%20Trends%20and%20Challenges%20For%20Sourcing.png" title="New Trends and Challenges For Sourcing" class="colorbox" rel="gallery-node-2056-JEnMSSV05Jw"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/styles/juicebox_medium/public/articles/New%20Trends%20and%20Challenges%20For%20Sourcing.png?itok=LBX2Mjbf" width="624" height="325" alt="New Trends and Challenges For Sourcing" title="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-intro field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"> <h1>New Trends and Challenges For Sourcing</h1> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-related-news field-type-entityreference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Related news:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/the-three-pillars-of-successful-supply-chain-risk-management">The Three Pillars of Successful Supply Chain Risk Management</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p>With the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/global-recovery-accelerates-but-delta-variant-clouds-outlook-11627034563" target="_blank">COVID-19 Delta variant threatening pandemic recovery</a> around the world, brands that source products globally are facing supply chain challenges in a business landscape mired by transit limitations, factory shutdowns, surging shipping costs, delays, labor shortages and rampant supply shortages. As brands shuffle to meet volatile consumer demand, recent data on <a href="https://www.qima.com/qima-news/2021-q3-barometer-china-recovery-slows" target="_blank">inspection activity</a> and digital transformation initiatives outline the most recent trends that are reshaping sourcing and supply chain strategies.</p> <h2>Virus Resurgence Threatens China&rsquo;s Remarkable Rebound</h2> <p>Building on momentum after a promising first quarter, China&rsquo;s sourcing footprint continued to gain ground through the second quarter and recorded growth that exceeded 2019 levels, according to a <a href="https://www.qima.com/qima-news/2021-q3-barometer-china-recovery-slows" target="_blank">quarterly inspection and audit report.</a></p> <p>Demand for inspections and audits in China expanded by a colossal 34% year-over-year (YoY) in the second quarter of 2021, which represents 21% growth when compared to the same time period during 2019 &ndash; long before the COVID-19 pandemic tore apart global supply chains.</p> <p>However, with the world still entrenched in the pandemic and all eyes on the Delta variant, China&rsquo;s stunning rebound is putting a gentle foot on the brakes. The pace of expansion decelerated through the second quarter, slowing from 25% growth in April (compared to 2019 figures) down to 20% growth in May and then 17% growth in June.&nbsp;</p> <p>Unfortunately for China, the interest of Western buyers in its sourcing largely follows the same downhill trend &ndash; especially for North American buyers. While demand from U.S.-based brands for inspections in China was up by 10% in the second quarter (when compared to the second quarter of 2019), the pace of the rebound has also been losing steam on a month-to-month basis.</p> <p><span style="font-size: 13.008px;">While China&rsquo;s rebound in sourcing has been remarkable, it is worth noting that the recovery has not touched all consumer goods industries the same way. For example, while homewares and electronics recorded double-digit YoY growth in the first half of 2021 (compared to both 2020 and 2019), inspection and audit demand is still trailing behind pre-pandemic levels in some of the country&rsquo;s key sectors, such as eyewear and the clothing (textile and apparel) industries.&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></p> <h2>Sourcing Demand in South Asia Skyrockets</h2> <p>After a disastrous 2020, when clothing brands sat on mountains of <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/f030f125-0a15-4097-bb5f-4b0543544ec3" target="_blank">unsold inventory worth billions of dollars</a>, the textile and apparel sector is in comeback mode. As consumers emerge from quarantines and reenter public spaces, the clothing industry has compensated for its aforementioned reduced interest in China with continued expansion through various sourcing markets elsewhere in Asia.</p> <p>In particular, South Asia&rsquo;s established markets are recording explosive growth, with demand for inspections in textiles and apparel up 81% in India and 66% in Bangladesh in the first half of 2021 when compared to pre-pandemic 2019, according to the quarterly inspection and audit report.&nbsp;</p> <p>Growing demand for textile inspections was also recorded in markets of Southeast Asia (including Cambodia, Indonesia and Vietnam), South and Latin America (including Mexico, Haiti and Guatemala) and the Mediterranean (including Turkey, Morocco, Jordan and Egypt). Markedly, while the latter region has traditionally been favored as a sourcing market for European-based buyers, the second quarter of 2021 saw it recording an uptick in inspections and audits from U.S. buyers.</p> <p>The growth in these alternative markets suggest that brands remain focused on diversifying sourcing from new markets to circumvent sustained pandemic delays and alleviate uncertainties about the future.</p> <h2>Soaring Demand from Western Buyers</h2> <p>As the sourcing industry in multiple sectors and regions continues to defy the pandemic slump and vigorously climbs upward, some markets in Southeast Asia are benefiting from exceptionally high buyer interest. For example, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia and Thailand all recorded double-digit growth in demands for inspections and audits in the second quarter, according to the quarterly inspection and audit report.</p> <p>Cambodia, in particular, remains high on the list of go-to alternative sourcing markets for U.S. buyers. In the second quarter of 2021, volumes for inspections and audits in Cambodia shot up nearly 100% compared to 2020; when compared to pre-pandemic 2019, 2021 volumes in the second quarter still represented a 23% YoY increase.</p> <h2>Digitization Illuminates Blind Spots and Enhances Quality Control</h2> <p>Up to 77% of companies admit to having sourcing blind spots in their supply chains, according to a recent survey of global brands from our digital and technology division QIMAone, and two-thirds report that they don&rsquo;t have streamlined communications in place with their suppliers.</p> <p>When you couple this lack of transparency with supplier delays &ndash; like we continue to see amid pandemic disruptions &ndash; it spells out disaster for a brand&rsquo;s sourcing footprint. Inevitably, to be successful, brands must illuminate these blind spots and achieve end-to-end supply chain visibility, particularly in the inspection process.</p> <p>Being successful on this front may require a shift in operational priorities, however. While pricing and perceived value have traditionally been seen as the main drivers of consumer trends, brands may be surprised to learn how influential quality measures are on the bottom line too. Poor quality costs can add up heftily and account for up to <a href="https://asq.org/quality-resources/cost-of-quality" target="_blank">40% of operational expenses</a> when there&rsquo;s an underlying problem.</p> <p>Moreover, some brands may be unprepared to level up quality control programs in an evolving consumer marketplace. According to a <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/survey-us-consumer-sentiment-during-the-coronavirus-crisis" target="_blank">recent survey on consumer sentiment</a>, product quality was found to be a key driver for 40% of younger consumers, suggesting that the focus on quality will continue to sharpen into the future.</p> <p>Considering the mounting prominence of quality, the case for sourcing digitization is quite compelling: 14% of brands say that product quality issues have a &ldquo;very serious impact&rdquo; on their business; but for those with highly digitized supply chains and sourcing processes, this number is cut down to just 7%.</p> <h2>Looking Ahead: Balancing Diversification With Compliance Objectives</h2> <p>Unfortunately, according to historical inspection and audit data, a sudden surge in export volumes has brands diversify sourcing markets &ndash; such as what we&rsquo;re seeing in South Asia and Southeast Asia &ndash; often comes at the cost of quality and ethical missteps, including compromised worker safety.</p> <p>This correlation is once again rearing its ugly head as brands try to move to the other side of pandemic recovery, according to data gathered by structural engineers during field audits at reopened factories. Among the factories inspected for structural, fire and electrical safety thus far in 2021, two-thirds were found in need of remediation, according to the quarterly inspection and audit report. Fire safety was a particularly dire concern, with over half of the factories audited in the first half of 2021 requiring improvements in the near term.</p> <p>Meanwhile, ethical compliance overall continues to plummet at an alarming rate, with average ethical scores dwindling by a further 4% (when compared to the first quarter of 2021) to scrape a three-year low. These troubling figures show that the ongoing specter of the pandemic &ndash; as factories globally struggle to reorganize, recoup and adapt to volatile consumer demand cycles &ndash; threatens to undo much of the pivots and improvements that brands made toward ethical supply chains in the pre-pandemic period.</p> <p>To forge ahead safely and responsibly in today&rsquo;s uncertain sourcing landscape, brands must prioritize human rights, environmental sustainability and quality in their recovery programs &ndash; or risk facing costly lawsuits, hefty fines, operational inefficiencies and irreparable brand damage.</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/covid-19" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">COVID-19</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/china" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">China</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/sourcing" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Sourcing</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/qima" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">QIMA</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/compliance" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Compliance</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/digitalization" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Digitalization</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-addthis field-type-addthis field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style " addthis:title="New Trends and Challenges For Sourcing - Future of Sourcing" addthis:url="http://futureofsourcing.com/new-trends-and-challenges-for-sourcing"><a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_linkedin"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_facebook"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_twitter"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_googleplus"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_pinterest_share"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_reddit"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_email"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_print"></a> </div> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-region field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Region:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/regions/asiapacific" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Asia/Pacific</a></div></div></div> Wed, 22 Sep 2021 02:00:00 +0000 Sébastien Breteau 2056 at http://futureofsourcing.com http://futureofsourcing.com/new-trends-and-challenges-for-sourcing#comments TOP TEN: Wonders of the Outsourcing World http://futureofsourcing.com/node/951 <div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p>We&rsquo;re all familiar with the original Seven Wonders of the World, those marvels including the Great Pyramid and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon brought together&nbsp;as a kind of travelers&rsquo; bucket list for the ancients; probably far fewer readers, however, may be aware that there exists a parallel list of splendours enticing tourists&nbsp;from the global outsourcing community &ndash; and that in the spirit of adding value which permeates this space, this list numbers not a measly seven but a princely ten jaw-dropping&nbsp;wonders to visit, look upon and contemplate with awe.</p> <p>For the first time, Outsource now turns its gaze to these unique and frequently bizarre gems; in the latest in our Top Ten series &ndash; and in the hope of inspiring visitors to make their own pilgrimages &ndash; we present to you the Ten Wonders of the Outsourcing World&hellip; Look on these miracles, ye mighty, and despair&hellip;</p> <p><strong>1. The Great Data Lake of Mato Grosso (Mato Grosso, Brazil)</strong><br />When news first reached Europe of this jaw-dropping marvel, many of the continent&rsquo;s more cynical experts were quick to dismiss it as pure fantasy, mockingly quoting Conan Doyle&rsquo;s&nbsp;<em>The Lost World</em>&nbsp;(one especially damning pundit assuring readers that &ldquo;there are as many terabytes as pterodactyls in Mato Grosso&rdquo;). However, as the proof piled up and Brazilian service providers, hardly believing their luck, began piping raw data straight out of the jungle, those same &ldquo;experts&rdquo; were left to eat their words. Even today nobody knows for sure just how much information has been extracted from this, almost certainly the largest natural data lake on Earth &ndash; and any concerns about the ramifications of decades of uncontrolled extraction tend to be dismissed with scoffs and the occasional extra-judicial &ldquo;disappearance&rdquo;.</p> <p><strong>2. The Great Glass Pyramid (Bangalore, India)</strong><br />&ldquo;Though I have not beheld it for myself,&rdquo; wrote Herodotus, the &lsquo;Father of History&rsquo;, &ldquo;I have heard merchants tell of another pyramid far to the east, the equal of Cheops&rsquo; wonder in grandeur. It is said that from one side to another it measures eight miles, perfectly straight, wrought in a magical transparent stone those who dwell there call &lsquo;glass&rsquo;. Yet this marvel is hardly the shadow of its Egyptian relation in height for it rises barely twelve cubits from its outer edge to its centre, whereupon sits another pyramid, hardly a man&rsquo;s stride broad yet soaring precipitously unto the heavens and unreachable through normal means from that below it; and though countless men have tried scaling the sheer walls of this pinnacle hardly any reach the peak; and my merchants assure me that of the very few of the fairer sex to break through the ceiling of the first pyramid none has yet ascended the second.&rdquo;</p> <p><strong>3. The Pitch-Perfect Elevator (New York, USA)</strong><br />Where could be more appropriate a setting than the notoriously understated Big Apple for the proof that &ldquo;wondrous&rdquo; doesn&rsquo;t necessarily mean &ldquo;vast&rdquo;? Visitors to the Remington-Glock Building in Upper Manhattan will find, throughout the year, a line of smartly dressed yet slightly agitated-looking outsourcing salesfolk clutching recording equipment waiting to ride in the building&rsquo;s Elevator Number Six, a superficially nondescript lift with the extraordinary (and currently unexplained by science) capability of bestowing upon its occupants for the duration of their upward journeys absolute eloquence and unsurpassed powers of persuasion. Upon piling into the elevator and hearing the doors slide shut, those riding frantically begin recording themselves pitching their various solutions, the words flowing mellifluously from their mouths astounding their speakers with their forceful integrity and their impeccable reasoning. Tragically, however, upon exiting &lsquo;Slick Six&rsquo; and with trembling hands playing back their recordings, preparing to memorise their utterances and envisioning a succession of monster paydays, they invariably find that their voices are inaudible above all those of their equally desperate peers crammed into the lift, and make their way in silence back to the ground floor, to begin their Sisyphean labours once again.</p> <p><strong>4. The Upwards Waterfall (San Jose, USA)</strong><br />First sighted by Europeans in the late 1700s, San Jose&rsquo;s remarkable Upwards Waterfall was known to the indigenous inhabitants of the region for thousands of years and despite its dazzlingly beautiful appearance was considered by them to be diabolical in origin: its name amongst the native Yokuts people translates as &ldquo;rising tears of the demon who devours the time of men&rdquo;. Its place in IT legend was of course cemented during the &lsquo;Summer of Love&rsquo; of 1967 when a group of hippies camping within sight of the phenomenon, whacked out of their minds on acid, became transfixed by the eerie sight of the iridescent water defying gravity for the 63 feet of the &ldquo;fall&rdquo; and over the course of several hours of chanting (and, according to Murphy McMurphy Jr., author of&nbsp;<em>Phlower Power: LSD and the PC</em>, &ldquo;a certain quantity of intimate touching&rdquo;) created a sequential design process for software development that would change the world.</p> <p><strong>5. The Valley of Eternal Cloud (Akureyri, Iceland)</strong><br />Gouged by glaciers out of Iceland&rsquo;s volcanic bedrock, the valley of Brygfyssyorkyl would offer visitors a staggeringly impressive vista were it ever wholly visible; yet it remains permanently shrouded in a digital mist formed by the world-famous binary geysers that line its seven-mile length. At most, at the very height of summer when temperatures soar to a sizzling 4 degrees centigrade, perhaps half the valley can be seen, its imposing black igneous walls rising into the greenish fog billowing from its floor; on a typical day, however, hardly a twentieth of this view is visible, and indeed those hiking through the valley will often find themselves entirely engulfed by the cloud, barely able to see three metres in front of them and almost immediately becoming saturated by data. This was the case when Outsource visited Brygfyssyorkyl last summer; instead of the stunning scenes for which we had hoped, what met our eyes was a rather stinging mixture of anonymised Cypriot medical records and a set of semi-complex actuarial tables belonging to a Portuguese insurance company. &ldquo;So much for the rigours of EU data protection!&rdquo; we harrumphed, and trudged back to Akureyri to spend several months&rsquo; salaries on a solitary communal beer.</p> <p><strong>6. The Kingphishers of Lagos (Lagos, Nigeria)</strong><br />The incredible growth of Nigeria&rsquo;s former capital &ndash; now home to over 20 million &ndash; has wreaked havoc upon its flora and fauna thanks both to construction and to the pollution which has accompanied Lagos&rsquo; expansion. However, one species stands out as a most notable exception:&nbsp;<em>Megaceryle spamfraudi</em>, the Lagos kingphisher. These crown-feathered avian marvels &ndash; whose population is estimated by some now to exceed even that of their human neighbours &ndash; are constantly to be seen swooping down from the sky and snatching credit cards, smartphones and even entire identities before winging their way triumphantly back to their nests upon cell phone towers or within bundles of well-pecked fibre optic cables. The sight of millions upon millions of these birds in flight simultaneously above Lagos is an unforgettable experience &ndash; and one which looks set to inspire onlookers for years to come since, despite the obvious threat they pose to the local economy, the authorities seem unwilling or unable to cull them to any meaningful extent, plentiful assurances to the contrary notwithstanding.</p> <p><strong>7. The Nazca Dashboard (Nazca, Peru)</strong><br />Almost everyone knows of the remarkable and mysterious Nazca Lines, huge geoglyphs carved out of the ground in the Nazca Desert of Peru: the giant images of spiders, hummingbirds and the like have captured the world&rsquo;s collective imagination and countless hypotheses have been proposed for their purpose, including plenty that could be said to sit firmly in the realm of science fantasy. However, vastly fewer people know of the Nazca Dashboard, a glyph three kilometres long and five broad divided into a series of rows and columns which a growing number of archaeologists believe represents the Nazca people&rsquo;s measurement of the progress of an ancient outsourcing agreement, the details of which are, of course, unknown to us. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s definitely KPIs, of that we are certain,&rdquo; says Nazca expert Felipe Calderon; &ldquo;however, because of the monochrome nature of the medium we remain frustrated in our understanding of how exactly the deal was going: were they red? Were they green? It&rsquo;s such a tantalising enigma and we&rsquo;re certainly many years, and several more rounds of very large UNESCO grants, away from an answer&hellip;&rdquo;.</p> <p><strong>8. Vapor Mountain (Boston, USA)</strong><br />Some 20 miles west of Boston, Massachusetts, lies one of the tallest mountains on the Eastern Seaboard &ndash; and certainly the strangest. Vapor Mountain (known to early British settlers as Mount Hype) is a genuine geological marvel: rather than being made of stone in the traditional manner, the 1,776-metre peak is formed from a unique mix of guano and hot air, appearing perfectly solid from a distance but far too insubstantial to support even the slightest weight. Visitors reaching the base of the mountain often report discovering the precise location of the transition from solid ground by accident, taking a step forward and finding themselves tumbling forward &ldquo;into&rdquo; the mountain&nbsp;itself, now covered with fine particles of the mountain&rsquo;s rather unsavoury constituent matter (given the name of &ldquo;matrix&rdquo; by befuddled scientists). For a variety of reasons Vapor Mountain presents a significant challenge to a number of very different communities, including climbers (none of whom has been able to ascend more than a few feet); the Massachusetts state authorities, most of whom consider the mountain to be evidence of witchcraft; and outsourcing prospectors lured by ancient rumours of great value hidden somewhere deep beneath the surface. As one anonymous and grizzled fortune hunter told Outsource: &ldquo;We dunno what be there, arr, but there &lsquo;as to be summat there; can&rsquo;t just be a mile o&rsquo; mess an&rsquo; nonsense, arr!&rdquo;</p> <p><strong>9. The Talent Pools of Pudong (Shanghai, China)</strong><br />Shanghai&rsquo;s explosive expansion of the last couple of decades is symbolised by, and has been most visually apparent in, the skyscrapers of the Pudong New Area on the east bank of the Huangpu River. Yet the marvels of this part of China&rsquo;s biggest city are not limited to those towering edifices: as development began in earnest at the start of the 1990s, builders discovered the first of a series of huge talent pools, hundreds of hectares in area and plunging many hundreds of metres below sea level. These subterranean wonders were initially deemed by despairing architects to be catastrophically prejudicial to the city&rsquo;s masterplan; however, wiser heads immediately saw their incalculable value and in typically pragmatic fashion the plans were amended to allow construction to be centred on those parts of the pools considered to be of less importance, which were subsequently dammed off and drained, while strategically critical areas were preserved. The Pudong Pools are now the starting-point for pipelines of fresh talent stretching many thousands of miles throughout China and beyond; fears voiced by some Party members regarding the possible pollution of the Pools through contact with the greatly increased number of foreign bodies in the city seem thus far to be unrealised.</p> <p><strong>10. The Mausoleum of Common Sense (London, UK)</strong><br />The United Kingdom&rsquo;s capital is not short of famous tombs, as anyone familiar with Westminster Abbey, for instance, can testify. However, one specific resting-place is particularly sacred ground for the global outsourcing community: the Mausoleum of Common Sense. Those journeying to pay their respects to the late and much-lamented concept invariably report being struck dumb, in more ways than one, as soon as they enter what is on the outside a fairly unremarkable example of Late Civil Service architecture; yet it is upon leaving that the building&rsquo;s truly wondrous nature becomes apparent to its visitors, as they proceed to engage in some of the most cack-handed and unbalanced outsourcing projects in human history. It is said that for every visitor to the tomb, three local government outsourcing deals fail &ndash; and, in a depressing if poetic testament to the mausoleum&rsquo;s power, representatives from the Cabinet Office who visited it in 2012, determined to restrict access in the hope of preventing future calamities, outsourced its security to a consortium comprising several small lumps of cheese and a torn-up chewing-gum wrapper: visitor rates have risen by over a third since the deal was put in place, though authorities assured Outsource last week that when the agreement expires in 2029 the incumbents will be &ldquo;under great pressure&rdquo; to cut their fees by several million pounds per year or see the contract go out to tender.</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/bangalore" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Bangalore</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/boston" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Boston</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/brazil" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Brazil</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/china" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">China</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/data" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Data</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/humor" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Humor</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-addthis field-type-addthis field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style " addthis:title="TOP TEN: Wonders of the Outsourcing World - Future of Sourcing" addthis:url="http://futureofsourcing.com/node/951"><a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_linkedin"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_facebook"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_twitter"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_googleplus"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_pinterest_share"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_reddit"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_email"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_print"></a> </div> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-region field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Region:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/regions/global" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Global</a></div></div></div> Tue, 31 May 2016 12:55:29 +0000 Jamie Liddell 951 at http://futureofsourcing.com