Tech & Sourcing @ Morgan Lewis

The business process outsourcing (BPO) market is growing at an unprecedented rate as technological advancements transform traditional BPO models to keep up with evolving business needs. As BPO service providers implement and leverage technologies, such as cloud computing, robotics, data analytics, automation, and traditional and generative AI, to streamline processes and improve productivity and quality, digital transformation is becoming a common component—and selling point—for many BPO engagements.

Data issues—collection, usage, optimization, commercialization, and protection—are at the forefront of more and more transactions in the sports industry.

Interest in offshore business centers, commonly known as global capability centers (GCCs), continues to rise as US companies across industries look to establish overseas offices and hire skilled workers to support critical business functions and technology services.

Each outsourcing transaction has its own unique characteristics and business drivers and, therefore, will include its own deal-specific terms. A key initial consideration to think about when beginning an outsourcing initiative is how the personnel of both parties will be managed. This includes how the transaction will impact the customer’s existing employees and contractors, as well as oversight and management of the service provider’s personnel. These issues will likely have operational and financial impact, and will require input and coordination with internal human resources (HR) teams.

Whether form or template agreements are for a company’s own services or are used for the procurement of goods and services, leveraging forms can be a useful tool to maintain consistent terms and conditions. With the advancement and growth within the artificial intelligence (AI) market, including new and enhanced products and services that incorporate AI, now is a good time to revisit and refresh template agreements.

In our latest blog post, we shared a few considerations for compliance in the context of complex outsourcing contracts. Continuing on this theme, we take a look into the matter of data protection compliance.

UK financial regulators recently published their supervisory expectations for critical third party service providers (CTPs) to the financial sector under the United Kingdom’s new regime extending regulatory oversight to CTPs. The final rules align with key themes of other regulatory regimes seeking to reinforce operational resilience (e.g., the EU Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA)) around risk management, supply chain management, and incident management, among other areas.

The rapid adoption of generative AI (gen AI) is driving increased cloud consumption.

In the case of the ownership of intellectual property (IP) developed by a supplier as part of a service agreement with a customer, should the traditional position that the customer should own all developed IP always be the position agreed upon by the parties?

Our technology transactions, outsourcing, and commercial contracts team on October 30, 2024 held its annual industry summit in New York. The theme this year was Unleashing the Potential of Technology, with a focus on artificial intelligence (AI). Attendees included in-house counsel and sourcing professionals across a number of industries, including representatives from the client and vendor side. The diverse audience led to highly interactive discussions among some of the leading voices in the tech and sourcing fields.