Tech & Sourcing @ Morgan Lewis

In any service relationship, continuity of service provider personnel often impacts service quality. Excessive personnel turnover on an account can negatively impact day-to-day operations and the ability to respond to issues. Assignment and management of personnel are primarily business issues that are the responsibility of the service provider. However, there are important provisions that can be included in service agreements that can help address these issues.

As part of our Spotlight series, we speak with Simon White, one of the most senior and experienced technology lawyers in the UK market, who has held roles including deputy counsel, Chief Privacy Officer, and GC EMEA LATAM at Cognizant, one of the largest multinational IT services companies in the world with over 300,000 personnel spanning across five continents. Prior to joining Cognizant nearly 15 years ago, Simon White was a corporate associate at Morgan Lewis.

The financial services regulations relating to outsourcing by Luxembourg-headquartered financial institutions have been significantly simplified by the introduction of the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF) outsourcing circular CSSF 22/806 (Outsourcing Circular).

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) continues to be a focus area for many companies. As technology companies shift ever increasingly toward the cloud, it is important to keep up to date with ESG issues that may arise for their own company, their vendors, and clients.

In outsourcing, technology, and commercial transactions, cost of living adjustment (COLA) mechanisms linked to price indices are coming under increasing scrutiny with current global inflationary pressures.

Join us throughout August and September as our international presenters dive into the key and trending topics technology companies and consumers focus on while operating in the Asian market.

With the COVID-19 pandemic, many industries experienced a major shift in how the personnel of key suppliers worked, with “nonessential” personnel in large part working remotely. When this shift to remote work first happened (rather abruptly for many companies), security was a critical consideration, but one that was handled in many instances outside the supplier contract, with both parties focusing on keeping business operations going with must-have data and security safeguards in place.

As part of our Spotlight series, we spoke with Mike Pierides, the deputy leader of our technology, outsourcing, and commercial transactions team and a co-leader of our digital solutions industry team, on outsourcing in the financial services (FS) sector.

With a solid uptick in requests for assistance with outsourcing, cloud, and as-a-service contracts, 2022 has been busy from the get-go. ISG Index confirmed this trend across the market in its recent Q2 ISG Index Report presentation on July 13, highlighting as one of its three key takeaways that “contracting activity remains strong, with ADM, engineering and industry BPO leading the way.”

The “shift to the cloud” continues, with analysts making bold predictions regarding the increase of cloud adoption by companies across almost every industry. Cloud solutions offer many cost, innovation, and scalability opportunities. What is often forgotten or considered late in the process, however, is the change in the risk, compliance, and contracting paradigm that arises with the reliance on a third-party cloud provider. If given the time and attention, these changes can be managed and the risks controlled with appropriate diligence and contracting structures.