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A new economic reality is taking shape in North America. A historic U.S. election, a spiking U.S. dollar, intense demand for labor in newly emerging areas of digital and IT services, the introduction of automation, and an uncertain outlook for cross-border trade – including NAFTA's future – are shaping up to bring profound change to the global enterprise outsourcing industry.
The new Sourcing Decisions 2017 conference, coming to Toronto March 2, 2017, is just the right conference to get a handle on these major shifts. Conference organizers are proud to announce that Chief Economist at HSBC Canada, Mr. David Watt will keynote the first annual Sourcing Decisions conference. Mr. Watt is one of the leading voices in North America economics – highly regarded for his economic forecasts and interpretations of the impacts on global trade and commerce in the Canadian, U.S. and Latin America markets.
Sourcing Decisions 2017 is designed to meet U.S. and Canadian enterprise business, IT and finance leaders where they are today – wrestling with complex issues and varied pressures to align resources so their enterprises can thrive. In acknowledging the outdated nature of traditional 'outsourcing,' the conference will spearhead a 'next-generation' dialogue on global sourcing by more sharply defining how global IT, business-process, cloud service providers, and country partners can assist in achieving better outcomes for customers and investors.
We also begin 2017 with a new president and a new agenda in the United States, disrupting a series of cornerstone assumptions around the stability of trade and economics between the U.S. and Canada. The conference will feature a series of panel discussions and presentations from some of the leading minds in North American enterprise ICT procurement, sourcing and vendor management – and chief among the topics will be an examination of the real impact of robotics and automation.
"Our goal is to help decision-makers become smarter about how to use these new automation tools to increase efficiency and dramatically reduce the cost of operations, while minimizing exponential levels of risk," says Kirk Laughlin, content director of Sourcing Decisions 2017, who is also managing director of U.S.-based business media group, Nearshore Americas.
The conference will also feature a special Q/A discussion with RBC's Vice President of Innovation Mr. Gabriel Woo – who will share insights on how the Canadian bank partners with fintech startups to deploy cutting-edge artificial intelligence solutions. In the session, "Inside RBC's A.I. Strategy of Tapping Fast-Rising Fintechs", Woo will discuss a new procurement paradigm that looks to foster relationships with this dynamic set of young companies.
