Business Intelligence the Key to Winning at Outsourcing - The ability to report on key business metrics via customer portals has become a deciding factor in today’s outsourcing contracts as businesses demand greater transparency and accountability from their suppliers. That’s according to leading business intelligence company, Yellowfin, which says it is increasingly providing solutions to outsourcing companies whose customers want them to underpin their offerings with advanced reporting tools and customer portals so they can monitor the outsourcer’s performance in real time. Yellowfin CEO, Glen Rabie said momentum for outsourcing continues to grow as businesses seek to lower their costs by leveraging the capabilities of specialist providers. However, he said companies on their second or third round of outsourcing contracts have learned the hard lessons from past experience and now expect far more of their suppliers than simply reducing their expenses. “In the early days of outsourcing, companies just looked at their transaction costs and didn’t think through all the implications for their business,” Mr Rabie said.