Just when multi-supplier (also known as SIAM) contracting is starting to get under control, DevOps emerges. This article looks at the interaction of the two for the design of retained and sourced IT operations. The implications for service contracts are profound and largely un-tested.
(To read the first part of this article, click here.)
Almost a week had passed since my meeting with Jeanette and her team, and I was still reeling from the conversation. It was just so hard to comprehend how a large company can afford to alienate its supplier community. Just as I was about to hit replay on the entire situation, the phone rang.
“Good morning,” I said.
“Hey there, Dean. It’s Tino. How have you been?”
The result of the EU referendum will undoubtedly have a profound and long-lasting impact on the entire UK population and is likely to be something that is truly generational. Whether we voted for Remain or for Leave, however, Brits now have to assess where we are and how we maintain our position in the global economy.
Crisis is now an everyday occurrence, and is a risk that can be mitigated but never truly eliminated. In a world that seems to be increasingly prone to crises of every conceivable type, a recent survey from Deloitte – A Crisis of Confidence – finds a broad “vulnerability gap” between the awareness of threats and the preparations to actually handle them.
The transition period of bringing a new provider into an environment is critical to the success of an outsourcing initiative. An effective transition sets the stage for a long-term partnership, while a poorly managed one can damage the relationship beyond repair.
Robotic process automation is based on a new type of software. But will it result in a new type of outsourcer? James Hall, Founder and CEO of Genfour, thinks so. Welcome to the world of the virtual outsourcer.
After lunch, the group assembled back in the conference room. Most spent some time reading through the poster on the wall, looking for more clues to help them improve.
“Ready to get started,” I said, as the group grabbed their seats.
“On to people,” Tyler announced, with a tone indicating he could see the light at the end of the tunnel.
“Yes, on to the ‘People’ column in the mosaic. Just as we defined who your key customers are, we need to define the key positions and roles in your company.”
To read the first part of this article, click here.
Walking into the conference room the following week, I bumped into Jenny and Alex, two regional managers who worked for Tyler.
“Good morning.”
“Hi there, Dean,” Jenny said, smiling and walking over.
“Just looking over the big poster,” Alex said.
“You mean the mosaic, Alex,” Jenny said, correcting him.
As I finished up my call with Rick, the CEO of Walker Ideas, I couldn’t help but feel impressed with his new attitude towards service. Rick and his team recently turned some bad news they had received from their key customer into an opportunity to convey to that customer that Walker Ideas was truly an inside-outsourcing partner. Rick wanted to create a proactive environment where Walker Ideas sat one step ahead of the customer, anticipating its needs. He was feeling frustrated by his inability to get his entire team to see the bigger picture.
All too often, businesses are faced with bold promises about the services they will receive from their outsource providers; they are drawn in by the “ideals” pitched to them and ultimately, find themselves disappointed with the outcome as those services fail to live up to expectations.
As enterprises make significant investments in their sourcing and procurement function, they rightfully expect a solid return on that investment. One of the more significant value creation elements of a sourcing and procurement function is the team and process that focuses on strategic sourcing.
University of London Professor David Faulkner has written extensively about the need for cooperative, rather than purely competitive, strategic business relationships and alliances. Since the early 1990s Faulkner has studied the “essence” of competitive strategy, and the challenges involved in integrating cooperation as part of the competitive mindset. One of his books is International Strategic Alliances: Cooperating to Compete (1995). The strategies of cooperation has been his most common theme.
For all the many successes of outsourcing, it’s not all sweetness and light… As promised a couple of weeks ago, here’s another installment of our Top Ten series featuring some of the most outstanding, damning, incendiary (and at times remarkably poetic) insults from the global outsourcing community. The more sensitive amongst you should look away now…
Pulling into the snowy parking lot and contemplating today’s meeting, my mind wandered to a line from Michael Margolis, the CEO of Get Storied, “If you want to understand the culture, listen to the stories; if you want to change the culture, change the stories.” Carl, the site manager of Excel, the inside-outsourcing service provider at this motorcycle plant, had called a few weeks back and enticed me to visit by stating, “I have a great story for you.”
Sparked by the internet and accelerated by the spread of smart devices, consumers are more and more motivated to gather information online themselves when solving problems with a product or service. This has led to a new situation for customer contact centres – where businesses used to meter information to the public through dedicated agents, now the public at large is holding the cards.
