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Tuesday, March 02, 2010

[manage] Managing the Outsourcing Relationship

If you are just entering a relationship or renewing it, governance
rules of the road should be followed

Outsourcing is only as successful as you plan, manage and direct the
relationship. The rules of the road that should be followed are:

* Make sure your enterprise management initiatives include all the
data and information related to outsourced processes and that they are
tracked throughout the lifecycle of the relationship.

* Duplicate functions typically exist in organizations likely
which create redundancies and increasing costs - root out these teams
and right-size your organization before you start the relationship.

* The managers who ran the function that has been outsourced
usually do not make the most individuals to manage the ongoing
relationship.

* Your outsourcing management team size should ebb and flow as
needs change throughout the transition and ongoing, or steady-state,
phase - make sure your team flexes and contracts accordingly.

* Ensure you and your outsource providers have aligned goals or
risk failure to deliver on the "intent" of the deal - metrics and
service level agreements are a must

* Even after the relationship has been in place for a while with
your outsource provider, it is never too late to establish best
practice.

* Focus on the "what" and not the "how" of the relationship - the
reason that the outsourcing relationship was implemented was to do
things differently.

* Track and measure internal client satisfaction - keeping an open
dialogue and obtaining regular feedback from internal clients is the
key to managing expectations.

* Manage your organization's level of trust toward its outsource
provider - do whatever necessary to maintain or regain trust to avoid
diminishing value.