How do I work with the Service Provider? Should I interview the offshore resources? What are SLAs? What can I do to improve quality? These are questions we hear repeatedly from our customers. In response, we’ve developed a series of workshops to address these pressing needs. The content is structured to be delivered in ½ day to 2-day highly-interactive sessions, which allows organizations to truly understand and implement the concepts. We’ve conducted these with a number of large IT organizations on a variety of topics, including:
- Managing in an Outsourced Environment (ADM Operational Management) – Organizations struggle with the transition from a staff augmentation model to a managed service model. Internal employees often have new roles and must work with Service Providers using contractual constructs such as defined pricing units and Service Level Agreements. This 1- to 2 -day course provides practical guidance on day-to-day management in an outsourced environment. It breaks down many of the contractual elements into easy-to-understand tools that front-line managers can use to measure and incent Service Provider behavior and to foster a healthy Service Provider relationship that achieves the original sourcing goals. Many of the concepts are based on the book I wrote with Jim Hussey, Managing Global Development Risk, which was no. 1 in the outsourcing category on Amazon.com last year.
- Creating an Investment Mindset – IT Governance and Demand Management are two of the hottest topics in the industry but are also two of the hardest strategies to implement within an organization. This 1-day workshop focuses on IT decision rights and a practical approach to IT Demand Management focused on prioritizing projects and aligning them with business needs. The workshop also highlights the advantages of agile development in an offshore delivery model to develop a flexible team that can rapidly respond to changing business needs.
- Establishing a Testing Center of Excellence or Managed Test Factory – Focused testing via a COE is quickly becoming one of the best ways to improve software quality. Service Providers are creating a potpourri of offerings to capture a slice of this rapidly growing market. This ½-day course provides an overview of the market with an operational focus on the key concepts and the necessary steps to establishing and managing your own Testing COE or Managed Test Factory.
Dedicated time with industry experts in a ½ day to 2-day workshop is a great way to accelerate your organization’s understanding of emerging sourcing trends and strategies. As the world’s leading sourcing advisory firm, ISG has led the way in helping to educate the industry with practical advice on implementing these changes. “Knowledge Powering Results” is a motto we live by. If your organization could benefit from a ISG workshop on one of these topics or any other, or if you just want to know more, drop me a line at [email protected]. It’s a great way to sharpen your sourcing skills.
About the authorAs a partner and member of the Executive Board, Mr. Hall leads ISG’s Digital Strategy and all ISG Service Lines for the Americas. He also leads ISG’s Alliance group and is ISG’s Executive Sponsor to the TBM Council. During his time with ISG, Mr. Hall has led some of the company’s largest and most complex engagements with clients as diverse as United Airlines, Symantec, BP, World Bank, CEMEX and Motorola. He is a seasoned professional who brings considerable experience in emerging technologies to ISG clients. Prior to his position at ISG, Mr. Hall held senior roles at a number of renowned IT services companies, including Unisys and MCI. He also led large-scale eBusiness initiatives for technology solutions providers C-Bridge and CBSI and gained deep outsourcing and offshore software development experience as a delivery executive with Covansys. Mr. Hall co-authored Managing Global Development Risk: A Guide to Managing Global Software Development. He earned his degree in Computer Science from Regis University.
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