Are You Ready for the Sourcing Olympics?

Much of the media spotlight these days is shining on the Olympic games in Rio—the events, the competition, the individual quest for gold. Are the athletes ready? Did they train well? Who has the best strategy for winning?

Of all the events, the winner of the decathlon is most often dubbed the “world’s greatest athlete.” The ten events that make up the decathlon require a range of abilities, testing an athlete’s strength, endurance, skill and precision. Like the decathlon, a sourcing engagement requires a wide range of capabilities and experience. Talent is important, but the diversity of events places a premium on preparation, coaching and training.

A successful transition or transformation of services from in-house resources to a service provider, or from one service provider to another, begins with a careful strategy and tactics check. An organization must first understand its strengths and weaknesses. Where does your environment stand in relation to your goals, your current utilization of technology and processes and industry best practices? Sourcing success calls for many different skills and techniques, including technology and digital experience, financial skills, HR knowledge and performance and process expertise. Assessing your current and future states will help you understand where you need to pump up or find external support.

Then, to win the sourcing decathlon, you need to be prepared to excel at each of the following ten events. Here’s how:

1. Managing service levels: Use the most current service-level methodology and focus on the features that will have the biggest impact on business value for your organization.
2. Managing tools: Determine which tools will serve you best and decide whether you’ll leverage them yourself or rely on your service provider to deploy them.
3. Transforming services: Identify which digital capabilities make the most sense in achieving your specific business objectives.
4. Managing governance and contract processes: Make sure you understand the commitment and effort required to properly manage your service provider relationships going forward.
5. Managing marketplace pricing: Become very familiar with the most current resource unit usage definitions and competitive value. Hint: see the ISG Knowledgebase.
6. Managing programs: Keep a tight rein on schedules, progress and milestones. Don’t move forward unless you are fully successful in the current activity.
7. Creating a procurement strategy: Ask your procurement organization about payments and pass-through charges so you can help them develop the strategy that works best for you.
8. Planning communications: Develop and fully vet a communication plan that identifies the audience, schedule and channels to facilitate the entire transition and transformation initiative.
9. Managing change: Transitioning services results in tremendous change. Having a robust change management program in place is imperative for your people, technology and customers.
10. Executing on a negotiations strategy: Look to an impartial and trusted advisor who has a bird’s eye view on the market and expertise with best practices for achieving your goals.

ISG has a proven track record helping enterprises reach the medal platform and create the foundation for success over the life of their sourcing contracts. Contact us to discuss further.
 

About the author

Kevin brings his clients expertise and experience in senior business management and IT outsourcing for infrastructure and applications opportunities. He excels at managing turnaround and startup challenges that require rapid assessment, team building, and planning (for transactions as well as ongoing operations) to achieve business success. His career has taken him from projects in the U.S. and Canada to the Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Europe and Africa. He has advised clients across a diverse spectrum of industries: manufacturing, pharmaceutical, banks and financial services. Kevin holds affiliations with the Association for Computing Machinists and the Society for Information Management.