Going somewhere new with transformational outsourcing? – Then use a road-map
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Andrew Vize , Strategy Manager, Digica |
Transformational outsourcing is certainly becoming much more common – but how do you approach it, given the complexity and business criticality of your IT? |
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Are there ways of anticipating change, future requirements and potential risks? Is there a practical and structured approach to address these key areas of outsourcing – resulting in a flexible and forward-looking contract?
The Chinese proverb says that, “every great journey begins with the first step” but what are those steps? And how do you plan your journey?
2nd generation outsourcing or transformational outsourcing - whatever the term, can be a daunting prospect with any number of important factors to consider and define, and subsequently manage over the course of an outsource.
Whilst there are many ‘unknowns’ that will occur over a long time-frame, it is important to set an (IT) strategy to support your business in the areas which are controllable. Part of this should be a road-map for your IT service and how you want it develop: i.e. the steps you want to take across the course of the outsource journey, whilst addressing business and external drivers.
Focus beyond transition
Quite rightly, organisations spend a great deal of effort specifying the service and selecting a supplier, planning carefully each stage of transition.
However, typically the remaining 3-year, 5-year or perhaps longer contract time-frame is given relatively little attention.
This, in part, is why so many outsource contracts gradually diverge from the business and become increasingly out of step with the current requirements of an organisation, as well as lagging behind the wider IT-industry.
An outsource road-map should do just that: map to the business – ideally through an active IT strategy to ensure your outsourced IT service is relevant and support the business objectives and propel the change your organisation is driving.
Preventing outsource supplier drowsiness
A road-map is a key tool in addressing a common fear of organisations outsourcing their IT, that their supplier will ‘go to sleep’, lose focus and not fulfil the objectives of the outsource.
Importantly a road-map acts as a focus and commitment for both parties to get the most out of the outsource arrangement.
The importance of predictability
Another key fear of organisations outsourcing their IT is uncertainty - about the needs of their business in the future, the resulting IT needs and technology, but also of cost and unexpected charges.
An outsource road-map gives predictability by injecting structure and planning to identify key change or development trigger points and thresholds in your service. Importantly it can also provide alternative options address the different business continuity scenarios and risk management strategies.
In fact, a road-map enables an organisation and its outsource partner to consider a range of scenarios and engineer different solutions – providing flexibility alongside governance.
Summary
Why is an IT outsourcing road-map important?
- Structures an approach to defining the requirements over a large number of variables
- It ensures a common understanding of direction and destination between you and your supplier
- Allows a customer to focus beyond transition to later stages, more valuable developmental stages of the outsource
- It ties in with your strategy - ensuring a reference point for attenuating the service to the needs of the business
- It provides a secure baseline and set of risk management options when change happens quickly
None of the specific activities within a road-map are likely to be particularly novel, but their organisation into a framework provides a common focus for supplier-customer interaction at each stage of the outsource, and importantly across dimensions of technology, i.e. the service, your relationship with your supplier and your business. In short, a road-map is not leaving your outsource IT to chance.
Digica’s outsource road-map approach is called Advance.
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Does this make you think about
the issues in your organisation?
Andrew would be happy to answer
your questions at thought@digica.com
