Leading IT Transformation – Workshop 15 (Sourcing Transition)
The Appleton Greene Corporate Training Program (CTP) for Leading IT Transformation is provided by Ms. Drabenstadt MBA BBA Certified Learning Provider (CLP). Program Specifications: Monthly cost USD$2,500.00; Monthly Workshops 6 hours; Monthly Support 4 hours; Program Duration 24 months; Program orders subject to ongoing availability.
If you would like to view the Client Information Hub (CIH) for this program, please Click Here
Learning Provider Profile
Ms. Drabenstadt is a Certified Learning Provider (CLP) at Appleton Greene and she has experience in Information Technology, Information Governance, Compliance and Audit. She has achieved an MBA, and BBA. She has industry experience within the following sectors: Technology; Insurance and Financial Services. She has had commercial experience within the following countries: United States of America, Canada, Australia, India, Trinidad, and Jamaica. Her program will initially be available in the following cities: Madison WI; Minneapolis MN; Chicago IL; Atlanta GA and Denver CO. Her personal achievements include: Developed Trusted IT-Business Relationship; Delivered Increased Business Value/Time; Decreased IT Costs; Re-tooled IT Staff; Increased IT Employee Morale. Her service skills incorporate: IT transformation leadership; process improvement; change management; program management and information governance.
MOST Analysis
Mission Statement
Often an organization may need to switch from one supplier to another. The existing supplier’s quality of service may be dipping or the technology product they’re offering no longer serves the business needs or the organization is growing and the supplier isn’t capable of scaling their services to keep up with it. Whatever be the reason, transitioning from one supplier to another is not easy. An organization should have a sourcing transition plan just as it needs a disaster recovery plan. When exiting a contract with a supplier, it is important to focus more on what the organization aims to achieve in the first place. When the goal is known, it becomes clear what the existing service provider is not able to offer. It also makes clear what the organization needs to seek in a new supplier or a new product. Ideally, a contract should take into account the changes that may come across in the organization in the future and it should prepare both parties to adapt to these changes and work together to achieve the required outcomes. But it is not always possible for the supplier to adapt and evolve. That is when a transition becomes necessary. A successful sourcing transition requires four key considerations: assessing the organization’s requirements, minimizing disruption during the transition, ensuring that any skills, knowledge, technology, or manpower lost in the transition are sufficiently replaced by the new supplier, and monitoring to ensure that the new suppliers are delivering the desired outcomes.
Objectives
01. Define Business Requirements: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
02. Transition Strategy: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
03. Strong Governance: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
04. Challenges Faced: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
05. Minimizing Disruption: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
06. Knowledge Transfer: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
07. Monitor New Supplier: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. 1 Month
Strategies
01. Define Business Requirements: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
02. Transition Strategy: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
03. Strong Governance: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
04. Challenges Faced: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
05. Minimizing Disruption: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
06. Knowledge Transfer: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
07. Monitor New Supplier: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
Tasks
01. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Define Business Requirements.
02. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Transition Strategy.
03. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Strong Governance.
04. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Challenges Faced.
05. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Minimizing Disruption.
06. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Knowledge Transfer.
07. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Monitor New Supplier.
Introduction
The process of switching from an established incumbent vendor to a new one is one of the more challenging (and frequent) challenges that procurement professionals frequently encounter. All levels of your organization will be impacted by this choice, and more often than not, a lack of compliance at one level has the power to sabotage the entire endeavor. This workshop’s goal is to show you how to anticipate these potential obstacles, respond to them, and position your business to successfully navigate this period of transformation.
Buy-In at Management’s Level:
It might be challenging to get authorisation to switch from a long-standing incumbent vendor. You’ll frequently need to give your leadership group with a solid, persuading case study. In all levels of business, the adage “if it ain’t broke, don’t change it” holds true. Be prepared to offer a clear route that can result in considerable savings and advantages to the organization’s total cost of ownership if this move isn’t the result of subpar vendor performance. Gaining the support and affirmation of this group can be accomplished in large part by making a good impact on the bottom line.
It’s crucial to maintain open lines of communication and transparency during the transition once the new vendor has been accepted. In the past, keeping management at ease has been mostly accomplished by providing them with an implementation roadmap that highlights important milestones. Once the roadmap has been given, it should be thought about providing updates via biweekly (or monthly) meetings to share any revisions as vendor implementation progresses.
Buy-In at the Local Level:
Anytime a vendor transition is carried out, it’s critical to have clear and unambiguous communications because this endeavor will only be as successful as the IT team makes it. This endeavor will fall flat on its face if your local buyers and IT staff aren’t adequately instructed and trained on how to engage with the new vendor and make purchases.
First and foremost, comprehensive transparency throughout the entire process contributes to building local respect and pride. For instance, implementation is a difficult procedure that frequently encounters numerous unanticipated challenges. It will help foster ownership and teamwork at the local level to be upfront about these potential issues and to ask for input and solutions at the outset.
Structured communication channels can be used to increase transparency and encourage compliance.
For instance, doing this task successfully has been demonstrated to depend on these two processes. The dissemination of internal memoranda outlining this change is the first phase, followed by in-person meetings with account managers from the new vendor, which is the second step. In addition to establishing a clear channel of communication to help restate the main themes mentioned inside the internal memo, the face-to-face encounter will aid in building relationships.
Although there isn’t a clear-cut approach for switching vendors, these steps should assist point your team and broader project in the proper direction. Just to be clear, openness and communication will be essential to making sure that implementation is effective.
key steps to vendor transition (and exit) success
There are critical issues to take into account when switching service providers, each of which is crucial to the success of your future service delivery.
1. Determine the needs and complexity of the project or service in detail.
How well do you comprehend the business results you hope to achieve? Are they fully expressed and quantified (within reason)? Do you, on the other hand, have clarity regarding the operational facets of the service you wish to transfer to another supplier in order to attain those results?
It is crucial that you conduct a thorough analysis of how the service is currently given, monitored, and maintained when that service or project is transferred to another provider in order to fully comprehend the complicated workings of all outsourced services or complex projects. Then, to aid in clarity of interpretation and prevent internal or external misconceptions, record it using process maps and use cases.
In order to raise standards and save costs, it is crucial to evaluate how effective the current process and processes have been as well as how they might be improved. This can only be accomplished by maintaining the correct talent with adequate thoughtfulness and awareness for the workings of the organization in order to recognize what’s best for the service provided today and into the future. This is necessary to ensure that everyone involved has a clear understanding of the situation and to offer them the knowledge they need to encourage innovation that could lead to the creation of additional value.
It’s crucial that oversight be properly preserved after you’ve transferred responsibilities to your new service provider. Some of an organization’s technical skills should have been kept as part of an intelligent client role, however this practice has been known to occur (ICF). Instead, in order to function without the proper critical-friend challenge, they rely too heavily on their outsourced service providers. While it is not the client’s (or service users’) place to dictate to the provider “how” to run its services, it is not in the client’s best interest to allow their own internal expertise to wane to the point where management of the outsourced service becomes significantly diluted and less effective.
We would always advise a client to keep a team of ICF experts with the necessary resources on staff to maintain the necessary level of knowledge and skill.
2. Strong governance prevails.
The success of any handover depends critically on your ability to control every piece on your unique transition chessboard. It is crucial to cultivate the proper kinds of cordial connections with departing providers so that they voluntarily share knowledge that may have taken them years to accumulate and procedures that may have required a lot of trial and error to perfect. Your new staff will be able to get started right away and limit disturbance throughout the move if you can foster a collaborative environment. A strong commitment to open communication, the correct client-side staff, and a clearly defined hierarchy are necessary for this.
Case Study
An Asian-headquartered chemical manufacturing organization with an 80-year history and facilities in over 20 countries wants to assess IT risks for its operations in the Americas.
The company’s American IT team attended an Info-Tech session with the express objectives of learning more about IT risk management, identifying important issues, formulating plans to decrease priority risks, and improving communication with executive leadership about IT risk issues.
Summary & Success
• Consolidated IT’s “suspicions” about risk issues into a single, concrete working document.
• Developed a substantial working list of risk mitigation opportunities.
• Helped gain team buy-in and overall organizational commitment for more intensive risk management activity going forward.
3. Analyze the resources needed for the transformation.
A service transfer to a new provider might be successful or unsuccessful depending on how well it is planned in advance. By the time the transition occurs, it is critical to have adequately resourced, gathered, and comprehended assets at the new provider’s end in the form of manpower, skills, knowledge, and technology that could be lost during the move. Complex concerns like TUPE and software licensing are two areas where the transfer may experience serious problems. Because the ripple effects of a lost resource can be unanticipated, extensive analysis and a lot of effort will be needed to complete it. Asset resourcing must begin well in advance of the transfer date, and suitable client-side personnel must be placed in order to understand the human resource and legal consequences of such a move.
4. Watch, review, and repeat.
A framework for everyone to follow is provided by knowing and being able to quantify “what good looks like,” understanding both the expected strains of transition and the resources required to assure the new team has the best chance of success. But excellent management develops an environment that will support the correct behaviors that will see the transition through and the relationship to new productivity heights while ensuring that everyone is aware of their part in the success of the transfer and post-transfer service delivery.
The construction of unambiguous contractual agreements with built-in mechanisms to assure frequent realignment to your business outcomes, the setting of clear KPIs, the monitoring of progress toward predetermined targets, and goals are all examples of creating the “appropriate environment.” To take advantage of opportunities and get the best value, you must nurture your connection with your new supplier and permit your contractual arrangement to change.
The 8 Laws of Successful Supplier Transitions
We mentioned in earlier sessions that there are several reasons why your company might decide to transfer IT vendors. Perhaps the rates or quality of your incumbent are no longer as competitive as they once were. Your current provider might not be able to scale with your firm as it has grown or keep up with new areas of your business.
However, moving isn’t always simple because it might be intimidating to transfer to a new vendor, especially given the numerous dangers involved. We mentioned in the previous session that the first stage in managing risk is identifying it, which we also addressed, and that the second step is coming up with a plan to manage the transition.
Managing the Transition
Following these 8 fundamental rules will help you stay away from the threats mentioned above:
• Before Committing, make sure your prenup is up to par.
Nobody plans to end a relationship before it ever starts, but in this case, foresight is essential. If agreements don’t have favorable termination, survivability, and exclusivity clauses, or if they don’t specify the transition support you’re entitled to in the event of a split, exiting incumbents can make things very difficult. Include these clauses in your new contract as well as all future agreements.
• At all times, stay in the driver’s seat.
Organizations too frequently let providers take charge of the implementation process. Prevent this from happening: Losing this control eliminates much of the supplier’s responsibility and is a major reason why transition timetables drag or get off track.
• Start strong by bringing the team back to the table.
At the beginning of each new project we begin with a client, we convene a kickoff meeting with all of the important players from both sides of the table. This meeting establishes expectations for the future degree and frequency of communication and helps to ensure that roles are clearly defined.
• … There is a “team,” right?
The most important implication of the aforementioned principle is that a committed team is required. Part-time committee members will always prioritize their own daily responsibilities more, leaving implementation in the supplier’s hands (remember commandment #2). Create a committed team, and make sure high management is represented.
• Consider the timing and scale of the transition.
Based on the workloads of your staff, the dates of inventory cut-in or service termination, and significant events in your company’s future, choose the optimal time to make the changeover. Also think about whether a phased implementation could be acceptable; it would extend your timeline but provide you more resource flexibility.
• Don’t jump immediately to transformation.
A transition can be kept on track by concentrating first on switching to a familiar model and gradually adding more services from a new supplier.
• Establish an implementation calendar.
All parties involved should have access to this calendar, which will serve as a reminder of crucial dates and events. With suppliers, create the calendar to make sure they are aware of and capable of meeting deadlines. Allowing for longer stretches of time during less crucial implementation components can help prevent errors and establish better relationships.
• Continue Communicating throughout the process.
Remind internal stakeholders that the transition must remain the major emphasis and that the relationship will be tested most during implementation. Externally communicate to make sure the supplier conforms to each milestone as it approaches and keeps in mind the entire scope of work and pertinent SLAs during implementation.
Following these guidelines will make your transition much easier. If you ignore them, you can experience severe headaches.
And If A Transition is Still Set to Fail
If you notice that your transition is veering off course, taking these quick and forceful moves will help you get it back on course:
• Reevaluate the project plan and timelines for the transition
What went wrong in the process, how can it be fixed, and how will the schedule need to be adjusted to account for a fix?
• Changing out key players on both sides of the table managing the transition
this may add to short term delays, but long term success. Hurt feelings always get trumped by botched implementations.
• Reengage senior managers who quietly slipped away after the contract was signed and get them involved again.
Supplier transitions can be painful — but they don’t have to be.
The most important lesson here is to never lose sight of a new deal simply because a new contract was signed; you need to put all of your resources into making sure your transition to a new supplier fulfills the potential set forth during the sourcing and contracting processes. Although it may appear uncomfortable, planning the shift helps prevent headaches from developing. Lessening the risks and turning the process into an opportunity to enhance supplier performance and quality, streamline procedures, and ultimately save money can be done by taking the proper actions early on.
Case Study: transition planning and management
The Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) selected Cirdan Group to provide planning and management services for a major transition from its current network management services (NMS) contract to a new five-year contract with a new operational model. MDOT needed an independent, third-party resource to plan transition activities, define the detailed schedule, identify risks and mitigation strategies, and manage the transition. To help MDOT address its need, Cirdan Group assigned a Senior Project Manager to lead NMS transition planning and execution.
For the transition core project team, the Cirdan Collection project manager put together a varied group of agency stakeholders. In order to define all transition operations, she led core team initiatives and contact with representatives from eight transportation business units. This ultimately permitted a smooth transition that did not endanger production network services. Due to the varied vendor resources, operating models, processes, and procedures, the timetable definition was extremely complicated. Through proactive and persistent coordination, communication, and schedule creation based on specific task definition, sequencing, and estimation, the Cirdan Group project manager overcome these difficulties.
The Cirdan Group Project Manager created a thorough project management plan, a master project schedule, and specific procedures for project operations, communication, status reporting, and schedule management in order to guarantee that the transition was managed successfully. Along with identifying and analyzing project risks, she collaborated with more than 20 project stakeholders to come up with and record risk mitigation methods.
After the transition planning was finished, the Cirdan Group project manager oversaw the implementation of the transition activities and made sure that the plans were carried out as intended and that risks were reduced as anticipated. The Cirdan Group Project Manager regularly reviewed schedule performance, recognized concerns, and assisted in the identification of corrective steps in order to stay on schedule and fulfill challenging deadlines. She presided over all meetings on MDOT’s behalf and frequently sent written status updates to the executive leadership of MDOT to keep them updated on the project’s progress, dangers, and problems.
The extensive and effective planning, risk mitigation, leadership, and communication of Cirdan’s project manager allowed MDOT to successfully execute the NMS transition on schedule and without experiencing any major issues.
How to Successfully Move your Outsourced Project to a New Software Vendor
You may encounter project stagnation, team demotivation, a lack of agility, and lack of progress as a business owner at any point in the development of an outsourcing project. These warning signs highlight the urgent necessity to take action and transfer the project to a different outsourcing provider. If you don’t take the necessary precautions to make it smooth and downtime-free, it may be expensive and harsh.
You may encounter project stagnation, team demotivation, a lack of agility, and lack of progress as a business owner at any point in the development of an outsourcing project. These warning signs highlight the urgent necessity to take action and transfer the project to a different outsourcing provider. If you don’t take the necessary precautions to make it smooth and downtime-free, it may be expensive and harsh.
Is the grass greener on the other side? Why you should consider changing software development teams
Letting the prior vendor go is always a far better option than establishing a Stockholm syndrome with your vendor and compromising the advancement of your software, as the statistics shows that over a half of firms are 60%+ more satisfied after changing the previous software supplier.
If you carefully plan the project transition, taking into consideration the dangers, and effectively organize all the key processes, the change of the software development team will be successful. Primarily, you will have to take care of the onboarding of the newcomers and the development team, who will be responsible for the legacy code review.
Is changing the software supplier worth time, risks, and resources?
You must be aware that changing suppliers could be expensive and disruptive to business operations. Therefore, while choosing to switch vendors, it is important to consider the value that a possible vendor will bring, the difficulties and risks involved, as well as the overall cost of the process.
Potential benefits a new supplier could provide:
• Assist in moving to the next growth stage;
• Offer superior options, including more efficient technologies, instruments, and methods.;
• Deliver on contractual commitments, providing even more value to the project than expected.
Along with the advantages and values that come with a last-minute supplier move, you need also think about the dangers and obstacles that could arise.
hazards and difficulties you can encounter when you transfer a project to a new outsourcing partner
Business risks associated with outsourcing might increase when outsourced partners are changed. The weapon, though, is knowledge. An owner of a business can easily overcome potential obstacles and reduce potential dangers thanks to awareness.
• As a customer, you will have more difficulty describing the services in its Request for Proposals (“RFP”) or Statement of Work (“SOW”);
• Lack of transferable function, since the previous vendor has likely folded the customer’s internal function into a shared service environment that the customer cannot provide to the new supplier;
• Difficulties with a knowledge transfer;
• Problems with the termination of the existing relationships may result in additional expenses and delays.
In order to ensure a smooth transition and prevent the aforementioned difficulties, it is essential to carefully organize knowledge transfer and organizational procedures.
Key steps to take when you move a project to a new outsourcing partner
A well-thought-out plan will minimize all the aforementioned dangers and hasten and smooth the transition. The following steps are part of the planning process:
• Determine the date, when the new team takes over the responsibilities for the project
• Plan the overlap period, when previous and new team members will work on knowledge transfer, making sure all are contributing to the success of the transition;
• Ask the legal staff to analyze when it is better to give the termination notice, after finishing the previous two steps. Giving the termination notice following the current agreement within the required period is critical to terminating the existing arrangement as expected.
• Revise the NDA (non-disclosure agreement), if any confidentiality restrictions may be disclosed to prospective software development teams
• Organize the cooperation between the new development team and previous vendors for a more efficient transition.
• Determine if there are any employees of the current supplier (or its subcontractors) that it would like the new supplier to hire.
• Take care of transferring leases, licenses, and other contracts, ensuring all the documents are in full force and effect, with no defaults and no outstanding amounts.
• Ask the current team to prepare a knowledge transfer plan for the in-time transition of knowledge, including the info about the responsibilities of the current supplier, tasks for a new team, applicable milestones, and completion dates.
Many businesses are outsourcing IT services as a result of the rapid changes in the economic and legal environments today. By doing so, they may take advantage of external expertise and knowledge, cut costs, and concentrate on their core competencies.
For instance, in the UK, the upcoming IR35 legislation is forcing many purchasers to reconsider their approach: Do they turn all current contractors into full-time employees? Do the contractors actually consent to being hired on a full-time basis? Or do they contract out the whole service? A business runs the risk of working with an IT provider that doesn’t perform up to expectations if it chooses to switch to a new one.
However, switching to a new vendor could be essential for a smooth and effective operation if the difficulties with a company’s present vendor are so severe that it would be more expensive in the long run to make all contractors permanent employees or stick with its current underperforming vendor. However, it is much easier said than done to locate a perfect seller who can keep their word.
In order to accomplish this, consumers must make certain that they:
1. Understand the risks and goals related to the transition
2. Ensure service transition success
3. Build trust with the new vendor and increase performance
We will talk about the steps that make a successful shift in this workshop. Let’s first quickly touch on a few key things.
Understand the risks & goals
Starting with a transition is frequently like to building a home from the roof up; it’s an essential step, but never the first. Buyers must first comprehend where they are today and where they want to be in order to lay a solid foundation, which always begins at the needs level.
Step #1: Understand the as-is state.
The proverb “know thyself” offers more than just succinct guidance for people. Before making a decision, purchasers should reflect on their existing situation and the risks they run if they don’t make any adjustments. Ones to consider asking are:
• What percentage of the workforce are contractors?
• How much knowledge will be lost if they depart?
• How well is an existing vendor performing?
• How is their performance measured?
Conducting a comprehensive evaluation that addresses all important topics and gets the company ready for a smooth transition is the main issue here. It’s often a good idea to have a committee oversee the transition, which includes subject matter experts, service managers, agile coaches, and a project manager who oversees expenses and administers the committee. This is a complex issue that we won’t go into length on here.
It is crucial for purchasers to obtain this information early in order to reduce ad hoc expenditure during the transition phase and to ensure you choose the proper provider, even though doing so entails additional—and frequently hidden—cost.
Step #2: Articulate the to-be state.
Buyers typically have a basic idea of what their present operational models are lacking. Vendors may claim to offer cost savings or greater performance, but these claims are frequently useless unless they are made in the right situation. Better network performance, for instance, might not be as crucial for a customer seeking expedited response times for support queries.
The focus of buyers needs to change to asking the correct questions as they define a clear vision. How will the new vendor help our company provide better service to our clients can be one query. It creates selection standards that will result in a partner who can provide what a company actually requires. Once this standard has been established and stated, it can assist with internal staff onboarding and serve as a solid place for vendors to begin when customizing their strategy.
Ensure service transition success
It’s time to swap services when the vendor has been chosen. A transition is successful if it paves the way for the new vendor to surpass the outgoing one.
Step #3: Set up a governance team.
Frequently, buyers forget their own obligations in terms of change management and believe that the vendor is solely responsible for the transition. This may lead to a drawn-out transition process, problems in the production environment, and a failure to fulfill deadlines. As part of the onboarding process, buyers must add specialists from the vendor and their own team to the transition committee to reduce this risk.
A thorough readiness assessment, divorce terms, and stated expectations come in handy at this point, giving the new vendor the knowledge they need to make the right decisions.
Step #4: Transfer knowledge.
A major task that poses several coordination, communication, and cultural issues for both the buyer and the vendor is making sure that a team of engineers, analysts, and consultants fully comprehends the buyer’s organization, applications, tools, and processes.
Poor information transfer occurs for two basic causes. The first is brought on by governance teams that may meticulously plan trainings, coordinate shadowing, and produce significant documents but fail to stimulate communication or cultural alignment amongst teams. Incumbent vendors that are not motivated to work with new ones are another factor in unsuccessful transitions. Both the vendor and the buyer must exercise caution to ensure that there is open and honest communication between all parties in order to prevent a bad knowledge transfer.
Case Study
Gogo, a North American market leader in in-flight connectivity, has teamed up with N-iX to expand its development capabilities. N-iX engineers started the project by initiating a knowledge transfer process that ensured speed development and high productivity of software engineers. The N-iX team has provided end-to-end software development of the cloud-based platform which collects data from more than 20 different sources and found the reasons for ill-performance and equipment failures, reducing the number of not-fault-founds by eight times.
Build trust and grow together
It’s time to prosper once the new vendor has achieved a stable stage. Vendors must be ready to either minimize delivery risks or increase cost efficiency, which can only be done with a cooperative buyer who grants authority and assistance, given that the issue most CIOs and CDOs face today is to increase time to market and deliver more with a largely flat budget.
Step #5: Increase predictability.
Since CTOs are currently dealing with smaller budgets, it is becoming more important to estimate work more correctly. Vendors can lessen uncertainty by producing better forecasts that result in cost reductions because risk and cost are directly linked to one another. The catch is that improving forecasts alone won’t be sufficient if the delivery is inconsistent.
Vendors are more likely to agree to be held accountable for specific delivery outputs if precise projections have been created and delivery is constant, making the engagement more predictable, cost-optimized, and mutually beneficial. Over time, this fosters the trust necessary for successful collaborations.
Step #6: Increase output.
Over the duration of the engagement, vendors are also expected to improve their output, which can be achieved in one of two ways. They can either provide more services while also boosting economies of scale, or they can make modest changes that add up to a more effective delivery.
Whatever choice they make, it can only be accomplished if the buyers give the vendors the freedom to take initiative and carry out their ideas (for instance, by employing output-based pricing structures). When suppliers have the guts to respectfully disagree with how their customers conduct business, the change is deemed complete and vendor transformation begins.
Closing thoughts
Beginning a transition is a lot like beginning a committed relationship. It takes self-evaluation, planning, timing, open communication, meaningful work, and trust from both parties to make it effective, and only time will tell if it was the right decision.
The pace of technological development is accelerating, sectors are being upended in a couple of years, competition is heating up, and new laws have the power to overturn established business models. Therefore, it has never been more crucial to choose the proper vendor who can adjust to and take advantage of these changes to benefit the consumer. Tomorrow’s rewards will go to those who plant the seeds of successful collaborations with the appropriate vendors today.
Executive Summary
Chapter 1: Define Business Requirements
Business requirements are used during a sourcing transition to specify a project’s business necessity and success parameters. Business requirements outline the reasons behind a project’s necessity, the people it will help, its timing, location, and the metrics that will be used to judge it. Business needs typically do not specify how a project is to be executed, and business requirements typically do not include a project’s implementation specifics.
An analyst must first identify the important stakeholders, which will always include the business owners or project sponsors, before compiling the business requirements. They frequently include include the end user/customer and subject matter experts. BABOK 2.0 lists regulators (who might impose new regulatory requirements as a result of the project) and implementation subject matter experts as additional stakeholders from whom an analyst may elicit requirements (who may be aware of capabilities currently present in or easily added to existing systems). To fully complete a detailed discovery of business requirements, these stakeholders must be extensively screened and questioned. The project’s existing documentation must also be carefully examined.
Purchasing movie tickets will serve as an example project to further illustrate what business needs look like. Consider a chain of 400 cinemas that saw a drop in ticket sales. Numerous consumers were polled, and the results revealed that people were choosing less inconvenient forms of amusement instead of waiting in line at their ticket booths. Customers said they would prefer to rent a movie or sign up for a movie rental service rather to deal with the aggravation of standing in line for ten minutes. The chain’s business analyst suggests a method to enable customers buy their tickets online and print them in advance, saving time for customers and money for the business, following considerable discovery with a restricted group of colleagues.
The business requirements the analyst creates for this project would include (but not be limited to):
• Identification of the business problem (key objectives of the project), i.e., “Declining ticket sales require a strategy to increase the number of customers at our theaters.”
• Why the solution has been proposed (its benefits; why it will produce the desired outcome of returning ticket sales to higher levels), i.e., “Customers have overwhelmingly cited the inconvenience of standing in line as the primary reason they no longer attend our theater. We will remove this impediment by enabling customers to buy and print their theater tickets at home with just a few clicks.”
• The scope of the project. A few examples might be: “1. While the plan is to bring this project to all 400 theaters eventually, we will start with 50 theaters in the most populated metropolitan areas.”
• Rules, policies, and regulations. For example, “We will design our web site and commerce so that all FCC, SEC and other relevant governmental regulations are properly adhered to.”
• Key features of the service (without details as to how they will be implemented). A few examples might include: “1. We will provide a secure site for the user to select the number of tickets and showing they wish, and to enter their payment information. 2. We will give the user the option to store his or her card information in our system so that they do not have to re-enter it in a later session. 3. The system will accommodate credit, debit, or PayPal payment methods only.”
• Key performance features (without details as to how they will be implemented), i.e., “1. The system will be designed so that it can recover within 30 seconds of any downtime. 2. Because our peak audience has been 25,000 customers in all of our theaters on one night, the system will accommodate at least 10 times that many users at any given time without any impact on system performance.”
• Key security features (again without details), i.e., “We will devise a unique identifier for each ticket that will prohibit photocopies or counterfeits.”
• Criteria to measure the project’s success, such as: “This project will be deemed successful if ticket sales return to 2008 levels within 12 months of its launch.”
This project’s resulting business requirements would not include:
• A description of how to adhere to governmental or regulatory requirements.
• A description of how performance requirements will be implemented, such as: “The XYZ server on which customer information is stored will be backed up every five minutes using XYZ program.”
• Any description of how the unique ticket identifier would be implemented.
• Any details or specifics related to the service’s features, such as: “1. The credit card number text box will be 20 characters long and accommodate simple text. 2. If the user selects Yes (01), the information will be loaded to our XYZ storage server called.”
Business needs may contain graphs, models, or any combination of these that best serves the project, despite the fact that the examples that accompanied some of the bullet items in the above list were text-only. Strong strategic thinking, significant input from the project’s business owners, and the capacity to articulate a project’s needs in detail at a high level are all necessary for the development of effective business requirements.
As with all requirements, business requirements should be:
• Verifiable. Business requirements should not be demonstrable just because they specify business demands rather than technical requirements. Requirements that can be verified are precise and measurable. A quality assurance specialist must be able to verify, for instance, that the system supports the PayPal, debit, and credit payment methods mentioned in the business requirements. (S)he could not do so if the requirements were more vague, i.e., “The system will accommodate appropriate payment methods.” (Appropriate is subject to interpretation.)
• Unambiguous, stating precisely what problem is being solved. For example, “This project will be deemed successful if ticket sales increase sufficiently,” is probably too vague for all stakeholders to agree on its meaning at the project’s end.
• Comprehensive, covering every aspect of the business need. Business needs are definitely broad in scope, but they are broad in a very detailed way. In the aforementioned example, if the analyst had assumed that the developers would know to design a system that could accommodate many times the number of customers the theater chain had seen at one time in the past but had not explicitly stated so in the requirements, the developers might have created a system that could only support 10,000 customers at any given time without experiencing performance issues.
In a sourcing transition, keep in mind that business requirements address the whats rather than the hows, but they are painstakingly detailed in expressing those whats. Every aspect of business is covered. The business requirements should act as a systematic record of the initial business issue and the range of the proposed solution at the project’s conclusion.
Chapter 2: Transition Strategy
Any time during the development process, you can find yourself in a situation where you urgently need to cancel a contract or change the software vendor for a number of factors, including geopolitical ones. Various sources claim that up to 50% of all clients who engage with software suppliers eventually need to switch suppliers.
It could also occur if you believe your expectations are not being met and the vendor is no longer able to deliver the level of service you require.
If any of the aforementioned scenarios apply to you, starting the transfer process right away is the best course of action. You will learn about the crucial details and phases of the transition process in this course manual, along with practical guidance on how to make the move go smoothly while keeping the essential business operations operational.
A serious choice, switching suppliers may result in numerous questions and uncertainty. Is it more advantageous to stick with the current vendor, or is switching to a different one a better strategic move? Is it possible for a new vendor to reduce the risks associated with the transition and guarantee that they will fulfill their obligations? Is it possible to persuade the former vendor to offer thorough support during the transition, and if so, how?
A template for a project transition plan contains the relevant information and procedures for handing off the existing project to a new team. Typically, the transition process necessitates a thorough examination and meticulous mapping of the infrastructure supporting hardware and software agreements. Service-level agreements (SLAs) must be carefully managed during the transition process to guarantee that they are taken into consideration and will support the efficient operation of the business.
Relationships between the supplier and business owner can either be strengthened and reinforced during the transition phase or broken and weakened. Applying best practices and principles with careful planning from both parties and the use of people with transition experience will boost the likelihood of a successful and smooth transition.
What is the smooth transition plan template?
You must first recognize that making a choice in the middle of a project may be challenging because it may result in higher expenses, delayed outputs, and a general issue in finding a new software source. So, in order to remain composed and act swiftly on all necessary decisions, you need to have a clear plan.
We have developed key advice and next actions that ought to be done when switching vendors.
The entire journey might be made simple and safe with the help of a solid knowledge transition plan, which would also save costs and streamline the procedure itself.
The knowledge transition plan could be put into practice in two ways:
• From client to a new vendor
• From the previous vendor to the new one
Whatever the circumstance, the tasks involved in transition planning would essentially be the same: they start with the demo and research phase and end with the environment setup, assumption of BAU, and the first successful release. And when the approach is methodical and deliberate, the knowledge transition will succeed.
Define the background information you have to collect
Documents:
• Tansition of sensitive data;
• Source code ownership details;
• NDA;
• Termination agreement with the previous vendor.
Source code documentation:
• Repository URLs with access details;
• Description of key algorithms;
• Specification of classes and app layers.
Workflow:
• Project scope, project specifications, technical information relevant to the project;
• Deployment guidelines, system configuration details, operating details, troubleshooting, bug tracking data;
• Development process workflow;
• Toolset;
• Development practices.
Access:
• Access to the current environment;
• 3rd party integrations.
Other processes documents:
• Project roadmap;
• Software architecture;
• Design of the database structure;
• Design files;
• User stories.
USEFUL TIP
A One-to-One Understanding the reasoning behind the code and supplying knowledge about potential hidden traps and roadblocks within one meeting between the tech specialists will help to ensure a smoother transfer of assets. It will also make it easier for the new staff to adopt the tried-and-true, highly effective procedures.
The challenges at the organizational level must be resolved after establishing the data a business owner must gather. You should have a conversation with the delivery manager and the key department representatives in charge of carrying out the current project.
To better grasp the crucial jobs, recurrent responsibilities, and other regular chores, it is vital to discuss the concerns with the PM and all specialists on the team, such as the development team, designers, DevOps, BA, and Scrum master.
Chapter 3: Strong Governance
“Good sourcing governance serves as a key driver of behaviours that raise accountability, help restore trust and create sustainable value for stakeholders (Beulen & Rombout, 2015).”
Building sustainable value for all value chain stakeholders requires sound sourcing governance. Learn what sourcing governance is, the procedures to apply it successfully, and the success factors.
A systematic and concurrent approach to managing value generation, risk, compliance, and relationships in the sourcing and procurement lifecycle is referred to as sourcing governance. As a component of “functional governance,” sourcing governance should seek to strengthen sourcing leadership and decision-making in order to add value for various stakeholders along the value chain.
The importance of strong vendor relationships
Business success is defined by relationships. Each company occupies a central position in a network of relationships with its suppliers and clients, acquiring raw materials, products, and services at one end and adding value to make a profit at the other.
There is a lot of discussion on how to retain and cultivate relationships with customers through sales, marketing, and customer service in order to increase revenue.
Compared to supply chain management or supplier relationship management software, CRM and the software that supports it are far more integrated and developed.
The supply side is equally important, though. A business needs suppliers to supply resources for the goods and services it sells as well as resources to operate the firm itself.
The key advantage of establishing solid, mutually beneficial supplier connections is that your business will gain greater value. The more familiar you are with your suppliers and the more familiar they are with you, the more likely it is that you will obtain individualized treatment, exclusive discounts, and advantageous terms. As a result, your supply chain will operate more profitably, cost-effectively, and efficiently.
Building the Foundation for Effective Supplier Relationships
Building strong connections with new suppliers requires thinking about a sourcing transformation in terms other than the legalese of purchase agreements and contracts. The focus on supplier relationships contrasts from supply chain management’s logistical emphasis.
Rarely is the procedure as straightforward as signing a contract and then relaxing while it runs its course. The core of supplier management is people management and the added value that human parts of business may bring to your company. Maintaining this aspect of the relationship will ensure that both parties take prompt action to address issues, look for ways to improve procedures, and assist one another in realizing the partnership’s commercial advantages. The maxim “your success is my success” is the foundation of excellent supplier management.
The foundation of solid relationships requires a particular attitude since it’s essential to view the difficulty of managing supplier relationships as one of people management.
Here are the basic elements for improving supplier relationships:
Communication
Any successful business relationship relies on effective, transparent two-way communication. You won’t be able to understand enough about your suppliers to establish mutually beneficial agreements if you don’t communicate effectively with them.
Respect
Mutual respect and readiness to accept the requirements and perspectives of the other party make it easier for suppliers and buyers to work together in a way that maximizes the interests of both parties.
Openness
Being open and honest with one another is an important element of strong relationship building. Sharing information and being open about intent and plans enhances the possibility of establishing mutually beneficial agreements.
Veracity
Business relationships break down when one side believes they are not getting a fair share of the deal. To make a “You scratch my back” strategy work for everyone involved, make sure all benefits are distributed evenly down the line.
Trust
All of the aforementioned lead to the building of trust. Trust is the bond that holds a successful relationship together, giving suppliers and consumers the confidence to seek out new ways to collaborate and solve problems together.
Resilience
To make a relationship thrive, you must be willing to reconfigure your working methods to accommodate the other side. It is extremely unusual for two organizations to reach an immediate working panacea. Strong relationships need time and both sides’ willingness to listen, adapt and accept innovation as a way of development.
Chapter 4: Challenges Faced
Preparing For The Transition Challenges
Lack of Information and Knowledge Sharing
Every account-related detail must be given when one managed services vendor transfers responsibilities to a new provider; otherwise, the new provider risks making mistakes that could cost them money, time, and effort.
The lack of understanding could make the client question the new provider, which would make it lose confidence in performing the task at hand. To avoid any complexities that could lead to more issues, the vendors must communicate simply and clearly with one another.
Poor Planning
Any vendor should have a detailed before, during, and after plan before entering the transition period. The transition will be based entirely on the plan, so if the new service provider is not adequately prepared to take over the operations, it could cause business disruptions and confusion between the team and management.
Inadequate management
Every team needs a manager, who will oversee, guide, and take decisive action if a service problem arises. To ensure that no crucial information or services are lost during the transfer, the new provider must collaborate with the client, the old provider, and both. In order for the entire organization of the three parties to work together smoothly, they must also be aware of their team, assign duties that are appropriate for each member, and concentrate on obtaining the skills required to complete the tasks.
Timeline Inefficiency
Every small work must be completed on time in order to avoid delays for later tasks. Transition is more like a continuous line because each service and task depends on the one before it. There are numerous reasons why the transition may be postponed, including a malfunctioning system or the previous provider’s unwillingness to engage with the new provider because they simply do not want to lose the client’s business and financial support. In this situation, the new supplier will be under additional pressure to get things back on track, but it is achievable.
IT Service Transition: Key Risks and Mitigation
When services migrate from the current provider to a new provider, transition is a crucial phase. The current provider may be a vendor or internal staff. In the same way, the new provider can be an internal team (in the case of internal sourcing) or a different vendor.
Transition is a phase that moves quickly and is quite volatile. The knowledge of the entire echo-system must be transferred from the departing team to the arriving crew. This knowledge encompasses domain, procedures, tools, infrastructure, governance, and relationships in addition to the team’s technical expertise. All of these elements must be somewhat mastered by the new team for a successful and efficient transition so that they can deliver service in accordance with SLAs.
Recognizing and minimizing transition risks is one of the essential success criteria for any transition. To identify potential risks and create a strategy for effective risk mitigation, a thorough examination of the present environment is necessary.
While there will always be particular dangers associated with a given transition, there are some risks that are generic in nature and have a high likelihood of occurring in any transition. Seven dangers associated with frequent transitions are shown in the diagram below. Any transition manager should review these for his or her transition and prepare mitigation depending on likelihood and impact severity of occurrence.
1. Lack of Documentation: Use tools to asses and create documentation during transition. Tools like CAST can help create good amount of documentation from source code besides validating the source code quality.
2. SME Attrition: Plan optimum transition duration to minimize SME attrition. Too long transition will always have risk of SME attrition.
3. Access to Systems: Access to the IT environment for the incoming team is very critical. Plan adequate time for this activity as organization procedure may require certain minimum time before access is granted. The risk is more prominent if the incumbent service provider is an external vendor.
4. Process Harmonization: Dedicated process transition track is critical for uniformed processes to be ready in time for the new transitioned environment.
5. Cultural Gaps: Plan pre-transition cultural sensitization workshops for all stakeholders to bridge the cultural gap.
6. Organization Change Management: Organization change should not be underestimated specially in case of in-house to vendor transition scenario. Engage a professional team to manage this in case required capability is not available internally.
7. Schedule Slippage: Divide transition into different tracks and phases to bring focus to execution. Any schedule slippage should be isolated at track/phase level and impacted track/phase should be re-planned without impacting other tracks/phases much.
Chapter 5: Minimizing Disruption
Building a change management plan is essential to carrying out the changes and preventing potential interruption after businesses have decided which transition methods to use, either individually or in combination.
Companies’ current channel tactics may no longer be effective when they deal with markets that are slowing down or undergoing disruptions, such as trade disputes, budget cuts, or currency instability. The performance of MNCs’ distributors may also decline when less aggressive ones are revealed. Although altering channel partnerships or structures becomes unavoidable, doing so at such a tumultuous period can be particularly difficult due to weak demand and price sensitivity.
According to FrontierView’s Channel Benchmarking Survey, international corporations from various regions and business sectors have gone through severe channel transformations during the previous five years. Many businesses frequently make executional errors, which frequently lead to brand harm, distributor retribution, the loss of important clients, a decline in sales, and even legal issues. MNCs run the risk of sudden, poorly timed, and dysfunctional transitions that can dramatically harm market performance if they don’t have suitable execution deadlines, communication cadence, and a backup plan.
Companies must develop an effective change management plan to ensure smooth channel transitions.
Even though switching suppliers or business models can be risky and disruptive, planning ahead can assist prevent having to make adjustments when the situation is urgent and the organization is already struggling. MNC executives must create an implementation strategy that unifies all stakeholders and accounts for potential pushbacks after identifying channel capability gaps and confirming a need for change.
Companies should develop an efficient process to ensure smooth transitions in order to implement channel changes successfully and prevent disruptions to their businesses. For example, companies should prioritize which customers or geographic areas for transitions, anticipate distributor reactions to prevent brand damage and retaliation, communicate with corporate to align on the short-term and long-term impact of transitions, prepare for potential risks, and develop a plan B.
Companies that can manage the implementation of a channel transition successfully often excel in three critical steps/aspects:
1. Develop a clear execution plan: Prioritize channel transitions and carefully evaluate timing and potential resistance to create a clearly defined roadmap and workflow.
2. Ensure smooth communication: Ensure alignment among affected partners, customers and internal stakeholders.
3. Build a back-up plan: Prevent risks by including key contract details and preparing for contingency actions in advance.
Chapter 6: Knowledge Transfer
Knowledge Transfer Plan
As you work to understand the scope of a KT project, you need to get a plan started. A stakeholder management plan, communication strategy, risk register, timetable with a list of tasks and meetings, acceptance criteria, and resource management should all be included in a KT project plan. For all of this labor, hiring a project manager with planning expertise is an excellent place to start.
One of the more crucial elements will be stakeholder management. A project manager will evaluate how the current team will react to the news that they are leaving the project before taking any action. Understanding this idea is the first step in creating a risk register. Depending on how the news of offboarding is conveyed, teams may respond differently. Who will be in charge of the various activities will be another aspect of the stakeholder management plan.
The communication strategy will specify how stakeholders should communicate, list the subjects that call for meetings, and lay out the protocol for those gatherings. This will help to reduce the risk associated with stakeholder management. For instance, hold a meeting where the new staff is given a product tour before discussing the smaller concerns mentioned above. It is impossible to emphasize the significance of this high-level overview because it will enable everyone on the team to grasp the big picture. Meetings provide a fantastic setting for feedback loops to make sure that everyone is fully comprehending. If necessary, make sure to give the teams permission to hold follow-up meetings on the subject. A nice suggestion for the communication plan would be to record each KT meeting so that team members may examine them afterwards.
It might frequently take a long time to grant users access to environments, repositories, databases, and different tools with the proper permissions. Access to software will undoubtedly be necessary to begin the knowledge transfer, and access to hardware may also be necessary. As soon as you can, identify any potential obstacles, such as hardware access restrictions and per-user license fees, and add them to the risk register for monitoring and mitigation.
Any project’s acceptance criteria are a crucial component, and KT projects are no exception. Give the new team the chance to approve the documentation and overall KT of a topic when onboarding a new vendor. This will ensure that they accept responsibility for comprehending the product and will give them the authority to ask questions until they receive the necessary responses.
People, methods, and a product all play a role in the effectiveness of knowledge transfer in IT outsourcing. It is hard for a vendor to meet the client’s expectations without a thorough grasp of what the product does, how it works, and who is accountable for certain duties.
• Define the knowledge you want to acquire.
Knowing what data you need to collect is the foundation of an effective knowledge transfer plan. Here is a list of crucial knowledge topics to learn from the organizational, team, and individual viewpoints.
The individual sharing of knowledge is the most important part of the knowledge transfer process. Getting the keys to a house that you don’t know where it is or how to enter is comparable to getting an IT outsourcing assignment. The code itself constitutes an important piece of knowledge. Knowing what the code does, though, is one thing; realizing any potential landmines it may contain, however, is quite another. One-on-one conversations are necessary to fully understand the logic behind the code and certain accepted best practices when moving vendors.
• Define those who pass on and receive information.
Once you’ve determined what information you need, you’ll need to identify the people in your vendor’s organization who can give it at each level. It’s crucial to know what critical duties an individual controls, how important they are, and any potential dangers.
• Amass knowledge items.
The best way to achieve knowledge transfer isn’t to hold endless meetings and expect your new development personnel to comprehend everything. It is advisable to archive and record important information. If it’s a meeting, there need to be an agenda, meeting minutes, and possibly even more documents that you can work on afterwards. There are a number of additional knowledge transfer techniques, though, and we’ve determined which ones have proven to be the most effective in IT outsourcing.
Chapter 7: Monitor New Supplier
Why is Vendor Performance Management important?
When you put in a lot of time and effort during vendor transition to onboard the best suppliers and anticipate working with them, you need continuously assess their worth. The correct KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and regular reporting are required for vendor performance management so that you are aware of the value your vendors are delivering.
How Can Vendor Performance Be Measured?
You need well-defined plans and clever vendor management tools in order to monitor the performance of your company’s vendors. These kinds of systems enable you to divide up your vendors into groups based on your priorities, track and monitor their performance using KPIs, and present the findings in the manner that the department requires.
5 Reasons why you need a Vendor Management Software
Nowadays, it is crucial for organizations to have more effective tactics. We are thankfully outfitted with technology for all we do. Vendor management systems are extremely valuable for vendor performance management and have the power to completely alter how a firm conducts business. Such a solution can support your plans and offer vendor risk management a failsafe approach.
Here are 5 reasons, Vendor Management System is a primary need to your business:
1. To simplify the invoicing process
Receiving timely payments from vendors is one of the difficulties that each business faces. This might be particularly challenging if you are purchasing goods from many nations or if your vendors are spread out throughout the globe. When you take into account cultural differences, currency exchange rates, and language limitations, the issue is made worse. By enabling you to automate invoice processing, vendor management software makes this process simpler.
2. To manage risk
Vendor performance management software allows you to develop a comprehensive risk management system. The system allows you to monitor and evaluate the performance of suppliers at any time. This gives you better insights into the risks your business faces with regard to the quality of products and services provided by your suppliers.
3. To improve visibility
A vendor management system provides visibility into the performance of vendors by giving managers access to real-time supplier data in one single place. This allows for informed decision-making about suppliers, ensuring that you are always working with the best ones for your business needs.
4. To streamline internal processes
Vendor management systems help streamline communication between internal teams and external vendors. Such systems make it easier for companies to collaborate with their supplier community because they have easy access to relevant information on the system.
5. To improve communication
A vendor management system makes it simple to interact with vendors. Emails and letters don’t need to be sent or written. Directly from the system, you can begin communicating with your merchants. Additionally, they can contact you directly using their own accounts. Communication becomes quick and simple as a result.
The Bottom line
The fact that vendor management software gives you access to information about all facets of your business connections with vendors, is one of its main benefits. You may manage your cash flow more effectively and spend less time and money by using a competent vendor management system. It might also be a game-changer for your company by helping to automate any laborious and time-consuming steps in the vendor management procedure.
Curriculum
Leading IT Transformation – Workshop 15 – Sourcing Transition
- Define Business Requirements
- Transition Strategy
- Strong Governance
- Challenges Faced
- Minimizing Disruption
- Knowledge Transfer
- Monitor New Suppliers
Distance Learning
Introduction
Welcome to Appleton Greene and thank you for enrolling on the Leading IT Transformation corporate training program. You will be learning through our unique facilitation via distance-learning method, which will enable you to practically implement everything that you learn academically. The methods and materials used in your program have been designed and developed to ensure that you derive the maximum benefits and enjoyment possible. We hope that you find the program challenging and fun to do. However, if you have never been a distance-learner before, you may be experiencing some trepidation at the task before you. So we will get you started by giving you some basic information and guidance on how you can make the best use of the modules, how you should manage the materials and what you should be doing as you work through them. This guide is designed to point you in the right direction and help you to become an effective distance-learner. Take a few hours or so to study this guide and your guide to tutorial support for students, while making notes, before you start to study in earnest.
Study environment
You will need to locate a quiet and private place to study, preferably a room where you can easily be isolated from external disturbances or distractions. Make sure the room is well-lit and incorporates a relaxed, pleasant feel. If you can spoil yourself within your study environment, you will have much more of a chance to ensure that you are always in the right frame of mind when you do devote time to study. For example, a nice fire, the ability to play soft soothing background music, soft but effective lighting, perhaps a nice view if possible and a good size desk with a comfortable chair. Make sure that your family know when you are studying and understand your study rules. Your study environment is very important. The ideal situation, if at all possible, is to have a separate study, which can be devoted to you. If this is not possible then you will need to pay a lot more attention to developing and managing your study schedule, because it will affect other people as well as yourself. The better your study environment, the more productive you will be.
Study tools & rules
Try and make sure that your study tools are sufficient and in good working order. You will need to have access to a computer, scanner and printer, with access to the internet. You will need a very comfortable chair, which supports your lower back, and you will need a good filing system. It can be very frustrating if you are spending valuable study time trying to fix study tools that are unreliable, or unsuitable for the task. Make sure that your study tools are up to date. You will also need to consider some study rules. Some of these rules will apply to you and will be intended to help you to be more disciplined about when and how you study. This distance-learning guide will help you and after you have read it you can put some thought into what your study rules should be. You will also need to negotiate some study rules for your family, friends or anyone who lives with you. They too will need to be disciplined in order to ensure that they can support you while you study. It is important to ensure that your family and friends are an integral part of your study team. Having their support and encouragement can prove to be a crucial contribution to your successful completion of the program. Involve them in as much as you can.
Successful distance-learning
Distance-learners are freed from the necessity of attending regular classes or workshops, since they can study in their own way, at their own pace and for their own purposes. But unlike traditional internal training courses, it is the student’s responsibility, with a distance-learning program, to ensure that they manage their own study contribution. This requires strong self-discipline and self-motivation skills and there must be a clear will to succeed. Those students who are used to managing themselves, are good at managing others and who enjoy working in isolation, are more likely to be good distance-learners. It is also important to be aware of the main reasons why you are studying and of the main objectives that you are hoping to achieve as a result. You will need to remind yourself of these objectives at times when you need to motivate yourself. Never lose sight of your long-term goals and your short-term objectives. There is nobody available here to pamper you, or to look after you, or to spoon-feed you with information, so you will need to find ways to encourage and appreciate yourself while you are studying. Make sure that you chart your study progress, so that you can be sure of your achievements and re-evaluate your goals and objectives regularly.
Self-assessment
Appleton Greene training programs are in all cases post-graduate programs. Consequently, you should already have obtained a business-related degree and be an experienced learner. You should therefore already be aware of your study strengths and weaknesses. For example, which time of the day are you at your most productive? Are you a lark or an owl? What study methods do you respond to the most? Are you a consistent learner? How do you discipline yourself? How do you ensure that you enjoy yourself while studying? It is important to understand yourself as a learner and so some self-assessment early on will be necessary if you are to apply yourself correctly. Perform a SWOT analysis on yourself as a student. List your internal strengths and weaknesses as a student and your external opportunities and threats. This will help you later on when you are creating a study plan. You can then incorporate features within your study plan that can ensure that you are playing to your strengths, while compensating for your weaknesses. You can also ensure that you make the most of your opportunities, while avoiding the potential threats to your success.
Accepting responsibility as a student
Training programs invariably require a significant investment, both in terms of what they cost and in the time that you need to contribute to study and the responsibility for successful completion of training programs rests entirely with the student. This is never more apparent than when a student is learning via distance-learning. Accepting responsibility as a student is an important step towards ensuring that you can successfully complete your training program. It is easy to instantly blame other people or factors when things go wrong. But the fact of the matter is that if a failure is your failure, then you have the power to do something about it, it is entirely in your own hands. If it is always someone else’s failure, then you are powerless to do anything about it. All students study in entirely different ways, this is because we are all individuals and what is right for one student, is not necessarily right for another. In order to succeed, you will have to accept personal responsibility for finding a way to plan, implement and manage a personal study plan that works for you. If you do not succeed, you only have yourself to blame.
Planning
By far the most critical contribution to stress, is the feeling of not being in control. In the absence of planning we tend to be reactive and can stumble from pillar to post in the hope that things will turn out fine in the end. Invariably they don’t! In order to be in control, we need to have firm ideas about how and when we want to do things. We also need to consider as many possible eventualities as we can, so that we are prepared for them when they happen. Prescriptive Change, is far easier to manage and control, than Emergent Change. The same is true with distance-learning. It is much easier and much more enjoyable, if you feel that you are in control and that things are going to plan. Even when things do go wrong, you are prepared for them and can act accordingly without any unnecessary stress. It is important therefore that you do take time to plan your studies properly.
Management
Once you have developed a clear study plan, it is of equal importance to ensure that you manage the implementation of it. Most of us usually enjoy planning, but it is usually during implementation when things go wrong. Targets are not met and we do not understand why. Sometimes we do not even know if targets are being met. It is not enough for us to conclude that the study plan just failed. If it is failing, you will need to understand what you can do about it. Similarly if your study plan is succeeding, it is still important to understand why, so that you can improve upon your success. You therefore need to have guidelines for self-assessment so that you can be consistent with performance improvement throughout the program. If you manage things correctly, then your performance should constantly improve throughout the program.
Study objectives & tasks
The first place to start is developing your program objectives. These should feature your reasons for undertaking the training program in order of priority. Keep them succinct and to the point in order to avoid confusion. Do not just write the first things that come into your head because they are likely to be too similar to each other. Make a list of possible departmental headings, such as: Customer Service; E-business; Finance; Globalization; Human Resources; Technology; Legal; Management; Marketing and Production. Then brainstorm for ideas by listing as many things that you want to achieve under each heading and later re-arrange these things in order of priority. Finally, select the top item from each department heading and choose these as your program objectives. Try and restrict yourself to five because it will enable you to focus clearly. It is likely that the other things that you listed will be achieved if each of the top objectives are achieved. If this does not prove to be the case, then simply work through the process again.
Study forecast
As a guide, the Appleton Greene Leading IT Transformation corporate training program should take 12-18 months to complete, depending upon your availability and current commitments. The reason why there is such a variance in time estimates is because every student is an individual, with differing productivity levels and different commitments. These differentiations are then exaggerated by the fact that this is a distance-learning program, which incorporates the practical integration of academic theory as an as a part of the training program. Consequently all of the project studies are real, which means that important decisions and compromises need to be made. You will want to get things right and will need to be patient with your expectations in order to ensure that they are. We would always recommend that you are prudent with your own task and time forecasts, but you still need to develop them and have a clear indication of what are realistic expectations in your case. With reference to your time planning: consider the time that you can realistically dedicate towards study with the program every week; calculate how long it should take you to complete the program, using the guidelines featured here; then break the program down into logical modules and allocate a suitable proportion of time to each of them, these will be your milestones; you can create a time plan by using a spreadsheet on your computer, or a personal organizer such as MS Outlook, you could also use a financial forecasting software; break your time forecasts down into manageable chunks of time, the more specific you can be, the more productive and accurate your time management will be; finally, use formulas where possible to do your time calculations for you, because this will help later on when your forecasts need to change in line with actual performance. With reference to your task planning: refer to your list of tasks that need to be undertaken in order to achieve your program objectives; with reference to your time plan, calculate when each task should be implemented; remember that you are not estimating when your objectives will be achieved, but when you will need to focus upon implementing the corresponding tasks; you also need to ensure that each task is implemented in conjunction with the associated training modules which are relevant; then break each single task down into a list of specific to do’s, say approximately ten to do’s for each task and enter these into your study plan; once again you could use MS Outlook to incorporate both your time and task planning and this could constitute your study plan; you could also use a project management software like MS Project. You should now have a clear and realistic forecast detailing when you can expect to be able to do something about undertaking the tasks to achieve your program objectives.
Performance management
It is one thing to develop your study forecast, it is quite another to monitor your progress. Ultimately it is less important whether you achieve your original study forecast and more important that you update it so that it constantly remains realistic in line with your performance. As you begin to work through the program, you will begin to have more of an idea about your own personal performance and productivity levels as a distance-learner. Once you have completed your first study module, you should re-evaluate your study forecast for both time and tasks, so that they reflect your actual performance level achieved. In order to achieve this you must first time yourself while training by using an alarm clock. Set the alarm for hourly intervals and make a note of how far you have come within that time. You can then make a note of your actual performance on your study plan and then compare your performance against your forecast. Then consider the reasons that have contributed towards your performance level, whether they are positive or negative and make a considered adjustment to your future forecasts as a result. Given time, you should start achieving your forecasts regularly.
With reference to time management: time yourself while you are studying and make a note of the actual time taken in your study plan; consider your successes with time-efficiency and the reasons for the success in each case and take this into consideration when reviewing future time planning; consider your failures with time-efficiency and the reasons for the failures in each case and take this into consideration when reviewing future time planning; re-evaluate your study forecast in relation to time planning for the remainder of your training program to ensure that you continue to be realistic about your time expectations. You need to be consistent with your time management, otherwise you will never complete your studies. This will either be because you are not contributing enough time to your studies, or you will become less efficient with the time that you do allocate to your studies. Remember, if you are not in control of your studies, they can just become yet another cause of stress for you.
With reference to your task management: time yourself while you are studying and make a note of the actual tasks that you have undertaken in your study plan; consider your successes with task-efficiency and the reasons for the success in each case; take this into consideration when reviewing future task planning; consider your failures with task-efficiency and the reasons for the failures in each case and take this into consideration when reviewing future task planning; re-evaluate your study forecast in relation to task planning for the remainder of your training program to ensure that you continue to be realistic about your task expectations. You need to be consistent with your task management, otherwise you will never know whether you are achieving your program objectives or not.
Keeping in touch
You will have access to qualified and experienced professors and tutors who are responsible for providing tutorial support for your particular training program. So don’t be shy about letting them know how you are getting on. We keep electronic records of all tutorial support emails so that professors and tutors can review previous correspondence before considering an individual response. It also means that there is a record of all communications between you and your professors and tutors and this helps to avoid any unnecessary duplication, misunderstanding, or misinterpretation. If you have a problem relating to the program, share it with them via email. It is likely that they have come across the same problem before and are usually able to make helpful suggestions and steer you in the right direction. To learn more about when and how to use tutorial support, please refer to the Tutorial Support section of this student information guide. This will help you to ensure that you are making the most of tutorial support that is available to you and will ultimately contribute towards your success and enjoyment with your training program.
Work colleagues and family
You should certainly discuss your program study progress with your colleagues, friends and your family. Appleton Greene training programs are very practical. They require you to seek information from other people, to plan, develop and implement processes with other people and to achieve feedback from other people in relation to viability and productivity. You will therefore have plenty of opportunities to test your ideas and enlist the views of others. People tend to be sympathetic towards distance-learners, so don’t bottle it all up in yourself. Get out there and share it! It is also likely that your family and colleagues are going to benefit from your labors with the program, so they are likely to be much more interested in being involved than you might think. Be bold about delegating work to those who might benefit themselves. This is a great way to achieve understanding and commitment from people who you may later rely upon for process implementation. Share your experiences with your friends and family.
Making it relevant
The key to successful learning is to make it relevant to your own individual circumstances. At all times you should be trying to make bridges between the content of the program and your own situation. Whether you achieve this through quiet reflection or through interactive discussion with your colleagues, client partners or your family, remember that it is the most important and rewarding aspect of translating your studies into real self-improvement. You should be clear about how you want the program to benefit you. This involves setting clear study objectives in relation to the content of the course in terms of understanding, concepts, completing research or reviewing activities and relating the content of the modules to your own situation. Your objectives may understandably change as you work through the program, in which case you should enter the revised objectives on your study plan so that you have a permanent reminder of what you are trying to achieve, when and why.
Distance-learning check-list
Prepare your study environment, your study tools and rules.
Undertake detailed self-assessment in terms of your ability as a learner.
Create a format for your study plan.
Consider your study objectives and tasks.
Create a study forecast.
Assess your study performance.
Re-evaluate your study forecast.
Be consistent when managing your study plan.
Use your Appleton Greene Certified Learning Provider (CLP) for tutorial support.
Make sure you keep in touch with those around you.
Tutorial Support
Programs
Appleton Greene uses standard and bespoke corporate training programs as vessels to transfer business process improvement knowledge into the heart of our clients’ organizations. Each individual program focuses upon the implementation of a specific business process, which enables clients to easily quantify their return on investment. There are hundreds of established Appleton Greene corporate training products now available to clients within customer services, e-business, finance, globalization, human resources, information technology, legal, management, marketing and production. It does not matter whether a client’s employees are located within one office, or an unlimited number of international offices, we can still bring them together to learn and implement specific business processes collectively. Our approach to global localization enables us to provide clients with a truly international service with that all important personal touch. Appleton Greene corporate training programs can be provided virtually or locally and they are all unique in that they individually focus upon a specific business function. They are implemented over a sustainable period of time and professional support is consistently provided by qualified learning providers and specialist consultants.
Support available
You will have a designated Certified Learning Provider (CLP) and an Accredited Consultant and we encourage you to communicate with them as much as possible. In all cases tutorial support is provided online because we can then keep a record of all communications to ensure that tutorial support remains consistent. You would also be forwarding your work to the tutorial support unit for evaluation and assessment. You will receive individual feedback on all of the work that you undertake on a one-to-one basis, together with specific recommendations for anything that may need to be changed in order to achieve a pass with merit or a pass with distinction and you then have as many opportunities as you may need to re-submit project studies until they meet with the required standard. Consequently the only reason that you should really fail (CLP) is if you do not do the work. It makes no difference to us whether a student takes 12 months or 18 months to complete the program, what matters is that in all cases the same quality standard will have been achieved.
Support Process
Please forward all of your future emails to the designated (CLP) Tutorial Support Unit email address that has been provided and please do not duplicate or copy your emails to other AGC email accounts as this will just cause unnecessary administration. Please note that emails are always answered as quickly as possible but you will need to allow a period of up to 20 business days for responses to general tutorial support emails during busy periods, because emails are answered strictly within the order in which they are received. You will also need to allow a period of up to 30 business days for the evaluation and assessment of project studies. This does not include weekends or public holidays. Please therefore kindly allow for this within your time planning. All communications are managed online via email because it enables tutorial service support managers to review other communications which have been received before responding and it ensures that there is a copy of all communications retained on file for future reference. All communications will be stored within your personal (CLP) study file here at Appleton Greene throughout your designated study period. If you need any assistance or clarification at any time, please do not hesitate to contact us by forwarding an email and remember that we are here to help. If you have any questions, please list and number your questions succinctly and you can then be sure of receiving specific answers to each and every query.
Time Management
It takes approximately 1 Year to complete the Leading IT Transformation corporate training program, incorporating 12 x 6-hour monthly workshops. Each student will also need to contribute approximately 4 hours per week over 1 Year of their personal time. Students can study from home or work at their own pace and are responsible for managing their own study plan. There are no formal examinations and students are evaluated and assessed based upon their project study submissions, together with the quality of their internal analysis and supporting documents. They can contribute more time towards study when they have the time to do so and can contribute less time when they are busy. All students tend to be in full time employment while studying and the Leading IT Transformation program is purposely designed to accommodate this, so there is plenty of flexibility in terms of time management. It makes no difference to us at Appleton Greene, whether individuals take 12-18 months to complete this program. What matters is that in all cases the same standard of quality will have been achieved with the standard and bespoke programs that have been developed.
Distance Learning Guide
The distance learning guide should be your first port of call when starting your training program. It will help you when you are planning how and when to study, how to create the right environment and how to establish the right frame of mind. If you can lay the foundations properly during the planning stage, then it will contribute to your enjoyment and productivity while training later. The guide helps to change your lifestyle in order to accommodate time for study and to cultivate good study habits. It helps you to chart your progress so that you can measure your performance and achieve your goals. It explains the tools that you will need for study and how to make them work. It also explains how to translate academic theory into practical reality. Spend some time now working through your distance learning guide and make sure that you have firm foundations in place so that you can make the most of your distance learning program. There is no requirement for you to attend training workshops or classes at Appleton Greene offices. The entire program is undertaken online, program course manuals and project studies are administered via the Appleton Greene web site and via email, so you are able to study at your own pace and in the comfort of your own home or office as long as you have a computer and access to the internet.
How To Study
The how to study guide provides students with a clear understanding of the Appleton Greene facilitation via distance learning training methods and enables students to obtain a clear overview of the training program content. It enables students to understand the step-by-step training methods used by Appleton Greene and how course manuals are integrated with project studies. It explains the research and development that is required and the need to provide evidence and references to support your statements. It also enables students to understand precisely what will be required of them in order to achieve a pass with merit and a pass with distinction for individual project studies and provides useful guidance on how to be innovative and creative when developing your Unique Program Proposition (UPP).
Tutorial Support
Tutorial support for the Appleton Greene Leading IT Transformation corporate training program is provided online either through the Appleton Greene Client Support Portal (CSP), or via email. All tutorial support requests are facilitated by a designated Program Administration Manager (PAM). They are responsible for deciding which professor or tutor is the most appropriate option relating to the support required and then the tutorial support request is forwarded onto them. Once the professor or tutor has completed the tutorial support request and answered any questions that have been asked, this communication is then returned to the student via email by the designated Program Administration Manager (PAM). This enables all tutorial support, between students, professors and tutors, to be facilitated by the designated Program Administration Manager (PAM) efficiently and securely through the email account. You will therefore need to allow a period of up to 20 business days for responses to general support queries and up to 30 business days for the evaluation and assessment of project studies, because all tutorial support requests are answered strictly within the order in which they are received. This does not include weekends or public holidays. Consequently you need to put some thought into the management of your tutorial support procedure in order to ensure that your study plan is feasible and to obtain the maximum possible benefit from tutorial support during your period of study. Please retain copies of your tutorial support emails for future reference. Please ensure that ALL of your tutorial support emails are set out using the format as suggested within your guide to tutorial support. Your tutorial support emails need to be referenced clearly to the specific part of the course manual or project study which you are working on at any given time. You also need to list and number any questions that you would like to ask, up to a maximum of five questions within each tutorial support email. Remember the more specific you can be with your questions the more specific your answers will be too and this will help you to avoid any unnecessary misunderstanding, misinterpretation, or duplication. The guide to tutorial support is intended to help you to understand how and when to use support in order to ensure that you get the most out of your training program. Appleton Greene training programs are designed to enable you to do things for yourself. They provide you with a structure or a framework and we use tutorial support to facilitate students while they practically implement what they learn. In other words, we are enabling students to do things for themselves. The benefits of distance learning via facilitation are considerable and are much more sustainable in the long-term than traditional short-term knowledge sharing programs. Consequently you should learn how and when to use tutorial support so that you can maximize the benefits from your learning experience with Appleton Greene. This guide describes the purpose of each training function and how to use them and how to use tutorial support in relation to each aspect of the training program. It also provides useful tips and guidance with regard to best practice.
Tutorial Support Tips
Students are often unsure about how and when to use tutorial support with Appleton Greene. This Tip List will help you to understand more about how to achieve the most from using tutorial support. Refer to it regularly to ensure that you are continuing to use the service properly. Tutorial support is critical to the success of your training experience, but it is important to understand when and how to use it in order to maximize the benefit that you receive. It is no coincidence that those students who succeed are those that learn how to be positive, proactive and productive when using tutorial support.
Be positive and friendly with your tutorial support emails
Remember that if you forward an email to the tutorial support unit, you are dealing with real people. “Do unto others as you would expect others to do unto you”. If you are positive, complimentary and generally friendly in your emails, you will generate a similar response in return. This will be more enjoyable, productive and rewarding for you in the long-term.
Think about the impression that you want to create
Every time that you communicate, you create an impression, which can be either positive or negative, so put some thought into the impression that you want to create. Remember that copies of all tutorial support emails are stored electronically and tutors will always refer to prior correspondence before responding to any current emails. Over a period of time, a general opinion will be arrived at in relation to your character, attitude and ability. Try to manage your own frustrations, mood swings and temperament professionally, without involving the tutorial support team. Demonstrating frustration or a lack of patience is a weakness and will be interpreted as such. The good thing about communicating in writing, is that you will have the time to consider your content carefully, you can review it and proof-read it before sending your email to Appleton Greene and this should help you to communicate more professionally, consistently and to avoid any unnecessary knee-jerk reactions to individual situations as and when they may arise. Please also remember that the CLP Tutorial Support Unit will not just be responsible for evaluating and assessing the quality of your work, they will also be responsible for providing recommendations to other learning providers and to client contacts within the Appleton Greene global client network, so do be in control of your own emotions and try to create a good impression.
Remember that quality is preferred to quantity
Please remember that when you send an email to the tutorial support team, you are not using Twitter or Text Messaging. Try not to forward an email every time that you have a thought. This will not prove to be productive either for you or for the tutorial support team. Take time to prepare your communications properly, as if you were writing a professional letter to a business colleague and make a list of queries that you are likely to have and then incorporate them within one email, say once every month, so that the tutorial support team can understand more about context, application and your methodology for study. Get yourself into a consistent routine with your tutorial support requests and use the tutorial support template provided with ALL of your emails. The (CLP) Tutorial Support Unit will not spoon-feed you with information. They need to be able to evaluate and assess your tutorial support requests carefully and professionally.
Be specific about your questions in order to receive specific answers
Try not to write essays by thinking as you are writing tutorial support emails. The tutorial support unit can be unclear about what in fact you are asking, or what you are looking to achieve. Be specific about asking questions that you want answers to. Number your questions. You will then receive specific answers to each and every question. This is the main purpose of tutorial support via email.
Keep a record of your tutorial support emails
It is important that you keep a record of all tutorial support emails that are forwarded to you. You can then refer to them when necessary and it avoids any unnecessary duplication, misunderstanding, or misinterpretation.
Individual training workshops or telephone support
Please be advised that Appleton Greene does not provide separate or individual tutorial support meetings, workshops, or provide telephone support for individual students. Appleton Greene is an equal opportunities learning and service provider and we are therefore understandably bound to treat all students equally. We cannot therefore broker special financial or study arrangements with individual students regardless of the circumstances. All tutorial support is provided online and this enables Appleton Greene to keep a record of all communications between students, professors and tutors on file for future reference, in accordance with our quality management procedure and your terms and conditions of enrolment. All tutorial support is provided online via email because it enables us to have time to consider support content carefully, it ensures that you receive a considered and detailed response to your queries. You can number questions that you would like to ask, which relate to things that you do not understand or where clarification may be required. You can then be sure of receiving specific answers to each individual query. You will also then have a record of these communications and of all tutorial support, which has been provided to you. This makes tutorial support administration more productive by avoiding any unnecessary duplication, misunderstanding, or misinterpretation.
Tutorial Support Email Format
You should use this tutorial support format if you need to request clarification or assistance while studying with your training program. Please note that ALL of your tutorial support request emails should use the same format. You should therefore set up a standard email template, which you can then use as and when you need to. Emails that are forwarded to Appleton Greene, which do not use the following format, may be rejected and returned to you by the (CLP) Program Administration Manager. A detailed response will then be forwarded to you via email usually within 20 business days of receipt for general support queries and 30 business days for the evaluation and assessment of project studies. This does not include weekends or public holidays. Your tutorial support request, together with the corresponding TSU reply, will then be saved and stored within your electronic TSU file at Appleton Greene for future reference.
Subject line of your email
Please insert: Appleton Greene (CLP) Tutorial Support Request: (Your Full Name) (Date), within the subject line of your email.
Main body of your email
Please insert:
1. Appleton Greene Certified Learning Provider (CLP) Tutorial Support Request
2. Your Full Name
3. Date of TS request
4. Preferred email address
5. Backup email address
6. Course manual page name or number (reference)
7. Project study page name or number (reference)
Subject of enquiry
Please insert a maximum of 50 words (please be succinct)
Briefly outline the subject matter of your inquiry, or what your questions relate to.
Question 1
Maximum of 50 words (please be succinct)
Maximum of 50 words (please be succinct)
Question 3
Maximum of 50 words (please be succinct)
Question 4
Maximum of 50 words (please be succinct)
Question 5
Maximum of 50 words (please be succinct)
Please note that a maximum of 5 questions is permitted with each individual tutorial support request email.
Procedure
* List the questions that you want to ask first, then re-arrange them in order of priority. Make sure that you reference them, where necessary, to the course manuals or project studies.
* Make sure that you are specific about your questions and number them. Try to plan the content within your emails to make sure that it is relevant.
* Make sure that your tutorial support emails are set out correctly, using the Tutorial Support Email Format provided here.
* Save a copy of your email and incorporate the date sent after the subject title. Keep your tutorial support emails within the same file and in date order for easy reference.
* Allow up to 20 business days for a response to general tutorial support emails and up to 30 business days for the evaluation and assessment of project studies, because detailed individual responses will be made in all cases and tutorial support emails are answered strictly within the order in which they are received.
* Emails can and do get lost. So if you have not received a reply within the appropriate time, forward another copy or a reminder to the tutorial support unit to be sure that it has been received but do not forward reminders unless the appropriate time has elapsed.
* When you receive a reply, save it immediately featuring the date of receipt after the subject heading for easy reference. In most cases the tutorial support unit replies to your questions individually, so you will have a record of the questions that you asked as well as the answers offered. With project studies however, separate emails are usually forwarded by the tutorial support unit, so do keep a record of your own original emails as well.
* Remember to be positive and friendly in your emails. You are dealing with real people who will respond to the same things that you respond to.
* Try not to repeat questions that have already been asked in previous emails. If this happens the tutorial support unit will probably just refer you to the appropriate answers that have already been provided within previous emails.
* If you lose your tutorial support email records you can write to Appleton Greene to receive a copy of your tutorial support file, but a separate administration charge may be levied for this service.
How To Study
Your Certified Learning Provider (CLP) and Accredited Consultant can help you to plan a task list for getting started so that you can be clear about your direction and your priorities in relation to your training program. It is also a good way to introduce yourself to the tutorial support team.
Planning your study environment
Your study conditions are of great importance and will have a direct effect on how much you enjoy your training program. Consider how much space you will have, whether it is comfortable and private and whether you are likely to be disturbed. The study tools and facilities at your disposal are also important to the success of your distance-learning experience. Your tutorial support unit can help with useful tips and guidance, regardless of your starting position. It is important to get this right before you start working on your training program.
Planning your program objectives
It is important that you have a clear list of study objectives, in order of priority, before you start working on your training program. Your tutorial support unit can offer assistance here to ensure that your study objectives have been afforded due consideration and priority.
Planning how and when to study
Distance-learners are freed from the necessity of attending regular classes, since they can study in their own way, at their own pace and for their own purposes. This approach is designed to let you study efficiently away from the traditional classroom environment. It is important however, that you plan how and when to study, so that you are making the most of your natural attributes, strengths and opportunities. Your tutorial support unit can offer assistance and useful tips to ensure that you are playing to your strengths.
Planning your study tasks
You should have a clear understanding of the study tasks that you should be undertaking and the priority associated with each task. These tasks should also be integrated with your program objectives. The distance learning guide and the guide to tutorial support for students should help you here, but if you need any clarification or assistance, please contact your tutorial support unit.
Planning your time
You will need to allocate specific times during your calendar when you intend to study if you are to have a realistic chance of completing your program on time. You are responsible for planning and managing your own study time, so it is important that you are successful with this. Your tutorial support unit can help you with this if your time plan is not working.
Keeping in touch
Consistency is the key here. If you communicate too frequently in short bursts, or too infrequently with no pattern, then your management ability with your studies will be questioned, both by you and by your tutorial support unit. It is obvious when a student is in control and when one is not and this will depend how able you are at sticking with your study plan. Inconsistency invariably leads to in-completion.
Charting your progress
Your tutorial support team can help you to chart your own study progress. Refer to your distance learning guide for further details.
Making it work
To succeed, all that you will need to do is apply yourself to undertaking your training program and interpreting it correctly. Success or failure lies in your hands and your hands alone, so be sure that you have a strategy for making it work. Your Certified Learning Provider (CLP) and Accredited Consultant can guide you through the process of program planning, development and implementation.
Reading methods
Interpretation is often unique to the individual but it can be improved and even quantified by implementing consistent interpretation methods. Interpretation can be affected by outside interference such as family members, TV, or the Internet, or simply by other thoughts which are demanding priority in our minds. One thing that can improve our productivity is using recognized reading methods. This helps us to focus and to be more structured when reading information for reasons of importance, rather than relaxation.
Speed reading
When reading through course manuals for the first time, subconsciously set your reading speed to be just fast enough that you cannot dwell on individual words or tables. With practice, you should be able to read an A4 sheet of paper in one minute. You will not achieve much in the way of a detailed understanding, but your brain will retain a useful overview. This overview will be important later on and will enable you to keep individual issues in perspective with a more generic picture because speed reading appeals to the memory part of the brain. Do not worry about what you do or do not remember at this stage.
Content reading
Once you have speed read everything, you can then start work in earnest. You now need to read a particular section of your course manual thoroughly, by making detailed notes while you read. This process is called Content Reading and it will help to consolidate your understanding and interpretation of the information that has been provided.
Making structured notes on the course manuals
When you are content reading, you should be making detailed notes, which are both structured and informative. Make these notes in a MS Word document on your computer, because you can then amend and update these as and when you deem it to be necessary. List your notes under three headings: 1. Interpretation – 2. Questions – 3. Tasks. The purpose of the 1st section is to clarify your interpretation by writing it down. The purpose of the 2nd section is to list any questions that the issue raises for you. The purpose of the 3rd section is to list any tasks that you should undertake as a result. Anyone who has graduated with a business-related degree should already be familiar with this process.
Organizing structured notes separately
You should then transfer your notes to a separate study notebook, preferably one that enables easy referencing, such as a MS Word Document, a MS Excel Spreadsheet, a MS Access Database, or a personal organizer on your cell phone. Transferring your notes allows you to have the opportunity of cross-checking and verifying them, which assists considerably with understanding and interpretation. You will also find that the better you are at doing this, the more chance you will have of ensuring that you achieve your study objectives.
Question your understanding
Do challenge your understanding. Explain things to yourself in your own words by writing things down.
Clarifying your understanding
If you are at all unsure, forward an email to your tutorial support unit and they will help to clarify your understanding.
Question your interpretation
Do challenge your interpretation. Qualify your interpretation by writing it down.
Clarifying your interpretation
If you are at all unsure, forward an email to your tutorial support unit and they will help to clarify your interpretation.
Qualification Requirements
The student will need to successfully complete the project study and all of the exercises relating to the Leading IT Transformation corporate training program, achieving a pass with merit or distinction in each case, in order to qualify as an Accredited Leading IT Transformation Specialist (ALITTS). All monthly workshops need to be tried and tested within your company. These project studies can be completed in your own time and at your own pace and in the comfort of your own home or office. There are no formal examinations, assessment is based upon the successful completion of the project studies. They are called project studies because, unlike case studies, these projects are not theoretical, they incorporate real program processes that need to be properly researched and developed. The project studies assist us in measuring your understanding and interpretation of the training program and enable us to assess qualification merits. All of the project studies are based entirely upon the content within the training program and they enable you to integrate what you have learnt into your corporate training practice.
Leading IT Transformation – Grading Contribution
Project Study – Grading Contribution
Customer Service – 10%
E-business – 05%
Finance – 10%
Globalization – 10%
Human Resources – 10%
Information Technology – 10%
Legal – 05%
Management – 10%
Marketing – 10%
Production – 10%
Education – 05%
Logistics – 05%
TOTAL GRADING – 100%
Qualification grades
A mark of 90% = Pass with Distinction.
A mark of 75% = Pass with Merit.
A mark of less than 75% = Fail.
If you fail to achieve a mark of 75% with a project study, you will receive detailed feedback from the Certified Learning Provider (CLP) and/or Accredited Consultant, together with a list of tasks which you will need to complete, in order to ensure that your project study meets with the minimum quality standard that is required by Appleton Greene. You can then re-submit your project study for further evaluation and assessment. Indeed you can re-submit as many drafts of your project studies as you need to, until such a time as they eventually meet with the required standard by Appleton Greene, so you need not worry about this, it is all part of the learning process.
When marking project studies, Appleton Greene is looking for sufficient evidence of the following:
Pass with merit
A satisfactory level of program understanding
A satisfactory level of program interpretation
A satisfactory level of project study content presentation
A satisfactory level of Unique Program Proposition (UPP) quality
A satisfactory level of the practical integration of academic theory
Pass with distinction
An exceptional level of program understanding
An exceptional level of program interpretation
An exceptional level of project study content presentation
An exceptional level of Unique Program Proposition (UPP) quality
An exceptional level of the practical integration of academic theory
Preliminary Analysis
Conference Paper
12 October 2010
Garofano, Patricia,
PMI
“Look before you leap – Managing the successful vendor transition project
Abstract
Switching vendors can be quite costly and disruptive to the outsourcing company. The subject becomes more complicated in a global environment where companies do business all over the world and specific language, legal, trade and tax issues must be considered. This paper will cover the best practices for finding and securing a new vendor/supplier without alienating the current vendor, negotiating a contract that holds the vendor accountable to a certain level of performance, as well as minimizing the risks and managing the transition with minimal customer impact. The first part of this paper will cover the issues to consider before switching vendors. The second part will cover the planning activities and the third part will cover the implementation of the plan. The vendors in consideration in this paper do not provide simple outsourced services such as office supplies, but do provide major outsourced services with complex contracts.
Introduction
Increasingly, organizations around the world outsource functions to vendors to help optimize business and cut costs. In the current downturned business environment, it is more important than ever to have strong contract relationships with your vendors and to optimize the value that your vendors bring to your business. When the outsourcing company, hereafter referred to as the ‘customer’, is not getting the optimum value from the current vendor, sometimes the best path is to seek out a better vendor solution.
Most of the issues and recommendations mentioned in this paper are related to the outsourcing of mission-critical business processes, but are generally applicable to all types of outsourcing.
Issues to Consider before Switching Vendors
Before making the decision to switch vendors, the customer should be careful to evaluate (1) the additional value the new vendor could provide, (2) the risks in changing vendors (3) the cost of exiting the current outsourcing contract and (4) internal costs including employee time, travel costs, legal and consulting fees, if applicable, and (5) the versatility of the current vendor to provide services to other elements of the business according to Peterson, Prinsley and Kalachman (2003).
The additional business value from the new vendor can include: (1) meeting the need to transform/improve a particular outsourced function, (2) taking advantage of superior offerings, methods or processes in a changing vendor market and/or (3) eliminating the customer dissatisfaction for breach of contract or lost financial stability (4) reducing ongoing vendor costs (p. 1).
Switching vendors has most of the risks of obtaining the initial outsourcing plus additional risks due to the fact that the functions have not been performed in house by the customer since the initial outsourcing. It will be challenging for the customer to complete the Request for Proposal (RFP) and/or Statement of Work (SOW) since there will be a lack of knowledge of the outsourced functions performed by the current vendor. The SOW with the current vendor is likely to be outdated. It is also possible that the current vendor has folded some or all of the outsourced functions into a shared service environment; in this case the new vendor will need to build this function from scratch and this could result in a greater risk of vendor transition failure. In cases where the date of business process take-over by the new vendor corresponds to the end date of the current vendor contract, there is little schedule flexibility for the project. There can be difficulties obtaining cooperation from the current vendor to transfer knowledge to the new vendor who may be a competitor. Termination at the end of the contract (or within the notification period, usually 90 days) is easier to justify to senior management, less costly (no termination fees) and minimizes the risk of degradation in service and vendor flight. Termination in the middle of contract is much more complicated, harder to justify to senior management, more costly (there could be heavy termination fees) and it also increases risks of degradation in service and vendor flight.
When considering the costs of exiting the current outsourcing contract, be sure to analyze termination fees, legal termination transfer rights and/or obligations and dispute resolution processes in the current contract. Develop a negotiation strategy with the current vendor based on the results of this analysis. The customer’s goal is to determine the best exit strategy with the lowest termination fees. Usually there is no termination fee at the end of the contract or upon a breach of contract by the vendor (called termination for cause). On the other hand, there is usually a payment schedule for termination for convenience (when the customer cannot prove a breach of contract or would rather not go through that process). The closer the termination date is to the start date of the contract, normally the higher the termination fees. The customer and the current vendor may be willing to negotiate a lower termination for convenience fee if the decision to terminate is mutual or if facts indicate (not necessarily conclusively) that there has been a breach of contract.
As a result of the analysis of the legal termination transfer rights and/or obligations, the customer may find there is a need to purchase assets the vendor uses to provide services, take over contracts or employ resources currently providing services. According to Peterson, Prinsley and Kalachman (2003), the current vendor’s resources for the subject processes may transfer automatically to the customer or to the new vendor (in European Union countries) under the Acquired Rights Directive. It is also possible that the existing contract may require the current vendor to assist in the smooth transition to a new vendor (called termination assistance services). These services may include documenting processes and requirements for the Request for Proposal (RFP) or transferring knowledge to the new vendor. If no transfer rights have been documented, the rights may be negotiated depending on the current vendor’s interest in maintaining a good relationship with the customer with hope to gain new business (p. 4).
In reviewing the dispute resolution process with the current vendor, you may find there is a form of escalation that could provide a method that would address concerns about the current vendor and thereby possibly avoid switching vendors. In addition, you may find methods to solidify the argument that the customer is entitled to termination for cause.
To ensure optimal levels of vendor performance and clear understanding of customer expectations, it is best to have clearly documented Service Level Agreements (SLAs) as part of the contract where the expected levels of service are formally defined for the new vendor. If there are already SLAs in existence with the current vendor, now is the time to revisit them to see if they need updating and to consider providing measures to be enacted for vendor noncompliance to SLAs. According to Halvey and Melby, while most vendors agree to include service levels in the outsourcing contract, they also look for allowance during certain conditions (such as system down time, power failure, break-down of third-party equipment, etc.) The customer may also have SLAs that relate to customer satisfaction, the guarantee of productivity improvements over a period of time and the guarantee of certain cost savings over a period of time. It is also advisable to revisit the SLAs yearly during a multi-year contract with the vendor to make any necessary adjustments in light of changes in services, methodologies and customer’s changing business needs.
To avoid breaks in services due to outages and/or disasters, it is best to have clearly documented business continuity plans (BCP) and/or disaster recovery plans where the vendor clearly states their logistical plans to recover and restore the outsourced business functions in the event of a disaster. The new vendor will be expected to present the BCP and/or DRP for the outsourced services and the customer should have the plans reviewed by in-house and/or outsourced specialists.
Planning for the Transition
Once the decision is made to switch vendors, the planning for the vendor transition project includes most of the planning required for any outsourcing project plus additional activities as described in this section.
Define the Steering Committee, working project team and extended support personnel to ensure proper representation from the stakeholders. Define roles and responsibilities and complete the communication plan.
Develop the business strategy for switching vendors. Here is an example business strategy:
• Establish a scalable and stable platform for outsourcing.
• Take advantage of talent pool and low labor costs in a particular region.
• Reduce high cost associated with the current vendor.
• Improve vendor performance
Communicate effectively the reason for switching vendors through careful socialization of the business strategy with senior management, program managers, vendor managers and the subject matter experts who will be involved in the selection and transition process (such as legal, tax, trade, procurement, etc.). To prevent deterioration of current vendor performance, emphasis must be placed on the correct approach for communication with the current vendor prior to the actual selection of the new vendor. During the socialization process, it is recommended to obtain consensus on a list of potential vendors from senior management and get agreement that the current vendor will be included in the process to ensure a smooth transition.
In the project charter, clearly define the goal statement and the business outcome you hope to achieve based on the business strategy above. State the targets for the performance metrics that the new vendor will be expected to achieve. Use the opportunity statement to define what currently negative trends that will be eliminated and the advantages that will be gained.”
To continue reading this paper, please visit: www.pmi.org
Online Article
October 30, 2019,
Alex Iceman
“What Happens If You Want to Switch Vendors Mid-Project? Three Things to Consider Before Making the Call
It’s time to face the facts: things with your project just aren’t going well. You brought on a vendor to help with software development or another business-critical IT task. You had a lot of optimism at first, but by this point, it’s all fallen well short of your expectations. Maybe deadlines keep slipping while costs keep rising. Maybe email after email is going unanswered, except for the occasional vague reply that always sounds like a brush off. Maybe you’ve seen the code so far, and, well, it’s terrible.
In a perfect world, you wouldn’t be in this situation. You would have seen the red flags coming a mile away when you were choosing your vendor, and you would have built in an agile development approach for a better chance of success.
But, sometimes things still go wrong, even if you think you did everything right. And so, one day, you start thinking… Should you pull the plug? Is it time to switch vendors, even though the project isn’t finished yet?
Switching vendors mid-project is an incredibly complex and risk-fraught process. Before you make the call, it’s important to be sure you’re making the right decision and not just reacting in the heat of the moment to a mistake or misunderstanding.
Here are a few key points to consider when deciding how to handle a project when it’s not meeting your expectations:
1. What else can you try to repair your current relationship and get the project back on track?
The first thing to determine before switching your vendor is whether there’s still a chance your project can be saved. Given the cost, disruption and risk associated with making a switch, it should always be your last resort.
With that in mind, it’s important to ask: what else can you try to get things back on track? For the project itself, perhaps there are more project management strategies that can be deployed, from sprints to team redistributions or others.
Make sure you’ve given your vendor a fair opportunity to make things right after a mistake or major slip up. In many cases, the mistake itself is not so much a big deal as the way the vendor handles it. A working solution might still be possible, especially once any previous misunderstandings about requirements, capabilities or bugs have been cleared up. With a productive conversation, you might collaborate and find a new way to approach the problem. But if the vendor is showing a pattern of ignoring the problem, laying blame elsewhere or displaying a stubborn lack of flexibility, your problem may be bigger.
If the root of the problem is with your vendor itself, there are still strategies you can try to repair your relationship. Just as in people-to-people relationships, the key ingredients are communication and trust. Strong relationships work two ways, so make sure you’ve done all you can to communicate your goals, expectations and concerns with your vendor. And make sure you’ve given your vendor the opportunity to explain what they need from you to get back on track.
Look beyond the frustrating contract details and metrics and milestones to the bigger picture. See if there’s a chance you can still work together to set new expectations, adjust plans as necessary and revise or put in new controls to avoid future problems. In some cases, especially when the costs and risks of switching vendors are steep, pursuing an option like third-party mediation might be easier in the long run than kicking your vendor the curb entirely.
And, if you’re lucky, sometimes just the threat of switching vendors might be enough to help motivate your vendor to improve their performance.
2. What will it cost you? And is it worth it?
Let’s face it: switching vendors mid-project is going to be expensive. And even after you switch, there’s no guarantee that a new vendor will deliver to your satisfaction, either.
So, before you make the decision, you need to take a long hard look at the costs, risks and potential rewards of switching and make sure there’s a solid business case for the decision. If nothing else, this is going to be vital if you need to convince your senior managers or C-Suite on why the switch is needed.
A few factors to consider when determining costs, risks and benefits include:
• What will it cost to break your current contract with your vendor? Termination fees can be hefty, and often grow bigger depending on how far along the project is. And even if you believe there has been a breach of contract that negates the termination fees, your vendor may not agree. Dispute resolution processes will rack up a bill as well, so you should factor that possibility in.
• How difficult (and therefore time- and money-intensive) will it be to switch over the project to a new vendor team? A lot of factors will go into this — everything from how well the source code was documented to the quality of that code itself. You’ll need to consider how long it will take for the new developers to get up to speed. There’s also the question of ownership itself — do you have full ownership of the software, system or app that the vendor created? Will you and/or the new development team be able to update or even access everything the previous vendor had? If not, the transition process will be extremely complex. In the worst case scenario, the new development team might have to start over from scratch. (Many times, they may want to.)
• How will a lengthy/complex transition process disrupt or impact your business overall? If switching vendors mid-project is going to suck up a lot of resources, or make some functions or capabilities unavailable for a time, then that may have a cascading effect on other projects or components of your business.
• How willing will the old vendor be to cooperate with the new one? Sometimes, things get ugly, and a vendor that is angry for being dismissed may be unwilling to help you transition smoothly to your new team. There are risks here you’ll need to weigh carefully. Thoughtful and strategic negotiation with the outgoing vendor will be key. For example, an angry vendor may be more willing to cooperate if your breakup won’t impact their reputation (for example, if you are still willing to provide a reference for them, or at the very least, agree not to post bad reviews afterwards). Some companies also negotiate bonuses to be paid to the exiting vendor if the transition is successful.
• What additional or enhanced value could a new vendor provide that you’re not currently getting with your existing one? Here’s where you can consider the positive potential of a vendor switch mid-project. For example, a new software development vendor may connect you to a more skilled team of engineers or a broader set of capabilities, which will in turn lead to a higher-quality end product. They might even help you take your product in a new, more profitable direction. Most of these will be hypothetical benefits — you’ll be taking a gamble, but hopefully an informed one, if you decide to make the leap. But if you put in the analysis to prove the benefits outweigh the costs, your chances for success will be greater.”
To continue reading this article, please visit: www.linkedin.com
Online Article
glacial wood,
April 26, 2017
“6 signs it’s time to switch vendors
Regardless of your company’s size, you deserve top-quality treatment from your vendors. But switching suppliers isn’t simple. There are costs, it’s disruptive, and it impacts your business operations. You’ll need to weigh the costs and benefits of switching vendors or staying with your current supplier.
Does your current vendor deserve your business? Here are six signs that it’s time to switch suppliers.
1. Unreliable delivery
There was a time you could set your clock by your vendor’s delivery, but in recent months they’ve been inconsistent. Maybe they have had good reasons that were outside of their control. But if those issues aren’t getting resolved, there’s likely a deeper problem that isn’t being addressed.
Whether it’s late deliveries, inconsistent product quality, or poor packaging, a vendor that can’t provide reliable delivery is a significant problem that needs to be fixed—for good.
Even the most reliable vendors will have an occasional hiccup. But if you’re noticing a trend in the wrong direction, you’ll have to deal with bigger issues than tight project schedules. An unreliable vendor has implications for the overall health and growth of your business.
2. Lack of communication
Strong communication is central to a good partnership with your turned wood and squared parts supplier. Any vendor worth their salt will welcome frequent communication from their customers. They should be quick to respond to questions and concerns, and they’ll gladly make changes to an order to meet your needs.
Are you reluctant to contact your supplier because you’re made to feel like an interruption? Is it difficult to get in touch with a live person? Are your messages going into a black hole? That should raise a red flag.
3. Excessive rise in cost
Every vendor will raise their rates over time. That’s a part of doing business, and you shouldn’t be surprised when it happens. But you don’t want to do business with a vendor who raises their prices exorbitantly, without notice. Good suppliers simply don’t do this —they make it a priority to prepare their customers for necessary price increases, well ahead of time.
Unexpected price increases place you in a difficult position for your own pricing and profit. You’re more likely to take a loss on current projects, and you’ll need to decide how to responsibly adjust your own price structure moving forward.
Also pay attention to frequent, small price rate increases that aren’t communicated. If your vendor’s pricing practices aren’t giving you the respect your business deserves, it might be time to start comparing vendors.
4. Poor service
If a vendor is serious about doing business with you, you’ll see it in their service. High-quality service is critical to an ongoing business relationship. You shouldn’t have to deal with repeated invoicing errors, inattention to detail, slow response time, or general indifference. These issues create a waste of time and resources by pulling you away from your core business.
5. Signs of trouble
Sometimes you can sense something’s off, even if you can’t pinpoint it. Don’t ignore signs that your vendor’s infrastructure isn’t stable. Don’t ignore red flags like these:
• Rotating list of account managers or primary contacts
• Signs of management issues
• Recent acquisition from a large company
6. They can’t help you reach your long-term business goals
Evaluate all of your vendors on a quarterly basis and track key measurables for their performance. As part of the evaluation, ask yourself whether it’s clear that your vendors are aligned with your long-term business goals. If it’s clear that they’re not helping you to achieve your goals, it’s probably time to let them go.
Work with vendors you can count on
Your company deserves a vendor who will do the job and discloses the truth about their capabilities. Switching vendors comes with a cost and degree of risk—but remember that staying with the wrong supplier is also costly and carries risks of its own. Don’t settle for anything less than the vendors who earn and deserve your trust.”
If you would like to view the original article, please visit: www.glacialwood.com
Online Article
10/22/2012
By Peter Bauer
“5 Tips for Switching Vendors
Don’t let the deluge of financial offers blind you to the best vendor for your needs. These five tips will help you make the right choice.
Eight months after the news that Webroot was exiting the e-mail security business, Google announced its decision to decommission the Postini spam filtering and e-mail archiving service as we know it. For partners and customers who chose Postini as an alternative to Webroot must have felt jinxed.
With increasing consolidation in the sector, competition is fierce, so it is unsurprising that the social media space is now awash with tempting commercial offers from competitive vendors targeting these vulnerable organizations. What advice is there for companies looking for a new security provider? How can organizations see beyond the financial offer? When it comes to the issues surrounding a switch in provider, I have seen it all, and by sharing some of these experiences, I hope you’ll better understand how to make the right decision for the long term.
Tip #1: Customer service and support is paramount
With the increasing commoditization of technologies such as anti-spam and anti-virus, offering standalone cloud services is no longer enough. IT decision makers are increasingly looking for cloud vendors that can solve multiple problems with cost-effective, integrated solutions and provide high levels of customer support.
Inadequate support is often cited as a reason customers start looking for a new e-mail security provider. A sensible part of any due diligence is to examine levels of support available from your new vendor and the reputation of that support organization, too. Don’t just ask about support SLAs; seek feedback from peer communities, ask for a reference customer and do some digging to make sure you will be supported in such a way that makes you feel like an important customer.
Cloud vendors don’t like losing customers, so some make it hard to leave. Almost counter-intuitively, others show how easy it would be to leave and in doing so, encourage a more speedy sign-up. Understand your vendor’s fundamental orientation early on.
Nobody likes talking about the customers they’ve lost and how the departure process worked, but if you were marrying a divorcee, you’d want to know something about how their last marriage ended and how they treated their former partner during the split. Calling up a former spouse might be a bit creepy, but you at least want to understand from your prospective new partner how it all worked.
Request a case study that covers how a relationship ended – the marketing department won’t have one, but I bet the head of customer service could put one together for you. Don’t be shy to ask for acceptable terms of departure at the time of signing up.
Tip #2: Think about your provider’s long-term business plans
If they are a small, independent provider, are they likely to be acquired and perhaps subsequently care for you less? Have they recently been acquired by a company with little focus on customer support? What is their investment strategy? Is innovation high on their agenda? I mentioned commoditization in the market earlier; I believe that vendors that sell budget solutions perpetuate this problem because they are not investing in bringing any new value or innovation to the market.
Who is their target market? Vendors that spend their time marketing to end users, SMBs, and enterprise organizations are spreading themselves thinly across a wide range of markets and problem-solving functionality. E-mail security in particular is vastly different in the enterprise than in the end-user sector, so finding a vendor that gives your enterprise the right level of control, granularity, and visibility is vital.
Whatever your reasons for switching suppliers, be sure to communicate your reasons to your new supplier and have them agree to be accountable for addressing the problems you encountered before.
Tip #3: Get involved before you sign a contract
Does the prospective provider have a user group or online community? Can you get involved to experience that aspect of life as a customer before signing on the dotted line? Can you play with some aspect of the technology before committing? Can you see a demo from two different sales engineers? Gaining real hands-on experience doing something with a prospective new vendor gives you an insight into how they work. No matter what they say, a vendor will always treat a prospect slightly better than they would a customer, so if your experience as a prospect is mediocre, expect the customer experience to be a disappointment.
Tip #4: Find out how far up the potential vendor’s management chain your prospective purchase has gone
Does the head of sales know about it? Does the the CEO? Get their e-mail address and communicate with them. This question will raise your internal profile with the vendor immediately. Explain to your senior contact your reasons for switching, explain the risks you perceive and the benefits you expect. Seek assurance in writing that the vendor understands what you want and can commit to delivering it before you sign. Then, if something goes wrong, you have lined up your escalation point in advance. A senior internal advocate can be a great asset as you become more dependent on your cloud security partner’s performance and delivery.”
To continue reading this article, please visit: esj.com
Course Manuals 1-7
Course Manual 1: Define Business Requirements
How the best organizations document their Requirements
A summary of what Requirements documentation should include
It’s crucial to explain to your new prospective suppliers in the requirements you establish for them what organizational results and objectives you need to reach as a result of the service/solution you anticipate purchasing from them.
In other words, describe what your organization can now accomplish that it couldn’t before the successful deployment once you have built the service/solution and it is operating.
Explain this in terms of deadlines, a range of expected percentage improvements across each service or solution area, and so on. As much as you can, quantify these goals so that potential providers may see how carefully you have thought through your expectations and how you plan to measure them.
Additionally, it is beneficial for potential suppliers to see the relevant sections of your business case, the entire anticipated procurement process, the advantages of the solution being suited for the problem at hand, and the drawbacks, should the service or solution be found wanting.
The “holistic” method to documenting your needs, in broad terms, aims to ensure that your potential suppliers are properly informed and can contextualize their responses. The important elements to include (additional information is provided in the relevant items on this page), are:
• A ‘holistic’ executive view of how your organization operates and your plans and objectives for the future
• Why you think you need to implement the solution service being procured
• An outline of the end-to-end procurement process itself so that the prospective suppliers fully understand the approach you are taking and why
• The business objectives your organization wants to achieve, ideally as fully quantified as possible
• Example ‘Use Cases’ (business process operational flows)
• The negative impact of the solution procured on the organization, if the solution/service is not fit for its intended purpose
• The prospective supplier selection process and what evidence the supplier can provide you with that will improve their chances of winning the bid
• How you will manage the performance of the supplier.
An outline of why you want to procure the new service solution
A concise and well-written justification of your organization’s decision to replace some components of its service delivery and/or solution, along with your reasoning, to the potential supplier.
The details of the end-to-end procurement process
a thorough description of the procedure, including key dates, the client team participating, the negotiation tactics, and the steps taken to realize the advantages.
High level business objectives to be achieved and their quantification
A distinct organizational vision has been established, outlining the challenges the organization will face and the goals it will accomplish once the service delivery is in place.
The goals that must be accomplished explicitly define what they are, how they relate to the overall business outcome, by when they must be accomplished, and what level of improvement is anticipated.
A high level outline of ‘Use Cases’ (operational business process flow)
There are specific use cases that outline the main operational procedures used today and where the customer sees room for improvement in order to reach its desired “Future State.”
Explain the negative impact if the service/solution is not fit for purpose
understanding of the operational and financial effects on the business or goal if the demand is not fully met to the degree, investment, and time frame anticipated.
Outline the criteria of the supplier selection process
a method that compares each supplier’s proposal to the quantified business objectives required on a like-for-like basis in a transparent, equitable, and fair manner.
A high level approach of how you will performance manage the supplier
How the client will track SMART KPIs to determine how quickly and effectively the supplier’s solution will produce the desired business results.
Benefits of Defining business requirements before your sourcing transition
Before switching to a new supplier, defining your company’s needs is a wonderful method to make sure the partnership is successful. Everyone is aware that when it comes to defining business criteria for software selection, a little rigor is necessary. Most people make the mistake of skipping through that process when analyzing and choosing providers for other goods and services.
In order to have meaningful interactions with potential suppliers during the transition phase, firms need first define their business requirements.
Reach Your Goals Faster
You can accomplish your objectives more quickly if you define business needs before beginning a supplier sourcing change. A few actions should be made in order to accomplish this and before beginning these costly, lengthy relationships.
As this may have changed since you started doing business with your prior vendor or supplier, you should first involve all internal stakeholders across the business process and identify their organizations’ business requirements needed now – and for the future 18 to 36 months. This covers everybody who will make use of the goods or services obtained across the full business cycle. The people who will support or continue to provide the goods or services you desire to purchase are also included.
Next, consider both the good and negative effects to identify chances to enhance the current touch points. This will make it easier to specify short-term plans that might have an effect on present-day needs. You will do better if you outline these techniques clearly from the start.
Next, search the market for providers who can fulfill your established business criteria. A crucial element in the shift to strategic sourcing is gathering requirements and evaluating the market for skills. It aids in preventing overspending or choosing a solution that may meet current business requirements but is unable to support a strategy shift from another business area.
Achieve Long-Term Cost Savings
Your contracts are not solely determined by the price of the goods and services you purchase. The total cost of ownership (TCO) must also be assessed in relation to the complete business process. Why continue with discussions if your essential business requirements are not being met?
You should first identify your company requirements. You are more likely to receive exactly what you anticipate when you are aware of what you need. Additionally, you will receive more competitive quotes if you communicate your precise objectives to vendors.
Suppliers are more inclined to reduce their margins and offer their best pricing when they can see how well you understand your needs and wants. This is due to the fact that the client with the most precisely specified business requirements poses the lowest risk to the overall cost of service for suppliers.
Only suppliers B and D from the aforementioned table should proceed to discussions. Costs should only be taken into consideration after every business need has been recognized and is being satisfied by at least one supplier.
Ensure Long-Term Success
You can establish clear expectations that guarantee your long-term success by including people from each impacted business sector in the supplier evaluation and transition selection process. Overall and with each supplier, this works.
Contracting, supplier performance measurement, and collaboration are all better when business requirements are established upfront. Better efficiency and future cost control result from this. As a result, your supplier talks will be much more “truth based,” which also gives you the opportunity to lay a foundation of commercial trust right away.
Business Requirements vs Functional Requirements
An example of a typical response to this question is something like this: “The system shall assist the automation of email to the customer.” Is that a prerequisite for business? Naturally, it must be. The company specifically and in plain terms told me that! Since it was requested by the company, it must be a commercial requirement.
No, it isn’t, actually. Although it is not a commercial requirement now, it might become one in the future. Let’s examine the distinction between that “system shall” clause and what, in my opinion, constitutes a legitimate business demand. There will be a thin line between each type of requirement, as there is with many other requirement types, but generally speaking, I believe there are rules about which requirements belong to which types. To give the company a solution that will genuinely address the problem, not just what someone thought would be a nice idea, we must first comprehend the difference.
What a Business Requirement is NOT: A Functional Requirement
The statement “The system shall permit the automation of email to the client” in the previous response is a functional demand rather than a business requirement. How we carry out our business procedures is described by a functional need (or their functionality). Typically, the response is arbitrary and may not be the correct one! Technically, there are numerous approaches to address your business needs. You can decide to tweet a consumer, send them an email, or do whatever the newest, biggest thing is.
Our functional requirements should outline the processes that the business would use to carry out a manual operation or how they would like a software system to operate. Here are some illustrations of how functional needs could be represented:
• A statement like: “The system shall display a welcome message to the user on the Home page.”
• A prototype
• A workflow diagram
• A use case description (textual description of the steps to complete a function)
• A story map
So, What is a Business Requirement?
A business requirement is not something a system must do. It is something that the business needs to do or have in order to stay in business. For example, a business requirement can be:
• a process they must complete
• a piece of data they need to use for that process
• a business rule that governs that process and that data
Your business needs are often more objective and change less frequently than your functional requirements (in most firms). “We risk going out of business if we can’t figure out how to get in touch with our customers. Therefore, rather than saying that the system would do anything, the business need would say something like: “We need to contact the client with xyz information.
Keep in mind that “The system shall perform this or that” explains how (or the functionality). It is how a system interprets a business requirement.
Think about how this would have been presented as a user story.
Every time a consumer buys a complimentary product, I want to share product incentives with them as the product owner.
In this case, the user story is created without regard to the how or functionality and is a demand of the business or stakeholder. Too frequently, though, a user story will be written as follows: (Although I might argue that it actually doesn’t express the true benefit and should be revised.)
As a product owner, I want each time a consumer buys a free product from us, they get an automated email.
This is unquestionably a functional necessity and contains significant presumptions about product purchases. Are they always processed automatically, and if not, how does the software determine which email address to send an automated message to when a transaction is made? What does the product owner actually want to accomplish? Is using an automated email the greatest strategy to reach the final result?
You may be sure that you are giving your customer the most value by having a clear understanding of the real issue or business requirement (business requirement). The optimal strategy for developing a solution (whether automation is involved or not) and how to deploy that solution can be determined once we have a clear understanding of the underlying business demands.
Why Elicit Business Requirements?
Simply put, the goal is to make it easier for you to grasp what needs to be done, as well as, more crucially, for the business itself. Many SMEs ignore their business goals and success criteria in favor of the routine (and occasionally extremely expensive) “that’s how we’ve always done it.” These objectives and success criteria become more apparent when the business requirements are discussed, communicated, and agreed upon.
For instance, focusing on the solution and direction when explaining why you wish to engage with your customers when they buy specific products. Is it to raise brand awareness, or perhaps to offer ancillary goods or services? These questions’ replies and your brainstorming of potential ways to accomplish those objectives lead to “aha” moments. The result is innovation. It fosters business excellence. It is simpler to know what new directions to pursue to achieve success when everyone is familiar with the company.
How Do We Get to the True Business Requirements?
If we work in the business analysis field, there is no one right way to conduct things. Going straight for a solution, though, without first grasping the problem, is the wrong approach.
Without accurate and thorough data, a company would rapidly lose customers. That implies I tend to start with the data side and have a slight bias toward it. Start there if you are more “process-oriented.” Where you begin is irrelevant as long as you gain a thorough understanding of the industry.
To be clear, I mean research when I say to start. Go through all available documentation and data regarding the company. I ask a lot of questions, and I need the proper people to give me the appropriate answers. The responses prompt additional queries. I observe people at work, examine how they perform their tasks, and determine what their genuine objectives are. When someone says, “I don’t know why I have to do that, it’s how we’ve always done it,” or “I don’t know why we need that information or what we do with it,” I question them more. I work with them to identify their trouble points.
Investigate the connections between the data. For instance, you might need to know in your line of work what accounts your customers have with their telecom vendors. To make sure you have what you need for the business processes to function properly, you would go into the detailed data. To make sure that the telecom suppliers are billing your clients the proper prices, for instance, you require account number and contract information. To learn how you make decisions and why sometimes you make poor decisions or processes fail, you would go further into the data.
Business analyst Ali Cox stated, “In my business, we recently added a new service offering. Something we had never done before. I had to build processes from the ground up to handle what we needed to succeed. I explored data and business rules to identify our new processes. I needed to make informed decisions about what to automate and what we needed to perform manually. If I had jumped right to building the new application screens we need to support the new business, I would certainly have missed crucial data, had a lot of rework, been frustrated, and disappointed my business partner. None of those would be good, would they?”
When you explain that the “system shall” assertions are functional rather than business requirements, you can get bewildered looks. However, when they begin to understand the importance of comprehending and communicating authentic business requirements, you will have a “aha!” moment. Innovation, genuine change, originality, and unconventional thinking enter the picture at that point. If you truly comprehend WHAT a company does, you may identify the greatest answer for it and, as a result, locate a new supplier that will meet your present requirements.
I sincerely hope that none of us in the IT sector succumb to the old adage that “just start creating and it will be amazing.” Due to our current situation of being behind schedule and the frustration of the company, it results in costly redesign and rework, and even that is not done well. Let’s try to do it right the first time.
Business Requirements If Using Strategic Sourcing Software
There are many difficulties in creating an RFI (Request for Information) for an RFQ Software platform.
You must first consider the needs before using supply chain management or predictive sourcing software. The traditional method for coming up with business requirements is to finish the following sentence: “As a ________, I want to _________. What should a system have to help me do _______?.”
Prior to distributing the final RFI document to solution providers, you should eliminate as many requirements as you can from the list of brainstorming requirements.
A business requirements document should have as few needs as feasible, each of which has a substantial bearing on the primary objectives of your business case.
Case Study: Managing Business and System Requirements for BPM-Driven Projects
Larry Ward works as a Quality Assurance Project Manager for the State of Oregon’s OPERS Information Systems Division. He has more than 30 years of expertise in project management, quality assurance, industrial engineering, and systems analysis and design. He has been using the business rules technique for more than ten years. Ward had a key role in creating the OPERS business rules procedure. Additionally, he has participated in the development of tools and procedures for updating the rule databases, as well as maintained the requirements and content of Rational RequisitePro® and ClearCase® databases.
OPERS offers pay and retiree health insurance systems with more than $47 billion in managed assets to state, local, and higher education organizations. In 1998, OPERS launched the business rules initiative utilizing an IT-driven approach. They started converting the outdated Word and Excel systems to a web-based system a few months ago.
A quick change with cascading effects was brought about by switching to a business-rules methodology. A state agency with strict regulations is OPERS. The majority of the changes are the result of legislation, which has a big impact on litigation. Court decisions may necessitate making quick adjustments to the corporate rules.
By developing technological solutions for the business processes in the form of process models, process metrics, business rules and procedures, stakeholder demands, and other specifications, the business requirements aimed to boost business and system agility. Ward adopted an alternative strategy, moving away from the conventional IT-driven solution and toward a BPM business-driven solution that begins with the development of the business models and regulations and from antiquated silos to web-based applications.
What the processes were was specified by the process owners. The earlier, IT-developed approach served as a template for system implementation. The system had a limited number of indicators and allowed for the capture but not the tracing of stakeholders. Manual updates were made to databases.
The rules were driven by business needs and modeled for process improvement in the process-driven model. The system had metrics built in, and it was possible to identify and track the stakeholders. The organization-wide and functional models of the processes were created. Updates to the database were automated. 35 essential business procedures were found. To build the repositories, OPERS selected IBM Rational RequisitePro®.
Among the management difficulties were:
• Database maintenance process
• Knowledge of tool capabilities
• Rule availability to end-users (available on intranet)
• Too much work and too little time
• Major and multiple minor development projects requiring accurate and rapid availability of rules
In-house software called the Business Rules (Requirements) Transaction Application (BRTA) was created to update all the databases and perform quality control. System administrators’ duties are combined with those of business users under BRTA. The Business Rules Writing Team is the main user. Independent QA reviews are the secondary usage. To ensure consistency at all times, manual updates to the Rational Systems business rules database repositories were automated.
OPERS BPM-driven approach’s guiding principles are:
• Build business process models: inputs/outputs, steps, workflows, stakeholder needs, rules, and responsibilities
• Identify business rules that support business process models
• Create business and system requirement traceability matrix
• Drive requirements through implementation and change management
Since the start of this BPM project, there has been a significant improvement. The manual procedure for the QA business rules documents required 3 to 20 hours each week. It now just requires 1-2 hours per week. Data entry into RequisitePro used to take between five and twenty hours, but it now takes seconds. The business rules and updating Word documents both save 13 to 40 hours each week. The time it takes to approve regulations and make them accessible to users has decreased from two to three weeks to three to five days. According to Ward, the process gains have been enormous.
Course Manual 2: Transition Strategy
Need to Change Technology Vendors Organizations are largely dependent on information technology to address changing business needs and customer expectations as a result of the fast digitization of society. Making ensuring that the IT system is reliable and effective is urgently needed. As their businesses expand, the majority of enterprises rely on outside, specialized service providers to assist them with their IT needs. This frees them up to concentrate on advancing their core business operations.
Organizations that outsource their IT requirements must make sure that the IT partner or vendor they select is aligned with their domain, understands it, and has the expertise to support them in successfully achieving their business objectives.
There may be a variety of reasons to switch vendors, however the following aspects influence transition decisions most significantly:
• Technology roadmap changes: Enterprises decide to shift from one technology stack to another based on the product or service roadmap and business needs. The existing vendor may not have the required technical expertise to deliver the desired outcome.
• Changes requested by the customer: Changes in the end customers’ needs drive a major shift in the way business processes are implemented. Re-engineering of business processes needs re-thinking of the supply of services or products by the existing vendors due to limitations in capabilities and knowledge.
• Cost impact: Vendor markets may suffer macro-economic fluctuations such as a sudden spurt in inflation in offshore countries or a demand for a price hike by the vendor. It may not be possible for the organization to meet such demands.
• Performance issues: Degraded performance in meeting business and technology demands by the vendor may impact profitability and business continuity, thus forcing companies to think of switching vendors.
Technology Vendor transition approaches
There are two possible methods for transitioning vendors, which are mostly determined by urgency, financial limitations, and the overall effect of change on the business:
• Do it once and for all: As soon as the decision of vendor transition is taken by the companies, services from the existing vendors are terminated immediately. This happens usually when the business impact of retaining the existing customer beyond a few days is more adverse than terminating the services from that vendor. For example: fraud cases.
• Phased transition approach: This is the most common approach adopted by companies to change vendors. Usually, the transition is planned, friendly, and carried out in a phased manner involving minimum frictions between 3 parties: the two vendors and the company.
Vendors must adjust to agile ways of working, which demand them to generate several iterations rather than a single final delivery, as clients change the way they want value to be provided by their partners.
Effective person-to-person relationship building measures
Relationships between people are essential, and a partnership is required where the focus is on creating the most fruitful connection possible with the key stakeholders/employees of the departing vendor and the business.
Approach in technology partner transition
Phase 0: Risk Identification, Evaluation, and Planning
• Daily meetings with different application owners on the client-side to understand the application and identify the risks involved in taking ownership of the application
• Getting familiarized with client processes for different applications
• The team also reviews existing documentation and Cloud infrastructure to get an understanding of the knowledge transfer that would be required from existing IT partner
• Identify risks and prepare a plan for mitigation
• Transition plan is prepared to ensure knowledge transfer happens for each application
Phase 1: Application deployment knowledge transition and ownership
• 3 – 5 applications per week are scheduled for knowledge transfer from existing IT partner for 1 week
• After the knowledge transfer is done, the new partner team starts handling day-to-day operations for the application
• A regular status call is scheduled daily for one week with the existing IT partner for any queries and clarity required
Phase 2: Steady-State with new vendor/partner ownership
• Even after taking ownership of applications, limited support is available from existing IT partner for 2 weeks duration to address any clarification required
• Planned improvements for required architectural changes are done after doing the necessary impact analysis
The necessity of using an offshore or outsourced IT partner as well as the manner in which the new partner will best support engagement goals must be crystal clear in a solid vendor transition strategy. Additionally, the business must carry out a competitive selection process, establish a working relationship with the new vendor it chooses based on knowledge of their prior successes and failures, commit work output to a contractual agreement, and closely manage vendor to guarantee that the projects and engagement stay on budget, meet deadlines, and achieve business goals. As long as a deliberate sourcing strategy is established from the beginning, the majority of businesses may improve the outcomes of their digital change project with the assistance of vendors.
Critical factors that lead to a successful transition
• Leadership involvement and Commitment
• Onsite presence with the client
• Partnership approach
• Well-designed transition plan
• Speed of response
• Selection of right resources
• Experienced team readily available
Key learning for a smooth Transition –
• Timeline for knowledge transfer: Application involving a higher level of judgment and local context needs to have higher training and stabilization duration
• Close interaction required for better understanding: Onsite presence helps in getting a better understanding of client processes and usage
• Technology dependencies: Technology that has significant third-party dependency needs to be managed closely and tightly
• Clear definition of scope: A rigorous approach needs to be adopted to clearly define the in-scope and out of scope activities. This needs to be supported by detailed documentation
• Ownership: 100% ownership of client environment
• Timelines: 95% on-time completion of knowledge transfer and training
• Zero escalations
How to build a vendor transition plan
Planning for vendor transition is necessary when creating a redundant supply chain. A simple transition plan that transfers you from one vendor to another swiftly will help you sleep easier at night, even while we can’t plan for every last-minute scenario. We can learn a lot from the outsourcing of IT, which occurs so frequently that a vendor shift is nearly always required at some point in the lifecycle of the system. What crucial elements can remove the risks associated with managing and changing vendors in a risky supply chain environment?
Why a vendor transition plan matters to your business
Why do I need a vendor transition plan, you may be wondering. pause for a moment and consider 2020. When survival was on the line due to the COVID-19 crisis, businesses were obliged to forge new partnerships rapidly and toss out the ones they had before. The lack of a vendor transition plan by the majority of supply chain teams made this process chaotic and increased risk.
This problem has already been addressed by many CIOs. The IT industry’s turbulent, troubleshooting rules demand the adaptability that supply chains were compelled to adopt during the epidemic. Building a new digital project is a huge task for technologists that nearly always results in a crisis at some point during the product lifecycle. According to the research, up to 50% of businesses will eventually need to end an IT contract. This happens when a product is still in its usable life. This makes vendor transition planning necessary in order to prevent a crisis that might utterly disrupt enterprises that depend on IT.
Take attention, procurement teams: Your supply chain is probably just as intricate as the technical infrastructure that powers your company. This intricacy is a strong justification for a vendor roadmap that monitors the possibility of losing, terminating, or replacing suppliers and/or supplies.
Avoid risks by planning ahead
To effectively mitigate risk, plan for the exit at the start of the relationship — outlining vendor transition before signing a contract. How many vendors have been in your supply chain for so long they lack termination and survivability clauses?
All relationships can atrophy. Businesses change. They might be acquired or otherwise disrupted, and that comes with the potential for ripples in your supply chain. Plan ahead to avoid unnecessary chaos.
First, establish a dedicated vendor management team with role accountability and well-defined expectations. Part of the job is establishing, managing, and maintaining contracts that benefit your company first. What are your termination, survivability, and exclusivity clauses, and how will they protect your organization if a vendor relationship sours?
Transition plans should consider when potential switches could occur. What scenarios create the need for terminating a vendor relationship? Do you have multi-vendor award contracts with alternative suppliers already defined? The pandemic revealed a lot of weaknesses that we now have a chance to address—don’t pass up the opportunity to protect your company and prepare for the next challenge.
Create a vendor transition plan checklist
A transition strategy outlines how certain responsibilities are transferred from customers to vendors. This entails planning the actions required to swap suppliers smoothly in the supply chain. Here are a few things to think about:
• Start by establishing the strategy behind the switch. Is it to cut costs, increase margins, or shore up supply-chain reliability?
• Create a risk roadmap outlining possible reasons for transition and what steps you would take to mitigate risk.
• Plan the transition period by outlining criteria for screening new vendors.
• Reevaluate the contracting process, and pay special attention to termination and survivability clauses.
• Develop a communication plan for transitioning the new vendor.
Critical to this process is an assessment of risk from all perspectives:
• Operational. How will the transition affect business operations?
• Reputational. Will customers be affected by a transition?
• Legal. What contractual terms will transition affect?
• Compliance. Are all regulatory rules in place with the new vendor?
• Financial. Are there early termination penalties, potential legal fees, or other costs?
Current state analysis
Before deciding to transfer vendors, consider three aspects: vendor value, risks, and contract termination costs.
Assessment of the current vendor
List all the things about your present dealer that you dislike. Missed deadlines, poorly implemented features, excessive price throughout development, unskilled developers, a difficult or slow communication process, etc. Make sure you are clear on why you wish to switch software development companies. This will make it easier for you to comprehend what you need from a different supplier and the nuances you should stay clear of.
Risks associated with switching vendors
• Challenges of drawing up an RFP and SOW. It might also include issues with knowledge transfer — the process when all documentation, data access, and project knowledge are transferred from the current to the new software development vendor. If your existing contract does not include a section about assistance in a smooth transition to a new vendor (termination assistance services) — you might face issues with knowledge transfer.
• Problems with contract termination. Depending on the contractual stage, the complexity of its termination will vary. Termination closer to the end of the contract period will prevent services quality drop, loss of data, etc.
• Intellectual property rights transfer and work with confidential information. Make sure that the intellectual property rights belong to you, and this is stipulated in the contract. As for confidential information, there is no way to check if all vendor employees deleted files related to your project. However, if you had a strong non-disclosure agreement, you could file a charge should the leak occur.
Cost of terminating the existing contract
Examine the contract’s termination penalties. Usually, there is no price for terminating a contract when it expires or when the vendor violates its conditions (so-called termination for cause). The higher the termination cost, on the other hand, the nearer the contract’s start date is to the day of termination. If the choice to terminate is mutual or the evidence supports the existing vendor’s breach of the contract, you can try to bargain for a lesser price.
After assessing each of the three variables, if you are still certain that you want to change the software development provider, you can go on to the planning stage.
Step Two: Planning
Planning entails a business strategy, a deadline for handing off the development process, a plan for ending a contract, and a schedule for working with a new vendor.
Creation of a business strategy
The objectives and results you intend to achieve with the new provider are outlined in the business plan. For illustration:
• Find a large pool of developers with different skills in a specific region: Lithuania, for example.
• Reduce the high costs associated with the current vendor.
• Increase efficiency: double the number of implemented features per development iteration (sprint), reduce the number of code errors, etc.
Set the timeline for development stages handover
Establish the timeline for moving each step of software development from the existing to the new vendor. Ask the current supplier to create a thorough knowledge transfer strategy for the new vendor if they are not already involved in the process.
Define a contract termination strategy
Consider the conditions of the present contract as you plan your strategy to minimize any potential problems with your current provider. For instance, if necessary, extend the contract with the current vendor for a transitional period; think about using retention bonuses, or a reward for continuing to work to keep suppliers; etc.
Step Three: Plan implementation and choosing a new IT service provider
Use the RFP and SOW as a starting point to find your new IT service provider
The vendor’s scope of work should be precisely stated in the request for bids; the more specific it is, the better the proposal you may anticipate from the vendor. When switching vendors, make sure to include the following clauses in your RFP:
• Summary — specify the goal of your request for proposal.
• Stakeholder Relationship — specify the roles and responsibilities of the dedicated development team and the client.
• Legal Terms and Conditions — include the main contract terms (the so-called term sheet) in advance: project description, the start date and the end dates of the contract, the country regulating the disputes within the contract scope, etc.
• Approach for Transition — describe the timeframe for gradual transition of development functions from a current to a new vendor.
• Scope of Work — describe the work scope.
• Vendor Background Information — request general information about the outsourcing company, their experience in a specific tech stack, their client base, etc.
• Expected Vendor Performance — clearly define the SLA that the vendor will have to meet (SLA – a service-level agreement stating what, when and how services will be provided).
• Vendor Capabilities Form (to be filled out by the vendor) — lists everything you expect from the vendor and determines the level of proficiency per each task.
• Termination — specify the conditions that may lead to the termination of cooperation: refusal to provide services, failure to meet performance standards, failure to meet deadlines, etc.
• Price Bid — specify the type of contract you need based on the pricing model: fixed price, time and materials, dedicated.
Conduct a comparative analysis of proposals from potential vendors
Choose the most crucial factors when deciding who to work with in the end. These factors may include the supplier’s location, the hourly rates of the software developers, the experience level of the developers, any additional fees, etc. After deciding on a service provider and concluding your negotiations with them, take care of the contract’s SOW. The following sections should be included in the SOW:
• Executive Summary — the goal of the agreement.
• Term and Termination — the duration of the contract and termination rights.
• Vendor Scope of work — a description of the services that will be provided.
• Vendor Statement of Work — a more granular work description (processes and requirements) than provided in the RFP.
• Documentation — documents and reports the vendor is responsible for, including schedules for delivery and development stages accomplishment.
• SLA / Vendor Performance — prioritize SLAs based on their importance to project development and define the penalties to be charged for non-delivery.
• Transition Plan — states the roles and responsibilities of both parties during the project transition period. Specify how everything related to the development stages will be transferred to the new vendor.
• Operational calendar — working hours, public holidays, etc.
• Pricing — specify your pricing model, developer rates, and how funds will be sent.
• Fee adjustments — specify how payments are corrected in case of:
exchange rate fluctuations;
payment adjustments considering changes in the scope of development.
• Exit Management Plan — develop a plan that outlines the steps to be taken if you or the IT vendor terminate the contract. These steps should include how to transfer the service to a new IT provider, knowledge transfer, roles and responsibilities during the transition phase, and the time when services facilitating such transfer are provided.
Step Four: Completing the transition to a new IT vendor
Discuss the knowledge transfer strategy with the new dedicated development team after you’ve signed the SOW.
Checklist for knowledge transfer plans:
• Project specifications, code documentation, and a road map — gather project specifications, code documentation (including source code, description of application architecture, description of key algorithms, description of application layers, database structure description, frameworks and libraries used), deployment flow recommendations, and environment setup.
• Development credentials — in order to get the project your new development team needs access to the project’s repository, issue tracking system, etc. Request access to all accounts used for your project from the previous vendor. Then update access to all accounts and tools connected to your project and remove the accounts of previous providers. If you’re not sure what tools and credentials a new software development vendor needs, ask them to provide a list of the required information.
• Assets transfer — ask your current development team to transfer all the project-related documents and files to you: design files (Figma files as a rule) etc, depending on your project.
Specifications, source code, APIs, and project deployment instructions should be the absolute minimum you need to give a new dedicated development team because in reality you are unlikely to have all of the aforementioned artifacts.
With this information, the next team won’t have to start from zero and may continue working on the project.
Case Study
An established financial services company in India made the decision to change service providers in order to meet the needs of its end users nationwide. The new provider was hired to boost performance across the board. However, the transition turned out to be difficult because of things like inadequate understanding of the site environment and the geography of the company’s infrastructure, inadequate collaboration from the incumbent service provider, and a lack of planning for crucial tasks.
Despite these difficulties, it was expected of the new service provider to guarantee little to no service interruption right away. The following tactics were used to deal with the hostile transition:
• Deploying a transition team to ensure minimum business disruption
• Separate teams for ownership of transition activities and for service delivery
• Active support from senior personnel on the client and provider side Using these strategies resulted in a smooth transition with negligible impact on end-user operations –
• Established Information Technology Infrastructure Library ITIL based processes, procedures, standard operating procedures and instituted checklists with version control
• Drew up a cost-effective service improvement plan for the sustenance team to implement
• Implemented a new process to track end-user complaints and escalation
• Established a process to manage major incidents
Course Manual 3: Strong Governance
In order for your sourcing shift to be successful, your IT data governance team must be in harmony with the clearly stated business requirements. However, far too many data governance projects lack this requirement, which causes them to fall short of their goals. Additionally, they ignore the obvious: why should a company invest in data governance, which many people view as their most valuable asset?
Regarding core business requirements, a governance team must respond to the following three questions:
• Is governance necessary to achieve regulatory compliance?
• Is governance a critical success factor to achieve analytics insights faster?
• How can governance reduce the time, cost, and risk for business transformation/operational excellence initiatives?
The majority of firms’ data governance goals combine all three of these. But which one is your main source of revenue?
The governance team and the organization will support your investment in governance if you can articulate why you are doing so. Modern data governance technologies have many features and functions, but governance is much more than that. Overlooked is the fact that a governance team can only succeed by perfecting the combination of people, process, and technology. Undoubtedly, a data governance technology may support individuals and processes, but first you must choose how to adopt governance to increase the likelihood of success in light of the company culture and business drivers.
Defining a governance strategy
This brings up the crucial next issue: what data governance strategy do you employ? Do you want to organize all of your data into catalogs like a public library? This strategy is referred described as “bottoms-up.” To influence a business outcome, maybe you need to control business processes and the data they generate. The “middle-out” method is what is used in this situation. Or it could be that your company wants governance to keep an eye on and manage data related to the targets, measurements, and goals of the company. This strategy is known as “top-down.”
Whatever method you decide on, the governance team must spread the word about it to get organizational support for it as the proper governance strategy based on corporate culture and objectives. This does not imply that the other strategies won’t ever be used though. One company, for instance, decided to use a “top-down” strategy initially before evolving to a “middle-out” strategy to manage the launch of new products. The idea is to start small with one and then grow as the data governance program gains organizational support and momentum.
Defining data governance
Although data governance has numerous definitions, we define it as the formal coordination of people, processes, and technology to allow an organization to use data as an enterprise asset. It’s crucial to keep in mind that each organization adapts the definition in accordance with its particular culture and the business objectives of its governance program. But assembling a capable team to create and refine the data governance plan is just as crucial. The success of a change in vendor sourcing can be made or broken by choosing the correct team.
The budget approval process, determining governance priorities and goals, designing the data governance model, choosing technologies to implement, and program evangelization are often handled by the data governance team. The team, in many ways, is the pipeline for developing a data-driven culture because they instill enthusiasm and energy throughout the entire organization to ensure constant data consumption, cooperation, and communication.
Now let’s get into the four crucial actions that organizations need to take to create a successful data governance program for their source transition initiatives:
1. Establishing a leadership team
2. Selecting management-level employees
3. Appointing data owners, stewards, and users
4. Choosing modern technologies
Establishing data governance leadership
Effective data governance begins at the executive level. To lead governance initiatives, businesses frequently choose a Chief Data Officer (CDO) or another senior executive. The CDO is in charge of managing the entire team and making sure that data governance initiatives continue to be on schedule, within budget, and produce the desired outcomes or ROI. Additionally, the CDO is in charge of outlining policies and keeping track of their success.
A group of executive-level managers from diverse business divisions, including marketing, human resources, and IT, report to the CDO.
The CDO and the data governance leadership team oversee the entire program while jointly developing and establishing data governance processes, which include data policies and procedures.
The development of the remaining members of the team comes after the leadership team has been put in place.
Building the data governance team
Since different departments use data for various objectives, it is crucial to hire advocates for data governance from various business sectors. To ensure that governance procedures are followed, compliance requirements are satisfied, and data literacy is fostered throughout the company, representatives from various departments are entrusted with promoting collaboration.
Collectively, these members of the data governance team work to create standard definitions for data, implement and track data quality scores, implement governance metrics, and define roles and duties for data owners, users, and stewards. To encourage data users to interact with data and produce actionable business insights, these governance measures foster data knowledge, stimulate data use, and foster trust in data assets.
A effective data governance strategy also depends on the designated data owners, stewards, and users in addition to the data governance team.
Appointing data owners, stewards and users
Different data governance roles and duties are assigned to data owners, stewards, and users:
• Data owners are responsible for ensuring data quality doesn’t degrade as it flows through a business’s data supply chain, all regulatory requirements are met, and that data is used appropriately according to defined policies and procedures.
• Data stewards supervise the analysis of data sets, produce easily digestible reports for business users, and answer data questions.
• Data users must follow all established guidelines and policies outlined by management and report any data abnormalities they uncover to the appropriate data owner.
It’s crucial to give these responsibilities names that have significance to the organizations. Some people dislike the phrase “data owner” because they think that no one person actually owns the data. Then you may refer to it as a “data custodian” instead.
The firm must choose technology that will enable thorough, effective data governance after the data governance team is in place and processes have been developed. Organizations want a platform that offers comprehensive data management capabilities on an enterprise scale to assure quality data that results in better corporate decision-making.
Choosing Modern Technologies
The governance team must choose an enterprise data intelligence platform that offers a wide range of integrated capabilities for data governance, data quality, and analytics in order to assist an efficient data governance program.
Clear visibility into the data landscape of an organization, including the available data, designated owners/stewards, data lineage and usage, as well as related definitions, synonyms, and business qualities, should be provided through data governance capabilities. Consider the “top-down” governance strategy, for instance. In this case, a platform must have a governance dashboard that is simple to use and that displays important KPIs and metrics for tracking the achievement of important business goals.
The platform should also promote teamwork through visual interfaces and procedures in order to create a data community that unites people and data. A workflow should be simple to create and not require a coding guide for procedures like requesting data access, reporting a data quality issue, or proposing a new governance term. This is important for two reasons. Second, workflows don’t always have to be started by a person. When certain conditions are fulfilled, such as a data quality indicator falling below a desirable threshold, workflows should be automatically started. Data owners and stewards are instantly informed by this automatic workflow event that a problem needs their attention. Nobody wants to learn that a data quality problem has been present for months and was only discovered accidentally.
All users should be able to simply define, track, and manage every aspect of their data assets thanks to the platform.
Any data governance strategy must include data quality, and the data management system must use high-level and specific quality indicators to guarantee the accuracy and dependability of data along the data supply chain. For instance, “devil’s in the details” metrics like data profiling, consistency, conformance, completeness, timeliness, and reconciliation are frequently what analytics consumers want to look at before they trust that the data collection is suitable for their needs.
Businesses can boost the value of enterprise data assets throughout the entire organization by taking the necessary measures to create an inclusive data governance team and choosing cutting-edge technologies.
5 Governance Steps for Distributed Project Team Management
It requires genuine skill and a firm commitment to establishing a governance structure that promotes success to manage a remote sourcing project team. A virtual presence is an absolute absence when working on a distributed project team; this is a cardinal rule.
The policies, processes, techniques, and templates you need to put in place to standardize activities and make sure the team is performing from the same score must be put in place if your complete absence is a given due to the fact that project team members are spread out across three continents and twelve time zones.
Delivering sourcing transition Success via Good Governance
Governance is nothing more than the process by which a sourcing transformation project will be managed to provide the desired results. Even while creating a workable governance structure can take a lot of time and effort, not every project will require it. In fact, the more straightforward the governance process and structure, the more successful it is likely to be.
Keep things simple when it comes to project team governance for distant teams. Anything with remote teams is more likely to fail the more complicated it is.
You may execute strong governance on IT sourcing transformation projects with distributed teams by taking the following five steps:
Set Expectations for the Team
If the team is unclear about what is expected of them, you should let each project team member define what is right. Original thought can be beneficial, especially if your projects call for creativity and innovation in order to offer your market brand-new and intriguing goods and services.
Your expectations are the only thing that don’t require original thought. Your standards of conduct, as well as those for team performance and individual accountability, must be understood and remain constant.
If a change is necessary, make sure it is related to project delivery or a company- or client-specific policy change. A project management risk that can result in rework, lost productivity, or project failure is vacillating in your expectations.
Expectations for distributed teams, for instance:
• What the working hours are for each operating location
• What “good” or “effective” work looks like
• What an acceptable attitude is and how team members will contend with disagreements
• What issues are to be elevated as routine, urgent or emergency.
Generate Team Goals and Objectives
Goals and objectives help the remote project team know where to concentrate their efforts, while expectations describe what is appropriate for team and individual actions. Your project team has targets to shoot towards when you set goals and objectives.
Aligning objectives with work packages in the project’s work breakdown structure is one approach to do this. By doing this, certain distributed project team members are given responsibility for carrying out their task package in order to fulfill a set deadline. After that, the objectives match the rolled-up work bundles.
Goals and objectives can also be established by cascading from the business case’s strategic justification for the project. What justifies the project’s execution? You can decide what is needed to make the project a reality based on the response. Next, you decide how to accomplish each of the project objectives, or goals.
The majority of people desire to know the purpose behind the work they are doing. Those of us with the highest levels of job satisfaction are content because we can explain why.
On a remote project team, it can be quite simple for a team member to miss out on the home office culture or lose perspective of why a project is being carried out because they are far away from you and possibly working alone.
It will greatly reduce the risk of team members working on unneeded tasks or completing work that isn’t necessary for the project if you make sure that each member of your distributed project team can explain why a project is being carried out, what is being done to ensure project success (i.e., goals), and how the work will be accomplished (i.e., objectives).
Establish KPI’s for Monitoring & Controlling Team Performance
Your distributed project team’s goals and objectives have been developed, along with the behavior and performance standards for both individuals and teams. Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for monitoring and regulating the project during execution are the following governance component to be put in place.
KPIs serve the function of enabling you to confirm that remote project team members are carrying out their tasks properly and efficiently. Finding both positive and negative trends that might have an impact on the project as a whole is another goal. When you have team members working from different places, both are crucial.
You must take the time to assess the crucial success criteria that will enable your particular project team to succeed in order to create effective KPIs. Several instances include:
• Billable to non-billable hours
• % milestones met on time
• % of weekly coordination calls attended
• # of deliverables returned for rework / total # of deliverables
My observations show that the KPIs that are easy to assess, few in number, and specific to the important success determinants provide the best return on time invested. More importantly, you and your project team will have unbiased tools for gauging performance and, ideally, taking action against any troubling tendencies before they become an issue for the project.
Create Standard Operating Procedures and Templates
When it comes to governance, standardization is something We strongly support.
According to Project Management Institute (PMI), project governance is more than just an oversight role in line with an organization’s governance model throughout the project life cycle. The U.K. Association of Project Management offers the following definition of project governance:
Governance refers to the set of policies, regulations, functions, processes, procedures and responsibilities that define the establishment, management and control of projects, programs and portfolios.
This notion of governance better expresses what is correct and supports my conviction that P2T2 policies, procedures, methodologies, and templates must be standardized if one wants to be a successful sourcing transition manager.
P2T2 implementation in a dispersed project team makes sure that activities and deliverables are consistent no matter who develops them or where they originate. Original thought is not desired when it comes to governance, similar to expectation setting. Standardization is preferred instead.
It takes less time and effort to create new P2T2 for every project, and you get to choose which policies, practices, approaches, or templates improve productivity and project success and which ones don’t. This enables you to continuously enhance your project management for the LEAN process types.
It has additional expectations for how the scattered team member will carry out their work. You cannot accept the risk associated with letting each team member come up with their own meeting minutes or project deliverable formats, even if you are leading creatives on an innovative project.
Start a Sharepoint with examples of rules, procedures, techniques, and templates right away if your firm doesn’t already have one. Create a baseline for the subsequent project using the one you are currently handling.
Develop a Communications Management Plan
The communications management strategy is an essential governance plan for a distributed project team. Make this your strategy if you’re going to spend time creating only one.
Because they are unable to benefit from the countless informal communications that take place between members of a project team who are physically present on a daily basis, distributed project teams are automatically at a disadvantage. Therefore, it’s crucial that a well-socialized and staffed communications plan be devised in order to maximize the communications that do occur.
The strategy must at the very least cover the following components:
• The meeting schedule to include location-adjusted times. If you’re team is comprised of people in different time zones, ensure you account for daylight savings, as not all locations change at the same time.
• Communications content. Leveraging your templates and procedures from P2T2, standardize the content for meetings and emails. For meetings, ensure there is an agenda and at least a record of actions and decisions (ROADs) generated. On emails, establish templates for transmitting issues, RFIs, and other project-related communications. Doing so makes it easier for the recipients to process the email because they won’t have to spend time determining what’s required, or what action is required.
• Communications methods. With a multitude of communications methods available, determine what the right mix is for your team. This might be email, VTC, phone and an IM system. Perhaps it’s phone only. Whatever method, identify it in the plan and address the back-up method in case the primary is not available.
• Communications platform. Identify a primary and secondary platform for conducting communications to ensure resilience if one system is off line. Nothing is more frustrating than hosting a call with tens of stakeholders, only to have the primary system go down and no back-up available.
Even on projects where everyone works out of the same office, governance can be difficult. If you are in charge of a dispersed project team, taking the time to establish governance throughout the project’s beginning and planning phases will help you avoid risks that could end up costing you money and time during execution and closeout.
Collaboration with vendors – the key to continuous improvement
After you’ve taken the time to select your new vendor, the next step is to think about working more closely with the new vendor to establish a solid, promising relationship right away.
A high level explanation for this is that you’ll want to:
1. Reduce costs
2. Make process improvements
3. Encourage innovation in products or services
The first two steps appear to be fairly simple, but in order to accomplish the third, we, as the buyer, must be honest and upfront with the sellers and put a priority on developing trust.
Building strategic relationships with key vendors is an essential component of shifting your sourcing strategy and can provide you a competitive edge, so you should think of the time you spend working together as an investment in the future.
In a recent PwC study, nearly 90% of participants stated they had confidence in the ability and willingness of the recently acquired vendors’ top management to work together.
The survey did, however, also show that one of the hardest obstacles to overcome was a lack of executive sponsorship.
It will be difficult to establish collaborative initiatives if there is no overarching directive to do so or if there are insufficient resources available.
It’s A Two-Way Street
Although it may seem obvious, collaboration by its very nature calls for the commitment and effort of both sides.
You should take advantage of the most recent innovations as a buyer working closely with your new vendors.
When a vendor’s business relationship with a buyer is more secure, they may comfortably invest more in creating and testing new iterations of their solutions.
Special consideration must be given to any competitive ties with strategic providers. They squander managerial time and deplete resources. The first stage in developing a relationship is to find a point of agreement.
Three Areas Where Collaboration Helps
Collaborating for cost reduction
Beyond the routine typical haggling, collaboration might result in cost savings for both sides.
Treating important suppliers as partners will allow you to bargain on actual prices rather than suppositions, improve product specs, and simplify administrative procedures.
Collaborating for innovation
Creating novel solutions to issues entails collaborating with vendors to support their initiatives to raise the caliber of goods or services.
Vendors frequently claim that their suggestions for enhancing design or accelerating procedures are disregarded or do not receive the attention they require. A smart place to begin is by opening several channels of contact for information sharing.
Collaborating for greater mutual value
Collaboration with vendors to improve both goods and services will not only result in immediate cost savings but also long-term advantages.
For instance, improved safety procedures will cut down on lost workdays, employee downtime, and perhaps even protect the reputations of both the vendor and the consumer.
3 Keys To Success In Vendor Collaboration
Sharing information
Sharing data and information is a must for open and transparent communication. Vendors must initially supply basic information about their businesses, including names, addresses, phone numbers, and every aspect of the goods and services they offer.
Due to the usage of various software programs and ERP systems, many businesses also struggle in practice to share information and data.
A dedicated shared portal or cloud-based vendor platform can be used to make basic and transactional data accessible, and the data on which choices are based is reliable, secure, and consistent.
Define areas of responsibility
Again, it may seem simple, but it’s crucial to state clearly what the intended goal is for each party as well as the resources needed to make it happen. This needs to be established before bringing on a provider. Each partner must agree to provide employees and, possibly, some initial funding.
Often, relationship-building training in soft skills is required. A plan must be developed on how to divide the benefits if there is to be any sort of gain-sharing. Any proposition for a collaboration is likely doomed if the vendor does not believe that it offers them enough value.
Tackle the challenges
Some businesses struggle with working transparently because they believe that disclosing operational and financial information puts them at a disadvantage when negotiating.
Developing trust is likely the most crucial element, and demonstrating that your goals are honorable is essential.
Effective teamwork based on shared knowledge lowers costs, enhances service delivery, and fosters growth for both parties. To ensure overall visibility into a vendor’s larger organization, it is considered best practice to establish cooperative partnerships at multiple levels, both corporate and operational.
Openness and extensive information exchange are the cornerstones of the strongest relationships.
Case Study: How to improve the procurement process through supplier collaboration
The client of Techedge aimed to increase supplier engagement and further optimize the procurement process with a new platform for supplier performance management as part of a corporate-wide drive to fully automate business processes.
Their customer chose SAP® Ariba® Supplier Information and Performance Management (SIPM) as their new supplier cooperation platform after reviewing various cutting-edge procurement solutions. By utilizing this new platform, the company has given their suppliers a new means of communication with the procurement department, allowing them to readily communicate information and exchange pertinent papers. Because suppliers are responsible for maintaining their own data on the Ariba platform, the new solution has also simplified and increased the quality of supplier master data.
The Problem
With the following common needs shared by the organization’s procurement, administration, and information technology functions, Techedge’s client launched a program for renewing the procure to pay cycle in order to meet them: Streamline the procurement processes, focusing on the supplier master data management processes; Increase the suppliers’ master data reliability; Improve collaboration and sharing of information between suppliers, allowing an easier exchange of pertinent documents (i.e. DURC).
In order to achieve these objectives, their client looked for a fresh, integrated solution that would enable upstream integration with suppliers, ensuring that processes and data were aligned, while also supplying a fresh, effective channel of communication to all stakeholders.
The Answer
Techedge’s client chose SAP Ariba Supplier Information and Performance Management (SIPM) as their new supplier collaboration platform to enable suppliers and partners to easily share the pertinent information and data following careful evaluation of cutting-edge procurement solutions available on the market.
As a cloud solution with limited customization options, the firm redesigned its business processes in accordance with SAP Ariba best practices to make the most of the functionality of the system. To properly meet their client’s business needs, several customized additions were created. The client’s Ariba solution is made sustainable for all product updates thanks to these unique additions, which were designed at the interface level between SAP systems and eliminate the need for maintenance intervention.
In order to ensure a smooth adoption of the solution and give the organization the opportunity to stretch out the onboarding activities over a manageable time period, the solution was implemented utilizing a wave method with progressive onboarding of suppliers and partners.
Course Manual 4: Challenges Faced
The Challenges faced during a Vendor to Vendor Transition in IT Outsourcing Engagements
For companies trying to cut IT expenses and get rid of low-value tasks, outsourcing has become a useful solution. In fact, more than any other function, 76 percent of organizations surveyed by Deloitte outsource some aspect of information technology.
Now, when it comes to IT Outsourcing Engagements, a Gartner study has shown that more than 75% of IT Projects fail, with unsuccessful vendor transitions being one of the key causes.
When the relationship between the client and the vendor, or between vendor and vendor, deteriorates, outsourcing transitions may come to a halt. When the contract is signed, their interests are most tightly aligned, but when the transition process gets going, fractures may start to appear.
So for an outsourcing project to be successful, it must be well designed and executed.
I won’t discuss transition planning in this course manual, but I will list the difficulties that organizations encounter when switching from one vendor to another.
As you now know from the previous workshop, there are three possible ways for ITO clients to move forward once the contract has ended at the end of the IT Outsourcing lifecycle.
1. Switch the ITO Provider
2. Source the IT Back in-house
3. Continue with the Incumbent provider
Now, the next question is what is Transition in IT Outsourcing?
When IT services are transferred to a new provider without being altered, this is known as transition. This indicates that neither the services themselves nor the manner in which they are delivered are altered.
While transformation denotes that the transferred services will be altered and will not be transferred to the new supplier exactly as they were. This indicates that either the services themselves or the manner in which they are delivered must change.
When transferring IT outsourcing providers, a blend of transformation and transition is used because a pure transition method is not used.
Types of Transitions in IT Outsourcing Engagements:
1. Client to Vendor (Insource to Outsource)
2. Vendor to Vendor
3. Vendor to Client (Outsource to Insource)
Due to a lack of available research, the scope of this document is primarily limited to vendor to vendor transitions.
The following are the difficulties that organizations encounter while switching from one vendor to another:
1. Outgoing Team’s lack of co-operation in sharing knowledge
2. Passing of incomplete and incoherent information to the incoming team
3. Time taken to make the transition
4. People Management (Transfer of people from one vendor to the other)
5. Business Disruption
6. Proper Ownership of transition activities and service delivery not defined
7. Confusing ownership of key resources (Login ID, Domain, Scripts, Source Code)
8. Loss of Process Knowledge of the company over time
9. Knowledge Transfer (More theoretical Less Practical)
10. Different Organizational Structure and culture
11. No transition or exit plan in the service agreements
12. IPR Issues (The earlier vendor owns the IPR and refuses to transfer it)
The below graph shows the number of times that the challenge is being talked about in different papers out of the papers that were reviewed during a dissertation written by Ashish Verma, a Senior Consultant at Avasant.
After reviewing 16 papers about vendor to vendor transitions and the challenges during transitions, which were published in journals ranked in the ABDC ranking, it was discovered that Knowledge Transfer (12 papers) and Passing of Incomplete and Incoherent Information to the Incoming Team (10 papers) are the challenges that appear in the papers the most frequently (10 papers).
How to Mitigate the Challenges faced during Vendor to Vendor Transitions?
I’ll discuss a few tactics to reduce the danger mentioned in my prior workshop in this course manual. These approaches can change from situation to situation, but I’ll discuss some general approaches.
It can take two to three months to successfully switch vendors, according to the various sources. The change will take longer to complete the more complicated the environment is. The transition’s duration may also be influenced by the environment’s current condition. It may take less time to accomplish the transfer if the customer has a mature environment with all the processes clearly defined and adequately documented.
Outgoing Team’s lack of co-operation in sharing knowledge and Passing of incomplete and incoherent information to the incoming team.
The exiting vendor is typically not required by contract to assist the entering provider. Therefore, the client will have to serve as a middleman, handling the knowledge transfer from one provider to another. To counteract the loss of project knowledge, the customer may instead implement a financial incentive in the early stages of transition management to pique the interest of the departing party.
IPR Issues and Confusing Ownership of the resources.
The departing provider shall handover all assets upon termination or fulfillment of the Contract. However, there is no way to confirm that each and every representative of the departing vendor destroyed the project-related files. Making ensuring an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) is in place is the only thing that can be done to ensure that charges may be brought against anyone who leaks information.
Business Disruption.
Following the customer’s announcement that they would no longer be working with the incumbent vendor, the incumbent vendor has the option of reassigning its employees to another project or risking the demotivation of those resources in the last weeks of the project. Not much can be done to change this. Just be sure to keep the disturbance to the most crucial business procedures to a minimum.
No transition or exit plan in the service agreements.
Make sure there is a proper transition or exit plan created, which compels the incumbent to collaborate under contract during the transition period or during their exit, once the new vendor has been chosen and MSAs (Master Service Agreements) have been signed.
Loss of Process Knowledge of the company over time and Proper Ownership of transition activities and service delivery not defined.
Due to his complete reliance on the provider, the customer frequently loses process knowledge when outsourcing. Due to his little understanding of the procedures, this leaves them open to attack when the incumbent vendor leaves. To guarantee that they always have the upper hand, the client should make sure that a correct RACI matrix is developed and that a resource is constantly available to oversee the project.
Orchestration of a Smooth IT Outsourcing Projects Transition to a New Vendor
How can knowledge transfer in IT outsourcing be made to go smoothly? You can discover advice for a smooth project transition when changing vendors below.
Enterprises are seeking more than just cost savings, effective delivery, and process uniformity when they try to outsource more and more of their operations to service providers. Value-added services like analytical skills, access to better talent and technology, ongoing process improvements, re-engineering, and innovation are now prioritized. Service providers are therefore seen as key IT partners who can introduce top-notch service standards, automate portions of the organization, and improve present capacity to meet the demands of a rapidly expanding business.
As a result, when contracts are up for renewal, businesses want to switch service providers in order to obtain greater value for their money, a better lifecycle for IT services, and more customer satisfaction. The process of transition, however, is not always easy; some of the difficulties that businesses encounter when making these switchovers include the departing team’s lack of cooperation in sharing knowledge, the information that is transferred to the new team being incoherent, and the length of time required to make the transition.
Why is managing transition important?
Service providers are expected to accomplish more in less time and for less money since businesses are constantly under pressure to preserve profitability. Additionally, it is expected that the service provider will follow the strategy and procedures of the business. This is a crucial responsibility in light of the multi-sourcing arrangements that many firms have today, when certain organizational functions are either outsourced to various suppliers based on best-of-breed solutions or as a way to diversify risk. Those with a global presence may have sourcing agreements that cover different regions and/or job functions. In addition to increasing complexity, this necessitates sound governance practices to reduce the danger of a disruption in business.
Due to condensed timescales and a lack of information, transition is typically the most difficult aspect of any IT outsourcing engagement and takes mission-critical significance. This is especially true if there is internal resistance. The transition serves as the initial standard for evaluating the client-provider relationship. Early-stage troubles run the danger of disrupting business and undermining trust in the new provider, which could result in future problems. On the other side, smooth transitions foster enduring bonds and, in the long run, produce superior business results for both the organization and the supplier.
During the transition, businesses can anticipate facing a number of difficulties, including:
• Insufficient information
• Absence of knowledge sharing
• Lack of planning
• Timeline pressures
• Lack of people management
Case Study
This case focused on vendor transition for an online portal maintenance contract. Vendor transition occurred because the client (Publico) was unhappy with the outgoing vendor’s service. The outgoing vendor satisfied contract terms. However, the client wanted the vendor to be innovative and proactive with the website portal instead of only providing simple maintenance. The client acknowledged the contract did not drive such behavior:
“We didn’t have much control over the SLA [Service Level Agreement]…It was according to the minimum standards in the contract. [The analogy is like] If the light bulb is working and even though it’s not very bright, you cannot ask [outgoing vendor] to change the light bulb because of that. It’s not in the contract”. (PubliCo project member)
Perception of outgoing vendor.
Publico thought the departing vendor was an issue. The departing vendor had a 100 million dollar contract in place and employed roughly 50 seasoned workers full-time. These people had been working there for up to five years. Publico also thought this was a key application, but it lacked internal call center and portal administration capabilities. It was only natural for Publico to feel defenseless. The management of the departing vendor also demonstrated hostile intent. The staff of the departing vendor met the SLA’s minimal requirements during their employment. The exiting vendor stressed that switching to a new vendor would harm the customer when the contract was up for renewal.
“They tried to frighten us with the risk of transition, which they mean it would be a disaster if we switch vendor. They were so confident. But they asked for the price of a Mercedes Benz but delivered a Camry”. (User manager)
Furthermore, the departing vendor became evasive and difficult after the decision to move vendors was made public. The client would frequently insist on getting a service from the departing vendor. Confounding elements would be presented by the departing vendor, forcing the client to make concessions. For instance, the project handover timeline was delayed because the departing vendor missed the vendor transition project meetings. When PubliCo insisted that the departing vendor attend project meetings, the departing vendor looked for potential delays. In response, PubliCo modified meetings to fit the schedule of the departing vendor.
Client Strategy.
Although the client was aware that the departing vendor was problematic, switching would be challenging. So, a year before to the contract’s expiration, the client started looking into options to swap vendors. After switching vendors successfully, the client formed a close alliance with the new vendor.
“For other projects, it is like ‘I-am-managing-the-vendor’ type. Here, we worked closely as partners. We were very open with each other. If [PubliCo] couldn’t do, we did, and vice versa. We didn’t bring in contracts during meetings. The relationship is that – if you fail, I fail as well”. (incoming vendor project director)
Transfer of physical and intellectual assets.
The departing vendor claimed ownership of the portal’s elements, including the domain name. For the client, the vendor registered the domain name. But the customer never reimbursed the vendor for this. For the domain name, the vendor insisted on charging the client “a seven-figure fee.”
The client chose to buy a new domain name rather than pay for the old one. Customers were unaware of the transition, therefore Publico and the new provider collaborated to spread the word about it. Every customer received a real letter thanks to a coordinated effort. In order to raise awareness of the website change, it was also advertised on radio, and a media blitz focused on football and karaoke (two activities closely linked to the male 18–30 age group that makes up the majority of Publico clients). The exiting vendor changed the old portal into a “men’s lifestyle” website that resembled men’s magazines in several ways.
Transfer of personnel.
Since the client was unfamiliar with the call center’s procedures, the arriving vendor requested call center workers from the exiting vendor to ensure a smooth transition. Thus, the new vendor stole call center workers. The departing vendor raised concerns about this poaching, but the client pretended not to hear.
“[Outgoing vendor CEO] was complaining that [incoming vendor] was poaching their staff. [Incoming vendor] did go down to [outgoing vendor] for a road show. It was in an open manner and mainly for the call center staff … All PubliCo wants is seamless transition” (PubliCo IT manager).
Outsourcing Legacy.
There was a lot of room for improvement in the client contract with the departing vendor. One was that the contract did not outline the obligations of the departing vendor in the event of a change. Thus, there was a chance that the shift might compromise business continuity.
“[Outgoing vendor] doesn’t see itself having a significant flow of business from [PubliCo] from [when they lost the contract], so they don’t need to leave a good impression. They were pulling out resources even from [existing portal]”. (PubliCo IT manager)
During the transition period, requests for maintenance were typically turned down. Business continuity throughout the transition time could never be assured due to the absence of exiting vendor assistance. In fact, the entering vendor had to redesign the site from scratch because the departing vendor claimed ownership of the source code. To complete this duty, incoming vendor staff put in “18-hour days,” “even coming back on Sundays.”
Additionally, the customer data was claimed by both the client and the departing vendor. In the end, it was decided that since the client had provided the customer data, it belonged to the client. The login IDs and passwords belonged to the departing vendor, though, as users of the site had supplied them while making accounts there.
This led to two issues. Prior to the debut of the new site, all users had to recreate their logins. Second, the departing vendor sent newsletters about the updated old website using customer information. Recall that the content of the redesigned website was different from that of the initial portal.
“[Customers] also came back about the [outgoing vendor] newsletters, so we have to tell them to unsubscribe from [old website], and [outgoing vendor] has to make it easy for them to do so”. (Publico IT manager)
Knowledge Transfer and Personnel Management.
The client asked the departing vendor for the source code because they no longer had sufficient expertise of the business procedures. The source code was required by the incoming vendor to ascertain specifications. The exiting vendor asserted ownership of the entire source code and denied access. The outgoing vendor stated that the incoming vendor would be permitted to read the code but not bring any back to the client site when the client asked access to the source code.
Post Vendor Transition.
The portal for Publico is currently operational, and the first two authors are clients. However, issues with the vendor changeover made a lot of people in Publico resentful of the departing vendor. The client declined to use the departed vendor for any upcoming projects. As a result, the exiting vendor lost contracts with other unhappy clients and closed.
Course Manual 5: Minimizing Disruption
Planning and research are necessary for innovation. IT is no different from other business activities in that changes must be seamless and avoid disruption.
The first step
A failing IT service provider eventually has an effect on the larger organization, whether it is in terms of pricing, responsiveness, or even communication.
Other departments’ budgets are cut, staff activities are interrupted, and decision-makers must spend valuable time resolving problems or haggling with suppliers.
Many people view the possibility of changing providers as a catalyst for growth and cost-efficiency. To find a deal that makes sense for the company, it is crucial to assess the advantages and disadvantages of various providers.
For instance, there might be a solution that provides more flexibility without costing more than necessary if your present provider offers unbeatable pricing but flexible working hours are your top priority.
In this situation, it makes logical to maintain a set contract with your present supplier while outsourcing work on an as-needed basis to a vendor who offers more flexible hours.
Establish your top priorities for an IT service provider and start by speaking with vendors who meet them. You may then be able to bargain on other issues, including price or contract term.
Businesses should value trust, dependability, and speed when outsourcing their whole IT job. The vendor will serve as an extension of the team as the single provider of IT services, so it is essential that they be trusted much like an employee.
In-house, out-of-house
Since this frequently improves reliability and response times to issues, many organizations prefer to hire a dedicated in-house IT manager or team. However, for many start-ups and SMEs, it is simply out of reach.
Employing an internal workforce entails paying salaries, benefits, and other expenses. It is more financially feasible to outsource work to a vendor as and when needed because of the erratic nature of IT demand.
Setting priorities is the foundation of managing an IT infrastructure. E-commerce companies, for instance, may prioritize speed and access and want to aggressively invest in an internal staff to reduce the risk of downtime that could negatively affect customers.
There are times when neither applies, though. Over time, a company’s demands are likely to evolve, and for many, a blend of internal resources and outsourcing results in ease and financial security.
An internal IT director may be responsible with developing the company’s IT infrastructure and overseeing system performance, while unanticipated problems or projects are outsourced to an IT supplier in order to avoid interfering with regular operations or upsetting staff members.
What to look for in a new provider
The foundation for growth is provided by partnering with an IT vendor who shares your goals and beliefs, from cost reductions to a quicker, more inventive service.
Businesses can utilize the expertise and labor of a larger team of IT specialists while just paying a predetermined cost as and when necessary, as opposed to hiring an in-house IT manager.
In addition to handling challenging and time-consuming activities like compliance, it provides SMEs with access to the specialized expertise required to simplify their IT systems.
Among the ever-changing administrative chores that can deplete IT resources are compliance and security. The most recent risks and compliance rules, however, are easily overcome by committed IT vendors.
Small businesses can live easier by looking for IT service providers who value these important corporate duties. They can rely on their IT partners to keep them secure and in compliance while allowing workers to concentrate on their primary duties.
Ambitious companies look for suppliers who share their innovative philosophy.
There is a common notion that outsourcing IT is just a temporary repair or short-term solution. When anything goes wrong, businesses involve a third party, but once it is resolved, the relationship is over.
In actuality, modern IT outsourcing facilitates both short- and long-term IT growth and is an effective method of managing an IT environment. IT vendors now collaborate with organizations on extensive projects, such as setting up their whole IT infrastructure and creating a roadmap for the future.
Making the switch
A smooth transition to a new IT service provider depends on effective communication. The conditions of the collaboration, including roles, schedules, and points of contact, must be accepted by both parties.
Beginning with mutual expectations reduces conflict throughout the entire partnership. For instance, scheduling work hours outside of normal business hours reduces employee disruption or downtime.
Similar to how an employee would, your IT service provider becomes an extension of the team by being given access to account managers and other important connections. This is it.
complex connection that makes it possible for organizations to collaborate with little delay or inconvenience.
Setting up a meeting between the current and new vendors is a good idea for companies transferring from an existing provider. They will be in the best position to acquaint the new provider with the present IT landscape, any outstanding tasks, and ongoing initiatives.
Setting limits is essential for people who have internal IT departments. Each team must be aware of their areas of ownership and autonomy. This promotes effectiveness and cuts down on sign-off delays.
However, after the contract is signed, contact doesn’t stop. It is advised to set up frequent feedback meetings because there will be bumps in the road, just like with any corporate transformation.
Set up a brief weekly call with the account manager to go over schedules, completed work, and any concerns you may have. To keep the partnership operating smoothly and lower the danger of disruption, it is crucial to resolve any difficulties before they develop into full-blown issues.
How To Switch IT Service Provider With Minimal Disruption To Your Business
Do you know that the market for managed IT services will total $312 billion by 2023? The amount keeps increasing. However, not every managed IT service provider is made equal. Some make quick and effective service promises but then miss deadlines and fall short of expectations. Others lack the sophisticated or desirable talents necessary to meet the intricate needs of the business.
What should you do if your service provider isn’t living up to your expectations and you have to constantly monitor and communicate while interrupting your productive task? How can you switch to a new provider with the least amount of hassle?
Ensure Control Of Data Is In Your Hand
You become dependent on an IT supplier after a while of working with them. They keep track of the location of your cloud storage, manage your passwords, construct your network infrastructure, and even store network management data on their servers.
Therefore, switching companies looks to be a little stressful. By keeping a record or requesting that the supplier store data on your firm servers that you can access at any time, you may avoid this predicament.
Although the IT company won’t hold your data hostage, it will be more challenging to share it with the new IT firm if it isn’t in your possession.
Sort Minor Issues And Fix IT Service Provider
Whatever the reason, it has a significant impact on business if an IT service provider fails to meet expectations in terms of cost, communication, or speed.
Other departments’ budgets are cut, employees’ responsibilities are interrupted, and decision-makers squander time resolving problems or haggling with suppliers.
Switching vendors may appear cost-effective and advantageous, but it’s crucial to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of different options to find a deal that makes sense for the company.
Finding a service that provides more freedom without costing too much is crucial, for instance, if flexible working hours are a requirement but your existing provider has unbeatable pricing.
In the aforementioned situation, it is wise to keep a set contract with your present provider and outsource work to a supplier who provides flexible hours on an as-needed basis.
It is crucial to establish key priorities by interacting with providers who meet the strictest requirements. Later, you will bargain over additional issues like price, contract, duration, etc.
The main elements on which the job of outsourcing rests are trust, dependability, and speed. Similar to how you trust your staff.
Although trusted and prompt vendors may charge a little more, the downtime costs and disruption brought on by slower and less responsive providers will be reduced.
Pen Down Your Troubles
You must have a very good reason for wanting to change your managed IT service provider. The service’s speed or the lack of technical expertise on the vendor’s part may be the cause. Whatever the situation, take note of everything that went wrong and put it in the service level agreement you create with the new IT firm. Set clear expectations for them and a defined spending limit.
Prepare To Share Your Documentation.
Get ready to provide the greatest possible start to your IT service provider. By gaining access to IT infrastructure, you can gather all the essential data about your business. Publish documentation about the systems. These records may contain a variety of things, including but not limited to the following:
• Network, diagram and design specifications
• Network administrator username and password
• Log in address
• User manuals and software & hardware inventories
Your IT management provider will benefit from having this documentation if you give it to them. This will help them become familiar with your system more quickly than usual and ensure less downtime.
Smooth Switch To A New IT Service Provider
The best instrument for a seamless transition to a new IT service provider is communication. Both sides must agree on the conditions of the partnership, including the duties, working hours, and point of contact.
Beginning with shared expectations reduces conflict throughout the entire relationship.
In a similar vein, designating account managers and key contacts guarantees that IT service providers function as an extended team and are familiar with the company like an employee. Work is made possible with little delay or disruption thanks to this complex interaction.
Businesses that intend to switch vendors should set up a meeting between their present and prospective suppliers. They will give the best new vendors instructions regarding outstanding tasks, existing initiatives, and the present IT landscape.
Setting limits is quite important for people who have internal IT departments. Each team must be aware of its job responsibilities, ownership, and autonomy. It will promote effectiveness and reduce delays. We advise setting up frequent feedback sessions to remove obstacles. Once a contract is signed, communication continues since it is an ongoing process. Make sure to speak with the account manager once a week to establish detailed work schedules and voice any problems. Before concerns become into major ones, it is crucial to address them all at once.
IT Service Provider Who Provides Customer Loyalty And Royalty
It’s time to switch if your current IT service provider isn’t offering you timely, efficient, and polite service. A service provider must resolve the issue swiftly or escalate it to another party while explaining why.
The best instrument for a seamless transition to a new IT service provider is communication. Both sides must agree on the conditions of the partnership, including the duties, working hours, and point of contact.
Beginning with shared expectations reduces conflict throughout the entire relationship.
In a similar vein, designating account managers and key contacts guarantees that IT service providers function as an extended team and are familiar with the company like an employee. Work is made possible with little delay or disruption thanks to this complex interaction.
Businesses that intend to switch vendors should set up a meeting between their present and prospective suppliers. They will give the best new vendors instructions regarding outstanding tasks, existing initiatives, and the present IT landscape.
Setting limits is quite important for people who have internal IT departments. Each team must be aware of its job responsibilities, ownership, and autonomy. It will promote effectiveness and reduce delays. We advise setting up frequent feedback sessions to remove obstacles. Once a contract is signed, communication continues since it is an ongoing process. Make sure to speak with the account manager once a week to establish detailed work schedules and voice any problems. Before concerns become into major ones, it is crucial to address them all at once.
It’s time to switch if your current IT service provider isn’t offering you timely, efficient, and polite service. A service provider must resolve the issue swiftly or escalate it to another party while explaining why.
Case study: Airbus explains how to minimize disruption for a smoother vendor transition
After terminating a lengthy IT contract with HP, Airbus Operations has provided some insight into the commercial difficulties of doing so.
The decision to end the aircraft manufacturer’s 12-year contract with HP was made two weeks after Peter Radig joined the company in 2012, according to Peter Radig, head of hosting services, who was speaking at the Gartner Datacentre, Infrastructure and Operations Management Summit in central London.
“The contract with HP was 12 years old and was renewed three times, with exclusive negotiations that led to a very difficult contractual situation, as well as a weak operational situation, because as that grew we never changed the definition of the statement of work,” he said.
Due to the advent of circumstances where neither HP nor internal Airbus workers knew who should take action when issues arose, various accountability gray areas were also created.
“We had a situation where HP would say this is done internally, and someone else would say it was done by HP. It was very uncomfortable,” he said.
Starting over
In order to fix this, the business determined that a new beginning was required and launched a request for proposals (RFP), the main goal of which was to lessen some of the operational complexity that had accumulated over time within the Airbus IT estate.
Airbus was running 12,500 servers, 2,900 databases, and about 670 applications at the time, all of which would need to be moved to a new supplier.
All of this IT helps the company produce its aircraft, which can take up to nine years to develop in the case of the A320 model and requires more than 2.5 million parts from roughly 16,000 vendors, according to Radig.
The company hired ISG, a third-party sourcing expert, to guide it through the RFP and tendering process.
“We wanted to send a strong signal to the market that we were serious this time. We didn’t have the best reputation in the market [when it came to procurement] as we would always ask for an RFP and then get people to work to that, and then enter into exclusive negotiations with HP,” he said.
Having ISG there meant prospective suppliers also had an independent party they could quiz and seek assurances from about the sincerity of Airbus’s intentions, said Radig.
“We also wanted to include benchmarks in the contract, but had no idea how to put those in, and – finally – the time schedule we were working to didn’t allow for an in-house way of working,” he added.
Appointing the successor
Airbus ultimately selected Atos as HP’s replacement in July 2014, and the migration of its systems from the latter to the former was declared successful in June of this year. Radig acknowledged, however, that there is still some work to be done.
For the record, HP is still present within the company’s IT infrastructure because its technology continues to support the HPC and SAP operations of the business.
“What we’ve learned now is that the transition phase is not the end of the transition. Officially, the transition phase ended in June, but we’re actually still working on making it work,” he said.
Radig suggested a number of actions the IT team should do to speed up the process for businesses thinking about making a similar shift.
As an illustration, he suggests beginning to record some key performance indicators (KPIs) for the current supplier at least a year before the transfer process begins.
“Your internal customers will not believe the service is as good or as bad as it used to be before, but you can show that in KPIs, and that can be very helpful,” he said.
“Otherwise everything is based on gut feeling, and [KPIs make it easier when] you need to make your decisions on priorities.”
In projects like this, Radig also cautioned against the possibility of “brain drain,” as it is usual for the IT personnel involved to begin seeking for employment elsewhere at the first hint of change.
“As soon as you start announcing the contract is being changed, the best guys will leave first,” he said.
“You also don’t want to be in a position where the incumbent knows they are going to lose the contract when the first good guys are starting to go.”
He cautioned that in order to avoid unpleasant surprises later on, it is also crucial to make sure a full audit of the Equipment estate is carried out before it is decommissioned and handed over.
“One of the biggest challenges we had was we started our decommissioning projects after we defined the numbers and sizing of the contract,” he said. “My team did better than expected and we ended up with fewer servers, which didn’t make Atos happy.”
He said that since the Atos contract provided for some flexibility, this could be easily fixed. This kind of due diligence is important because without a clause like that, the business could have had to rewrite the entire deal.
“My key message is that a change like this is doable. You need to have an excellent team and top management attention, but it is doable,” he added.
Course Manual 6: Knowledge Transfer
As it presents the majority of the difficulties throughout the transition process, we would want to concentrate on knowledge transfer in this course manual. Simply said, unshared knowledge is expensive, as was briefly mentioned in the last course handbook. When the entire process is reconstructed from scratch as a result of knowledge loss, there could be significant organizational waste. A solid knowledge transfer strategy could make the entire transition process simpler and safer.
There is a lot of project information that can be documented and used by anyone, such as knowledge that is available in books, figures, diagrams, and manuals, but the most valuable knowledge is tacit knowledge that is ingrained in people’s minds and cannot be documented (e.g. how to manage a software project, decision making, etc.). Furthermore, the hardest asset to convey is tacit knowledge derived through experience.
51% of the average employee’s workplace knowledge comes from experience, according to the Panopto Workplace Knowledge and Productivity Report.
The success of a knowledge transfer process depends on understanding the essential components of that process. Risk reduction and overall success depend on a thorough examination of each area and the development of tools to ensure the right tools are in use.
The business Plexteq has a history of effectively completing projects that it has both acquired from clients and their prior contractors. They have learned from experience that information transfer is successful when it is purposeful and rigorous and fails when it is ad hoc and unstructured. Thus, they consider the following to be the guiding principles of efficient information transfer:
• Organizations should take a holistic approach to knowledge transfer that considers such factors as technology, generational differences, cultural diversity, and learning styles.
• One size does not fit all – each organization will have unique needs and require unique solutions.
• Knowledge transfer should be timely, relevant, and efficient.
• Givers and receivers of knowledge should be involved in every step of the knowledge transfer process.
• Communication is the key to effective knowledge transfer.
Below is a diagram and explanation of the main steps in the knowledge transfer process.
Step 1: Establish Procedures for a Smooth Transition.
In order to encourage proper information transfer:
1. Retain key incumbent personnel or incentivize them to stay until the transition is complete to ensure knowledge retention in critical areas.
2. Encourage teams to use templates, questionnaires, best practices, and checklists
To hasten the acquisition of knowledge and reduce potential risks:
• Use Knowledge Acquisition templates
• Use checklists to reduce human errors, people dependency and ensure consistency
• Establish best practices and standardize processes
• Identify critical risks (Risk Analysis)
• Shadow key personnel to learn and document job function or tacit knowledge
• Prepare Standard Operating Procedures documentation
• Define acceptance criteria to sign off on knowledge transfer
To comprehend the complexity of the business, technology, infrastructure, and present processes:
• Infrastructure and application maps
• Business primer training or workshops
• Regular dip stick surveys
Perform checks and balances or switch toll gates by doing things like:
• Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) documentation review
• Work Instruction review and sign-off
• Architecture review and sign-off
Step 2: Determine What Knowledge Is Essential.
No knowledge exists in a vacuum. It must be prioritized in the Knowledge Transfer Plan based on the level of urgency and specified in terms of its context, impact, application, and contact information. The necessary knowledge to be communicated will be determined through working sessions with all roles engaged in the knowledge transfer process.
There are often a few degrees of knowledge that demand the most focus:
• organizational level
• team level
• individual level
The following documents could be found at the organizational level:
• Sensitive data transition
• Information on source code ownership
• Product Regulatory Compliance (if relevant)
• A Non-Disclosure Agreement (if relevant)
• Partnership termination agreement with a previous vendor (if relevant)
The following knowledge domains could be included at the team level:
Application:
• Application source code
• Automation tests source code
• Description of key data flows
• Description of key algorithms
Internal workflows and processes:
• Deployment guidelines, system configuration and installation, operating instructions, troubleshooting, changelog, and bug tracker data
• Software development workflow
• Branching strategy
• Software development tools and techniques
• CI/CD practices
Access to the tools used by the entire team:
• Access to the existing environment and third-party systems
Documents:
• Description of business requirements
• Project roadmap
• Software architecture documentation
• Database structure design
• Design files: mockups, graphics
• User stories
• QA documentation: test plans, test cases
The process of knowledge transfer is most crucial at the individual level. The code itself makes up a sizable portion of the knowledge. But understanding the factors and rationale that went into the design of the code is different from simply knowing what it does. The easiest approach to comprehend the reasoning behind the code and accepted practices when switching from one vendor to another is through one-on-one meetings and technical discussions between software engineers, DevOps, and architects.
Step 3: Determine who should receive the knowledge and who currently possesses it.
Most effective knowledge transfer initiatives actively engage the person or people receiving the knowledge, the receiver, as well as the knowledge’s source, the giver. The process of identifying each is carried out through the creation of a knowledge base matrix, which is produced through multi-group workshops and will identify both the locations of the knowledge to be transferred and the recipients of it.
For instance, it might be required to interact with a Delivery Manager as well as representatives from the engagement, legal, and finance departments on an organizational level. It is crucial to get in touch with a CTO, a project manager, a Scrum Master, etc. on the team level. Additionally, direct interactions between QA engineers, UX/UI professionals, software developers, DevOps, business analysts, software architects, etc. are often how knowledge is transferred from one expert to another.
Step 4: Choose the Tools and Techniques for Capturing and Transferring Knowledge.
It is necessary to record and correctly keep important knowledge. Choosing the right instruments to employ and defining expectations for the knowledge transfer will help to not only identify essential objectives but also the intended outcome (i.e., learning assignments, milestones, etc.).
We include the knowledge transfer techniques that have been shown to be the most successful in IT outsourcing out of the many available techniques.
• Meetings
• Documentation
• After Action Reviews
• Collaboration, i.e. pair programming
• Process Mapping / Flowcharting
• On-site training
• Webinar
Step 5: Keep track of the outcomes and compare them to the success criteria.
Through the specified documentation and communication plan, all knowledge transfer activities must be monitored and assessed to determine their success rates and to allow for any necessary changes to be made as soon as possible to promote risk reduction.
Criteria are typically based on the project’s complexity and kind. However, a few actual-world examples include:
• Team proficiency in the business domain, ability to speak with business on their language
• Releasing the first version through the adopted release lifecycle
• Ability to deploy releases and troubleshoot functional, and non-functional issues independently
• Getting to a projected development velocity
Example of a Knowledge Transfer Process
You can find a plan for knowledge transfer in IT outsourcing projects below, which is based on the lessons businesses have discovered from years of collaboration with international clients.
Overall Transition Timeline
Software Project Knowledge Transition Flow
Wrap Up
The transition from the outgoing to the incoming supplier can be very difficult when a company moves service providers in order to obtain greater value. In order to choose the best service provider, one must first determine whether they have the appropriate framework, tools, and approach to ensure a smooth transition. A hostile transition can be made smooth by having enough checks and balances, a well-defined transition plan, the capture and retention of current knowledge, solid governance practices, and a continuous improvement attitude.
Additional issues you have to encounter to change software vendors successfully
You must first realize that establishing relationships with the new team depends on open communication and a common understanding of the approach. You must evaluate the possible vendor in light of the difficulties you have previously encountered and talk to them about their working style, business plans, and overall process vision.
The issues with documentation will be resolved as the next phase. You must offer all necessary details regarding the project and supporting documentation. It may take some time, but you must gather all the required materials, such as:
• App’s architecture details;
• System configuration guidelines, operating instructions, list of files with bug details;
• List of packages necessary for the establishment of the environment;
• Description of the critical algorithms;
• Database description details;
• Source code deployment details and guidelines.
Approach, experience, and responsibilities transfer
Along with document and knowledge transfer, it’s also important to transmit the approach, expertise, and roles involved in system maintenance throughout the project lifecycle. Since these areas are crucial for productive cooperation, the new team should have a general understanding of the product as well as an understanding of potential risks and problems. These are the important factors to consider:
• The general concept of the product (the goal of the project, product value, details about the end-users, and core features).
• Work outline (development roadmap, current status, the scope of remaining work that should be done).
• Challenges (challenges that were previously faced as well as efficient strategies to address them successfully, discuss the transition challenges and way to overcome possible obstacles).
• Workflow management (roles, responsibilities, duties, communication tools, and task management instruments).
Code review
The code review is a requirement for the project transfer. An audit of the code must be done in order to calculate the technical debt. It will also make it possible to determine the app’s general health and the capacity of the new staff to manage it.
The study of the code makes it possible to create new features more quickly and for less money.
Code review triggers objective feedback, risk evaluation, and a rescue plan in case of necessity.
Case Study: IT outsourcing, knowledge transfer and project transition phases
Purpose
This study set out to find out how project managers and teams for information technology outsourcing (ITO) projects felt about the knowledge transfer that took place between client and vendor partners during the opening and closing transition phases of ITO projects.
Design/methodology/approach
We employed exploratory case study methodology and qualitative methodologies. ITO knowledge assets, such as project team members, organizational documents, and artifacts that might provide details about the knowledge transfer procedures during the transition stages of the ITO project, were identified using a purposeful sampling technique. One US-based customer organization’s ITO project team members and the company’s overseas vendor partners served as examples of the selection criteria. Project managers, analysts, developers, subject matter experts (SMEs), and other ITO knowledge employees from one US-based firm were included in the study population. NVivo Pro 11® research software was used for both the analysis of the interviews and the documents.
Findings
Participants’ responses to questions about the beginning and end of ITO projects revealed four key themes: KT approaches to plans and processes; KT dependencies on IT project team members’ reliance on project tools, processes, and artifacts; KT success or failure factors related to project team members’ perceptions; and the role of documentation in terms of dissemination and communication of KT results.
Originality/value
When planning for successful knowledge transfer during the transition stages of ITO projects, IT leaders and project teams may leverage the insights provided by this research into additional areas of knowledge transfer during ITO transition phases.
Course Manual 7: Monitor New Suppliers
Supplier monitoring after transition
A supplier’s performance is crucial since it plays a crucial role in the production process of the business.
For a process of continuous improvement and for sharing shared goals, it is vital to measure, track, and share outcomes from their performance.
Why is it important to set up an effective supplier monitoring system in a company?
It frequently occurs in a corporation that information about suppliers is disorganized, uncentralized, and difficult to compare (perhaps because it is stored on various systems).
This invariably results in knowledge being attached to individuals rather than the business, in the absence of internal customers, and in subjective judgments.
It is impossible to adequately manage supply risk as a result.
Vendor rating is a tool for integrating operational control and strategic planning.
Its objectives are to:
• influence decisions
• translate and validate the strategic business plan on the supplier pool
• assess and track supplier performance.
It can be applied both pro-actively and reactively.
Reactively: keeping an eye out for and quickly spotting any issues with suppliers, product categories, or codes
Proactively: Making suppliers aware of the crucial business process variables is a proactive step.
Source: ProcureAbility
Common mistakes:
• not connecting measures to the corporate strategy
• not validating causal relationships between KPIs (weights)
• aiming for the wrong targets
• misjudging the choice of metrics
The following are the stages of vendor rating growth that can be avoided to avoid the aforementioned problems:
• defining objectives and metrics
• translating objectives for suppliers
• performance measurement
• supplier performance analysis
Objectives and metrics
The following inquiries need to be made:
• What are the key success factors for the company?
• What are the objectives of the procurement department?
Time, cost, quality, talents, and competencies are the primary parameters that are commonly mapped.
Second, depending on the type of items, one or more vendor rating models must be created, using various metrics and data sources.
The quality of the data source must receive special consideration because it inexorably influences the caliber of the vendor rating.
Targets for suppliers
Where should one start?
• What are the classes of goods for which I want to monitor suppliers??
• How to translate the department objectives into objectives for suppliers? How to hire them?
On the basis of the Kraljic matrix, one can imagine a full vendor rating process for strategic classes, a partial process for courses with leverage, or one can decide not to execute the vendor rating in the case of non-vital classes.
It is advised to use a sharing mode while hiring.
Objectives must be communicated to suppliers, measurements must be precise and understandable to suppliers, and metrics utilized must vary depending on the supplier’s activity and cannot be influenced by consumer behavior.
Additionally, it’s critical to get input directly from the providers.
Performance measurement
You should reflect on the following issues:
• What frequency should measurements have?
• What is the responsibility process in defining actions and interfacing with suppliers?
How frequently the instrument is used determines the frequency. It is wasteful and unhelpful to spend resources on regular measurements if the instrument is only sometimes utilized.
The actors to be included are those who are touched by the supplier pool’s performance in the particular class.
Supplier performance analysis
• How often should the data collected be analyzed?
• How much exposure should one provide suppliers?
Having a dashboard that allows us to instantly analyze and compare all indicators for monitoring suppliers is useful. Depending on how strategically important a class of items is, the frequency may change without significantly affecting operations.
It is essential to communicate the findings to suppliers in a systematic, traceable, and understandable manner (metrics, assigned class of merit, necessary improvement actions).
A development strategy
These technologies make it feasible to create a supplier hierarchy that is beneficial for strategic supplier management and is based on objective selection and assessment criteria.
Suppliers can be identified as:
• Occasional, those regarding which affordability is mainly considered.
• Operational, which are able to respond to the customer’s business peaks, or in any case to provide the material in the best possible timeframe.
• Strategic, able to bring quality and knowhow to the customer
• Business partners, which can bring innovation to the customer so as to evolve together
By doing this, a corporation chooses a strategy that places a greater emphasis on the provider than the class of goods, which is essential for deciding whether to invest in a particular supplier.
Thus, this is a development method to boost productivity and find fresh commercial prospects.
Applying this methodology and a supplier monitoring system will enable you to:
• From incomplete and non-centralized information > to an informed and shared approach.
• From opinions tied to the knowledge of individuals > to objective widely available data.
gaining a set of essential tools and procedures for strategic management as a result.
7 Pillars of an Effective Vendor Monitoring Process
Business continuity planning must include an efficient vendor monitoring procedure. This calls for not only recognizing who your main vendors are, but also making sure you have a solid method in place to gauge and analyze their general wellbeing and long-term viability.
Vendor monitoring has always been essential to a vendor management program, but the COVID-19 pandemic has brought more attention to its significance. Companies are worried about the pandemic’s potential short- and long-term effects on their major vendors. While some vendors saw the effects right away, many organizations won’t know the full extent of their long-term effects for months or even years. a lot of vendors have to:
• Reduce or eliminate services due to the need to shift to new lines of business
• Address new financial pressures resulting from new competitors, permanent loss of market share or difficulty obtaining working capital
• Address operational issues caused by some of their own key suppliers (your 4th parties) or, in the worst cases, replace them altogether
You need to have a strong vendor monitoring procedure in place and a documented plan for how you are going to address issues when they happen in order to ensure business continuity with your most crucial providers. Here are the seven components that make up a solid framework for vendor monitoring processes.
1. Identify which vendors require monitoring. These should always include your crucial and high-risk suppliers, but they can also include other crucial connections with lower risk.
2. Define the indicators you want to monitor. Both quantitative indicators (numerical data that may be gathered and measured objectively) and qualitative indicators should be included (anecdotal observations and other contextual information).
3. Organize your data sources. Numerous methods, such as questionnaires, policy and procedure manuals, SOC and audit reports, surveys, and third-party data intelligence technologies, can be used to collect monitoring data. Ensure that you have the data sources required to feed the various sorts of indicators you wish to track.
4. Clarify roles & responsibilities. Many additional subject matter experts are involved in the process, even though the person who owns the vendor relationship should be largely in charge of keeping an eye on their vendors. Verify who is responsible for what and when.
5. Line up your subject matter experts. Speaking of subject matter experts, these are the people you’ll need to assist particular elements of monitoring because they have the specialized knowledge you’ll require. Experts in information security, business continuity, compliance, IT, and law are typically present.
6. Establish escalation procedures. It’s crucial to understand which problems should be escalated and what choices you have for fixing them when problems arise during the vendor monitoring process (which they always do). This may entail increasing your level of due diligence, revising your contingency measures, or even changing (or ending) the contract. The types of issues that require escalation and the processes you can use should be specified in your framework.
7. Leveraging technology. Last but not least, utilizing technology makes the vendor monitoring process more simpler. Included in this are your vendor management program and any continuous monitoring tools that let you access other data sources.
Your overall vendor management program is strengthened by a solid vendor monitoring approach. It is also one of your best weapons for preventing little issues from growing into major ones.
It can be difficult to manage the procedures involved in a company’s daily supply chain when those purchases are in high number.
With a sizable number of partners and significant financial obligations, any error could result in harm and other issues that would require a great deal of work to be avoided. Because of this, your business requires effective supplier monitoring.
Supplier Management Tools Every Organization Needs
Are you interested in learning about some of the top supplier monitoring tools available right now?
You see, businesses regularly collaborate with a wide range of vendors and other third parties. If there are no defined routes for managing, monitoring, and communicating with those vendors, it can become very overwhelming for team members.
Tools for supplier monitoring are useful in this situation.
Procurement teams can work successfully and efficiently if the proper infrastructure is in place.
Let’s first examine what supplier monitoring tools are before talking about which ones are worthwhile investing in.
What Are Supplier Monitoring Tools?
The key technology that enable interaction and performance evaluation between procurement teams and suppliers are supplier monitoring tools. They make it possible for CPOs to assess vendors and select only trustworthy ones for a long-term partnership.
A successful working relationship is built on timely deliveries, high quality, and reasonable costs. For this reason, suppliers need to be reviewed frequently. A weak link in the supply chain might result in expensive losses from an inept provider.
Businesses can learn essential information about the suppliers they work with through evaluation using supplier monitoring solutions.
What are some of the greatest supplier management programs to take into account?
Supplier Management Tool #1 RFP-RFI-RFQ Software
It is essential to engage suppliers in an organized manner, which is why suitable RFP, RFI, and RFQ software is required.
What does such software accomplish in terms of managing vendors?
RFP, RFI, and RFQ software helps procurement teams build a robust candidate pool and swiftly qualify fresh leads. Not only that.
In particular, ProcurePort software will give you access to a questions repository that makes it simple to customize RFI proposals, a side-by-side comparison of supplier quotes to speed up decision-making, and the ability to do live bid analysis so you can select the best vendors. Additionally, the vendor must approve the terms and conditions.
Save time when seeking vendors by taking use of automated e-sourcing procedures, secure communication channels maintained in Tier IV data centers, and bidding.
Supplier management is significantly enhanced by RFP, RFI, and RFQ software that is fully integrated. Observe a 90% increase in efficiency throughout the whole RFI and RFQ process.
Supplier Management Tool #2 Reverse Auction Software
Reverse auction systems are a common tool used by procurement teams nowadays to get supplier data and bids. You may reduce addressable spending by up to 40% with the appropriate technologies.
Regardless of their size, businesses of all types can benefit from this software. Highest levels of security (hosted in a Tier IV facility) and SSAE 16 Type II compliance; secure and scalable.
The ease of use of reverse auction software is a result of the platform’s short learning curve. This supplier management application is deserving of attention due to its streamlined user interface, intuitive workflow, and reusable templates, as well as training and support.
Even in the most complicated bid talks, you will be completely in charge since you will be able to see everything that is happening. Having a cutting-edge reverse auction system is important whether you’re thinking about massive bidding events with several rounds or straightforward bidding.
Supplier Management Tool #3 Contract Management Software
What follows information gathering with RFI, RFP, and RFQ software selection of providers with reverse auction software? The procure-to-pay process now moves on to step two, contract management.
Using cloud-hosted contract management software like ProcurePort is a surefire approach to manage contracts effectively.
The creation, execution, management, and analysis of the numerous vendor contracts can be done more quickly by procurement teams by digitizing their contract management operations. Track each contract effortlessly from the negotiation stage until the point of expiration.
The contract life cycle can be difficult because there are many moving components that must be constantly monitored. For instance, insurance certificates and certifications must be renewed in advance, so their expiration dates must be kept in mind.
A contract management solution will give you digital signature capabilities, 24/7 access, and tracking systems so you can collaborate with contractors from any location in the world at any time.
The difference between vendor monitoring and vendor management
There is a prevalent misunderstanding that “vendor management” and “vendor monitoring” are synonyms. Although the two names are sometimes used synonymously, each has a unique purpose and set of responsibilities. Vendor management, to put it simply, is the act of managing vendor relationships as a whole, and vendor monitoring is a phase in this process.
Let’s begin with a brief summary.
What Is Vendor Management?
The practice of locating and managing outside businesses that offer a company important goods and services is known as vendor management. It involves a variety of duties, such as cost management, assuring top-notch customer service, and risk mitigation throughout the vendor lifecycle.
What Is Vendor Monitoring?
Vendor monitoring, also known as continual monitoring, is an essential but frequently ignored step in the vendor management process. It’s crucial to keep track of the vendor connection after choosing a new vendor during the transition process and signing a contract. This involves keeping an eye on the third party’s risk-mitigation mechanisms in place as well as its capacity to adhere to other contractual obligations such as service level agreements.
One of the main duties of vendor monitoring is risk reduction. Consider the following areas of third-party risk:
• Data breaches
• Litigation
• Changes in executive leadership
• Faulty security controls
• A lack of disaster recovery testing
• Poor financials
• And much more…
Vendor monitoring also entails due diligence, or the gathering and evaluation of numerous vendor papers, in addition to risk mitigation. You ought to regularly evaluate the following 6 vendor items:
1. Financials
2. Business continuity and disaster recovery plans
3. SOC reports
4. Risk assessments
5. Complaints
6. Public news
Automate Vendor Monitoring
It can be exceedingly difficult and time-consuming to monitor vendors. Fortunately, there are several useful technologies available for the sector to automate the procedure and lessen the workload.
Here are two alternatives that might be useful:
1. ArgosRisk -This system can identify early signs of vendor risk and will alert you of any that may need your attention.
2. Security Scorecard – Assists by monitoring your vendor’s security posture which helps identify vulnerabilities, active exploits and advanced threats.
3. BitSight – Allows you to see a high level of visibility into key risk factors and analyze data on a continuous basis to spot security issues with your vendors.
Although it’s frequently overlooked in the vendor management process, ongoing vendor monitoring is a crucial part of every program. When done effectively, it can shield your company from unneeded danger.
Case Study: Using business process insights to boost vendor performance
Business Issue
Vendor metrics are a problem for procurement professionals across sectors. How do you know what you are paying for and obtain precise, actionable performance metrics? The Supplier Performance and Governance team at a major IT business was one of Escalent’s clients, and they were dealing with a major mess. They were spending more than $100 million a year with three significant vendors. They lacked insight into the level of assistance they were receiving and strategies for maximizing the contributions of their partners. The business procedure was unclear. Contracting and billing were not consistent. New workstream onboarding was a time-consuming distraction. The evaluations were inconsistent. Planning and forecasting were, of course, a last-minute consideration in the midst of the turmoil.
What Escalent Did
Escalent began by understanding the invoices from the vendors. Did the bills follow the conditions of the agreement? Because they weren’t, the Escalent team was able to pay for itself within a month by getting the vendors to appropriately bill.
The long-term objective, however, was to build a precise and consistent corporate procedure for review. They established a common timetable and regular scorecarding. They were able to compare different vendors thanks to this, giving their client advantage during contract talks.
Escalent’s goal was to support the success of their client’s vendors rather than just identify problems. They assisted them in integrating new jobs and in locating more precise and effective workstream management techniques. A data warehousing system and scenario modeling were created and operated by Escalent. This sparked a methodical and organized planning approach.
Result
A disciplined process transformation led to clear results. Simply getting accurate billing was a big win. But in addition, Escalent helped them reduce supplier performance management effort by 50%, shorten supplier invoice processing time by 20%, and improve supplier performance by 10-20% across key metrics.
Workshop Exercises
Sourcing Transition Exercises
01. Define Business Requirements: Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
02. Transition Strategy: Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
03. Strong Governance: Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
04. Challenges Faced: Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
05. Minimizing Disruption: Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
06. Knowledge Transfer: Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
07. Monitor New Supplier: Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
SWOT & MOST Analysis Exercises
01. Undertake a detailed SWOT Analysis in order to identify your department’s internal strengths and weaknesses and external opportunities and threats in relation to each of the 12 Sourcing Transition processes featured above. Undertake this task together with your department’s stakeholders in order to encourage collaborative evaluation.
02. Develop a detailed MOST Analysis in order to establish your department’s: Mission; Objectives; Strategies and Tasks in relation to Sourcing Transition. Undertake this task together with all of your department’s stakeholders in order to encourage collaborative evaluation.
Project Studies
Project Study (Part 1) – Customer Service
The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Sourcing Transition process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:
01. Define Business Requirements
02. Transition Strategy
03. Strong Governance
04. Challenges Faced
05. Minimizing Disruption
06. Knowledge Transfer
07. Monitor New Supplier
Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.
Project Study (Part 2) – E-Business
The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Sourcing Transition process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:
01. Define Business Requirements
02. Transition Strategy
03. Strong Governance
04. Challenges Faced
05. Minimizing Disruption
06. Knowledge Transfer
07. Monitor New Supplier
Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.
Project Study (Part 3) – Finance
The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Sourcing Transition process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:
01. Define Business Requirements
02. Transition Strategy
03. Strong Governance
04. Challenges Faced
05. Minimizing Disruption
06. Knowledge Transfer
07. Monitor New Supplier
Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.
Project Study (Part 4) – Globalization
The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Sourcing Transition process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:
01. Define Business Requirements
02. Transition Strategy
03. Strong Governance
04. Challenges Faced
05. Minimizing Disruption
06. Knowledge Transfer
07. Monitor New Supplier
Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.
Project Study (Part 5) – Human Resources
The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Sourcing Transition process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:
01. Define Business Requirements
02. Transition Strategy
03. Strong Governance
04. Challenges Faced
05. Minimizing Disruption
06. Knowledge Transfer
07. Monitor New Supplier
Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.
Project Study (Part 6) – Information Technology
The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Sourcing Transition process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:
01. Define Business Requirements
02. Transition Strategy
03. Strong Governance
04. Challenges Faced
05. Minimizing Disruption
06. Knowledge Transfer
07. Monitor New Supplier
Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.
Project Study (Part 7) – Legal
The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Sourcing Transition process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:
01. Define Business Requirements
02. Transition Strategy
03. Strong Governance
04. Challenges Faced
05. Minimizing Disruption
06. Knowledge Transfer
07. Monitor New Supplier
Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.
Project Study (Part 8) – Management
The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Sourcing Transition process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:
01. Define Business Requirements
02. Transition Strategy
03. Strong Governance
04. Challenges Faced
05. Minimizing Disruption
06. Knowledge Transfer
07. Monitor New Supplier
Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.
Project Study (Part 9) – Marketing
The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Sourcing Transition process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:
01. Define Business Requirements
02. Transition Strategy
03. Strong Governance
04. Challenges Faced
05. Minimizing Disruption
06. Knowledge Transfer
07. Monitor New Supplier
Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.
Project Study (Part 10) – Production
The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Sourcing Transition process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:
01. Define Business Requirements
02. Transition Strategy
03. Strong Governance
04. Challenges Faced
05. Minimizing Disruption
06. Knowledge Transfer
07. Monitor New Supplier
Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.
Project Study (Part 11) – Logistics
The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Sourcing Transition process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:
01. Define Business Requirements
02. Transition Strategy
03. Strong Governance
04. Challenges Faced
05. Minimizing Disruption
06. Knowledge Transfer
07. Monitor New Supplier
Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.
Project Study (Part 12) – Education
The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Sourcing Transition process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:
01. Define Business Requirements
02. Transition Strategy
03. Strong Governance
04. Challenges Faced
05. Minimizing Disruption
06. Knowledge Transfer
07. Monitor New Supplier
Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.
Program Benefits
Information Technology
- Agile IT processes
- Improved value delivery
- Decreased defects
- Continuous improvement
- Modernized infrastructure
- Re-tooled staff
- Increased morale
- IT Business partnership
- Meaningful metrics
- Effective sourcing
Management
- Decreased costs
- Aligned strategies
- Servant leadership
- Clarified priorities
- Improved effectiveness
- Improved transparency
- Reduced risk
- Measurable results
- Satisfied customers
- Vendor partnerships
Human Resources
- Empowered teams
- Servant leaders
- Re-tooled staff
- Improved teamwork
- Enhanced collaboration
- Improved performance
- Reduced turnover
- Improved loyalty
- Leadership development
- Employee development
Client Telephone Conference (CTC)
If you have any questions or if you would like to arrange a Client Telephone Conference (CTC) to discuss this particular Unique Consulting Service Proposition (UCSP) in more detail, please CLICK HERE.