Many clients get surprised by the amount of internal organizational change management, transition planning and execution needed to make the sourcing relationship productive from the start, as well as sustainable in the future. It takes a combination of active and focused preparation to achieve a successful initial transition and a viable relationship that achieves planned business case benefits.
It is important to align and control transition activities and leadership, at both individual and organizational levels. When outsourcing functions with the associated resources, there is much to think upon. So there is a need of asking and answering several interrelated questions that are very important to a company’s future success.
- Transition Management
- Communication Management
- Vendor Management
- Operational Alignment
- Service Management
Transition Management: What should the plan to transition and transform functions, knowledge, tools, projects and processes to and with anew supplier look like?
A comprehensive plan, the right team and transition management office (TMO) structure, and governance are musts for the management of complex transitions and transformations; including service implementation, involvement of ket stakeholders, communication, people transition, risk management and readiness for steady state.
Change management and Communications Management: How to prepare people for the change and the opportunity that is represented? When and how to communicate what the changes mean for the company, organization and for individual team members?
Change Management: This requires a deeper approach to organizational change management that is found with project-level change. Implementing of a sourcing strategy requires addressing change across new organizational structure and leaders, new employee roles and responsibilities with new skills.
Communication management: Strong sourcing management also requires robust communication management. Making communications an integral part of the overall sourcing strategy ensures fact based messages are conveyed consistently, accurately; and with the right message delivered to the right audience at the right time via right medium.
Vendor Management: How to manage and optimize the new supplier relationship to achieve the promised results and maximize its values?
It is imperative for an organization to define the Vendor Management Office (VMO) processes that operationalise the sourcing relationship and align the organization and the supplier on a common understanding of expectations for how the relationship will actually work and be governed.
Operational Alignment: How to align the new organization and its established processes with the supplier and their processes to achieve the desired outcomes for the business and the relationship?
To ensure this each stakeholder must understand its responsibility, the business processes that will change and the touch points or handoffs between the organization’s team and the supplier.
Service Management: How will the sourcing implementation change the process of engaging with the business customers? What should be done to improve provisioning of services and to better align IT services with business objectives?
To increase the chances of successful implementation of a new supplier relationship, an organization will need to navigate all aspects of the sourcing transformation through change management and transition planning focus.
About Author:
Prabhakar Ranjan works with Systems Plus Pvt. Ltd. He is part of the consulting team that delivers Vendor Management Office projects. He can be contacted at prabhakar.r@spluspl.com
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