Partnership

Keys to a win-win Outsourcing Partnership

admin — Mon, 26 Sep 2022 11:10:24 +0000

Keys to a win-win Outsourcing Partnership admin Mon, 09/26/2022 - 18:10

Outsourcing your software development or accounting, payroll, reporting... is a collaborative partnership. This means you’re not handing off tasks and processes to an outside party to be completed without your involvement. Your Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) provider is a partnership built over time through communication and aligned vision and goals. It is an important investment into the future of your company. In order for your partnership to be successful, there are a few key items that need to be in place. Let’s take a look at the 4 keys to a successful outsourcing partnership.

Clear Communication

Communication is key for any relationship, and it is no different for your outsourcing partnership. As your company goals and objectives change, it is important to regularly meet with your BPO provider to keep your objectives in alignment.

The frequency of progress meetings and status updates should be clearly outlined, keeping each other in a proactive position, so there are no surprises down the road. Work with your BPO provider to come up with a communication plan that will work for all parties.

Set Clear Expectations

It's important to make sure clear expectations are outlined, should there be any confusion or disputes in the future. The right provider will provide all clients with a responsibility matrix - a document clearly outlining the services and responsibilities for each party.

It's also important to manage realistic expectations of your BOP provider. Understanding the capabilities and limitations of work is important in order to manage your relationship effectively.

Transparency

A quality provider should have the ability to communicate mistakes or oversights with you and fix any errors immediately upon discovery. At the same time, keeping secrets from your BPO provider hinders your company's ability to be successful.

This type of transparency creates trust and reliability, strengthening the value of the partnership.

Consistency

Your outsourcing provider is able to achieve the agreed-upon commitments because they are able to streamline and automate processes to efficiently deliver desired outcomes. Stay consistent with your expectations and responsibilities and notify your outsourcing provider if you believe changes need to be made to the existing contract in order to meet your company's needs.

The goal of the right outsourcing provider is to ensure the clients can be as successful as possible with the tools and services. While consistency is key to delivering desired outcomes, the software engineers of providers work closely with clients to provide innovative solutions tailored to fit their business needs.

Bottom Line

BPO is an investment and requires equal trust, communication, and time commitments from you and your BPO provider. Successful outsourcing partnerships are those that work together to solve problems, improve processes, and create long-term solutions that lead to the success of both parties.

How to maximise value from IT vendor collaborations?

admin — Wed, 21 Sep 2022 16:17:58 +0000

How to maximise value from IT vendor collaborations? admin Wed, 09/21/2022 - 23:17

It goes without saying that not everyone can be a maestro of everything. This is hugely applicable to IT businesses who tackle complex tasks across several technologies and infrastructures on a daily basis. It becomes clear that IT companies that are running their strategies solo are not taking advantage of the possible strengths of great IT vendor collaborations, which include several experts of different skills across a plethora of applications.

In other words, it is likely that an IT partner with an appropriate talent and skillset would be capable of selecting the right solution for the client, rather than the primary vendor that does not specialize in the client’s specific needs. In order to develop and nurture productive partnerships, IT businesses must know when to partner, who to partner with, and how to add value to a partnership.

A partnership is a value added relationship that develops over time based on the foundation of trust. It takes equal endeavor from both sides to evolve into an IT partnership enabling both the parties to share their ideologies, work cultures, expertise, and strategies. In a healthy IT partnership, it is always the collective ‘we’ to overcome challenges, celebrate success and plan the strategies – all these elements not only lead to trust, authenticity and credibility, but also strengthens the relationship between the two entities. Moreover, in order to build and maintain a fruitful partnership, businesses must follow some core elements and set appropriate criteria.

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Price: never a criteria to judge

There is no denying that when a partnership is based on the price, it can often lack the appropriate skills required to drive successful results. IT partners with the highest price may often spend higher amounts of time, money and resources on a project than it actually needs. On the other hand, the partnerships based on the cheaper prices can face challenges with required skills and limited technical capabilities to produce high quality results. Moreover, it is evident that whether it is high or low, price is never the appropriate criteria to base a decision on while selecting an IT partner.

However, a human to human approach should be applied while setting a criteria to choose the suitable IT partner. Although these factors may differ for every business, a healthy requirement focuses on understanding the core elements such as quality of service, skills, culture, values, aims, interests and most importantly, trust. It is an interesting point to mention that selecting an IT partner is not a one-time thing; rather, it demands enough time to gain an understanding of the business and their role in the project. Open and transparent communication between the two partners from the start is key to building a trustworthy relationship that further adds value to the successful partnership.

Trust: always a core foundation

Trustworthy partners can promote open and transparent communication in every IT partnership. For a partner to share any concern, challenge or updates, there must be a safe atmosphere that can allow a seamless flow of communication between the two without any barriers. This does not happen overnight, instead building trust is an ongoing process in which both sides need to put in equal efforts. Trust does not simply mean believing in their partner, but a readiness to see the partner’s perspective and values with equal importance.

The true partnership is always free from secrets that can be harmful for the business, for instance running a competitive organization secretly from the partner is a dishonest practice and can lead to loss of authenticity, credibility and in fact a whole partnership itself. Trustworthy partners, however, are aware that under delivery or overselling can lead to loss of the client and referrals in future, meaning they can drive fruitful results in the longer term.

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No room for master-slave partnerships

It is significant to consider that a partnership is a commitment of equal involvement, transparency, and implementation of each other’s skills, thoughts, and values in achieving the business goals. Hence, the partnership should never be dominated by a single party on any basis, rather it should welcome the maximum amount of participation from both sides. It is this readiness to work together collaboratively that adds value to the business and brings better results.

Working in partnership can bring better outcomes than working on a command-and-control model. Client requirements can often be dynamic and bringing a partner expertise in-house is better than trying to offer some solution that the business does not hold expertise in. Unlike a money-profit centric process, a blended problem solving approach can lead to increased client satisfaction and deliver valuable results for everyone involved.

By Jarosław Granat

Top tips for entering an IT partnership for the first time

admin — Wed, 21 Sep 2022 03:43:54 +0000

Top tips for entering an IT partnership for the first time admin Wed, 09/21/2022 - 10:43

Partnerships are a massive part of human society, and have been for centuries, based on the fact that we’re social animals and function better in teams. In business terms, partnerships have also been prevalent across different sectors where businesses leverage the capabilities of their partners to drive success that is shared mutually between them both. However, the IT industry seems to be reluctant to embrace partnerships in comparison to other sectors. Companies in this space tend to perceive program owners or solution providers as individual bodies that provide solutions to their clients. On the other hand, the modern business approach appreciates partnerships due to its fruitful results – better resources, wider expertise, high quality outcomes, increased client satisfaction and more.

A CIO or program lead can not be an expert in every field. Understanding how vast the IT industry is, there are subject matter experts of different technologies who possess more expertise, knowledge and skills than a CIO who does not specialize in that specific area. This can be understood from a perspective of a collective approach where there are different IT companies specializing in various fields. Businesses that are now looking to enter an IT partnership for the first time, to widen their expertise, skills, resources and vision, can consider some key tips to establish and nurture a productive partnership.

When is it the right time to develop a productive partnership?

Having a partner involved from the start of a project is usually more beneficial than involving one at a later stage. It is recommended to create a partnership at the very beginning for a wider understanding of the project and to find out whether the team is a good fit. This can help eliminate any risks of bad customer experience that may occur if a business takes on a project without sufficient knowledge resulting in unsatisfied clients. The right partner will provide greater expertise when tackling the problem and can suggest the most appropriate solution based on previous experiences.

It’s worth noting that a partner may not always be a vendor. There are a range of growing IT strategies and solutions that have demonstrated experience in the relevant marketplace but are not tied into a specific platform. However, there are some key elements that should be considered while selecting a partner whether it is a vendor or an advisor.

Factors to consider in a partnership

For businesses looking to strike up an IT partnership, it is crucial to ensure that potential partners are on the same page and are both working towards similar outcomes. Mutual visions lead to increased understanding, trust, and judgement throughout the project. Therefore, it is highly recommended for organizations to spend sufficient time when selecting their partner to understand their exact values, ideas, goals and ambitions. In order to accomplish this, it is recommended to physically visit potential partners, understand their culture and apply a human-to-human approach – whilst understanding that this is not a one-time project but an ongoing process to improve and build a solid relationship.

Applying a practical approach

Businesses must ensure the relevancy of the partner to the project by matching the usefulness of their skills, ideas, and experience to the client’s project. Establishing a partnership contrary to client needs will not only lead to customer dissatisfaction, but also to the overlooked understanding of the value of a partnership.

Partnerships are more than just a formal relationship. It must be reflected practically in the different levels of the programme team by promoting the exchange of ideas and open communication between the teams from both sides. This approach promotes a collaborative team effort rather than a ‘master-slave’ relationship. Unlike the command-and-control model, working in a partnership can drive better outcomes. A partnership that takes a practical approach is capable of navigating greater solutions.

Partnerships should be considered a long term process which can spark new challenges. Initiating the process at the right time with an appropriate mindset is a great way to overcome these challenges.

Driving sustainability through digital innovation, people transformation and sector collaboration

Measurement is essential

Measuring success is a fundamental element in any business to keep track of the changes in the performance of the company and gain insights about the factors behind those changes. One of the appropriate methods of measurement is NPS (Net Promoter Score) – a metric that is used to measure loyalty of the organization’s customers. The usual business outcomes are to reduce costs and maximize profits, however the strategies to achieve them can be different from business to business. By leveraging each other’s strategies, partners can strengthen their approach towards mutual success.

After all, IT is not a cure for businesses but an ongoing process and investment to improve. In this rapidly transforming digital era, it becomes increasingly important to include specialists from specific fields to provide seamless customer experience. Partnerships in this sense can serve to be a great facilitator of delivering high quality results, creating customer satisfaction in the long run.

Written by Jarosław Granat, head of client engagement at Future Processing

Partnership

Keys to a win-win Outsourcing Partnership

Clear Communication

Set Clear Expectations

Transparency

Consistency

Bottom Line

Tags

How to maximise value from IT vendor collaborations?

Price: never a criteria to judge

Trust: always a core foundation

No room for master-slave partnerships

Tags

Top tips for entering an IT partnership for the first time

When is it the right time to develop a productive partnership?

Factors to consider in a partnership

Applying a practical approach

Measurement is essential

Tags