A Stitch in Time: recovering distressed IT projects
What can you do to recover a broken IT relationship and recover an operational service?
Managing failing IT and outsourcing projects
In a companion piece to their recent article on the reasons for IT project failure, Lee Gluyas and William Hooper review the steps that can be taken to protect a position where a project is failing but recovery is being attempted. IT projects can be lengthy and complex, especially where they are part of a…
Corporate Resilience and Continuity
The onset of the virus caught most napping. Some organisations sprang into action and responded effectively. Others are still searching government web-pages in the hope they will tell them what to do. Many will go out of business. How can you use this crisis to best improve your own corporate resilience? In 2016, Tesco managers…
Getting Multiple Suppliers to Work Together
Multi-supplier service is all the rage, together with its linking agent Service Integration and Management (SIAM). Wonderful in theory. How does one practically get multiple parties to collaborate towards a common end? It was recognised early in the development of multi-supplier models that there needed to be a unifying agent. A great deal of time…
Asking the Right Questions
The formation of a good sourcing agreement relies on clear thinking and agreement between the parties on what is to be done, why and how. The market and technology are changing so rapidly that the next agreement is likely to bear little resemblance to the last. How to make sure we ask the right questions…
The Changing Demands of Retained Service Organisations
In the 1980s it was simple: there was little sourced service. Then came the bandwagon and many jumped on, keeping the thinnest retained shell. What are the challenges now as the pendulum of fashion and practice continues to swing? Trends in the Market Some projections of future events are little more than crystal-ball gazing. Others…
Trust, Betrayal and Business Relationships
Outsource agreements typically have long durations and high switching costs. Some fail; some drive innovation and soar; most get by. What is the role of trust in such a service and what can you do to obtain the best value? Volkswagen is being pilloried world-wide for deliberately deceiving customers and the public in diesel engine…
Integrating Service
Service Integration and Management (SIAM), and the closely-related multi-sourcing, are all the rage. What is the essence of integration, what do you get from it and how do you make it work? I am suspicious of fashion, as anyone who has seen my wardrobe will attest. That there is a new management fad promotes interest…
The Mathematician and the Music Maker
There are many models by which a service may be priced and a deal constructed. Whatever the approach used, there are considerations that both of the parties should weigh before they agree. What is likely to be going on and how can you obtain the best outcome? During the process of engagement between customer and…
The Great Thing About Standards….
Standardising is so inherently appealing that most people happily accept it as a good thing, until the time comes to make it work. Are you to be like the company with 800 desktop builds for each 1000 staff? What are the costs, benefits, limits and practicalities of standardising service practice? Standardisation can apply to many things:…