Ask any service provider and they will tell you about
their struggles to manage the expectations of some clients,
writesPhil Morris. Ask any IT
professional and they will give an example of how their service
providers just weren't doing what was expected of them, and "just
did what they thought needed doing". Combine and escalate both
those views and you have a situation where anoutsourcingdeal can run into real
difficulty or even collapse. And yet situations like these can
often be easily avoided. Asking too much never hurt anyone, as long
as the relationship is healthy enough for the service provider to
say no or, even better, "no, but".
Issues usually arise not from asking, but from demanding, and
the expectations associated with those demands. It threatens to
undermine a sourcing relationship immediately if the service
provider does not understand the seriousness, or the origin, of the
demands. They will have constructed a service model and underlying
economics for one situation and will, understandably, probably
react badly if they are then uncompromisingly told to change what
they are doing.
This then places both organisations in a potentially very
difficult situation because both will feel their diametrically
opposing opinions have the most merit. This could damage the entire
relationship.
Such issues often arise at times of contract renewal, when
unsophisticated benchmarking is in use, and when
recession bites.
It is this final point that IT professionals will have to be
very aware of as a recession looms and organisations plan for an
economic downturn. And if there is a real recession, it will have a
much bigger impact on outsourcers than any previous downturns, if
only because there is more outsourcing in existence now than ever
before.
So step back and have a look at what you are actually asking
from your service provider, and how you are asking it. Is it
reasonable? Is it going to affect the overall relationship, and is
it worth it? Some of the changes you seek will be possible, some
will need investment of time and talent, if not money, and some
will be either impossible or at least impractical in the short
term. Which category does your request (not demand) fall under?
If you want to avoid the threat of outsourcing relationships
turning sour because you "asked too much", then engage the service
providers in the discussion and your thinking from the beginning.
Tell them where you need to get to and why, ask for their help and
advice, and then jointly engage in the change activities to address
and resolve the problem.