Global advisory and benchmarking firm, Alsbridge, Inc., recently announced a method that is helping organizations determine if they are mentally, corporately and organizationally prepared to do what is necessary to create a successful sourcing strategy.
“Too many times, we’ve seen clients who did not take the time to consider what lies ahead of them in the road to sourcing,” said Ben Trowbridge, CEO, Alsbridge, Inc. “It can cost millions of dollars in lost savings through delays as management decides whether they were ready to outsource a particular function.”
According to the report, not all 10 keys to building a successful sourcing strategy need to be answered before you begin the planning process, but they should be answered by the time you complete your sourcing cost/benefit analysis.
Click through for 10 questions any business looking to outsource should consider, provided by Alsbridge, Inc., a global advisory and benchmarking firm.
Are your executives at the highest levels committed to moving ahead should the business case, quality and timeframe to source be compelling?
Is your organization ready culturally, operationally and strategically to change the way services are delivered today? Can your business environment accommodate a third party delivering the services you provide to the business? Perhaps from India or China? From a different culture? (If not ready, you can help your organization through the process by leveraging change management techniques that have been proven to work.)
Many components of information technology, finance and accounting, human resources, procurement, and/or knowledge processing activities can be outsourced. What scope must you absolutely keep in-house? Why that particular scope?
Are you able to account for all of your related delivery costs, not just what you have in your budget? If you don’t do this, how will you know whether you can save the company money with a new approach?
Can they deliver what you need? Do they provide meaningful service level agreements (SLAs)? Do they have industry experience you can leverage and good references?
Put in writing the scope to be outsourced, sample terms and conditions, and SLAs. How does the provider map their capabilities to meet your business objectives, sourcing objectives, scope objectives?
Check them out on their own turf in a site visit. What capabilities do they really have? Ask the provider staff who are not engaged in the visit how they adhere to the processes that the tour guide is suggesting.
Seek relevant references. What is their track record for successfully delivering similar work of a similar size to a similar industry? To another industry?
What quantitative and qualitative criteria will you use to select the winning provider? What method will you use to ensure that you judge each provider fairly?
Does your team have the discipline, experience and time to do this properly? If not, seek a qualified outside sourcing advisor with a proven track record, practical methodology, and deep information databases.
