Making The Right Decision..

So, your "make vs buy" decision looks like a buy; you want to outsource...but before you make that decisions, there are numerous elements and processes to consider before you are ready to outsource your service.??

Doing your due diligence on your current processes is critical to the success of any outsource exercise.??

There are three critical elements to understand - processes, cost, and risk:

Process

As a minimum, you should map your current processes and produce a gap analysis against where you want the service to be. This will show you the minimum that needs to be articulated in your statement of requirements or scope of works when you approach the supplier market.??

Cost

It is important to understand how much your current service costs to operate. This will give you a benchmark for comparison with the market but also show you if your service is costing more than necessary to run. Remember to include all the elements that the service encompasses; people, systems, tools, contracts, and regulation are critical to map out.??

Risk

Do you understand the risks carried by the current service? How are they currently mitigated? It is critical to understand what risks there are in the service and the additional risks presented by outsourcing. Even more important is to understand how these can be mitigated. Is it through policy, reporting, expertise, and knowledge, change of methodology. These are critical to then include in the requirements and the implementation plan and actively manage throughout the whole process.??

Once you understand what your current service looks like, the risk associated with it and the cost to operate, you can draft a statement of requirements or a scope of works. This is what you need the service to be, an essential for suppliers to review and be able to tell you what they can do to meet those requirements and provide an effective and efficient service for you. As the experts they can describe how they can transform your service into that efficient and effective machine.??

Before you go out to tender, or enter negotiations with a potential partner, you also need to ensure that you know what your communication strategy looks like, both internally to those directly affected by the change, to the service’s stakeholders and externally to those who use the service.??

Keeping the staff directly affected informed and aligned to progress is vital to the success of the venture and where a lot of outsourcing ventures fail. Keeping communication channels open and ensuring there is clear and timely communication will help win hearts and minds of those affected, which will help garner support for the exercise and help it to run more smoothly.??

?The final key element is to ensure there is a plan for the change. That doesn’t mean how the service will be implemented, it means bringing together the requirement, the cost, the risks, the people, and the processes to ensure that all areas are covered, and nothing is left to chance.??

?Your implementation partner can help guide you through all these aspects, they are the experts after all! But as a minimum, you as the service owner should understand what you need and how it is constructed. This gives you the control and the understanding of what is happening and how it will unfold.??

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7 Step Solutions can support your managed service outsource every step of the way. Get in touch for more information on what and how we can help you.??

Nikki Rowbottom?

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