Presentation to ACS 2014 Technology and IT Conference

Sydney International Airport24th March 2014

Working with your outsourcer – What are the roles and responsibilities of

the various parties

30 years experience between Outsourcing, In house IT and Business Process ownership

Outsourcer “IT”

In house IT “IS”

Business Process Owner

Value = Efficiency X Effectiveness

or more simply

Do the right things and do them well

Applying Ducker to outsourcing …

Credit : Dr Peter Robertson

OutsourcerDo the selected

things well

In house IT Select the right thing to be

done

Requirements

Service Delivery

The size of IS is a key variable, before generalising

0 many

• Heavy reliance on outsourcer

• Trust is key• Account Exec =

CIO

• Service Delivery• Technology• Help Desk• Can become

insular

• Strategy• Architecture• Contract Management• Business Project facilitation

few

Requirements need to be codified by IS

• Strategic Plan and project list• Architecture• Principles• Services and Service Levels• Key Performance indicators

Service Delivery need to be codified and delivered by the outsourcer• Status reports• Service Level compliance• Key performance indicators• Service descriptions• Commercial terms

There are proven ways to assess an organisation's ability to deliver

Objectives

Commitment

Capability

Measurement and Improvement

Both teams need to establish this model

Objectives

Commitment

Capability

Measurement and

Improvement

Objectives

Commitment

Capability

Measurement and

Improvement

IS = Strategic Plan, Architecture and services IT = Contract, Service Definitions, measures

Note : some IS functions can be successfully outsourced, e.g. Boeing

Measurement by the outsourcer Matters

The contract and service level definitions should form the basis of objective discussion

All measures should include a definition

Use traffic lights to highlight non-conformance

Record and follow up on actions

Service Level Compliance on it’s own can let you down

Outsourcer : “100% SLA compliance this month for the 5th month in a row, we should celebrate”

Customer :“we hate you, you are not innovative, you do not support Windows8 on my phone and our applications are rubbish”

What is in the contract, what are the real objectives?

Use Customer Satisfaction Surveys, driven by IS carefully

• Ask the end customer are they happy with their computing ( the sum total of IS and IT )

• Ask why or why not• Process the answers thoroughly– “my computing experience is poor as I am not

allowed to have dual monitors”– “my terminal freezes regularly” ( yet uptime is high )– The application crashes if I enter >100 characters

( the outsourcer may have no control over the app )

Service Improvement Plans – a joint responsibility

• A Service Improvement Plan can be called for by any party

• Improvement areas are agreed• “Completion criteria” are agreed• Funding is agreed• Work is thoroughly governed

Meet regularly – a joint responsibility

• “Online”– You are both partners to a contract and have

obligations to meet and review performance• “Offline”– Have a cup of coffee away from the office, get to

know each other, talk through the culture and history of the organisations

Other Useful tools

• RACI – Responsible, Accountable, Contributor, Information

• Swim lanes• Service Charter• Service Definitions• Team building• Cross pollination

So, what are the roles again?

Credit : Dr Peter Robertson

OutsourcerDo the selected

things well

In house IT Select the right thing to be

done

Requirements

Service Delivery

How do we put these roles in to practice?

Objectives

Commitment

Capability

Measurement and Improvement

There are also often many issues in the interaction and role allocations between In house It and the business

Outsourcer “IT”

In house IT “IS”

Business Process Owner

This time Next time?

thanks ...