Offshore Outsourcing Vendor Governance Organizations
Does Your Offshore Outsourcing Governance Organization Design Support Your Organizational Objectives? So, I’ve definitely been stirring the pot over the last few weeks. I’ve exposed the errors in the much celebrated Black Book of Outsourcing, shown that the business of outsourcing certification is big business, and explained why vendor management organizations are a bad idea. This much skepticism could be a bit karmically unhealthy,... [Read More...]
Another Tale from “When You Don’t Have Vendor Management Governance”
As related to us by a reader. Picture this: Your company has outsourced customer service for some products, but not all products. You have a single vendor with over 1,000 seats dedicated to your operation. These seats are located in several centers located in the USA (for reasons not important to this story). Your vendor management team is made-up of a single person. This person coordinates five different programs, handles contractual issues,... [Read More...]
In the Absence of Outsoucing Governance or Vendor Management
A funny story told to us by an employee of a major US company (which we’ll call XYZ) with thousands of outsourced call center seats (domestic and international): XYZ has two call center programs. One is a major inbound customer service program and the other is a small (about 45 agents) complex inbound/outbound marketing programs that focus on driving customer loyalty and create a significant revenue lift. XYZ’s marketing and customer... [Read More...]
The Philippine Outsourcing Dilemma
The Philippines has been an outstanding outsourcing location over recent years. It has an American heritage with close proximity to Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan. There is a reasonably robust telecommunications infrastructure and there has been extensive capital infusions from China and many other countries. For foreigners, travel and accommodations in the Philippines is easy. Probably the most impressive opportunity is the... [Read More...]
Poll: How did you learn to be an effective vendor manager?
Vendor management is not a traditional discipline, like project management, software development, or operations management. Take a moment to share how you learned to be an effective vendor manager in this poll: Have incentives (bonuses for certain performance targets or milestones) in your vendor contracts improved vendor performance? Yes No My vendor contracts do not have incentives. Loading ... Read More →
Vendor Managers Can Satisfy Internal Stakeholders
Before outsourcing, internal operations teams usually spend significant effort appeasing senior management by explaining every reason why deviations from performance were outside their control. Marketing launched a new campaign. IT’s servers were slow. The telecommunication vendor’s T1 was hit by a backhoe. The competitor launched a misleading campaign. The weather shutdown deliveries in Chicago. Well, have you noticed the change in... [Read More...]
Managing an Outsourcing Vendor’s Financial Instability
One of the principle concerns of any vendor manager is monitoring your outsourcing vendor’s financial instability. Witness the recent failure of Axium, Hollywood’s payroll vendor and owner of Ensemble Chimes Global, previously one of the leading managed services providers of contract labor. When Axium filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy, Hollywood clients and a wide variety of their vendor management system clients (which included Fortune #3... [Read More...]
Good Vendor Managers: A Scarce Commodity
Earlier this week we posted an article describing vendor management job descriptions. Yesterday day, Tim Minaham’s article on the Supply Management Talent Crunch led us to reflect on the “talent crunch” also facing vendor management. Let’s face it – good vendor managers are hard to find. Why? The positions require deep operations experience. The positions require great relationship-building and alignment-building... [Read More...]
Vendor Management Job Descriptions
Job descriptions are difficult enough to write when roles are clearly defined. The ambiguity of vendor management organizations and the fuzzy lines that separate them from procurement, finance, project management, business analysis, and operations organizations make vendor management job descriptions many times more difficult to write. The importance of attracting and selecting the right talent to manage major outsourcing or service vendors is... [Read More...]
Onsite Vendor Management in a Global Outsourcing Environment
Operations teams have historically organized themselves very effectively around their core operations centers. Dedicated training, quality, reporting, and operations professionals were located very closely to the daily riotous call center and back office operations. With little argument, close proximity ensured clear lines of communication, close collaboration, and the ability to quickly bring the right talent to daily operations issues. As Phil... [Read More...]
