April 25, 2005, 12:36 PM —
This executive briefing from Trestle Group Research focuses on successfully managing change during an outsourcing initiative, with an eye toward increasing productivity, satisfying customers and motivating employees.
Recipe for success: The four principles for successful outsourcing change
• Visionary leadership
• Differentiated stakeholder analysis
• Continuous and open communication
• Detailed planning and tracking
Clarity
Clarify the vision of the outsourcing initiative and its rationale. Everybody involved on both sides (outsourcing organization and service provider) needs to know how the project was initiated, who stands behind it and what the goals are.
Project sponsors have to be very clear about their outsourcing vision, the scope of each project, the details of budget, resources, milestones, governance, etc. and then need a forceful communication strategy. There are metrics and surveys to measure the clarity and the success of outsourcing communication. They look at each stakeholder group and ensure their understanding of the initiative, their commitment to it, and their readiness for action.
Visibility
Allow for as many face-to-face meetings as possible. The outsourcing project leader should regularly visit the remote delivery centers. It is hard enough to get mindshare, clarity, and commitment from people with whom we meet face to face and the difficulties multiply when the
process is located offshore.
The problem of getting attention, mindshare, clarity and commitment increases dramatically when working in a virtual team. The need for project management discipline in a virtual project set-up
cannot be overstated!
Pragmatism
The less talk about the contract, the better. Sure, you have to know your contract however, you also have to prepare your teams to respond effectively to ambiguity and today's dynamically changing environment. This implies that the contract offers important guideposts. However, if you are not able to complement it with very strong relationships on each level of the outsourcing alliance, the initiative is in trouble. Relationships have to be nurtured by ongoing, open and clear communication.
"Technical professionals" as leaders
Although normally employed for highly technical functions, due to the nature of many outsourcing projects, an increasing amount of "technical professionals" act as project leaders for outsourcing initiatives. A number of studies have illustrated that certain characteristic similarities exist among technical professionals. Often, technical professionals have less managerial experience and communication skills than marketing people, for example. They usually excel by narrowly focusing on a technical problem, concentrating solely upon the problem and worrying little about communication and management. As they suddenly become project leaders, they are faced with new challenges, requiring new skill sets.
There are numerous courses fostering management and communication skills, which target technical professionals. If there is not enough time for such a course or if you need to reinforce what may have been learned earlier, we recommend engaging a project leader coach.
2. Differentiated stakeholder analysis
