Day: August 18, 2021

For most organizations, jumping on the outsourcing-governance-bandwagon is the most obvious business decision for improving productivity and the value of their contingent workforce. Plus, it is seemingly the most cost-effective way to get the maximum value from operations—depending on how well it is governed, of course. There is a right and wrong way to deploy a vendor management model, so how do you avoid the pitfalls?  

Ask yourself these five questions to reduce any and all risk involved in getting value from your service provider.

1. Is there sufficient visibility in your operations?

Simply put, if you don’t know what is transpiring at the vendor’s end, you will have no control over your own operations. Unless you are fully on board with every single initiative and aspect of the work, you will have no real insight into how things are progressing and will not be able to predict the outcome of the engagement, be it financial or delivery.

2. Are your vendor’s goals aligned with yours?

Have you and your vendor agreed upon your priorities? Something that is highly critical for you might be less of a priority for the vendor. More often than not, this leads to a difference in expectations of the outcome, possibly creating friction between the two teams. 

3. Have you established Standard Benchmarks?

Uniform benchmarks mean you have established SoPs, making it so much easier to evaluate your vendor teams and thus drive change when needed. With standard benchmarks, you are empowered with the knowledge that helps you negotiate and course-correct before issues escalate.

4. Is your vendor management team properly staffed?

An inefficient vendor management process can potentially lead to overstaffing. This results in the vendor team wasting time collecting and making reports when in actuality, an automatic system can do the job much better. Instead, direct this time and effort at meaningful tasks, ultimately leading to actionable insights and enhanced performance.

5. Is accountability established?

Unless accountability is clearly established, unfulfilled goals and missed deadlines can lead to a blame game. At the end of the day, implementing scientific and automated ways of creating service levels will put you in control of your precise goals. Watch your project flourish once every member of the vendor’s team knows their role and acts accordingly.