The Client, at the forefront of the industry, has entrusted us with the renewal and the management of one of their core systems for its operation. This project will involve modernizing the interface, optimizing efficiency, achieving seamless operations and moving it to a cloud-based service to provide enhanced performance for the Client. 

This partnership is a testament to our expertise and the trust we have earned in the industry. Together with the Client, we will strategize and implement solutions that maximize the benefits and outcomes of this collaboration. 
We look forward to the journey ahead and are confident that this project will not only strengthen our partnership with the Client but also elevate our standing in the industry.

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In our experience, one of the key success factors that make a BOT undertaking successful for the Client is that the new Partner is fully integrated with the Client company, its values, company culture and ways of working. Another requirement is the steady and controlled transition back to the Client which includes continuous training and support to ensure a successful handover once the time comes.

During the Build phase it is imperative to get it right from the start, hence you would be looking for a Partner that makes a good fit with your company culture as you want them closely integrated with your company from the start. Depending on the scenario, you might want the Partner to work from your location or set up a new office. Furthermore, you probably have requirements on staffing, partner resources as well as ramp-up times to be operational and deliver on set requirements. In either case, please consider from start what SLAs and KPIs that are relevant for your organization to measure against depending on scenario and make sure to contract these from start.

While during the Operate phase, you want your Partner to manage the operations as smooth as possible while at the same time documenting all processes and ways of working, support with recruitment of your new staff and make sure everyone is well trained in the new processes. Again, getting the right SLAs and KPIs in place along with a solid Governance structure with your Partner will be crucial for the success of this phase.

When it comes time to Transfer back the services to the Client, please consider having the team closely integrated with the Client organization form start will facilitate the transfer phase considerably with regards to company culture, value alignment etc. HR plays an important part here of course and so does finding mechanisms and making sure that the team stays on also after transition (retention KPIs etc.). This stage is often done in phases to limit business disruption and where you want your Partner to stay on and gradually be phased out while providing coaching and support as needed throughout this phase.

A key to every successful service delivery is expectation management and in this case through well-defined and measurable SLAs and KPIs for each phase of the BOT-undertaking. Equally, a well-defined Governance structure and transparent communication will set the foundation for a well working partnership together. Because, after all, a BOT-undertaking is a close cooperation with a Partner that will become an integrated part of your business.

So, to answer the question, To BOT or not to BOT? – Of course, it’s a great way to reach a wanted result or outcome quickly while building up your own capability in parallel. However, make sure you have all the angles covered. Checker Consulting has a long and well proven experience in both guiding our Clients as well as setting up and implementing BOT-arrangements ourselves. Please reach out to us for a discussion on how we can support you in the best way to make your BOT project a success!

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Sometimes, even the simplest spare part can halt your operations, costing your company significant amounts in lost revenue while waiting for the spare to be returned and replaced again – a process that in some case can take considerable time if spares are not immediately available and need to be sent to a maintenance partner with stock levels and back again. What can be done to resolve such costly situations?

By applying Lean methodology, we conducted several workshops with key stakeholders across the organization and mapped, from their different perspectives, each step and interaction it took for the spare part in question to be sent to the maintenance partner and back again. For each step of the way we mapped all stakeholders involved in the current process, what actions were taken and by whom before proceeding to the next step. For each interaction we also flagged if this was considered a waste in the process and needed change to be more efficient. 

At the end of these workshops we had identified 66 different waste items in the current process. By applying a fishbone diagram, we categorized the waste items identified in different areas and later prioritized these based on ease of implementation and impact on business. Based on this prioritization, we were able to agree on different waves of action to focus on when starting to change the current process in order to eliminate the waste we had identified.

It is often a difficult task to implement a change and takes time to realize. Often it also has to be done together with your Partner to make the change happen. However, it is well worth the effort as at the end of this exercise, you stand stronger with a much leaner process with less waste/high efficiency and with direct impact on your bottom line. 

Checker Consulting has the experience to facilitate you through this process and help your company to achieve the WE factor that you need for your business. Please contact us to learn more!

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• By first asking the right questions and in the right order!

It is easy to get ahead of yourself, starting to look at the solution up front, deciding on what that should be addressed, by whom, already having a clear picture on how it should be done and from where, instead of first asking and understanding the main question first; the Why.

• Why are we doing this, what are our objectives and the desired business outcome that we want to achieve? What change and improvement are we expecting by pursuing this initiative? 

Having answered this fundamental question first, will set the scene for all other activities and decisions that need to be taken to build up to a well formulated strategy and increasing the chances of a successful project. 

Once the Why is well defined and agreed upon, the next step in the process is to answer the following questions in the specific order:

• What would need to change (services, products, processes etc.) to get us to our wanted position and desired outcome? Hence, a direct consequence of the Why. Using a matrix approach you can more easily map your processes and services in terms of level of internal competence and competitiveness and get a good understanding of what is core for your business and what is not and subsequently, which area, process or service that need to change. 

• Who is best equipped to make this happen and deliver our wanted results, thus whoshould perform this task going forward? Could be both internal or external resources, or a combination of both options. Based on the What-analysis and applying the same approach in terms of level of internal competence and competitiveness, will give you guidance on Who is best equipped to perform the service or process going forward.

• How should this be done – what is the best delivery model (customized or standardized) and the right approach, based on the value it delivers and its direct impact on business objectives, i.e. in order to support the Why?

• Where is the optimal location of resources to deliver the new services – domestic or non-domestic (near-shore or (captive) off-shore) and the source of the resources (internal or external resources) used, or a combination of the  above options. Again, using a matrix approach and plot out each service/process will give you a good guidance on the wanted approach.

These questions are all tightly connected and influenced by each other, thus should be answered in this specific order to ensure a solid strategy.

As a result of this exercise, you will end up with a multi-sourcing scenario with different approaches for different services and processes, thus there is no one common solution for all.

We at Checker Consultingcan take you through this process of strategy formulation in a structed step-by-step approach in a workshop format. Please contact us for further discussion and how we can assist you in your strategy formulation and making the right investment decisions.

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So, let’s follow John McEnroe’s example and try to get it right from the start:

“Answer the question. The question, Jerk!” (John McEnroe, Swedish Open, 1984)

The post Let’s call it RightSourcing! appeared first on Checker Consulting.

More and more companies are striving towards an increased focus on their core business process to cater for a financially stronger organization and company over time. The initial business process being outsourced was related to sub-processes far from strategic and tactical process. Today, every business process is in scope to be challenged based on value produced in comparison to cost levels and performance.

Within the outsourcing (contracted IT-services) area we have seen a dramatic increase in the market with clear trends where companies also partly or full outsource their IT-services. Examples are:

• Managed Services as Managed Client, Service Desk, Infrastructure, Network.
• The application stack moving rapidly to cloud from on-prem.
• Digitalization of internal processes adding more applications, IT-services performed by external parties and suppliers.

In the transformation it is important to ensure to have the right processes, tools, RACIE, job descriptions and templates to manage the internal as well as the external relationship.

Values

In the transformation we ensure to train and educate all involved parties in the agreed ways of working, ensuring the use of the agreed processes, methods, tools, RACIE’s etc. It is important for us that our clients are self-sufficient once the transformation is completed and do not have to rely on us.

We believe that the best way of learning and implementing new ways of working are done through hands-on work. We guide, support and show our customers how the work should be done, and we repeat this in several different outsourcing waves.

As a benefit from driving this transformation will provide you as our client with a substantial amount of reduced costs and increased internal performance.

Driving change takes time and one should be prepared for a long-term change management agenda running over 12-36 months depending on the size of the organization in mind.

Customer case

Client had a distributed purchasing organization and had decided to centralize the strategic purchasing into a group function supporting the group. Local purchasing would remain in the different countries but under the management of the group purchasing function. 

The corporate IT-department did not receive the adequate support from IT-purchasing, old “services# remained and the customer had and out-dated service portfolio and a costly and not a proactive supplier base.

The cooperation and the trust between the two functions had to be restored and built up from the ground. Common practices and processes was developed / enhanced where roles and responsibilities needed to be anchored and documented clarifying how the cooperation would look in the future state.

Competence review and analysis to ensure the right skills and competence in the IT-purchasing organization to support a modern and forward leaning procurement function.

The project was challenged by deliver tangible savings of MSEK 300 using the different sourcing initiatives and waves. These sourcing waves was used to implement the processes and ways of working between IT and IT-purchasing.

Target set to over a period of three (3) years have established the new ways of working and the tangible savings where all purchases should be fact based and under competition.

The project was divided in four main phases:

Targets and objectives was achieved and the monetary target was achieved with 100% more savings than anticipated through structured and implemented governance of the initiative.

This truly shows the importance and value of a solid and tight cooperation between IT and IT-purchasing where the cooperation rests on documented and agreed processes, ways of working, governance structure and knowing who does what and when. 

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Background
Client, a Software as a Service company faced the challenge with increasing costs and expenses following the turbulence in the market and the inflation in Sweden resulting in heavily impacting the bottom-line result. The Client had traditionally operated with a focus on cutting-edge technology, often resulting in higher operational expenses. As market dynamics evolved and competition intensified, the need for a leaner and meaner cost structure became apparent without compromising innovation and quality.

Checker Consulting and the Client embarked on a journey to identify and implement a cost-saving opportunity that would, not only enhance efficiency, but also contribute to long-term sustainability.

Solution
Checker Consulting initiated a comprehensive review of the company’s external spend, involving input from various departments. Through spend analysis by reviewing and classifying all expenses by spend category along with ranking these categories by their business impact (strategic vs. routine), level of difficulty (complex/high risk vs. low risk/less complicated), value improvement potential (low vs. high savings potential), time and speed to complete.

One of the high priority areas was review and consolidate the cloud-based infrastructure in order to receive most potential impact. Following the review of the spend, a more thorough due diligence is required for the prioritized areas. This involved data mining and information gathering i.e., a complete understanding of annual and monthly volumes, specifications, requirements etc.

Once the data review, value analysis, internal interviews, market analysis were completed, the strategy was developed for the RFP (including negotiation, selection and awarding)

Results

The impact of the cost-saving initiative was felt across the organization, leading to remarkable results, with a total saving of 26% (through cost avoidance and cost reduction) of the cloud-infrastructure.

Cost Reduction: The migration of the various cloud providers to a one partner resulted in substantial savings in prices and optimization to a leaner cost structure.

Client went from showing red numbers in the income statement to black number by engaging Checker Consulting in this turnaround.

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