Managing Your Outsourced IT Services Provider : How to Unleash the Full Potential of Your Global Workforce

__Managing Your Outsourced IT Services Provider__ teaches executives and managers of organizations how to unleash the full potential of their outsourced IT services workforce and IT-enabled business processes safely and profitably. Drawing on two decades of experience managing client relationships for global IT services companies, Venkatesh Upadrista guides outsourcing organizations around the hazards of geographic distance, linguistic miscommunication, organizational mismatch, and functional disparity between receiver requirements and provider capabilities. The first half of the book describes what an outsourcing organization needs to know about the IT services providers industry in general to deal intelligently with specific providers: namely, the industry’s organizational types, strategic drivers, competitive labor market constraints, and tactics for hitting P&L targets. The second half of the book teaches outsourcers how to evaluate prospective providers, craft service level agreements, formalize best practices, and manage the full gamut of receiver─provider relationships to optimize outcome in terms of cost, timeliness, and quality of services received. The descriptions and prescriptions in __Managing Your Outsourced IT Services Provider__ apply equally to onshore and offshore outsourcing, but examples and case studies focus on offshoring. In addition, Upadrista analyzes the advantages, disadvantages, and special considerations and caveats of single provider outsourcing and captive centers. Managing Your Outsourced IT Services Provider teaches executives and managers of organizations how to unleash the full potential of their outsourced IT services workforce and IT-enabled business processes safely and profitably. Drawing on two decades of experience managing client relationships for global IT services companies, Venkatesh Upadrista guides outsourcing organizations around the hazards of geographic distance, linguistic miscommunication, organizational mismatch, and functional disparity between receiver requirements and provider capabilities. The first half of the book describes what an outsourcing organization needs to know about the IT services providers industry in general to deal intelligently with specific providers: namely, the industry's organizational types, strategic drivers, competitive labor market constraints, and tactics for hitting P & L targets. The second half of the book teaches outsourcers how to evaluate prospective providers, craft service level agreements, formalize best practices, and manage the full gamut of receiver-provider relationships to optimize outcome in terms of cost, timeliness, and quality of services received. The descriptions and prescriptions in Managing Your Outsourced IT Services Provider apply equally to onshore and offshore outsourcing, but examples and case studies focus on offshoring. In addition, Upadrista analyzes the advantages, disadvantages, and special considerations and caveats of single provider outsourcing and captive centers.-- Provided by publisher Managing Your Outsourced IT Services Provider teaches executives and managers of organizations how to unleash the full potential of their outsourced IT services workforce and IT-enabled business processes safely and profitably. Drawing on two decades of experience managing client relationships for global IT services companies, Venkatesh Upadrista guides outsourcing organizations around the hazards of geographic distance, linguistic miscommunication, organizational mismatch, and functional disparity between receiver requirements and provider capabilities. The first half of the book describes what an outsourcing organization needs to know about the IT services providers industry in general to deal intelligently with specific providers: namely, the industry's organizational types, strategic drivers, competitive labor market constraints, and tactics for hitting PetL targets. The second half of the book teaches outsourcers how to evaluate prospective providers, craft service level agreements, formalize best practices, and manage the full gamut of receiver-provider relationships to optimize outcome in terms of cost, timeliness, and quality of services received. The descriptions and prescriptions in Managing Your Outsourced IT Services Provider apply equally to onshore and offshore outsourcing, but examples and case studies focus on offshoring. In addition, Upadrista analyzes the advantages, disadvantages, and special considerations and caveats of single provider outsourcing and captive centers Front Matter....Pages i-xii Front Matter....Pages 1-1 The Organization of IT Service Providers....Pages 3-19 The Profit-and-Loss Constraints on IT Services Provider Organizations....Pages 21-32 IT Service Provider Organizations’ Tactics and Tricks for Hitting P&L Targets....Pages 33-41 The Operational Parameters of IT Service Providers....Pages 43-51 Front Matter....Pages 53-53 The Organization of IT Service Receivers....Pages 55-62 Selecting Your IT Service Provider....Pages 63-69 Understanding Your IT Service Provider....Pages 71-75 Mapping and Managing Your Service Providers....Pages 77-98 Captive Center Management....Pages 99-110 Exit-Plan Testing....Pages 111-120 Opting for a Single IT Service Provider....Pages 121-131 Back Matter....Pages 133-136 Tier-3 IT SROCaptive Centers; The Rationale for Outsourcing; The Role of Governance in the Collaboration between IT Service Providers and Receivers; Key Points; Chapter 6: Selecting Your IT Service Provider; The Right Service Provider for Your Business; Assessing a Provider's Flexibility and Innovative Capability; Matching Provider Offerings with Receiver Goals; Evaluating a Provider's Financial Stability; Discovering a Provider's Employee Attrition Rate; Detailing a Provider's Access to Skills and Human Resources; Conclusions; Key Points; Chapter 7: Understanding Your IT Service Provider The Strategy Changes, but the Structure Does NotKey Points; Chapter 2: The Profit-and-Loss Constraints on IT Services Provider Organizations; The Top Line; The Bottom Line; Direct Costs; Indirect Costs; IT SPO Accountability for the Top and Bottom Lines; Group CEO; Sales Force; Delivery Team / Delivery Management; Vertical and Sub-vertical Head; Practice Head; Regional Head; Practice Solution Team; Practice Delivery Team; Support Group CEO; Function Lead; Differentiators among IT SPOs; Key Points; Chapter 3: IT Service Provider Organizations' Tactics and Tricks for Hitting P & L Targets Know Your IT Service ProviderGovernance Structure and Personnel; Horizontals and Services; Center of Excellence; Market Intelligence and Trends; Interpreting Company Results; Key Points; Chapter 8: Mapping and Managing Your Service Providers; Managing Your Service Provider; Networking; Organization Entity Awareness; Optimizing Outcomes in Terms of Cost, Schedule, and Quality Variables; Human Resource Management; Managing Attrition and Targets; Innovation Targets; Pricing Models: Fixed Price vs. Time and Materials vs. Staff Augmentation; In-House Knowledge Retention; Pyramid Management Top LineBottom Line; Contribution Margins: an Enabler for Profitability; Tricks for Improving the Bottom Line; Key Points; Chapter 4: The Operational Parameters of IT Service Providers; Performance Management of Human Capital; Competitive Positioning and Accommodation of Client Requirements; Working Modalities between IT Service Providers and Receivers; Attrition; Productivity; Key Points; PART II: Unleashing the Full Potential of Your IT Service Providers; Chapter 5: The Organization of IT Service Receivers; Classifying IT Service Receiver Organizations; Tier-1 IT SRO; Tier-2 IT SRO