Commercial trust in strategic supplier relationships concerns the way ‘on-the-ground’ behaviours impact the confidence parties have in one another. Essentially, doing what you say you’ll do, when you say you’ll do it, is a positive starting point for relationship building.…

The South East Lincolnshire Councils Shared Services Partnership is stated to be a “ground breaking”, “bold and ambitious” new alliance between the Boston, East Lindsey and South Holland councils – the largest collaborative local authority relationship of its kind in…

Articles on the subject of a successful outsourcing partnership tend to deal with the timeline in segments – some will talk about essentials at the inception stage, while others will wax lyrical about ways to keep your supplier on your…

Strategic partnership relationships are inherently complex entities. At their outset, you will inevitably know less about one another than six to twelve months later. However, at the outset you are expected to develop a roadmap in the form of a…

A consortium led by the UK government and Indian conglomerate Bharti Global has won the right to buy ailing satellite business OneWeb (subject to approval from the company’s creditors, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court and regulatory approval) for USD$1bn. The UK’s…

We’ve been contacted by many clients concerned about the financial stability of their key strategic suppliers. With the ongoing COVID-19 crisis impacting businesses on a truly global scale, it is an unfortunate fact that some may not survive the commercial…

Environmental concerns have been high on the political agenda for a number of years, so when Britain’s number one energy-from-waste business, Viridor Waste Management – a subsidiary of the FTSE 250 environmental utility infrastructure company Pennon Group PLC – is…

In our recent blog ‘Roadmap to More Successful Strategic Outsourcing Relationships’, we discussed a top-level view of the steps any organisation should take to improve their chances of project success when working with outsourced partners, then pointed to our white…

Benjamin Franklin is famously quoted as saying “… nothing is certain except death and taxes”. I would go so far as to add one more to that list: ‘change’. While resisted by many, feared by others, and exploited by some,…

It’s not unusual for senior management teams to be unaware of the significant value their supplier management and Intelligent Client Function (ICF) teams create for their organisations. And, because this value can often go unnoticed, those at the coalface can…

Problems can arise at any point within a major strategic partner service delivery relationship. Life with a strategic partner is very much like a marriage – after the first year or so, when the honeymoon period has become but a happy…

Tens of millions of pounds were spent by the NHS on a new system to centralise GP data, known as the General Practice Extraction Service (GPES). However, a furore followed the project’s conclusion because the service was found to have…

If your outsourcer’s shares had taken quite a beating, with the company’s value dropping by a quarter or more over a matter of days, you might be encouraged to start asking questions of those in the know as to whether…

It has never been more important to ensure that your complex service delivery (outsourcing) relationships succeed. But how can this be achieved in an environment where it seems so commonplace that external service providers fail to achieve expected business outcomes.…

Service integration and management (SIAM) has continued to be something of a buzz-acronym in managed service and outsourcing circles. The way it’s talked about, you might be forgiven for thinking that it’s a silver bullet which in one fell swoop…

In our last article ‘4 Lessons from successful IT megaprojects’,we reviewed a number of the country’s largest and most renowned recent IT megaproject success stories in the context of what each could teach us from their struggles and accomplishments. This…

Megaprojects are large-scale public ventures, complex in nature, often taking many years to complete with the potential to impact on the lives of millions of people – they are projects on a scale that demands a very different management skillset,…

In recent years we have recognised that there has been a marked shift in the way UK supplier managers have been interacting with their provider partners. Where in the past those looking to outsource may have been more focused on…

If you were offered an opportunity to save your council tens of millions of pounds you might be tempted. The question is, what time and resources would you invest into scrutinising the shared services deal? How much due diligence would…

In the face of growing perceived threats to security and defence the e-Borders project was conceived to “create a joined-up modernised intelligence-led border control and security framework” tracking passengers as they travelled to our shores by air, rail or sea,…

2015 was a tumultuous year for the outsourcing industry. Somerset Council finally decided to end the remaining elements of their ten-year contract with strategic partner Southwest One, two years early. Cornwall Council won their case against BT to terminate their…

Far too many outsourced relationships fail to achieve the expectations of at least one of the parties involved in the process. And, no doubt, this was a driver behind the creation of the first International Standard for outsourcing – ISO…

For some, IT project partners, vendors and suppliers can be a source of pain. Some IT Project Managers may even be on the brink, considering a partnership termination. But, as some will attest, termination is time-consuming, costly and bitter; where…

It’s hard not to be susceptible to good marketing, but when it comes to bringing in someone who claims to be an ‘expert’, they need to be serious about their claims. Why? Because by representing themselves as an expert who…

To get your project back on track, clear communication with your vendor is critical. Following the key steps below will help to ensure that both sides are clear about your expectations, that the system will be fit for purpose once…

If you’re looking into re-aligning your IT project, you may find it hard to figure out where to begin. To help, we’ve charted 6 steps below, which if you follow in the right manner will help you to get your…

Understanding how your IT project got off track will help you to realign your project and relationship; helping to deliver more value. The chances are, both you and your vendor contributed to the issues, but don’t take it to heart…

The complexity of strategic partnerships can be such that when one side finds itself unable to deliver on expected milestones, even the most minor concerns have the capacity to snowball into project-threatening issues if left unchecked. Don’t remain in the…

It is notoriously difficult to get visibility of the quantified value transformational outsourcing agreements are (or are not) providing.. By their very nature these agreements are complex, as is the management of the relationships that must be formed to ensure…