Your Service Delivery Managers – Expected to be experts in everything!

By Cynthia Batty, Global Competency Lead, Service Management, TPI

Most of my clients have built their new service management and governance organizations using the people who were in the lead roles before the outsourcing. There are good reasons for doing this: these are the people who understand the business process, technology, and needs of the business, and generally are the people who helped to develop the services statements of work and evaluate the service providers. Who better to manage the service provider than this team?

However, managing service providers is a very different type of work than managing in-house employees. Working through a third party requires a different skillset; the people in this role need to be good managers, achieve results through influence, understand contracts and how to turn contractual language into results for their business stakeholders, how and when to negotiate with service providers – in a firm but fair manner, support and palliate internal stakeholders, and still, with all this, understand the services for which they are responsible and accountable. I often tell my client’s service delivery managers that they have the hardest job in the company!

TPI’s research has shown some clear issues in this area:

• Of clients’ staff initially assigned to manage an outsourcing transaction, 60% had no prior experience with outsourcing
• 40% of clients surveyed said they did not provide any initial training for the team assigned to manage the agreement
• Only 20% of clients surveyed feel they provide enough training for their staff

So, if the individuals in the jobs before the outsourcing have no prior experience, and have not had any training to help them understand this new world, is it any wonder that there are challenges in the sourcing engagement? And we continue to find that well into the sourcing delivery lifecycle there are often gaps in skills and knowledge on the client side that are contributors to less than excellent service delivery.

Learning about managing third parties doing your work is a long-term activity; it takes consistent and conscious application. At any point in the sourcing lifecycle it makes sense to step back and look again at the skills and capabilities of the service delivery team. We help clients frequently at this point in time, to continue maturing their skills.

Are you having this experience? How does it manifest for you? What are you doing to ensure that your service delivery team continues to grow and mature? What do you find is getting in the way of this maturing process? I’m very interested in hearing from you.

Comments

[Anupam Tantri]

Cynthia:

You are absolutely right that managing service providers is a very different type of work than managing internal employees; it's an art and not a science. Over time, you can take this art and make it into a science by continuously applying the principles you have highlighted. As a recent outsourcing leader for a Fortune 50 company, I would always say that managing a outsourcing relationship is like managing a banking relationship. Like a banker who needs to be an advocate for the borrower and the investor; the leader of the Governance team and the Governance team itself needs to be an advocate for the outsourcer and the ultimate end customer. Even in the most complex of the organizations that are highly decentralized and autonomous (and mine was certainly one), outsourcing can definitely work. It requires dedication, perseverance, a focus on operational excellence and last but not the least faith and mutual trust in the extended team, which includes the outsourcer. Both the teams - the outsourcer and the Governance team - have to recognize that while they may be working for different masters, they have one common end customer that they serve. A final thought that I would always tell my internal customers is that the company may have outsourced the work; however, it has not outsourced its responsibilities. So as the leader of the Governance team, I still had the final and ultimate responsibility for the services. By applying the key elements of "Trust, Confidence and Credibility", in a collaborative fashion, you can definitely make a tough relationship into a professionally rewarding one.

If your readers would like to learn more from my experiences, they are free to contact me via email.

Anupam Tantri

[Chris Gallivan]

Cynthia,
I agree with Anupam's comments about governance being an advocate for both the service provider as well as the end customer. In order for governance to be effective, the most important issue I see (more important that experience or training) is having the necessary level of internal authority. It is difficult to maintain a relationship of trust with a service provider if governance cannot hold up their end of the bargain.

[Cynthia Batty]

Chris, I couldn't agree more. But advocating for the Service Provider is one of the things that puts the Service Delivery Manager and Governance team members into the complex corporate and interpersonal relationships that I have described. The problems and challenges between IT and the business stakeholders don't change just because a third party is performing the work - but it makes it a lot easier for the business stakeholders to take shots, often unjustified, and damaging to the relationship. Governance team members on the client side can be seen as "protecting the Service Provider" which is unfair and inaccurate. A fair and balanced management approach is essential - and the Service Delivery Manager often has to walk that line between the two, and try to make them both happy. As I noted above, it's the hardest job in the company. Thanks for the dialog, Chris and Anupam!

[Deepti Rajkumar]

Hi Cynthia,

Needed your expert advise. I am applying for a Client Service Administrator role. I have been called for the interview next week. This role is with in my company and is the first time i will be handling such a role. This role looks to be very demanding in nature. Can you give my some tips on how i can prepare my self for my interview. What questions i can expect? Also things i should know begin a client service administrator shoes. Thanks

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