The benefits of outsourcing traditionally have been described in financial terms. With progress, however, cost reduction benefits have become ‘table stakes’ as even more significant advantages are realized from outsourcing partnerships. Leading organizations have discovered that in addition to cost benefits, outsourcing presents an opportunity to improve the level of service.
Dresser Industries was looking for an outsourcer who could maintain the customer-sensitive spirit the company’s computer services team had established. As Dresser began the process of documenting its existing services and service-level requirements, it was clear that there were several key objectives beyond the basic specifications.
When Halliburton decided to outsource its benefits administration, one of the objectives was to improve the level of employee satisfaction with the benefits administration process. In addition, best practices would be sought in each area of operation.
In information services, it’s easy for executives to throw away money buying technology for the sake of technology. What the client needs to understand is how those technological benchmarks equate to business benefits — and that means looking beyond the easy-to-measure, quantitative service levels to the customers’ perceptions of the service being delivered.
For many organizations, measuring the performance of the information systems divisions is a frustrating exercise. The problem centers around confusion over what should be measured and how, as well as uncertainty over how to define value.
Negotiating Effective Service Level Agreements (SLAs) (continued): SLAs are now part of outsourcing’s alphabet soup. In recent years, outsourcing consultants and lawyers have heavily emphasized the importance of including SLAs in contracts. That trend comes from experience gained when many customers learned that they had little ability to influence the outsourcer’s performance without an SLA.
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