The perfect match
One of the biggest paradoxes in the outsourcing industry is that it is impossible to find the right match. There is an overwhelming number of providers worldwide, so how to find the perfect match when you want to find the partner that suite your needs?
Well, at the moment there is no answer to this fundamental request, and all in the need of outsourcing to be made is in the limbo.
The Customer dilemma
Be aware of your outsourcing needs
As a customer you have many needs to be fulfilled:
- Skilled people
- Price
- Technology
- Location
- Innovation skills
- Certifications
- IP protection
- Business model
- Language skills
- Scalability
- Infrastructure
- Opt-out possibility
- Multi-sourcing
- “Chemistry”
Well, the list can be endless, but non of the parameters and importance of each parameter are known better then by the customer.
Search and selection
When all the needs are known it is time to find your outsourcing partner, and you can:
- Ask internal in your organisation
- Ask your network for advice
- Make use of professional advisers
- Make use of national organisations
- Try to “copy/paste” a success story
- Google the marked for potential provider candidates
- Give in for ‘cold calls’ or aggressive marketing and give it a try
With respect for all kind of service providers and advisers in the arena, you know it from the beginning – you will never find the perfect match with today methods.
Customer dilemma
Having been in the outsourcing industry for more then 17 years, tried the customer-, provider-, advisor- and consultant-role with different success rates, I have realised that one of the most important criteria for success is the search & selection part of the process.
The customer dilemma is that potentially 10.000+ global providers could be your new partner, 1000+ fulfill 50% of your criteria, 100+ fulfill 75% of your criteria, 10+ could be a very good 90% match and from these 10+ you could find 5 equally good providers that “on paper” fulfill 100% of your criteria and would be worthwhile approaching for a final selection.
With the common search & selection methods used today, your qualification list maybe start with 50 potential providers capable of handling 50% of your criteria, 5 fulfill 75% of your criteria, and if you are lucky you finally end up with 1 provider that fulfill 80% of your criteria.
This is in my opinion a huge compromise that totally undermine the benefits and potential of outsourcing. As a leader you would never ever choose your dream team internal in your organisation in this manner with these odds for success.
Provider dilemma
You maybe start as IT provider with a handful of very technically skilled colleagues based on a single customer with a specific need that you can fulfill 100%. You grow your company organic within your field of expertise until you have 25 employees. You find out that you can’t grow and secure your business without trying to find potential customers with needs outside your field of expertise. Suddenly your organisation counts 50 employees, you struggle keeping up with the organisation challenges. You find out that you can’t expand/secure your business without dedicated sales personnel, marketing, etc. that can findassignments within your field of expertise. If you are lucky you reach 100 employees without making fatal compromises.
If you proceed expanding beyond 100 employees you enter a complete other ballgame where cool business require that you have to make compromises on a technical and professional level. 100% customer satisfaction is no longer top priority, the competition “require” that you approach potential customers with ‘cold calls’, and the marketing department “require” that you marketing material and website get just as slick as a multinational company site. In the very end you even open International sales and development branches that can attract different national markets.
The provider dilemma is that it is impossible with the current global business environment to grow and secure your company in the way you initially intended, where high customer satisfaction and fun working within your field of expertise were the driving parameters.
Adviser dilemma
Even though you long time ago came to the same conclusion as I about the importance of 100% matches, the lack of other search & selection methods then the present available let you make compromises when you advise your customers about outsourcing partnerships.
Yes, you probably did your best with your knowledge in the field, but in time you also see your customers fail due to your advise. What went wrong? Was it you, the customer or the provider that failed? Probably all parties, but mostly due to the lack of sufficient knowledge about the possibilities of a 100% match in the global marked.
Local freelance consultant dilemma
You probably start as a full time employee participating in one or more outsourcing assignments. You gain your knowledge by trial and error or hopefully by learning from previous projects and senior colleagues. Maybe you are even stationed abroad and learn from this experience.
If you find yourself in the situation where your are acknowledgedfor your skills mediating between customer and provider, mediating between personnel across boarders, love the challenge leading the first projects to success – You may find it attractive to deliver your service as a freelance consultant.
Your dilemma as outsourcing consultant is you ability to marketing yourself and find the intermediate assignments where your knowledge and experience is needed in a short period of time, often from 2 -12 month.
Time for a paradigm shift
Wouldn’t it be nice to have a B2B Web-portal where all global outsourcing participants could gain from working on the same goal: Finding the perfect match?
The customer would be able to make a complete global search and selection, finding the provider, adviser and consultant based on the actual needs, based on facts, no marketing gimmicks, no ‘cold calls’.
The Provider could display its real capability based on actual facts, field of expertise and continue the path and visions the company was established on. It is a common known fact that two or more specialised shops on “the same street” all gain from a common location and attracts more customers then a single shop would ever be able to. Every customer have different needs, including the service your organisation can provide.
The Adviser would get data available to make qualified advise.
The local outsourcing consultant could display his/her capability and ensure an ongoing stream of interim jobs.
The answer
In the spring 2015 the B2B Outsourcing portal – Resiport – is launched in a Beta version.
If you or your company would like to participate in the Beta program and have influence on the final details or request enhancements you are more then welcome. Please sign-up by ‘following’ the Resiport company page on LinkedIn and you will be contacted asap.
In any case you are welcome to “spread the word“: Someone is “shaking” the IT outsourcing industry