Linda Cohen & Allie Young

13 Dic Linda Cohen & Allie Young

Experts on Multisourcing, a new operational approach that obtains business services from multiple sources inside and outside corporate walls not just to cut costs or gain efficiencies, but to maximize growth, agility, and bottom-line results.

Linda Cohen & Allie Young

Linda Cohen, vice president in Gartner Research where she leads the strategic sourcing practice, has co-authored Gartner‘s  new book Multisourcing Moving Beyond Outsourcing to achieve Growth and Agility (Harvard Business School Press, 2005) with fellow Gartner sourcing expert Allie Young.

This new Gartner Reseach just released at Symposium/Itxpo in Cannes, advises organisations how to begin a more disciplined approach to service processes.

Outsourcing, We have a problem

»When your CEO stops asking, ‘Should we be outsourcing this?’ and starts asking, ‘Why aren’t we offshoring this?’ or even worse, ‘What more could we outsource?’… It’s gotten to the point that it’s almost a compulsive reaction.» Says Ms Cohen.

?Chaotic and compulsive outsourcing creates as many challenges as it solves. Furthermore, in many cases, the problems are caused by the immaturity of the organisation?s sourcing practices rather than being the fault of the service provider,? adds Cohen.

Myths

The root of the problem can be traced to some myths that pervade current outsourcing management approaches:

1. The myth of service autonomy.- Many believe that each contracted service is autonomous?and one sourcing relationship has nothing to do with another. Cohen says that in today?s world, ?all of a company?s business processes and services are interrelated. We?ve created an operating environment where autonomous services simply don?t exist.?

2. The myth of self-management.- Some buyers believe that once they sign a contract the outsourcer and the contract itself will manage the service. Most organisations do not budget and plan adequately for the ongoing management of the relationship and the services that are provided.

3. The myth of the enemy.- Many organisations still view contract negotiations as a war in which there will only be one winner rather than an attempt to create a mutually profitable relationship.

4. The myth of sourcing competency.- Finally, and perhaps most painfully, many organisations believe that they have the requisite expertise to manage complex sourcing environments even when they have never done it before. ?Organisations learn too late that managing external services requires vastly different competencies than managing the same, internally provided services.? adds Cohen.

New Terrain

Cohen and Young argue that overcoming these myths and building a successful sourcing operation requires a new approach that goes beyond outsourcing as it has traditionally been viewed.

The formal definition of Multisourcing is ?the disciplined provisioning and blending of business and IT services from the optimal set of internal and external providers in the pursuit of business goals.? Getting there requires a lot of changes, says Young.

The types of deals are related to the scope of change, the relationship

 complexity and the business value expected from a service delivery relationship.

DuPont  has created a what it calls a global IT alliance that blends services from more than ten servide providers and DuPont’s own internal resources to meet the demands of the business.

Multisourcing imperative

To move beyond outsourcing to multisourcing companies need to:

Have an integrated, holistic sourcing strategy across all services.

Focus efforts on creating sourcing governance appropriate to the organisation and service needs

Remember that it?s about building a network of relationships, not just signing contracts.

Make sure that in evaluating a providers? performance, to measure and track the things that directly relate to business outcomes. (Measuring Your Multisourcing Progress).