Customer Centric Outsourcing - The Mantras

"A customer is the most important visitor on our premises, he is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so" - MK Gandhi

Its the 'He is part of it' that gets me thinking all the time. How can we consciously make him part of it ? Well I guess the first step is to try and make him part of it. The article below are my views and I have the backing of the Omnicronions from the Hyxwxarth galaxy.

1) Get on board, completely, with the outsourcing bit, does not matter if it is ITeS or making shoes or masala papads. Acceptance of the need is important, its acceptance as a business purpose of strategic importance needs to be imbibed and propagated. Not convinced, don't do it.Don't understand it, ask for help. As Peter Drucker once said 'There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer', the whole process should be done keeping in mind the organisations Customer Acquisition and Retention Strategy.

2) Educating staff on what to expect and how to keep the focus on end customer satisfaction is important and every department, IT or non-IT can contribute to that. Every human has the ability to reason what he or she lacks is perception (Where is he coming from ?). Reasoning without perception is like going fast nowhere !! Everyone does not see the world through the same looking glass. Show him that , and he will have those intelligent conversations with you and you would be surprised how much more he knows and how much more he brings to the table. I asked a manager , a couple of years ago, on what are top 3 benefits he is expecting out of outsourcing his applications , he quipped 'Cost savings'. And ? I waited for a response, all I got back was a smile a shrug and 'more cost savings'. 'What does your end customer stand to gain ' I retorted, this time the shrug came without the smile. A few more questions and answers later, he started to see 'perception'. While he was an IT manager responsible for 24x7 running of certain applications, he was now talking outsourcing at a different level. Business SLAs tied to IT SLAs, keeps his end customer and more importantly the Head of Service Operations happy. The focus changed from 'cost savings' to meeting SLAs that in-turn keep customer satisfaction levels high.

3) IT SLAs and Business SLAs are disjointed in most places. While defining an IT Outsourcing strategy, it is important that this transformational exercise removes this as much as possible. Look at outsourcing as a way to change your current way of working, not move it as is. IT SLAs the way I have looked at them usually have a response time attached to it and people resolve it in a specified time. The way I look at Business SLAs and IT SLAs coming together are , if the Business SLA is to keep a Sales Channel (say online shop) running so as to allow 3000 registrations/day based on Business Intelligence trends , the IT SLAs should back that. The IT infrastructure and associated services should back that. Not have their own. And the objective should be to excel that. It is important that the partner is empowered and encouraged to make such suggestions , or it is mere abdication of what is 'your' promise to 'your' customer. Based on suggestions a cost benefit analysis needs to be carried out to review ROI. Remember, the high street has other stores, so if your system is down, your competitors are running.

4) It is important to have an 'As-Is' and a 'To-Be' model . A visual representation helps in more ways than one. You can visualise a concept, you can pick holes, review your BRP strategy based on the new model etc. However reviewing this with the CAR strategists is important. Why is that so important to the customer ? Trust. The guys who face the customer are the face of the company, it is them who answer difficult questions. How can a company that manages IT services for other companies justify to their customer, when their own organisation is outsourcing their internal services to competition ? Their own competition not even a partner. Will this not have a bearing on customer trust ? CAR strategists play an important role in deciding the right 'partner' for such deals and mitigating customer perception challenges, innovation plays an important role here. So if you do not have one, get one.

5) Run Outsourcing as a program, follow Prince2, or any project/program management methodology. Status reporting, measurement and realisation of benefits are important. These benefits are tied to customer acquisition and retention strategies. So tracking them are of paramount importance. Outsourcing deals are probably the most neglected unless something blows up. Use knowledge management systems and proven transition managers. It is assumed it will happen, now that the wheels are set in motion. Assumption is the mother of all evil.

I wonder how Peter Drucker and Mahatma Gandhi would have run a business together ...do you ?

Next up, 'from here, to eternity', the 5 remaining mantras.