Skip Navigation Links

Outsourcing Contract Review (OSCR)

Commercial outsourcing has gone through significant transformation as well as maturation over the past 20 years. As we finish the first decade of the 21st century outsourcing is globally used, has become both tactical and transformative, seen its contract lengths shortened considerably, allowed it’s scope to become more focused and narrow, has become primarily managed by sourcing departments and has become more knowledgeable in the development of contractual terms and conditions.

Yet, with all these advances a vast number of deals still fail to meet their short term tactical or long term business objectives. Further, we see clients and vendors continue to do battle mid-deal; without attaining easy resolution. Post deal management is still extremely immature in its development. Consequently, many deals remain less efficient, less useful and less cost effective than should be possible.

TBI's four decades of expertise in this area has allowed us to develop a "Best Practices" model for assessing and managing outsourcing deals post signature. Our expectation is that outsourcing deals must maintain their relevance, flexibility and cost effectiveness throughout the entire term of the project agreement.

If that is not your company's experience, then we invite you to read further.

  • TBI is the most experienced OS consulting advisory in the world; having started our practice in 1964
  • TBI is totally objective; as we are not and never have been an OS vendor
  • TBI has done over 2000 projects in this area in our 45 years in business.
  • We are experts in building OS foundations, writing OS contacts, building metrics to manage them and implementing Program Offices (PMO) and employing other governance techniques.
  • TBI is expert in building statements of work (SOW) - therefore we know when they are incomplete or not in synch with current needs.
  • TBI is expert in examining financial baselines for IT groups – therefore we have a current knowledge of pricing.
  • TBI is expert in writing OS contacts – therefore we understand when and why they are working, or not.
  • TBI is expert in transitioning into and out of OS agreements; as we have built and executed many transition plans
  • TBI is expert in building post contacts governance metrics and models to manage the relationship – therefore we are very knowledgeable in assessing what’s not working and why.
  • TBI employs metrics (Value Health Check Survey) to assess your current OS relationship in terms of service quality, financial performance, vendor capability, risk and post contract management.
  • TBI employs its intense OS methodology to review where problems exist within the current relationship.
  • TBI employs ONLY the most seasoned OS professionals (minimum 15 years experience) for these evaluations
  • TBI leverages its experience to more quickly and decisively expose performance problems, Best Practices gaps, and non-competitive pricing.
  • TBI’s large library of outsourcing deals, contracts; transition plans and Best Practices Governance models, serve as a baseline against which our consultants can evaluate your contract, its ongoing performance and your vendor relationship.

Let us show you - who we are -  what we can do for you -  how we do it.

Questions

  1. Do you have a fully developed PMO managing your OS contracts?
  2. Is vender management a core competency within your IT department?
  3. Have you completely and thoroughly reviewed the technical and business changes that have occurred to your original OS contract within the past year?
  4. Do you have fully developed metrics in place to assist in assessing and managing the performance of your OS vendor and OS contract?
  5. Have you compared the current pricing of your OS contract to the market place within the past 12-18- months?

If you answered "No" to any of these questions then you need to contact us.

Questions

  1. Are the costs of your current OS relationship too expensive, given the current economic climate?
  2. Do you have a vague or specific dissatisfaction with the OS vendor or services provided that you have yet to address?
  3. Have you made several attempts to improve the service & pricing of your OS agreement; but remain dissatisfied?
  4. Do you desire to improve your OS costs and productivity, but don’t have the time or staff to accomplish that goal?
  5. Do you wish you could just reengineer or materially change your OS contract and/or vendor relationship?

If you answered "Yes" to any of these questions then you need to contact us.

Observations

  1. OS contracts are, by definition, mostly static or rigid documents.
  2. OS contracts take a long time to negotiate and write; but are rarely reviewed during the life of the agreement.
  3. The terms of the contract are affected on an ongoing basis by changes in technology, shifts in the economy, vertical industry competition, key personnel changes, and internal changes to your business strategy.
  4. OS clients constantly have to manage these changing conditions, while working within the rigid confines of a Master Service Agreement (MSA).
  5. While most MSA’s have previsions for benchmarking vendor performance, volume pricing regulators, change order mechanisms and credits/ debits linked to performance, these are often debated post contract, sometimes hard to quantify and often lead to contentious and unfulfilling client/vendor debate.
  6. Without ongoing oversight and review most OS contracts fail to live up to their full potential for performance, productivity enhancement and pricing reduction.

Note: At TBI, we feel that with a little work, and the use of our experience, clients can realize more of the benefits they expected when they initially decided to outsource. Contact us at & see how this can be achieved.

Back