Develop Plan to Resolve Clients Vendor Relationship Issues
Project Background:
The relationship between the client and their outsourcing vendor had been steadily deteriorating for the past two years and had become unworkable. The few metrics that existed were unreliable and specific problem issues were undocumented. This led to the issues being based on emotions rather than facts with both parties frustrated at being unable to prove their position and unwilling to accept the other’s. The only choice seemed to be the termination of the contract which would benefit neither party.
Problem Summary:
The task was to sift through all of the emotions and arrive at the major issues as seen from the point of view of all parties including the business customers, the client’s IT organization, the outsourcing vendor and a second vendor that was closely related to the primary relationship. Based on this information, a consensus of the most significant of these issues and a plan of action for their resolution was required.
The Approach:
Initially TBI assisted each of the groups in selecting key people to participate in a series of brainstorming sessions to develop a base list of issues for each group. Theses selected individuals were given a meeting agenda, a problem statement, a goal statement and a set of guidelines to prepare them for the brainstorming sessions. After these sessions were held, individuals were interviewed to further clarify specific issues. A list of each group’s issues grouped by major category (Management, Culture, Processes, etc.) was then distributed to the group members for review.
The final issue lists were then submitted to the management group responsible for the relationship for further action.
Successful Business Solutions
The client received:
- A complete list of issues as seen by each of the parties
- Issues grouped by significant categories
- A comparison of each groups view on selected common issues
