Is this you?
Jul 06
Reading SLA reports can drive a mixture of responses. (aside from sleep :>). Typically people will either nod knowingly or with fury. This is the assurance reaction – is my service being delivered as expected – are KPIs red, amber or green? Sometimes this is done very manually using spreadsheets and e-mails and man hours and man months. Some use more user friendly tools which reduce time and improve the output! This is the concern for how service is actually delivered right now – it is important but it is not the full story. Governance is a much more significant and robust process – it is using information about service and relationship quality to steer your organisation and business to better value. It is a proactive activity focussed on analysis not collection of data.
Jun 17
ServiceFrame’s governance event in London yesterday (June 16th) was an open, honest and relaxed affair. But the topic was serious and the mood ambitious. At ServiceFrame we have always set ourselves the challenge of transforming the way business relationships are managed. Our goal is to transform the supplier management landscape – to make it rich with information that facilitates rapid analysis. Eleanor Winn from Source gave a clear and studied overview of the key elements in any governance model. I was struck by how much of it was common sense – I was also struck by how many of us in the audience nodded in appreciation at this comprehensive overview – ably backed up with specific real life experiences. Talk to Eleanor for the examples! Contact us for details of up coming events. Edinburgh is next week. Continue reading »
Jun 01
This blog is often characterized by harsh terms like ‘evidence based’, ‘KPIs’ and ‘governance’. Last week a few clients pulled me up on this and told me that maybe i need to start talk a little bit more about relationships. So here goes. What is it about relationships in business that makes them successful? It seems to me that a clear understanding of what both parties to the relationship expect – as well as a clear understanding of how both parties feel about what is being delivered are critical. It seems to be a combination of both evidence and experience.
May 19
Sales management and customer management tools are now a standard technoogy enabler. The reason is simple – key customer relationships need to be managed effectively and consistently in order to protect on going revenue streams. Managing these relationships using spreadsheets is time consuming and error prone. More importantly it leads to mistakes and costs sales and money. So why do you use spreadsheets to manage your Vendor Relationships?
May 06
Evidence based vendor management is a hot topic. Many vendor relationships and overall vendor management strategies are still characterised by a reliance on personal opinion and intuition. The difference in process maturity around initial procurement and ongoing vendor management still appears great in many cases.
Apr 22
Traoloch Collins, CEO, ServiceFrame discusses some approaches to understanding whether your SLA reports are producing valuable information. ServiceFrame is a leading software as a service governance tool for Shared Services and Vendor Management.
Apr 06
Innovation is of value in shared services as it helps teams to get better results more efficiently. People also enjoy trying new ways to do things and take pride in the results. Our clients have spoken to us lots about innovative ways of working. We all know that they key to innovation is the ability to share ideas and information with people who share the same challenges and opportunities as we do.
Apr 01
Risk is a key element of best practice Shared Services Governance. Yet it is often overlooked in the context of customer satisfaction surveys and SLA reporting. Risk reporting is an important as it is the process of identifying the factors that may lead to a deterioration in either SLA performance and/or customer satisfaction. Risk management is about managing the future. But it is difficult. In order for risk management to work effectively it is necessary for all team members to be risk conscious and risk focus. The common practice of sitting down and ‘identifying’ risks just before a report needs to be sent to senior managers is at best unreliable and incomplete and at worst ‘window dressing’.
Mar 29
Most organisations have several ‘tiers’ of vendors. Vendors may be ‘tiered’ based on a variety of criteria such as deal size, criticality of service delivered, regulatory impact etc. In all cases client organisations will apply varying levels of risk, issue and performance management depending upon the Tier the supplier fits into. It is a very sensible approach but most organisations struggle to ensure that vendors in the same tier are managed to the same level and consistently. Tiering creates the illusion of consistent vendor management. Why does this problem arise?
