Question: How is multisourcing like English Grammar? Answer: Both are transformational generative! Let me explain. As the English language changes, so do the rules that govern its usage. Likewise, when it comes to multisourcing, as business environments change, the model that companies embrace to outsource transforms over time. In other words, choosing the best multisourcing model for your business requires you to be ready to adapt and change as your business priorities change.
That’s why Bogdan Udrea, Chief Technical Architect of the Global Solution Design Center for Dell’s Large IT Outsourcing and Managed Services engagements has developed Enabling a Successful Multisourcing Model: A Dell Insight — a Dell Managed Services white paper, which has useful information you can use to find the best multisourcing model to meet your needs.
“Today, multiple drivers are compelling organizations to embrace multisourcing — the desire to work with multiple suppliers, both internal and external, in an orchestrated ecosystem and benefit from a complete set of integrated IT services,” Bogdan writes. Despite the diversity of outsourcing offerings, multisourcing models typically fall into two prominent approaches.
“In the first approach, the customer is able to retain core functions while engaging with multiple service providers and maintaining overall governance and services integration in-house. The second approach allows customers to engage one primary service provider as a services integrator and manager, relying on them to include secondary service organizations — and thereby providing the customer with an integrated and unified IT interface,” Bogdan explains.
Both approaches offer business benefits, but both come with challenges that must be carefully monitored.
Three key challenges
The business benefits to multisourcing are many, and building a best-of-breed service portfolio is chief among them. But choosing to multisourcing approach also comes with a set of increasingly complex challenges, which can surface at different times, and at different structural levels. Here are three standout challenges Bogdan notes:
- Building the right partner network: It’s important to find the right partners that not only address the needs of your business, but also deliver services directly mapped to those needs. Plus, the right partner network must provide a solid base for continual innovation and improvement.
- Establishing the right governance model: “The primary role of governance is to provide oversight, management and enforcement to ensure that IT achieves goals defined by the business. If the governance model is not aligned and structured properly in multisourcing engagements, it continuously increases the gap between business and IT requirements,” Bogdan writes.
- Addressing services integration and operational gaps: Governance may enable strategic alignment, but it doesn’t always ensure accurate execution and monitor performance. Therefore an important set of metrics must be put in place to monitor the gap between installation/integration and successful operation.
By addressing these three key challenges, businesses that embrace a multisourcing model will be well on their way to creating the flexible environment needed to maintain success across their organization.
How does an organization decide which model is right for them?
According to Bogdan, “The answer lies in the ability to define, develop and deploy a structure that is flexible and modular at all layers. It needs to be supported and driven by a clear strategy, long-term goals and policies and a strict governance body, in addition to a meaningful and measured operating model enabled through a dynamic integration of tools, processes and people.”
Choosing Dell to manage IT service providers offers multisourcers the ability to take advantage of more than 20 years of expertise. Dell also has developed frameworks and methodologies around organizational structures, processes and tools to mitigate risk and drive successful execution.
“The Dell strategy is completely aligned with factors that foster a successful multisourcing approach: consistent shared vision and strategy, robust program structure and management and a continuous service improvement culture,” Bogdan concludes.
About the white paper
Market behavior regarding the consumption of IT services has undergone a significant change in the last five years. Typically, enterprises approached outsourcing by either fully externalizing their IT department or just specific IT functions. This approach, combined with the ability to choose offshore markets for the delivery of IT services, used to provide companies with a great level of agility and a competitive advantage in the market. Multiple drivers are compelling organizations to embrace multisourcing — the desire to work with multiple suppliers, both internal and external, in an orchestrated ecosystem and benefit from a complete set of integrated IT services. This white paper uncovers the challenges and provides flexible model samples to help organizations benefit from multisourcing engagements.
About the author
As the Chief Technical Architect of the Global Solution Design Center, Bogdan Udrea provides support for Dell’s Large IT Outsourcing and Managed Services engagements, alongside with overall solution architecture strategy and governance, service strategy and service design. Prior to joining Dell in 2011, Bogdan worked as an IT architect, senior systems engineer and trainer for different companies. He graduated at The University of Bucharest and holds two degrees in Computer Science and Information Security. He is based in the U.S. at Dell Services headquarters in Plano, TX.