Workplace Engineering

More detail on the process for securing a vendor partner

Pre-qualification (finding suitable parties). This is where an industry consultant can be useful in identifying potentials based upon an understanding of the work, processes and performance criteria. Depending on the size and complexity of the work, this process can take several rounds or happen pretty quickly.

Document preparation. The processes, performance criteria and overall goals established earlier in the process are turned into formal scope of work documents, business requirements, performance metrics, inventories, staffing lists that form the basis of the procurement exercise.

Out to bid (or RFP). Packaging up all the documentation into a standard form, adding contractual terms, building a pricing list and then sending it to pre-qualified bidders. 

Return (of the bids). During this period, the potential suitors work through the documents, ask questions, clarify requirements and generally build a hopefully compliant proposal. This stage culminates in the return of a bid.

Place Order. Once returned, bid documents need to be evaluated and compared. A clean package of outgoing documents containing easy to understand and unambiguous descriptions, criteria and requirements increases the possibilities that the bids will be directly comparable. Pretty quickly front runners will emerge and the team will move to tighten up and negotiate requirements, offers, counter-offers etc. until the favored bidder emerges and a contract awarded.

Start work. Once an order is placed, there is a period of time when both organizations prepare to actually do business with each other. Again, the level of complexity and scope can influence the time, extent and energy. This is a period when the contracting organization can do a lot to ensure the proper integration and success of the new team.

Not understanding the basic fundamental activities, resources and performance criteria for an activity or function make it difficult for a potential partner to be successful. Unrealistic expectations and lack of knowledge of the procurement process can lead to a poorly executed exercise that at best means that the parties need to rework their agreements very early or at worst results in a disastrous relationship that is unwound in acrimony and sometimes with the help of the lawyers.

Understanding and allowing the time to go through a proper selection process increases the chances that the resulting relationship will be successful for many years. Organizations have different methods and processes that they undertake to search for, find and then contract with a partner. Most successful ones contain the steps of

• pre-qualification
  
• document preparation
  
• out to bid
  
• returning of bids
  
• placement of an order
  
• starting work in one form or another.

Under pressure to achieve a quick result, the temptation is there to short circuit the process or negotiate with a single party. Unfortunately, the absence of clearly defined steps and milestones that can be monitored and measured can result in a long and drawn out process that is ultimately unsatisfactory to all concerned.

There is a British Army axiom that perfectly proper planning produces perfect proper performance. Many organizations that enter into some form of partnership set the stage for disappointment through inadequate planning. There may be lack of insight into the effort and resources required to deliver a service or how to evaluate their own performance. Taking the time to understand the processes, resources, required performance and actual performance before the formal search for a partner begins is critical for ensuring success.

Fortunately, there are some relatively simple methods to assist with planning. The Six Sigma processes of developing a SIPOC and CTQ can go a long way to developing an understanding of the processes within an operation and the elements that are critical to successful performance.

The SIPOC provides an effective way for a team to map its processes at a very high level; identify the individuals, teams or organizations that are suppliers to the stages in a process;  what they actually input to that stage; what outputs are needed to allow the next stage to occur and who the customers of that output are (the final customer or whoever is carrying out the next part of the process. Developing a SIPOC should be a wide collaborative process and may need a trained facilitator to ensure that the team flies fast and high and doesn’t get stuck minutiae. Scope of work documents, business requirements and other contractual items are much easier to write and understand with a fundamental understanding of the overall purpose and processes within an activity.

With an agreed process the areas that are Critical to Quality can be identified. Most people and teams perform better if they understand what success actually looks like. As importantly, understanding what success looks like in measurable terms makes it a  whole lot easier to describe to an outside party what is important. CTQ is another Six Sigma tool that is pretty accessible to most team members and can be used effectively without a deep knowledge of statistics.

Of course, there are other methods that can work equally effectively to help teams and prospective partners understand achieve a common understanding of the processes in an activity and what success looks like. Going to the effort early in the process helps to ensure that expectations are founded in a common understanding and sets the partnership up for success.

Organizations enter into partnerships for many reasons. Some partner to deploy talents they lack internally, others to be able to tackle projects too large for themselves alone and others partner to release their internal resources for core activities or to reduce cost.

Whether entering into outsourcing arrangements, strategic alliances, joint ventures or full blown mergers the management of partner relationships is critical to success and yet often a cause for consternation and sometimes the ultimate failure of the arrangement. According to the Black Book of Outsourcing, business process outsourcing is at least a $543bn business and other forms of business partnership multiplying that figure many times, it is clear that successfully managing partner relationships can deliver considerable value to the enterprise and provide an opportunity for career advancement.

There are many different takes on the pitfalls associated with good partner relationships. Here is my list of ten:

1. Poor Planning
2. Marry in haste, repent at leisure
3. Faulty Financials
4. Underinvestment in the Transition
5. Brain Drain
6. Passive Aggressive Teamwork
7. The tower of babel
8. It doesn’t last
9. Losing the wood for the trees
10. Unrealistic expectations

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be exploring each of them in more detail and giving my suggestions for overcoming them.