IT vendor services have evolved over the years and have become quite different from what it used to be 10 years ago. Important is to know how the future of IT vendor services would be 5 years from now. With the latest trends and developments in Outsourcing and Offshoring the need to select the right IT vendor as a true partner is becoming a critical part for the client. With the outsourcing processes going from national to global scale the market penetration and available options for vendors have increased many folds over the years.
As demonstrated by the huge growth of the Indian IT Outsourcing service providers sich as TCS, Wipro etc. their clients were and still are increasingly building on IT Outsourcing services, especially when combined with Offshoring. We are now living in an area of startups, where a special focus is on IT as a major lever for new business models (especially digital ones). We are certain that those emerging giants will build upon IT Outsourcing and Offshoring like the big players before.
Picture 1: pliXos study on 5 years Growth in net profit of top Indian IT companies TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCL, (data sourced from www.moneycontrol.com for each company individually.)
It goes without saying that a vendor service holds a lot of importance for the clients. As the vendors perform critical tasks transferring the risks to a vendor is accompanied by the positive expectations for a successful outsourcing project. It is very simple to assert that without a competent and supportive vendor any project is difficult or almost impossible. Hence choosing the right sourcing partner is the most important key for the success of an outsourcing project (although not the only one).
In this context pliXos provides one of the simplest but still comprehensive solutions to identify IT vendor partnerships through its online B2B Marketplace, special case software or app development. The marketplace is a free platform that connects potential clients and the service providers (IT vendor) via an online platform for a clear-cut partnership which leads to a 100% successful project execution. pliXos also agrees with the article of NetworkWorld on a few important points which should be considered while choosing an IT vendor:
- Sustainability: Nothing is more annoying than being in the midway of the project and realizing that you have chosen the wrong service provider. Hence picking a company with a good history of successful IT outsourcing projects is essential for the customers.
- Referrals: Previous client’s references play a vital role in the selection of correct vendor solution provider. A positive feedback from their past customers gives a convincing impression about the service provider.
- Partnership between the actual providers and the vendor: Without a strong relationship between the actual service providers(software) and the vendor(pliXos) the ongoing process in outsourcing projects becomes very difficult which throws a bad impression about the vendors to the customers.
- Don’t just hire a technical team: Including people from application development, vendor relations, finance, legal and privacy/security experts is a better decision for a successful outsourcing.
- Choose a standard platform for placing your Tenders (Request for Proposals): A standard platform like pliXos B2B Marketplace where the customers can post their tenders or RFP’s is a good idea for scientifically searching a service provider. The tenders should be written in a way that vendors are forced to consider relevant criteria like customer base, pricing arrangements, 24-by-7 support and company stability. Alternatively pliXos Marketplace provides its customers with a tool called Tender Manager by which the companies can get their tenders written and managed much better than them. Nevertheless the firms can write tenders too on the Marketplace.
- Negotiate well but keep up the relationship too: Sometimes the outsourcing firms happen to negotiate to such an extent that the service providers do not get to earn anything and may sometimes lead to spend over the customer’s budget. This is really sad. To quote the words of Bart Perkins former CIO at Dole Food Co. and Tricon Global Restaurants Inc. "We negotiate so hard with suppliers that they don't make any money, and then we wonder why service is so poor,” Mutual benefits should also be focused rather than self-benefits.
- Future anticipation: For the benefit of the customers they can mention in their contracts about the future planning of their company that might affect the vendor services. The pre-agreement on these future anticipation terms can help them get extended services of the vendor at the same quotations.
- SaaS Integration: With the growth and proliferation of Cloud computing, IT companies are switching to SaaS products and services for their projects. In this context pliXos offers SAaaS (Sourcing Advisory as a Service) tools for complete governance and maintenance of a sourcing relationship through each phase of the Sourcing-Life-Cycle. The operational support provided by the tools of the Global Sourcing Platform make every step in the Sourcing Life-Cycle more efficient, transparent and compliant.
In short it is headless to choose just a vendor because of its products and capabilities. Services such as Cloud Computing and SaaS can help customers to build up effective partnerships rather than just signing a contract to avail the services for a particular period of time. It is definitely true that each vendor fights to make their company more responsive and gain goodwill in the market. It is all up to the customers whether they want to choose a service provider who follows a lock in policy just to make big bucks or a trusted service partners who have a good ratings over the years with complete governance of their project.
One of such solutions to overcome the gap for a successful alliance between the providers and customer is provided by pliXos SaaS tools that can help in the following ways:
- Improve and accelerate the development of your outsourcing strategy.
- Utilize transparency on the global choice of SW service providers.
- Save time and costs by using an optimal process for your individual IT tender.
- Introduce transparency and efficiency into the management of all phases of your complex outsourcing projects.
- Industrialize the governance of your application development projects by an automated KPI Cockpit for agile processes and integrate your existing tools by our open bus.
- Increase the value of your outsourcing projects by an optimized customer – supplier relationship.
- Improve and accelerate the development of your outsourcing strategy.
Picture 2: pliXos SaaS tools as a complete solution for SW Outsourcing
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Sources:
1. www.networkworld.com
2. www.computerworld.com
