Over the past few years many companies are exploring global sourcing to reduce overall spend, conserve capital and increase efficiency.  Some of the first time outsourcers face challenges and frustrations associated with managing outsourcing and shared services engagements. It is not too late - and certainly not too early - to establish long term relationship with your strategic vendor.

Outsourcing and offshoring changes the responsibility for executing IT services from the internal IT department to external service providers. Your strategic partner should not only provide solutions for the most pressing business problems but also contribute by sharing their ideas, insights, industry knowledge and technical expertise.

The first step is to identify potential IT vendors with whom you should have a closer partnership. Next, invest time and resources on developing long-term agreements and shared sense of partnership and respect. Successful outsourcers leverage their vendor’s capabilities and realize maximum value from the initiatives.

A marathon mindset is required to build partnership approach:

• Look for a value beyond labor arbitrage or rate negotiations with vendors
• Build better vendor governance frameworks grounded in process and supported by tools
• Review strategic vendor’s new capability and how it aligns with company’s roadmap
• Share information with vendors: business plans, priorities, or technology road map
• Be explicit about expectations and provide regular feedback
• Explore ways your vendor can put more skin in the game and drive innovation
• Communicate incremental benefits to the internal team

Building higher-value relationships is a two-way street. We need to establish a strong foundation of trust and closer relationships that will deliver greater impact than mere transactional relationships.

“It is difficult to train for a marathon; but it is even more difficult to not be able to train for a marathon”.