Hard-headed Partnering

CIO Master Class led by John Yard

The Challenge

The process of working with partners takes time, building trust and developing strong working relationships. In theory, it is very simple but requires a ton of hard work.

If successfully implemented, partnering with an IT service provider is an immensely powerful tool that can contribute to successful project and programme outcomes and deliver significant improvements in value for money. But it should never be regarded as an easy option.

It will only succeed where there is a mature approach to relationship management and it will require effort and commitment from both sides to make the relationship work; where all sides feel that the investments and concessions they have made, and the risks they have taken on, have helped them realise genuine benefits and achieve strategic goals.

This includes taking the right approach, creating the right behaviours, putting the right people in place and managing arrangements in a way that gives a successful outcome to all parties. All of which is simple to agree, but notoriously difficult to manage, and partnering arrangements just as frequently destroy value as create it.

Our Solution

During a long career in Government John Yard, our workshop leader, wrote many of the rules in the government’s rule book for successful partnering. For over 10 years he ran the largest outsourcing contract in government and he had to find ways of telling his business colleagues that it was their attitudes and their behaviours that were destroying much of the value and creating many of the problems they were so vociferously complaining about.

He needed to create the space for all sides to think again about the practicalities of managing relationships that were breaking. He needed to ensure that required controls did not get in the way of building trust, and that his providers gained confidence in his control of unreasonable demands.

Above all in these difficult times, he had to find ways to ensure that he could comply with his need to demonstrate openness, equity and value for money without imposing undue bureaucracy on his providers. And he needed to create exit strategies and plans to re-compete whilst keeping everyone on board.

In this workshop John will share the guidelines he developed and lift the hood on what really needs to happen to ensure that relationships remain on the rails and nobody is able to shift the value balance unduly.

Benefits and Outcomes

After you’ve attended this workshop you will know how to:

• Evaluate what is going wrong, and identify the good resources you’ll need to put it right.

• Understand the provider perspective, both the gloss and the reality. Know how to compete more effectively for your provider’s scarce resources.

• Be a strong client, guiding your board into the hard-headed give and take that will empower you to manage for the results you need.

• Differentiate the key concepts of partnership and collaboration; complexity and flexibility.

	AGENDA
9:00 – 9:30	Coffee
	Making the decision to find a Partner
	What you want and what you need to get it
	What prospective partners want
	How to marry the two
10:15-10:30	Coffee
	What is partnership – importance of Client side lead
	The first two years – Contract management v. Relationship management
	Governance – Interaction with Boards
12:30-13:30	Lunch
	Managing performance and change
	SLA’s and measurement (perception v. reality)
	Impact of mergers
	Avoiding lock in
15:30-15:45	Coffee
	Future trends and reflections
	Q&A and debate
16:30	Finish

Book now or please enquire further of rachel.onder@ciodevelopment.com.