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Information Age readers discuss the challenge of fostering strategic partnerships with service providers

IF offshore IT services companies are struggling to elevate their role from service provider to business partner and source of innovation, it is not for want of enthusiasm among their customers.

Information Age recently hosted an off-the-record roundtable debate on the topic of offshore innovation, sponsored by Indian IT services provider MindTree.

Without exception, all participants expressed a desire for IT services partnerships in which the supplier comes to the table with new ideas that can benefit both parties.

But holding that back is the challenge of defining the terms of engagement in a way that engenders innovation, mutual prosperity and, above all, trust.

“We want to work with strategic partners,” said the global supplier manager of a major pharmaceutical manufacturer. “But how do you define a collaborative relationship when both parties want to protect themselves? It takes an enormous leap of faith.”

In some cases, the willingness among businesses to regard IT service providers as partners has led businesses to lose sight of the true nature of the relationship. “We’ve had a problem in the past with using the word ‘partner’ with companies that weren’t,” recalled the services manager of a global manufacturing giant. “In order for two businesses to truly be partners, there must be some shared risk.”

The group agreed that for an IT services provider to make a positive contribution to innovation, it must know the customer’s business almost as well as it knows its own.

“The ideal situation would be for our IT services partners to understand the business well enough to identify the risks associated with any given project,” explained one attendee, “and to recommend ways that they could be managed or mitigated.”

That will often require having personnel permanently on site, said the development services manager of one public sector organisation. “Innovation occurs around the water cooler. If the developers are on the other side of the planet, it just won’t happen.”

But even when provider personnel are on site, learning the way the business operates can take a long time. “We’ve had business analysts from our IT services provider in

our organisation for two years,” said the IT strategy director of a global media giant, “and they are just beginning to make innovative contributions now.”

But to foster a collaborative and innovative partnership is not the sole responsibility of the service provider, the attendees agreed.

“True IT partnerships start with the business,” explained one attendee. “The challenge is to get the business to take ownership of the systems they are asking for, not just hand over the requirements and expect someone to build it.”

Further reading

Offshore 2.0 The first wave of offshore IT was all about lowering costs. Now organisations are looking to their sourcing partners for technology and business process innovation

Liquid innovation at Scottish Water The utility provider's outsourcing partners are expected to deliver on innovation

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