ISG assists a federal agency in transforming its relationships with three key suppliers into more strategic partnerships to maximize value.
Opportunity
A federal government agency approached ISG with a challenge. It needed to leverage greater value from its three strategic providers. Significant internal change within the agency, such as an amalgamation of several previously separate portfolios, all with different needs, had diluted the agency’s strategic clarity. This lack of clarity was preventing the agency from driving its transformational agenda forward. All parties within the relationship aspired to a strategic partnership but were struggling to make this aspired-to future state a reality.
Imagining IT Differently
ISG conducted a customized ISG Relationship360™ with feedback obtained
through a one-way online survey and bilateral interviews. ISG discovered a
systemic lack of shared understanding of what a strategic partnership entailed
within the agency, as well considerable fragmentation in the agency’s sourcing
culture. The governance frameworks were not supporting a strategic partnership.
There was a lack of a consistent approach to communication. A failure to track ongoing continuous service
improvement initiatives led to perceptions of low value being delivering into
the account. ISG facilitated a series of workshops to unify all parties and
create a roadmap for strategic partnership. This led to a complete reorganization
of the agency’s approach to vendor management. With ISG’s assistance, the
agency created a segmented governance framework, tailored to encourage
strategic collaboration between its top three providers.
Future Made Possible
- The agency received a structured communications plan, an ongoing initiative tracker, and a comprehensive governance review.
- The restructured approached to the partnership sparked a range of proofs of concept (POCs) to investigate the application of new technologies in this environment. Each provider now has a structured forum for discussing its capabilities in a way that meets the government agency’s probity and vendor management office requirements.
- A critical barometer of success will be when we re-measure the health of the engagement in the coming months; however, there are already anecdotal reports that there has been notable uplift in the tenor of all three engagements.
