Deliver outcomes by building a robust governance model

It’s time to rethink everything you know about managed services

Today’s managed services providers (MSPs) are not the outsourcing vendors of yesteryear. They have evolved into strategic partners, leveraging their deep domain expertise and advanced technologies to drive digital transformation and operational excellence for their clients. In CGI’s An executive's guide to managed services, we review current trends in the MSP landscape, provide an overview of current service provider capabilities, and lay out a recommended approach to building more collaborative relationships.

Yet every managed IT services agreement is only as effective as the team managing its implementation. At CGI, we recommend the creation of a strategic function team to do just that. Generally, this team should be set up early in the MSP exploration and focus on a clear mandate: building and cultivating a strategic partnership between the service provider and your organization’s business communities. Specific areas of responsibility include governance, relationship and change management, and strategic oversight of supply and demand to ensure it addresses your organization’s business requirements.

In this blog series, we take a closer look at the strategic function team: Its role within your organization, key responsibilities, and required skills and size.

Defining the role

All MSP partnerships feature a robust governance model that clearly articulates how and by whom the agreement will be supported. We recommend a three-legged-stool framework for governance:

• The strategic function team is a team within the client organization that is responsible for overseeing the managed IT services agreement with a service provider. This team should retain authority over critical components of IT strategy. It should primarily focus on decisions related to architecture, security, standards and project priorities. The provider can deliver valuable advisory support in these areas.
• The managed IT services provider should control the “how” of service delivery. This encompasses network administration, application management, infrastructure and more. The managed services provider assumes complete responsibility for these services and works to determine the best solutions to effectively meet the client’s needs. It is important that the provider keeps in close communication with the strategic function team.
• The business units or internal clients must actively participate in articulating their business requirements in terms of IT deliverables, including projects, services and service levels. Although this responsibility should belong unequivocally to the business, the strategic function team should provide some oversight to ensure alignment with the contract. Typically, the service provider does not want to undertake initiatives without clear business ownership and clarity on deliverables.

Core responsibilities

Your strategic function team plays a critical role in balancing internal client requests with provider priorities and capabilities. The team’s core responsibilities fall into three areas

• Manage demand: Ensure that services are aligned with business priorities and affordability.
  • Work with internal clients to predict changes in business drivers that may affect services and volume
  • Encourage a culture that embraces synergy and shared services across internal client communities
  • Prioritize and approve business requirements for services and projects
  • Track service utilization versus forecast or budget
  • Allocate costs across business units
  • Align user requests with contractual terms and processes
• Manage the partnership: Continually evolve the relationship to meet changing business requirements.
  • Communicate with internal users throughout the agreement term to confirm they understand the service provider’s capabilities and objectives
  • Verify appropriate stakeholder representation within the operational teams through the change management process
  • Confirm appropriate client participation in IT projects
  • Ensure that the appropriate internal clients review and approve project plans and provider deliverables
  • Assign appropriate business review and approval of technology plans
  • Validate compliance with security and audit requirements
  • Have the appropriate business stakeholders address recurring issues and help resolve major incidents
• Manage supply: Make sure the service provider is meeting its contractual obligations.
  • Monitor service-level performance
  • Ensure rigorous application of pricing terms
  • Remain connected with industry pricing
  • Confirm the business addresses vendor-initiated change requests

With your strategic function team owning these critical workstreams, the service provider can channel efforts into execution while internal teams focus on core business priorities and innovation. Better yet, by fostering open dialogue and transparency between the organization and provider, the strategic function team builds the trust that’s foundational to a successful partnership.

Want to learn more about CGI’s managed IT services?  Watch our webinar with Circle K on CIO.com or contact us.