Figure 5-10 Research sub-question eleven
Research sub-question: When switching ITO providers – what factors contribute to a
successful communication (communication of change)?
The answers to the research sub-question were analysed and compared with the final literature review. This has allowed the following conclusions to be drawn:
Implementing a comprehensive change and communication strategy
The change of ITO providers often brings temporary dissatisfaction and frustrations. Moreover, the contract with the new provider will likely be different from the contract
1. How important is it that success is defined for the
transition? And what is the definition of success
for the transition?
2. Who should define success?
3. What are project management success criteria for the transition?
4. What factors contribute to a successful knowledge
transfer during the transition?
7. What factors contribute to a successful integration
of the new provider production team during
the transition? 11. What factors contribute to a successful project communication (communication of change)? 10. What factors contribute to a successful escalation management
during the transition?
8. How important are experienced external project resources for the success of the transition?
9. How important is trust for the success of the
transition?
6. What factors contribute to a successful mixed mode – temporary multi-
sourcing during the transition? 5. What factors contribute
to a successful transfer of key experts during the
transition?
12. What factors contribute to a successful
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with the incumbent provider. Therefore, a stakeholder oriented comprehensive change and communication strategy needs to be developed and implemented. Nineteen research participants confirm this finding. This finding is also supported by the work of Berger and Lewis (2011) who found that the absence of a communication strategy has a negative influence on the ITO client – provider relationship, and suggested a stakeholder based communication approach. Customers need to communicate the necessity and reasons for the change of providers such as for example cost reduction, or other service levels, to its employees, early. This is important, so that customer employees are able to understand the decision to switch providers. If the service levels with the new provider are reduced, compared to the service levels with the incumbent provider, then the customer needs to communicate this proactively inside its organisation. Otherwise, customer employees could interpret the reduced service levels as poor performance by the new provider, which can reduce the acceptance of the new provider. Moreover, customers should communicate to its internal stakeholders that temporally service level reduction need to be expected due to the complex transition project.
This proactive communication of anticipated difficulties can positively affect change resistance. If there are major changes in the way the new ITO provider works then this needs to be actively communicated. Customers need to communicate what will change or what has changed with the switch of ITO providers, so that the ITO client organisation knows what to expect. Major transition milestones should be communicated within the ITO customer organisation and should be part of the communication strategy. This research has showed that it is important to communicate successful achievements of key milestones to stakeholders. This requirement for communication in general ITO outsourcing projects were also indicated by Beulen, Tiwari, et al. (2011) and Cullen et al. (2005), and this is shown in Table 2-4. This finding is exemplified by the following research participant answers:
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R5 It is important that the customer has a well-designed communication strategy. The customer needs to communicate the major milestones to its employees. The customer should also manage the expectation of its employees and communicate what can be expected from the change and which problems will occur during transition. This is important because every employee will have an expectation. The necessity of the change need to be communicated. And it should be communicated if there is a technology or strategy change for example from fat-client architecture to a thin-client architecture. R1 Change communication is also extremely important. Because acceptance for this new
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from the customer to well-known employees of the old provider. For the employees of the customer it is not necessarily understandable why the provider has changed. Therefore, there is the need to put a lot of effort into the communication of these changes and the reasons for them. This effort should be budgeted by the customer.
R2 One need to be aware of the fact that the responsible transition manager from the customer side has not necessarily one hundred percent backing from its own company. And often this transition manager has to fight inner-company conflicts for example with application managers who are not satisfied with the transition approach. These inner-company fights can also be depended on the reasons for the provider switch. Has the provider been switched due to cost reductions? If so then this often means that the service levels will be lower and this needs to be communicated by the customer, early. Otherwise, customer’s employees just think that the new provider is not achieving the service levels, where in fact they are achieved.
R7 It should be communicated why the contract of the old provider has been terminated and will not be further extended. This is important since the change of providers is always linked to problems, which will arise during transition. And if the customer communicates that it expects problems to arise then customer’s employees will not be that surprised and the resistance will possibly not be as strong as without active communication.
Considering using dedicated communication professionals to support customer communication
Often, the customer has no sufficient own resources for performing the required communication tasks. Experienced professional communication experts can support the customer organisation in defining and implementing an effective change and communication strategy. Sixteen research participants agreed this finding. This finding is exemplified by the following interviewee answers:
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R9 My experience is that hiring experts who have practice and knowledge of designing an effective communication strategy is a good investment for the customer. If the change of providers is not supported by professional communication, then the change will often be much more expensive due to for example change resistance.
R2 The customer itself has own customers of its IT, these are typically business-users or end- users. Professional communication with these users is essentially important and need to be done, selectively, by professionals. Because, normal project managers are not trained for this type of communication. And the success of a project has also to do with the external representation of the project.
R6 Often, the customer itself has not the internal resources to communicate the changes professionally to its own organisation. However, it is very important that the changes, which the new provider brings, are communicated. The organisation needs to understand what will change, when, and how. Therefore, it can be helpful if professional communication experts support the organisation.
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