I was interested to read recently published research by consultant Deloitte that highlighted the worrying yet unsurprising fact that “two-thirds of UK businesses do not even ask for detailed reporting” from suppliers.

So why aren’t companies asking for reports from suppliers? The simple fact is that businesses are outsourcing specific functions and in most cases leaving no one capable of understanding the reports internally. Even if they do understand the report, more often than not they file it and forget it, or become frustrated because they can’t rectify the perceived problem of poor performance due to contract restrictions.

At the contracting stage, companies need to have a frank negotiation of the objectives and how performance will be measured. Most importantly, they must not assume that once let, the contract will take care of itself.

It is vital clients remember that outsourcing is the easy part; it’s living with the services for the next 10 years that you need to focus on.

Postscript

Allen Knight, director, Berkshire Consultancy

Topics