Helpful tips to make your strategic supplier relationships work really well

When UKCloud, the public sector hosting firm, went into liquidation, the government’s assurances that there would be little to no disruption as a result may have been premature. Reports in the media coming from some of UKCloud’s remaining customers suggest…

The payment for services provided is a fundamental tenet of any contractual agreement, so the first question we’d ask, is ‘why?’. Why would a client organisation be looking to delay payment under a contract? If you are considering withholding payment…

The users depending upon UKCloud (which has gone into administration) to get access to mission critical software and data, could have had a disaster on their hands. But, according to government sources, contingency plans that had already been factored into…

Every strategic project and supplier relationship carries a degree of material risk. Quite how much depends on a multitude of factors, not least being the level of articulation with which you define your vision, calculate your outcomes, and communicate your…

The NAO released a report a while ago on the state of best practice in the public sector titled ‘Commercial and contract management: insights and emerging best practice’. It offers good insights into the way commercial strategy and capability can…

Following on from our recent blog What ‘really is’ a breach of contract and seven actions to take, this article takes the discussion a little further by looking at the remedies that might be available to you should you perceive…

Less than half of all strategic supplier relationships achieve the business outcomes the client expects. Just let that sink in for a moment. This means that over fifty per cent of clients are wondering where it all went wrong. This…

You might expect the answer to the question in the title of this article, ‘Can you unilaterally modify a contract?’ to be a resounding ‘no’, but, as always, life is not that simple. The correct answer is ‘no, except when…’…

What a contract is and what it does is something that is likely to be understood by the individuals who subscribe to our thought leadership articles. But a void contract is not always obvious. A contract is defined as ‘a…

The ramifications of a breach of contract in a strategic and/or complex project/service delivery relationship can be significant to your organisation, your supplier’s business, and for everyone who is relying on the completion of the project you’re working on or…

It’s a question often asked, “how to deal with difficult strategic suppliers who won’t listen?” Do you… sometimes perceive that your strategic supplier (partner) is not listening to you. You feel they become defensive at everything you raise with them. You…

Outsourced relationships can often be punctuated with opportunities for controversy. Having dealt with improving the performance of over 500 outsourcing relationships, evidence continues to teach us that more than 50% of these high-value contracts fail to achieve their expected outcomes…

Developing the infrastructure within your organisation to transition from on-premise servers to cloud-based hosted systems comes with significant advantages. However, when you’re procuring potentially complex cloud solutions, particularly Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), there are also a multitude of challenges…

Agile projects require a very different approach, necessitating much closer working relationships between clients and their suppliers. One of the key purposes is to keep very frequent lines of communication permanently open. This coincides with a much more detailed initial…

To achieve optimum project performance in complex and strategic supplier relationships, you need to enlist the help of skilled people, placed in the right roles, while allowing them the freedom necessary to bring their skills and expertise to bear on…

Commercial trust in strategic supplier relationships concerns the way ‘on-the-ground’ behaviours impact the confidence parties have in one another. Essentially, doing what you say you’ll do, when you say you’ll do it, is a positive starting point for relationship building.…

Large, complex contract relationships are notoriously difficult to predict successful outcomes on. Many will make it through to a successful conclusion, some will fail spectacularly, and others will quietly underachieve. In this article we examine the smart way to use…

The following post focuses on one of the key issues explored in our white paper on improving Health and Social Care Services and significantly reducing costs. Download your free copy here. Improving health and social care outcomes, while significantly reducing…

‘Harmony’ is one of the elements that is good for business. However, the further reality is that there needs to be a little ‘constructive tension’ in any organisation, to challenge accepted norms, alongside the freedom to express these challenges to…

Have your outsourcing relationships always followed a textbook flow from selection to outsourcing relationship management and finally to successful conclusion? Perhaps not; life just isn’t that simple. Critical strategic supplier and partner relationships are difficult, complicated and ever-changing, and as…

Our expert witness work in the High Courts often highlights problems with ERP project implementations. We receive and give evidence that explains what has gone wrong with the implementation of an ERP solution and why. Ironically, these unique insights into…

It will not come as news to you that the vast majority of complex, large-scale digital transformation projects fail. This will happen for a litany of reasons, but against such a backdrop, the most important question is that if you recognise…

Post Brexit, consultations continue over efficiency changes to the public sector procurement process. However, until we are informed otherwise, the EU procurement regulations remain inherent within UK legislation. No matter whether or when changes are introduced (or whether you are…

When you are looking for a fit for purpose solution partner to help you on your digital transformation journey, how much of your focus is on the systems versus the likely effect on the business change that solution may cause…

The size, structure, skills and expertise of an Intelligent Client Function (ICF) team will depend upon the nature and scale of the supplier relationship, the business outcomes to be achieved and the criticality of the service being delivered. As services are added or removed to/from…

Why read this post? It will help you sanity check your approach to buying digital transformation services and/or supporting solutions that may involve significant integration complexities. Why misunderstandings arise when buying digital transformation services In over 85% of the Expert…

Shared services can offer significant benefits – including improved savings, continuity and quality of service, systems and scalability – but only if you can overcome the challenges that will naturally appear when you ask service user parties with different goals,…

It has never been more important for your project to have a robust, tried and tested procurement strategy that you can rely on. Agreement on a roadmap for the way you conduct your procurement project is essential to ensure all…

When looking to transition from one complex project or outsourcing agreement (including the supplier) to another, one of the key issues we find is that all too often organisations try to ‘fill in the gaps’ from what was being delivered…

What is a ‘fit for purpose contract’? And how can it really drive collaborative behaviour? When it comes to complex projects and service delivery relationships, the aim of a fit for purpose contract is for it to provide the operating foundations to drive…

Before signing up to new contracts – especially large ones – a round of pre-contractual due diligence is something that should never be skimped on, skirted around or ignored. Due diligence is the safety net that assures your supplier ‘asks you the…

Joint working is often a product of financial necessity. However, it should also be viewed through a benefits lens – organisations coming together to generate and invest in much more innovative practices. Strategic alliances can be formed between multiple clients…

There are many reasons why you might consider Insourcing services or a function that has previously been delivered by an external third-party provider. We look at the typical challenges organisations face when undertaking the decision to insource and the foundations…

What started on a small scale in the 1980s and was championed by the Labour Party in the early 2000s), has become the £280bn+ business of outsourcing in the UK. While large single supplier outsourcing relationships were all the rage…

The creation of an evaluation framework for public sector procurements is something that I cannot stress the importance of enough; not only is a good evaluation framework the only way to accurately measure the relative merits (or otherwise) of submitted…

Why read this article? Key takeaways: There are 13 key subject areas of great practical importance which the government’s ‘Sourcing Playbook’ recommends in order to help drive maximum value in these complex projects and relationships. The first half of this…

In this article, you should find everything you need to know about procurement services (including strategic procurement), procurement and contracting strategies, and procurement consultants and advisors. It will also offer guidance on whether external advice for procurement might be helpful…

In this ‘Back to Basics’ article, we’ll answer the question ‘What is a strategic partnership?’ by being clear about what distinguishes strategic partnerships from other types of supplier relationships. We’ll look at some common features of strategic partnerships, the potential…

If an individual or small group of employees wants better pay, healthcare or changes to other terms of employment, they may highlight this to you, their employer. But how seriously will you take their request (barring the nature of the…

While change can be worrying, often it’s the anxiety surrounding a prospective change in the status of your strategic suppliers/partners which can cause more uncertainty. Therefore, rapid, inciteful and accurate information to determine the validity and severity of an issue…