A different take on shared services -- partner integration through global sourcing
Ironically, this individual heads a shared services group, the vendor management office (VMO) of a leading U.S. insurance company. Like other sourcing program or vendor management groups his team delivers sourcing expertise and services to the rest of the company, creating standards and best practices for vendor selection, performance measurement, and governance and managing relationships at the corporate level.
Last year the VMO expanded its sourcing stakeholder community to include an outside partner, a long-term care services administrator, and brought them together with Infosys to create a three-way relationship.
Leveraging existing processes and offshore facilities and resources and best practices developed over time the three companies are developing shared applications and services to enable better integration between the client and its business partner.
What is interesting about this tripartite initiative is not that two business partners are working together toward a set of common goals, but the way in which they are going about it. After all, they might have been able to achieve the same ends by having their respective IT organizations collaborate on shared projects.
However, this would have been costlier and put a strain on both partners’ internal resources. Instead, they took advantage of Infosys’ familiarity with the client’s business/IT environment to begin work on joint projects almost immediately. Moreover, they were able to take advantage of the client’s long relationship with Infosys to enable the partner to engage in global sourcing while shortcutting the typical learning curve.
From a practical perspective, this last point is at least as important as the business integration that is the primary goal driving the effort. Collaboration and integration aren’t new ideas but neither do they have to be limited to two participants. Nor do a company’s shared services have to be self-contained.
By sharing its sourcing expertise and experience with its partner and by bringing in an established partner, the client has expanded the definition of shared services while simultaneously contributing to the ongoing evolution of global sourcing.
