What's a governance framework you might ask? Too often this term is tossed around loosely to mean many things to many people, from establishing a set of rules, to assigning rights and authorities to make decisions, to day to day operational management. In its purest form, governance IS about the assignment of decision rights and authority, but how do you create a practical model for formalizing governance in a multisourced environment. One model is something we call Co-management. All too often as business, technology and the service provider market change rapidly, our research shows that the root causes of this lack of success are not to be found at the day-to-day delivery level, but in a lack of effective business-to-business management and governance at a level above day-to-day delivery. This is where Co-management comes into play and our model identifies six primary practices and a set of sub-practices that make up a governance framework. To learn more, attend Kris Doering's practical guide to governance in his session "Co-Management: The Process Framework for Multi-sourcing Optimization," on Wednesday, May 21 from 2:15 to 3:15 PM.

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Organizations that use global resources must invest in appropriate evaluation and selection methodologies for the vendors they engage with, but also for the countries that constitute their global delivery model (GDM). The right country for one buyer is not necessarily the right country for another, so it is necessary to determine the criteria that are most important to you. Buyers must consider whether one "offshore" country is adequate or whether several are required to support global operations. It is also important to make country selections which involve "softer" features such as language, cultural compatibility, travel time and time zone, in addition to more obvious ones such as cost and availability of skilled resources. In 2007, Gartner analyzed 65 countries to determine the top 30 — but the leader is not the same for all. To hear more, attend Ian Marriott’s presentation "Gartner's Top 30 Locations for Offshore Services" on Tuesday May 20, from 11:00 AM to 12:00 Noon.

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The market and competitive landscape for IT services and outsourcing has undeniably shifted in this decade and the catalyst for change has been the offshore service providers. The growth in global delivery of IT services has elevated the offshore providers from a source of labor arbitrage to recognized competitors across the spectrum of IT services. While some traditional service providers were quick to respond to this change, others waited before making a move towards global delivery. The market has changed as offshore suppliers primarily from India are winning deals that always went to the traditional players. If you want to learn more about the market and how traditional providers are responding to this increased competition and how offshore providers are narrowing the gap between just being offshore to being global, attend Research Vice President Allie Young's presentation on Global competition in IT Outsourcing: What you need to know.

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Whether you're a newcomer with the luxury of starting from scratch or a seasoned veteran deeply committed to a variety of outsourcing initiatives, Gartner Outsourcing & Vendor Management Summit provides the tools to create your own customized map to Multisourcing.

See the most up to date Agenda for the sessions that best suit your expertise; conference sessions are labeled "F" for Fundamental and "A" for Advanced.

Fundamental

Conference sessions labeled "(F) Fundamental" are oriented around essential strategies, best practices and trends in mastering Multisourcing. A solid grounding in outsourcing essentials is especially important today as more enterprises operate in a highly complex vendor environment where the pressure is on to understand and exploit new alternative delivery models. Get a fresh look at what's needed for sound, strategic decision making throughout the four phases of the sourcing lifecycle.

Advanced

Designed for executives experienced at outsourcing, conference sessions labeled "(A) Advanced" explore how to excel in a highly-sourced environment, use proven techniques for deriving greater business value from next-generation deals and create a high-performing sourcing organization.

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How often do your vendors or suppliers tell you that they're your "partner"? I bet it's probably daily. But do they have a clear definition of what it means to be your partner? According to one dictionary: A "partner" implies a relationship in which each party has equal status and a certain independence, but also has unspoken or formal obligation to the other or others. A supplier (or vendor) adequately fulfills, provides or delivers what (product or service) is needed at a given price. I believe suppliers and their customers shouldn't loosely toss around terms like "partner", but should identify what it means to exhibit "partner-like" behaviors.

This results in developing vendor relationships at different levels and defined by the degree of focus on joint accomplishment and shared risk. The key is the extent to which the vendor is directly focused on a customer's business problems and to what extent mechanisms are in place to drive shared risk and shared reward. Any level of relationship should be considered as appropriate and positive in different situations. As one CIO phrased it, "I have many suppliers and vendors, a few trusted advisors, but I will only trust my operations to one partner." Emotionally, the concept of a partner holds greater importance, as its connotation is one of collaboration, shared objectives and commitment. However, a hierarchy of IT service relationships occurs where some will evolve over time to a different level. The terminology that we use to refer to the relationship should optimally reflect the attributes and behavior appropriate to the outcomes. For some that may be vendor or supplier, for others trusted advisor, and in those very rare situations, the term "partner" may apply.

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