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Author: Mary McKeown-Christie
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One company's exceptional journey to creating a successful, long-term
outsourcing relationship to support growth. |
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As the founding partner of Polaris Management Partners, a U.S. based management and technology consulting firm for the Life Sciences industry, Andy Bender knew his company was at a cross roads and needed help to grow. Polaris offers a suite of technology products and services for the Life Sciences industry that focuses on automating health care law compliance. Software products provided as SaaS (Software as a Service) solutions require ongoing development and customization which began to deplete internal resources and take time way from product development and customer service. |
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Realizing this, Andy initiated a growth strategy designed to balance the dual forces of growth that allowed for scalability and cost control which lead him to finding a long-term technology partner in India. For help, Andy turned to Annet Technologies, an IT solutions consulting firm focused on providing services to the Healthcare and Real Estate industries, based in Mumbai, India. |
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Polaris carefully selected Annet Technologies from a list of possible strategic partners through a diligent interview process that left no rock unturned. Several key issues were considered before selecting a long-term partner; |
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Would Annet Technologies be willing to make an investment in understanding the needs of the Polaris user?
Understanding the users provides key ideas so the programs will exceed expectations. Annet Programmers would need to understand general expectations of the software solutions, as well as what kind of input to expect, what type of input would be required, how they would interact with the Polaris customer, and how the program applies to the real world? |
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Would Annet Technologies dedicate the appropriate amount of time and effort needed for planning, managing and testing Polaris software to get exactly what they wanted?
Due to time pressures and resource constraints, some organizations take the "throwing it over the fence approach” and hope that their offshore partner will “figure it out”. This typically results in poor working relationships, and even poorer results while increasing the cycle of frustrated and unhappy clients with sub-par results. To succeed, both parties need to commit to making the investment and the process work. |
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Would Annet Technologies be willing to make an investment to properly scope each project?
Did they have the experience and time needed to develop this skill? And if so, were they committed to spending the appropriate amount of time needed to properly scope each project? |
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Would Annet Technologies be able to learn Polaris’ “vision” with regard to implementation and future product development?
Companies are often amazed at how many different interpretations hired developers may get from one document. What they miss are the assumptions considered when the document was written — the background taken for granted by the writer – a functional specifications consultant. In order for there to be a shared “vision”, time would need to be spent by both parties to ensure a clear understanding of the process to document requirements, status updates and testing. Without commitment to a shared vision, there is no future. |
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Polaris reviewed and visited several companies. Annet was one of the few to that was willing to make the investment to understand Polaris’ vision. Once Annet was selected, Polaris and Annet Technologies laid the groundwork for a solid foundational relationship by allocating internal resources to spend as much time was needed with their counterparts on developing processes and procedures to enhance communications and obtain feedback until comfort levels on both sides were high. |
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In the beginning, like in most relationships, things progressed slowly, and did not go without hiccups. Processes and procedures were established to make the relationships effective; single points of contact (“project coordinators”) were established on both sides with frequent communication; documentation processes and service level expectations were set. |
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Annet was tasked with small jobs to learn the Polaris systems and understand best practices for implementation, and the foundation began to take shape. Polaris provided background information and presentations on where its clients’ markets were evolving, what the drivers of change were, and how these drivers would impact the service offerings. |
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Several visits were made by both companies to meet the respective teams and get to know the people within the organizations personally — a deep knowledge was built over time. During these visits, Polaris spent a lot of time reviewing current processes, debriefing on recent projects, and setting objectives for improving the process for future projects. A strong commitment to face-to-face relations was essential, and helped overcome the “I never knew what they go through…” syndrome plaguing many U.S. companies who outsource technical work. Noon in New York is 10:30pm in Mumbai, India, but often times this is overlooked or disregarded. Somehow, the person behind the voice is lost in the way business is conducted in the U.S. |
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As the depth and mutual respect of their relationship grew, both Polaris and Annet realized they were “like minded” and the “vision” for the relationship emerged. Because of the trusted relationship they developed with Annet, Polaris client managers were allowed to focus on clients and project management, setting standards and agreeing to hold each other accountable which resulted in fewer bugs and less rework, increased customer satisfaction, and reduced cycle times and costs. The number of bugs coming back reduced significantly due to the right processes and documentation developed as a team. |
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Within two years, Annet moved from primarily supporting implementation, to running production for 40+ applications designed to run as a SaaS Healthcare Compliance “suite”. Annet became a strategic partner to Polaris. This is a dramatic shift for any organization and required a tremendous level of commitment. |
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What made it possible? Not just commitment, but communication with context to grow domain expertise. Meaning, Polaris people made great efforts to explain business cases for requested changes in context to ensure Annet people understood business reasoning within the Healthcare marketplace. This paid off in spades. The shift of Annet Technologies’ position as a tactical vs. strategic development partner was huge for Polaris in terms of customer service and growth. It allowed their staff to focus on customer development and service which dramatically improved their bottom line estimated to be 15% on most projects and up to 20-25% for some. |
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So what is the secret to making offshore partnerships work so well? Not unlike personal relationships, a commitment to invest in, and go through, the learning process is Key. Having insight and accepting that things will not go perfectly, but will work out the end, is imperative. Being open to accept continuous feedback in a respectful manner for improvement with 360 degree feedback cycles is crucial — application development, testing, accountability, hours being logged, all facets of the relationship should be reviewed for efficiency. Without this feedback, there is no growth, and no basis to develop a mutual understanding of each other’s position. And above all, the more time spent with each other developing the relationship, the more will be learned about one another as partners, not only in business, but in life. |
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| “Like in every relationship, there needs to be a commitment and an understanding that it will require a substantial investment to make it work. You can’t take a relationship for granted.” |
| - Andy Bender, Founder, Polaris Management Partners |
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A great business leader once said: "...the basic philosophy, spirit, and drive of an organization have far more to do with its relative achievements than do technological or economic resources, organizational structure, innovation, and timing. All these things weigh heavily in success. But they are, I think, transcended by how strongly the people in the organization believe in its basic precepts and how faithfully they carry them out" (from Thomas J. Watson, Jr., A Business and its Beliefs - The ideas that helped build IBM).1 |
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As true as this is for the success of a corporation, it is even more so for the individual. The most important single factor in individual success is COMMITMENT. Commitment ignites action. To commit is to pledge yourself to a certain purpose or line of conduct. It also means practicing your beliefs consistently. There are, therefore, two fundamental conditions for commitment. The first is having a sound set of beliefs. There is an old saying that goes, "Stand for something or you'll fall for anything." The second is faithful adherence to those beliefs with your behavior. Possibly the best description of commitment is "persistence with a purpose".2 |
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Few companies are willing to make this commitment, but those like Polaris Management and Annet Technologies who make the effort are paving the way for truly successful long term international business partnerships and significant developments for the Healthcare industry. |
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1 http://www.prismltd.com/commit.htm
2 http://www.prismltd.com/commit.htm |
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