At Dog and Bone, working with many charities and for purpose organisations as an independent consultant, we understand that IT Service Providers or MSPs, are important contributors to the successful management of technology and day to day operations of most NFPs.
We have seen over many years of assisting our NFP clients with technology, that organisations, especially those with little or no internal IT knowledge or capability, can often find challenges in working with their IT services provider. Some NFPs are convinced that their IT support provider’s staff ‘speak another language’, ‘don’t understand what I am saying’ or ‘don’t do what I want them to do’. This can lead to ineffective and dysfunctional relationships that negatively impact the staff and operations of the organisation.
Based on our experience reviewing, finding and overseeing IT service providers for our NFP clients, we have put together a series of questions for you to ask yourself that can help you get the most out of your current provider or find a new one that is better suited to your organisation.
Are they your partner?
In the children’s book “Are You My Mother” by P. D. Eastman, a hatchling bird embarks on a journey to find its mother, asking many different animals along the way. Likewise, every organisation who needs external help with their IT, must continually ask the question of their current or perspective IT services provider, “are you my partner?”
Partnership is first and foremost the most important factor for an effective relationship between an IT services provider and NFP, but it is not just the service providers sole responsibility, partnership requires equal responsibility by your organisation as well.
“IT systems and services are a critical enabler for staff to perform their role in your NFP organisation and to your clients and they can only reach their full potential through a true partnership between your organisation and the service provider.”
A true partnership is everyone working together towards a common goal, which implies that the goals are shared openly between organisations with collaboration on plans and steps to achieve these goals. It is important that these goals are bi-directional, with the service provider likely to have their own goals for the partnership.
Is their role clearly agreed?
While working in partnership is the intention, the reality is that there is (or should be) an agreement for services governing the partnership. The agreement, generally in the form of a contract, a purchase agreement, or services scope will detail services to be provided and costs to be paid along with terms and conditions.
If this agreement is not right for your organisation, then the partnership is built on an unstable foundation and will likely develop cracks which can evolve into un-resolvable disconnects between the parties. We often see this as organisations change technology, such as moving from servers to the cloud, without having a formal process for updating the agreement or expectations to include support or management of the new technologies.
A strong partnership will be built on a solid foundation which clearly details the responsibilities of all parties leading to a shared understanding and a shared expectation of both parties to work together within the boundaries of the agreement.
Can they provide the services and support you need?
This is generally viewed as a negative statement, however in a true partnership this can be seen as more of a positive statement rather than a negative one.
On one hand, a provider may use this statement to support not doing work outside of the agreement and can be a method of avoidance, but in a partnership, the provider may be identifying that the request is outside of their technical expertise and don’t want to do a sub-standard job.
Returning to the previous point, a solid foundation on which the partnership is built will provide guidance in this situation where the provider may recommend alternative services or partners to engage with for specialty services or may be able to extend the agreement to include the new services if they align with the shared goals.
Working with a client recently, supporting them through a relocation and fit-out of a new building, their IT service provider declined to provide the services to fit-out the meeting rooms which the client wanted to integrate into MS Teams. Their provider declined as they did not have the relevant experience and capability instead committing to working with another specialist vendor to support the integration and ongoing maintenance of the systems to achieve the clients’ objectives.
Are they being transparent with you?
A common complaint from our clients is often that there is a lack of transparency by providers with costs, service levels, project progress and security reporting. A lack of transparency can come in many forms such as hiding information, deflection from answering direct questions, reporting at a ten-thousand-foot view without substantial detail, or not clearly articulating what services are being performed. While this lack of transparency can indicate a failing relationship, it can also equally arise from a lack of clarity or shared understanding and solid foundation for the services. Clearly set out responsibilities and expectations are a key foundation to enable transparency.
Like in many industries, there are some bad providers interested only in the revenue they can make from each customer using many tactics to avoid meeting responsibilities or presenting data and metrics in misleading ways. We have however also seen service providers who have struggled to really understand what their client is looking for and have not been able to work with cloudy expectations. Working collaboratively with both the client and the service provider we were able to assist in more clearly establishing the expectations and requirements for both organisations.
Are they the right fit for what you need?
Gold plating is a term often used within the project management profession describing delivery of outcomes above or more than what is required. This can also apply to IT service providers where they may offer or propose solutions and services that are more than what your organisation needs. This can be to either build additional sales, corral your organisation into their suite of products or services, or just from a belief that everyone should have the ultimate solution.
A true partner will have knowledge about your organisation and work hand in hand with you to achieve the shared business goals addressing needs with services and solutions which are appropriate to your organisation and the stage of your organisational journey.
Are you proactively managing the partnership?
IT services is a long and never-ending journey and as such you want a good co-pilot or navigator riding shotgun with you.
The organisational journey can be a technology transition such as migrating to cloud services, adopting AI, increasing privacy and security controls, or can be a service governance journey such as improving risk mitigation and business continuity, uplifting governance and service management.
There will be many stops (destinations) along the way and will involve changes in direction driven by both business and technological changes. Your provider needs to be able to support you through your journey, providing advice, being flexible and navigating the complexities that will inevitably arise.
We have seen how organisations can easily fall into the mindset of set and forget, thinking that once the transition or implementation project is done, there is nothing more to do. Having assisted several organisations to establish a regular (ideally monthly) check-in through service delivery and account management meetings has provided them a way to build a stronger long-term relationship.
Can you resolve issues together?
Throughout your journey, you will encounter issues and roadblocks to achieving your business goals and a willingness to work together to resolve these is paramount.
Many organisations struggle to resolve issues without a mechanism to bring them to the forefront, address, and resolve them, leaving them to have an ongoing impact on the relationship over time.
Planning for issues and having an appropriate way to manage these with your provider is a critical component of the foundation to establish at the beginning of the relationship so when they arise, there is an agreed method to work through and resolve these issues.
What and where is the problem?
Understanding the real problem with your current IT services agreement and provider is the first and most important step in deciding what actions to take.
The other consideration before embarking on a fault-finding or blame exercise with the IT service provider, is your own organisation’s role in the partnership and ask the question, “are we contributing to the problem?”
Consider current overarching service or relationship issues (not the individual tickets that have been logged with the help desk) and how they align with business needs. These can be grouped into four categories, such as:
Trust
Do you trust that they want to be your true partner and work with you on your journey?
Do you trust your provider to be open and transparent?
Do you feel you are important to your provider and are given the priority you expect?
Technology
Can your provider support the technologies you need to work with both now and into the future?
What is their technology and capability roadmap?
Does the staff that work at the provider have the expertise and capability to support the technologies that you use?
Service
Are you getting the level of service responsiveness that you need and are contracted for?
Are you getting the quality of services that you expect and need in a provider?
Do they have the systems and processes in place to provide the service you need?
Value
Are the costs associated with the service appropriate?
Are we getting what we pay for?
Are the costs transparent and you understand what you are paying for?
I need a change, now what?
The first step after identifying that a change is needed is to evaluate if the current relationship can be salvaged or are there insurmountable issues which prevent this.
Ending a relationship is not always a bad thing to do or to be seen as a failure. On multiple occasions we have assisted clients to mutually agree an amicable separation with their incumbent provider as their paths had diverged and needs for services had changed.
Depending on the problem identified, there are three approaches Dog and Bone typically recommend considering facilitating a change:
Review, renegotiate and reset with your existing provider
We see many situations where our clients are generally happy with the provider they have, and more importantly trust that their provider wants to partner with them, however there are some issues or misalignment between the organisations and services being provided. An ideal time to undertake this is at contract renewal time or if on a month-to-month basis it can be done at any time.
In this scenario, we would typically recommend a review process where both the client and the provider participate collaboratively to understand the current gaps, underlying concerns and future needs. Then once the needs are understood, develop a services agreement that can meet the requirements of the organisation and provide good value and a strong foundation for a mutually beneficial partnership.
Some of the steps to review, renegotiate and reset with your existing provider include:
Understand and clearly document your technology and service needs and expectations.
Understand and clearly document where you want to be in the future.
Identify the gaps in services.
Understand the services the IT service provider can offer.
Engage in open and transparent dialog with the current service provider.
Determine budgetary impacts and constraints.
Request a formal quote and new services agreement.
Negotiate and agree a new agreement for all services and costs.
Continually review and nurture the new agreement and partnership.
Case Study
Here is an example of when Dog and Bone helped Gowrie Victoria to review and benchmark their current managed service provider and renegotiate a new agreement.
Procure a new IT services partner through an RFP process
There are times when resetting is not an option, which may be from a lack of trust between organisations, a technology or service shortfall, or a change in business direction either with our client or the service provider, so you need to find a new IT services partner.
Typically to find a new IT services provider we would recommend a thorough procurement process, such as a ‘Request for Proposal’ process. We have facilitated many RFP processes for new IT services providers and have found it an effective, transparent and efficient way for NFP organisations to evaluate potential providers fairly and reduce the risk of making a poor or uneducated decision.
Some of the steps we would usually include in a “Request for Proposal’ process for a new IT services provider for an NFP organisation include:
Gathering and documenting requirements for existing and future technologies and services that you may need help from an IT services provider for.
Confirming what IT functions will be performed internally and what will be provided by the vendor.
Preparing RFP documentation about your environment, requirements and procurement process to share with potential vendors.
Shortlisting potential vendors.
Conducting an RFP (Request for Proposal) process to select a new provider.
Facilitate presentations of solutions and meeting prospective vendors.
Evaluate proposals and vendors using an agreed selection criteria.
Negotiate with preferred vendor.
Clearly document in an agreement or contract the agreed services, costs and terms.
Transition to the new provider and any new technology solutions.
Implement ongoing vendor management processes and regular reviews.
Case Study
Here is an example of a recent project where Dog and Bone helped VACCA find a new managed service provider.
Evolve and proactively manage the partnership
Many of our clients who are finance or operational staff in NFP organisations, who have little experience in IT, often find it difficult to effectively manage IT services providers. Lack of mutual understanding and a clear definition of roles often causes conflict, delays in decision making and projects, and decreasing satisfaction levels in service provision.
However, we find that with some proactive management of the partnership and education of the staff in both the client and the service provider, many relationships can be improved. Improving the partnership is often the first and easiest option to improving IT services instead of needing to find an alternative provider. This is particularly important in the middle of a long-term contract or when the cost or impact of change is prohibitive.
Some of the key practices that we often help our clients and their vendors to improve their partnerships include:
Conducting regular service delivery meetings between (usually monthly) to review tickets, service levels, trends and outstanding tasks.
Adopting clear project management methodologies and reporting for any upgrades, projects or improvement initiatives.
Regular reporting (usually monthly) of all service requests, completed tasks, service levels, satisfaction levels.
Providing access to service ticketing portals and documentation such as asset registers, license agreements, contracts, compliance reports.
Implement validation processes such as test restores of backups or security penetration testing to ensure services are effective and implemented correctly.
Regular reviews (usually quarterly) of the agreement, services and costs to ensure ongoing suitability.
Providing a summary of service delivery and key IT outcomes or risks in a report or dashboard to management.
Case Study
Here is an example of where Dog and Bone helped the Sisters of Good Samaritan by managing the transition to a new provider and providing ongoing oversight of the agreement.
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We'd love to chat with you on how we can help through technology and telecommunications strategy, procurement and management.
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