Many Managed Services Programs discover surprises during the steady state delivery relating to unmet expectations from customers.
The root cause of many of these can be traced to inadequate attention paid to the transitioning.
While there are multiple experts contributing to the pre-sales and proposal stages, the due diligence conducted may not have gone into the details of many aspects related to the service delivery to follow.
In the recent years, the role of a transition manager has been evolving to address these aspects with specialized focus.
A transition manager is typically trained and exposed to many unique aspects that are very critical in the transition phase of an engagement.
these may include:
– translating the MSA KPIs into operational parameters and set up the overall engagement governance
– conducting a detailed due diligence on the scope of work and specific areas to be transitioned
– working out the interfaces, protocols for dependencies on other service providers
– handling HR issues of rebadged employees as well as ones that would be made redundant [TUPE laws and related union regulations etc. could be significant]
– getting the complete technical landscape mapped [at application, portfolio and environment levels]
– assessing application structural qualities – to understand the risks associated
– inferring the stability and other aspects from run books
– ensuring that playback sessions are conducted to confirm understanding and ability to manage independently
– having a clear, validated knowledge transfer plan
– ensuring that the client responsibilities are adequately discharged to ensure smooth transition
– defining the roles and responsibilities of various participating groups internally within the organization setting up the governance mechanism
Transition managers will work very closely with all stakeholder groups across the service provider and customer organizations. Their responsibility will conclude when the transition activities are completed and the delivery responsibility handed over to a designated team.
Transition managers may also continue on to the steady state, but not as a rule.
So, there will be another handover phase from a Transition Manager to a Program manager.
Some of the above points will be the subject of further posts in this series.
Do you have any experience or views on making transitions effective? Do share them.
