The decision if a transition project will succeed or fail is already being made during the due diligence stage, i.e. the tendering process during which the provider and his offer are being thoroughly scrutinized by the client: What are the contender’s strengths and what, if any, are possible weaknesses in his offer?

If you concentrate on the “hard facts” alone at this stage, you are already making the first mistake. Because despite all the necessary legitimacy of analyzing the provider’s economic, legal, tax and financial circumstances, in practice these circumstances usually are soft factors that can have both a positive or negative effect on the transition, such as ongoing restructuring or mergers in the market provider organization.

The evaluation matrix therefore must include categories such as “provider’s character”, meaning, are the provider and the client on equal terms? How about the chemistry between the parties? And also, do the companies’ different working cultures match?

There is homework to be done in advance of the transition on the client’s side, going beyond the preparation of skillful negotiating tactics: the Retained Organization as a controlling interface between provider and business units – in addition to a dedicated project team for transition and transformation (T&T) – must be ready to take over the leadership.

The RT takes responsibility of T&T during the contract negotiating period and should therefore be set up for work as early as possible and, above all else, must be able to act effectively during the transition project. One crucial task for a regulated exit always proves to be the involvement of the previous provider in the transition process. In a best-case scenario, the old project is a mirror image of the new provider’s ideas, so that content-related topics can be worked out together.

Most common hurdles: leadership, appointments, people
In the past, numerous T&T projects have shown that mostly the same kind of organizational hurdles to overcome occurs during the transition process, namely the lack of leadership, untenable and missed meeting appointments, conflicts within the team(s) and, rather frequently: a lack of customer service.

The new provider does not take over leadership
The success of a transition project largely depends on the project manager. Creating the concepts, implementing the systems, preparing operational readiness and, finally, migration, all fall within his oder her area of responsibility. The customer typically provides information such as interface documentation, tests and he is conducting inspections. In order to successfully implement the transition, the provider must go lead the way in planning and controlling, not just his own but also for the service branches of the customer, meaning he must take the leadership.

More often than not, however, a valid project plan proves to be available only after several months during an already ongoing transition project. Also, the end dates for project milestones or deliverables may vary regularly. Backwards, of course.

This lack of leadership can have different reasons: deficits within the project management framework for one, possibly paired with weak leadership skills on the provider’s side. This can be caused by a lack of involvement by the provider’s project leader, appointed so in the contract specifications, leading, as a result, to unrealistic time limits. Another reason might simply be a shortage of resources, both on the customer’s as well on the provider’s side.

When the provider takes over leadership, one must always keep in mind that it is in the customer’s basic interest to help making the transition a success. A pure consumer attitude of the customer would be naive and negligent and must, sooner or later, lead to failure – not only regarding the transition, but also concerning the desired outsourcing of the business.

Consequently, the customer can and must give structural and methodical support if necessary – usually with topics from the small project multiplication table:

milestones / deliverables are clearly phrased out (“concept has been approved”), with an appropriate date set for approving submissions.

The entire transition project mainframe consists of phases and major milestones with only the next pending phase furnished with detailed planning. The project reporting is based on customary templates and specifications. The formal requirements for documentation, such as file names, versioning and content structure are based on customary templates and specifications. Project support applies for setting up planning, tracking activities and reporting. In addition, project initiation must be explicitly planned. Ideally, first steps have already been determined during the due diligence phase.

Schedules of the T&T service certificate and performance plan can not be complied with
Who has turned the clock? Despite careful planning and preparation, in the end it is always the time threatening to run out during the course of the project. In moments like these it is important to stay focused on the main objective. In case of transition it is the technical migration that has to be be completed in time.

It is advisable to not overload the T&T service schedule with too many deadlines, but instead to make sure that only essential goals (e.g., “Go Live of System xy”) are being completed for the time being. Further necessary preliminary results, such as acceptance of the migration concept, approval of the security implementation or successful user-acceptance tests are being established only by its contents yet without any deadlines for completion which are being layed down in the transition plan.

If, for example, the go-live deadline of the system or the service does overrun, the delay is financially being worn by the provider, since those but few appointments are equipped with a payment plan. Possible penalties and changes within the contract must formally be settled.

Even if the customer’s project team acts cooperatively, the customer management must act as determined as possible within the commercial parts of the contract (unless the customer is behind schedule with his payout plan). Finally, the provider takes responsibility for leading the transition successfully.

A team needs to pick up routine
Wherever people meet, there is friction. There are many situations with potential for conflict, especially where performance-oriented work is done. This it is all the more true when major changes are pending. Clearly determined rules of engagement as principles of collaboration are helpful to prevent issues to escalate. It basically means that one has to be aware that conflicts are natural, often necessary and a constructive processes of team building: A new team goes through four group dynamic phases “form-storm norm-perform” in order to establish itself as such.

Only a well-rehearsed and well-prepared team can achieve all T&T goals on time and to the satisfaction of every participant. The importance of continuous teamwork are hereby not to be underestimated. Constant personnel changes are also to be avoided, they do more harm than good.