Contract Training

ESI is offering an interesting sounding two-day class, titled, "Managing Outsourcing Contracts." The class will be avialable here:

• Denver, May 2-3
• Washington, D.C., June 13-14
• Las Vegas, Sept. 19-20
• Washington, D.C., Oct. 24-25

Tuition is $1,295. Here's the course rundown:

Course Topics

1. Outsourced Environment Overview
   1. Defining the outsourced environment
   2. Outsourcing strategies and objectives
2. Expectations Management
   1. Service definitions
      • Client process communications and management
      • Translation of services into contract terms
      • Standard versus “ad hoc” service requests
   2. Cost tracking
      • Service type tracking methods
      • Functional “usage” tracking methods
      • Cost collection methodologies
      • Matching costs to monthly service billings
   3. Communications
      • Service processing within the client
      • Operational processing between the client and the outsourcer
      • Exception handling
      • New service requests
3. Service Level Management
   1. Metrics derivation
      • Process related metrics
      • Technical metrics
      • Business related metrics
   2. Assessing and deriving service levels
      • Determining business needs
      • Evaluating service capabilities
      • Deriving service level structure and targets
      • Measurement and analysis
      • Service trend identification
      • Trend management
      • “Causes and cures” for service level issues
4. Contract Governance
   1. Governance roles and responsibilities
      • Contract office setup
      • Management approaches to the outsourcer relationship
      • Management approaches to service delivery within your organization
   2. Steering committee roles and responsibilities
      • Management representation schemes
      • Performance review responsibilities
      • Business goal attainment assessments
      • Governance processes
      • Service consumption controls
      • Oversight of processes or technical solutions
      • Cost control and approval processes
      • Customer satisfaction monitoring and control
      • Status reporting and reporting processes
      • Reporting standards and meetings
      • Status methods – the “dashboard” and other approaches
5. Issue Management
   1. Issues vs. disputes — definitions
   2. Issue identification and escalation
      • Early warning signs
      • Issue tracking and standard issue handling processes
      • Escalation data collection and execution processes
      • Dispute management
      • Prevention approaches
      • Dispute handling
      • Decision options — client actions
6. Requirements Changes and Contract Management
   1. Identifying and assessing business requirement changes
      • Determining if a process change has occurred
      • Validating the contract — does it support the new process?
      • Negotiating contract changes to accommodate new processes
   2. Aligning the outsourcing contract to a changing business
      • Contract clauses to handle changes in advance
      • Contract clauses to accommodate new service or processes
      • Managing and proposing contract changes
      • Aligning with your business
      • Understanding outsourcer motivations and contract conditions