PMI Global Insights

By Sharmila Das, PMP
Senior Consultant, TCS

I presented at the PMI Virtual Experience Series 2021 event held on 6-7 October 2021.  This was a great event with featured speakers, exhibits and networking activities.

My presentation, “Winning Customer Confidence by Designing a ‘Transparent-and-Tangible’ Commercial Transformation Roadmap,” focused on the following: Contract outsourcing behavior is undergoing a sea change in today's world. “Pay for what you get” is the industry buzzword today. This changing industry dynamic has led to an evolution of customer mindset and expectations. Most organizations exhibit strong intentions to embark on a commercial transformation journey shifting from managed capacity to managed output and outcome-based commercial constructs along with their Agile transformation. In an effort towards moving up the commercial value chain, customers expect IT vendors and service providers to put their skin in the game through a bonus-malus framework for business/IT outcomes achieved. Hence, IT vendors and service providers are now constantly on the edge to reposition themselves as a “strategic partner” to their valued customers.

So how do we bring about customer delight here? What is that solution which customers would love to internalize enterprise-wide to undergo a seamless commercial transformation? 

 In an effort to reinforce collaborations with customers and win their confidence, we bring forth a well-integrated and compelling solution that will build a robust ecosystem of estimation governance, Agile key performance indicator (KPI) management, and a transparent commercial transformation roadmap.

The key takeaways of my presentation are:

• The different flavors of Agile contracting models along with the controls or guardrails to make each such model a win-win for both parties
• A patented estimation model that forms the core engine of innovative pricing model
• A step-by-step commercial transformation plan.

I want to take the opportunity to respond to a question submitted by an attendee:

Question:  What methods do you use to ensure the value proposed is realized over measure phase?

The Commercial Transformation solution framework has an in-built KPI management framework that identifies, defines, measures, and baselines the different team performance KPIs, which in turn helps provide insights on the value proposed versus realized. At the ground level, we have metrics like the say-do ratio measured for each team to help understand what entities are proposed for delivery versus what has been delivered.

Also, the Commercial Transformation solution framework uses a value quantification and management framework that attaches business value to the delivered output (measured), thereby helping customers understand the value being delivered at the end of an iteration/release/phase against what has been proposed.

I had a great time presenting, and the full presentation will be on demand through 31 January 2022.  Visit PMI Virtual Experience Series 2021 for more details.