eSCM-SP

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


The eSourcing Capability Model for Service Providers (eSCM-SP) is a framework developed by ITSqc at Carnegie Mellon University. The eSCM-SP is a “best practices” capability model with three purposes: (1) to give service providers guidance that will help them improve their capability across the sourcing life-cycle, (2) to provide clients with an objective means of evaluating the capability of service providers, and (3) to offer service providers a standard to use when differentiating themselves from competitors.

Contents

[edit] eSourcing

IT-enabled sourcing, or eSourcing, uses information technology as a key component of service delivery, or as an enabler for delivering services. Often provided remotely eSourcing services range from routine and non-critical tasks that are resource intensive and operational in nature to strategic processes that directly impact revenues.

[edit] Critical issues for eSourcing

While developing the eSCM-SP, 23 issues were identified as being critical for successful eSourcing. These critical issues have been classified into six themes:

  1. Good relationships between the service provider and the client, the end users, suppliers, and all stakeholders.
  2. Selecting, hiring, and retaining a motivated workforce.
  3. Well defined and delivered services that satisfy commitments and meet client needs.
  4. Managing common business threats, such as security issues, risk management, disaster recovery, and statutory and regulatory requirements.
  5. Providing world-class services that are always improving.
  6. Managing service transitions well at both engagement initiation and completion.

[edit] Model Structure

The current version, eSCM-SP v2, is composed of 84 Practices that address the critical capabilities needed by IT-enabled service providers. Each Practice is distributed along three dimensions, 1) Sourcing Life-cycle, 2) Capability Area, and 3) Capability Level.

[edit] Sourcing Life-Cycle

Although most quality models focus only on delivery capabilities, in eSourcing there are also critical issues associated with initiation and completion of an engagement, as well as the overall capabilities of the service provider. For this reason the first dimension of the eSCM-SP Practices highlights where in the Sourcing Life-cycle each Practice is most relevant. The Sourcing Life-cycle is divided into Ongoing, Initiation, Delivery, and Completion. Ongoing Practices span the entire Sourcing Life-cycle, while Initiation, Delivery, and Completion occur in specific phases of that Life-cycle.

[edit] Capability area

eSourcing is delivered through a series of interdependent functions that enables service providers to effectively deliver service. The second dimension of the eSCM-SP, Capability Areas, provides logical groupings of Practices to help users better remember and intellectually manage the content of the model. These groupings allow service providers to build or demonstrate capabilities in each critical sourcing function, addressing all of the critical sourcing issues discussed above. All of the Ongoing Practices are contained within six of the ten Capability Areas: Knowledge Management, People Management, Performance Management, Relationship Management, Technology Management, and Threat Management. The other four Capability Areas are temporal and are typically associated with a single phase of the Sourcing Life-cycle: Initiation, Delivery, or Completion. The exception is Service Transfer, which includes both Initiation and Completion Practices. In addition to Service Transfer, the temporal Capability Areas are Contracting, Service Design & Deployment, and Service Delivery.

[edit] Capability level

The third dimension in the eSCM–SP is Capability Levels. The five Capability Levels of the eSCM–SP describe an improvement path that clients should expect service providers to travel. This path starts from a desire to provide eSourcing services, and continues to the highest level, demonstrating an ability to sustain excellence.

  • Capability Level 1: Providing services
  • Capability Level 2: Consistently meeting requirements
  • Capability Level 3: Managing organizational performance
  • Capability Level 4: Proactively enhancing value
  • Capability Level 5: Sustaining excellence

[edit] References