With increasing demand on businesses to rapidly deliver change to remain competitive and keep up with regulation, looking beyond the constraints of internal resources and skills becomes an increasingly attractive proposition. There are many great companies with the resources and specialist skills available to deliver products and services, however this is only one facet of an overall successful delivery. Often the delivery partner is a stream of a much larger programme of work accompanied by many other internal and external workstreams. It becomes clear that the whole of the change cannot be fully outsourced. In addition, senior stakeholders or end clients demand certainty of delivery to align to their corporate or customer objectives. Organisations can be faced with managing any number of internal and external streams, with complex and interdependent deliverables.

Something as fundamental as articulating the vision and specific objectives of a new or developing product or service can be difficult to manage. Driving out the core ‘why’ and sifting through the big wish list up front, prioritising based on business value and aligning the stakeholder and supplier expectations is key.

Convincing stakeholders to invest first in an MVP and then, once proven to deliver over a defined roadmap based on value can be tricky. The first drop usually delivers only a small amount of financial benefit, however provides much more value in terms of validating the remaining roadmap and proving the feasibility of the offering. It also develops and strengthens the core delivery team and rewards their efforts by delivering incremental, visible and tangible benefits.

System Integrators have been around for a long time to help bring separate component systems into a whole coherent system, however the concept in change delivery terms doesn’t seem as common. Some traditional consulting propositions can feel a bit ‘off the shelf’ when a more tailored approach is required. Internal resources can also be used, however sometimes this can bring its own challenges when seeking an objective view and brokering solutions across the piece. A well-structured and maintained programme with clear accountabilities and stakeholder buy in is vital.