More and more companies are outsourcing parts of their service provision to external providers. It is essential for economic success not to lose out in price negotiations with partners.
Service purchasing is not yet optimally organized at most service companies. As a rule, companies are still lagging behind in terms of professionalism when it comes to direct materials. Non-production materials have only gained importance in companies in terms of purchasing in recent years. Although the proportion of non-production material is just as significant in terms of purchasing volume.
What trends can be identified with regard to partner management in service and after-sales?
More and more companies are outsourcing simple activities in the service sector. Many players are pursuing the goal of being able to focus more on their own core competencies. It is becoming increasingly difficult to find sufficiently trained technicians to handle the entire workload themselves. However, the personnel problem naturally also affects the service providers themselves, which is why they often resort to workers from Eastern Europe. There is an increasing trend towards concluding contracts for work when commissioning services. This makes it easier for the client to plan costs.
Contracts for work and services are preferable to service contracts
As part of a contract for work and services, the external company owes the client the creation of a specific trade or a specific result. The remuneration is based exclusively on the result of the service provided and not on hourly rates. The contractor bears the risk and is liable in the event of non-performance.
The biggest challenge here is to define the expected result as precisely as possible. The wider the range of services - for example due to a large machine portfolio - the more difficult it is to define the result, as very different variants have to be covered. Contracts for work and services offer you a lower risk and enable a better cost calculation. Check the prices regularly after a year and take the provider's learning curve into account. This is because service providers are getting better and better at providing their services. Continue to track how long it takes the service provider to carry out a particular task.
In a service contract, on the other hand, the external company only owes the client the provision of a specific service. It is therefore billed by the hour, regardless of the time required to perform the service. The risk therefore lies with the client.
How can I build up a good partner network?
There are a large number of service providers on the market. The main difference between them is their size. However, they are often smaller companies with up to 50 employees. It is therefore probably unavoidable to pursue a multi-supplier strategy. This also avoids the risk of becoming too dependent on a single partner.
Experience shows that onboarding new service providers is easier if you start with simple and definable activities. Nevertheless, you should clarify in advance how scalable the partner's capacities are before making a decision.
Official tenders based on a defined service catalog are advantageous
Official invitations to tender provide greater market transparency with regard to competitive prices. The specification of a tender template with the individual service components also makes it easier to compare bids when evaluating them. However, tenders are not only interesting from a commercial point of view. The service provider also invests more in mutual cooperation if it has to regularly prove itself and face up to its challengers.
Shadow calculations offer a better negotiating position
Shadow costing is a method of cost analysis in which the various cost components are recalculated on the basis of benchmarks and empirical values (e.g. the composition of a supplier's hourly rate). This makes it possible to understand the supplier's cost structures. This can be particularly advantageous in difficult negotiations and offer a better negotiating position.
By confronting the supplier with their own calculations, it is often possible to uncover unnecessary processes and specifications that the service provider has been carrying out in this way for many years. This makes it possible to reduce the costs of the joint service. Sometimes you can also get a partner to disclose their own costing simply by shadow costing. The latter is also a sensible goal in the context of a negotiation.
Work with predefined templates!
You specify the services and the service provider informs you of their price, together with the time required. This provides excellent transparency and comparability of the offers. This also helps the specialist department in particular to compare the calculated costs with their own estimates. However, sometimes the relevant machine types are too complex and the number of different modules makes it difficult to define a suitable module price for each variant.
Long-term contracts are an advantage
Hourly rates are rising continuously, so it is advisable to focus on long-term contracts. Ideally, without entering into purchase commitments.
The design of the tender is crucial
First of all, you need to consider which services you would like to outsource to an external service partner and then define these in as much detail as possible in the form of a specification sheet. Good cooperation between purchasing and the specialist department is crucial to success here. A list of possible partners should then be drawn up.
The approval of the specialist department is also important here. This is the only way to ensure that you not only find the right provider from a commercial point of view, but also that the technical requirements are taken into account in your decision. Once you have obtained the offers from your potential partners, a simple benefit analysis is recommended to objectively assess them in order to rationally underpin your gut feeling.
