Onsite Engagement Managers: Secrets of Offshoring Success?
In my previous job, working for a S&P 500 software company years ago, colleagues and I used to have a very nonchalant view of the job of account managers (alternatively known as Client Relationship Executives, Client Partners or Relationship Managers). The general perception among my techie colleagues was that those few roles at vendor organizations were a “known devil” whose main task was to renegotiate contract and rates with client managers, which in turn would translate to our bonuses. Of course that mindset was more prevalent in pure-play consulting -- a.k.a contracting / staff supplementation – and to some extent true of even turnkey contract projects.
Of course, the actual job involved much more than that. They also took on an element of P&L (Profit and Loss) responsibilities for accounts from the vendor’s end. The job also involved assisting HR with hiring consultants, ensuring that the fitment of consultants skills and clients needs was right and ensuring “customer satisfaction.”
As years have gone by, and offshoring became more mainstream, the role of onsite Engagement Manager (EM) [a.k.a Account Manager, Relationship Manager] has undergone a big transition. Now, the role is being recognized as being nodal to success of offshore sourcing engagements.
My earlier blog on a similar topic -- “The Hottest Jobs in Information Technology: Offshore Project Manager” – generated a few comments and perspectives from folks in the field.
It is interesting how academic analysts are also beginning to articulate the value of this role in organizations. In answering a query on the “investment worth making” in bringing an engagement manager over from the vendor, Prof. Joseph Rottman, was quoted in a recent CIO magazine article [Secrets of Offshoring Success] stating
For many engagements it's a necessity. [The engagement manager] is the primary point of contact for the client's project managers. That person will work with both the onshore and offshore development teams. They can help mitigate some of the time zone risks, the knowledge transfer risks, the cultural risks. That person is a key piece to all of this.
But an engagement manager is an expensive employee to have onsite. It's usually a person with four to six years of experience managing projects and a lot of customer-facing duties. When managers are looking only at labor arbitrage and the delta between onshore and offshore rates, they don't want to throw in that onsite engagement manager.
The way I look at it, the role of a good EM is not that of just a Project Manager…their job is more akin to that of IT-Directors….-essentially Program Leaders who take ownership of the "Profit and Loss" (P&L). They are onsite leaders who take "bottom-line" on large offshored initiatives and engagements.
Comments
I think the job of the Onsite Engagement Manager is the most critical position to ensure success of the offshore program. For the offshore team he / she is the eyes and ears to provide accurate information on what customer expects from the offshore team. From client perspective, the Onsite Engagement Manager is an important role as he/she is supposed to provide status report on the work being done by the Offshore Team. One important thing that the offshore team needs to understand is that for every small mistake they make, the Onsite Engagement Manager has to take the beating from the client. So being client facing at the client location is not an easy job. It is a high pressure and demanding job today.
Posted by: Akshay Upadhye | April 16, 2007 02:22 PM
Good post. One comment: very little is written about the engagement manager mindset. My belief is it requires a combination of sales tenacity(never say die), level headed temperament(structure,discipline, comfort with analysis) and excellent listening skills. Often I've seen, good EMs are very good professional rapport builders and this is a highly underrated, domain independent skill. People tend to respect other people not necessarily for their raw intelligence, but ability to listen well.
Posted by: Amit | December 14, 2007 01:46 AM
Thanks Amit and Akshay.
Indeed very little has been written about the role/job/mindset of EM's though most of us in the industry know how the successful ones work.
I will try and build further on this blog soon
Posted by: Mohan | December 21, 2007 09:55 PM
while i do believe it's a very important role, i also think the success of this depends on a) how it is communicated, across levels b) the authority vested in the engagement manager and c) will of the vendor's leadership/operational folks in actually actioning on perceived improvement areas.
My experience from a few years in this field (working for an i-banking kpo) is providers are fairly short sighted, constantly chasing monthly billing (acceptable), but not really focusing on offering an overall experience for the client.
While it is not likely to hurt vendors today (since clients dont have too many alternatives), clearly down-the-line....when the market opens up (which it will), vendors that take a very bottom line driven approach will not be the better for it.
Posted by: Big Kahuna | February 25, 2008 09:36 PM