See The PS Maturity Scorecard and Service Performance Insight, May 2014
Successful PSOs use a model to benchmark, segment and analyze their organization into five distinct areas of performance, both logical and functional. Five service performance pillars form the foundation of all service-oriented organizations (responsible parties appear in parenthesis):
Vision, strategy and culture: (CEO) a unique view of the future and the role the service organization will play in shaping it.
Finance and operations: (CFO) the ability to manage services profit and loss — to generate revenue and profit while developing repeatable operating processes, IT applications and management controls.
Human capital alignment: (human resources) the ability to attract, hire, retain and motivate high-quality employees and subcontractors.
Service execution: (engagement/delivery staff) the methodologies, processes and tools to effectively schedule, deploy and measure the quality of the service delivery process.
Client relationships: (marketing and sales) the ability to communicate effectively with employees, partners and customers to generate and close business and win deals.
Five maturity levels help determine the relative operational effectiveness of each pillar:
Level 1 — Initiated “Heroic”:
- The PSO is in its early stages; operating processes are ad hoc and fluid.
- The business environment is chaotic and opportunistic, and the focus for the PSO is primarily new client acquisition and reference building.
- Employees wear many hats and serve many roles.
- The primary goal is growth.
Level 2 — Piloted “Functional Excellence”:
- Core operating processes have become repeatable.
- The company can demonstrate best practices in separate functional areas or geographies, but staff has not documented and codified them yet for the entire organization.
Level 3 — Deployed “Project Excellence”:
- The PSO has created a set of standard processes and operating principles for all major service performance pillars, but renegades and “hold-outs” may still exist.
Level 4 — Institutionalized “Portfolio Excellence”:
- Management uses precise measurements, metrics and controls, to effectively manage the PSO.
- Each service-performance pillar contains a detailed set of operating principles, tools and measurements, with quantitative and qualitative goals for specific functions.
Level 5 — Optimized “Collaborative”:
- The PSO focuses on continual improvement of all elements of the five performance pillars.
- A disciplined, controlled process is in place to measure and optimize performance through both incremental and innovative technological improvements.
- Management has established quantitative process-improvement objectives, and continually revises them to reflect changing business objectives, and uses them as criteria in managing process improvement.
| Level 1 Initiatied |
Level 2 Piloted |
Level 3 Deployed |
Level 4 Institionalized |
Level 5 Optimized |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leadership | Initial strategy to support product sales and provide reference customers while providing workarounds to complete immature products. Leaders are "doers". | PS has become a profit center but is subordinate to product sales. Strategy is to drive customer adoption and references profitably. Leaders focus on P&L and client relationships. | PS is an important revenue and margin source but channel conflict still exists. Services differentiate products. Leadership development plans are in the place. Leaders have strong background & skills in all pillars. | Service leads products. PS is a vital part of the company. Solution selling is a way of life. PS is included in all strategy decisions. Succession plans are in place for critical leadership roles. | PS is critical to the company. Service strategy is clear. Complimentary goals and measurements are in place for all functions. Leaders have global vision and continually focus on renewal & expansion. |
| Client relationships | Opportunistic. No defined solution sets or Go To Market plan. Focus is on new customers and references. Individual heroics. No consistent sales, marketing, or partnering plan. | Start to use marketing to drive leads. Multiple sales models. Start measuring customers satisfaction. Start developing partners and partner plans. Some level of pricing controls. | Marketing, inside sales, solution sales with defined solution sets. Deal, pricing, and contract reviews. Partner plan and scorecard. Tight pricing and contract management controls. High levels of customer satisfaction. | Business processes, veritical and horizontal solutions. Centers of excellence. Top client and partner programs. Global contract and pricing management. Key partner relationships. Strong customer reference programs. | Executive relationshiops. Thought leadership. Brand building and awareness. High customer satisfaction. Integrated sales, marketing, and partnering. High quality references. |
| Human Capital Management | Hire as needed. Generalist skills. Chameleons. Jack of all trades. Individual heroics. May perform presales as well as consulting delivery. | Begin forecasting workload. Start developing job and skill descriptions & compensation plans. Rudimentary career paths. Start measuring employee satisfaction. | Resource, skill, and career management. Employee satisfaction surveys. Training plans. Goals and meaturements aligned with compensation. Attrition < 15%. | Business processes and vertical skills in addition to technical skills and project skills. Career leadder and menotring programs. Training investments to support career. Low attrition. High satisfaction. | Continually staff and train to meet future needs. Highly skilled, motivated workforce. Outsource commodity skills or peak demand. Sophisticated variable on-shore and off-short workforce model. |
| Service Execution | No scheduling. Reactive. Ad hoc. Heroic. No consistent project delivery methods. No consisten project or management. No consistent knowledge management. | Skeleton methodology in place. Initiating project management and technical skills. Starting to meature project satisfaction. Starting to harvest knowledge. | Collaborative portal. Earned Value Analysis. Project dashboard. Global Project Management Office. Project quality reviews and measurements. Effective change management. | Integrated project and resource management. Using portfolio management. Global PMO. Global project dashboard. Global knowledge management. Global resource management. | Integrated solutions. Continual checks and balances to assure superior utilitization and bill rates. Complete visibility to global project quality. Multi-disciplinary resource management. |
| Finance and Operations | The PSO has been created but is not yet profitable. Rudimentary time & expense capture. Limited financial visibility and control. Unpredictable financial performance. | 5% to 20% margin. PS becoming a profit center but still using immature finance processes and operating processes. investment in PSA to provide financial stabilitiy. | 20% to 30% margin. PS is a complete P&L. Standard methods for resource management, time management, expense management, cost control, and billing. In-depth knowledge of all costs at the employee level, subcontractor level, and project level. | PS generates > 20% of overall company revenue, and contributes > 30% margin. Well developed finance and operations processes and controls. IT automation and integration for all areas. | PS generates > 40% margin. Continous improvement and enhancement. High profit. Integrated systems. Global with disciplined process controls and optimization. |