At EBG | Network, enabling real individual and business development has always been key. Challenging common ways of working if those common ways are contradictory to the a seemingly desired outcome. EBG are thrilled to welcome ISS and Accenture – or Boudewijn, Frans, Vivian and Kyrsa (since it at the end is all about the people) – to Sourcing Outlook 2018! They for sure will be able to share real and practical ways of taking the concept of win-win to the next level.
The EBG background
In the early days – 2011 – EBG invited office supply company Lyreco to share their views on buyers who ask for 24/7 support, online catalogues however only a fragment of the supplies offered and at lowest possible cost. Preferably near zero. Surprised businesses find other ways of earning that margin? Don’t be. Why shouldn’t they?
In the early days EBG also found it interesting from an end-to-end perspective (and still is) how even possible internal buyer-supplier relationships – such as that between a shared service center and the business – often was shaped by transaction SLAs even though most realized that true value and cost reduction comes from increased spend control, compliance, process optimization – end to end. But who should drive that development? Those needing to change behavior (the business) or the shared service earning money per transaction? Why should they? How could they?
In the early days – and on – EBG have listened to the different parts on the end to end process sourcing, procurement and finance simply not coming together, not unifying their KPIs, their ways of acting and ways of deciding what will help a business grow. Take the times when finance decide to increase payment terms – across an organization and supply base – hence possibly destroying a relationship built up by sourcing and procurement around one key aspect for a supplier – being paid. Why should they not break the rules if the buyer does?
And so we went on. And one day – in 2013 – we got into contact with Kate Vitasek, Author, educator and architect of the Vested business model at University of Tennessee and win-win got a structure. In 2014 she stood on our stage and shared the below (>>Post Summit Report from 2014 (PDF)).
Now it is 2018 and EBG are happy to see that buyer-supplier (and other) collaboration is becoming increasingly sought for. On October 11th EBG | Network are thrilled to welcome ISS & Accenture from the Netherlands to Stockholm.
About the agreement
Accenture and ISS have had an outsourcing relationship for facility services since 2005, and what began as an input-based single-service relationship, later evolved into a solid output-based Integrated Facility Services (IFS) contract. In the Netherlands, the two companies have taken it to the next level: Vested.
Vested® is a methodology for creating highly collaborative business relationships that enable true win-win relationships in which both parties are equally committed to each other’s success. Using the Vested methodology, business partners create a flexible outcome-based contractual framework designed to deliver on the parties’ mutually developed vision and desired outcomes.
Understanding the basics and being inspired by the outcome
Few challenge the idea of win-win – it’s just that we want to know how much it will cost us! And what happen if someone break the rules (since this is what usually happen, see above). And not knowing what will happen then surely must mean an increased risk premium – surely?!
This is why we are thrilled to welcome ISS and Accenture to Stockholm. For You to be able to absolutely be inspired – because you will be – but also to be able to ask questions and learn from each other.
Why keep sharing and discussing win-win collaboration?
In 2017 EBG invited the full circle Veolia and Telia Company buyer-supplier team and when asking “What top takeaways from the summit do you bring back to your organization?” after the first Souring Outlook many said: “Telia Soneras case”, the “Telia/CBRE case”, “That most people are still in the same unadvanced boat! 🙂 And I want to look more into Vested, it was inspiring to listen to Telia”, “The path from pure swing towards value and integration with the business”, “Theoretical Frameworks. Telia Company totally new approach was interesting”, “Vested model of contracting”, “Vested thinking – less transactional contracts and more relationship contracts”, “Transformation of procurement – strategic way of working. Complementary innovation and added value to savings. Networking, thanks to EBG event, I have already connected to 10 professionals.”, “What I need to work on with SRM, trends in the market and SCR is not necessary the same as a higher cost.”
So of course we keep on pushing different ways of looking at win-win, buyer-supplier collaboration and what desired outcome really is.
Welcome! All can tune in for the KeyNote but for sure the Theme Discussions – round table discussions – will be fully booked. So don’t wait to >>register!