A Winning Relationship
Outstanding Outsourcing Relationship Wins Two Prestigious Awards
Everyone wants a great relationship that can adjust to change and meet the test of time. When the relationship is an outsourcing arrangement that involves managing hundreds of people and helping keep a major industry player at the top of its game, the need for a great relationship is especially important. Recently, the outsourcing relationship of SAIC and Entergy Services, Inc. was acknowledged as one of the world's best.
Winning results
SAIC and Entergy were awarded a 2004 Outsourcing Excellence Award, sponsored by the Everest Group, Forbes, and Wharton Executive Education, as one of the world's seven most outstanding outsourcing relationships. The SAIC and Entergy relationship was named Best Refreshed, acknowledging the success of the parties in keeping their long-standing relationship responsive to changing goals and enhancing value outcomes.
Due to the success of the relationship, which began in 1999, Entergy has experienced a reduction in IT staff churn to below 10 percent, annual IT cost savings of 20 percent, and a steady rise in customer satisfaction levels. Client satisfaction is highest in the Gartner End User survey database.
The ongoing commitment to continuous improvement and performance management throughout Entergy's organization also made Entergy the winner of the 2004 Gartner Technology, Organization and Process (TOP) Performance Award, and SAIC's role was acknowledged in the win.
"Entergy and its primary service provider, SAIC, are committed to using measurement programs to continuously monitor their service delivery," said Jack Mazza, group vice president at Gartner, Inc. "By measuring, annually, both their IT infrastructure costs and end-user satisfaction, Entergy and SAIC have worked closely together to achieve a 'Best in Class' status ranking for three years from the Entergy end-users." (March 30, 2004, Gartner press release "Entergy Services, Inc. Selected as Gartner "TOP" Award Winner of 2004 Winner Announced at Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2004.")
Flexiblity is key
In 1999, Entergy, one of the largest U.S. utilities, selected SAIC to provide Entergy with comprehensive IT outsourcing services. The five-year agreement was an open book contract, using a shared risk/award model and quality-based performance incentive. It also included a unique feature: employees were given the choice of having Entergy or SAIC as their employer. As a result, SAIC transitioned 350 former Entergy employees and 100 contractors.
SAIC assumed responsibility for operations and support of a wide array of Entergy's traditional IT services functions. These functions included data center operations for the corporate center, operations of a new Integrated Services Management Center, operations and support of distributed servers, desktop support, telecommunications and field services, and applications development, support, and maintenance.
In 2001 and 2002, modifications were made to the contract to help deliver new, transformational objectives and meet anticipated cost challenges for Entergy. Today, SAIC supports all business units across Entergy, providing expertise in different technology areas. These additional areas of support include enterprise applications Integration, PeopleSoft® consulting, e-business enablement and architecture, software engineering process improvement, integrated services management, security and penetration testing, technology consulting, and nuclear plant support.
Secrets of a great relationship
According to Entergy CIO Ray Johnson, "The relationship works for two key reasons: (1) We have both committed ourselves to a set of contractual governance/relationship management practices and principles for which we are both incentivized; (2) the individuals who lead the relationship on both sides are personally committed to openness, honesty and continuous improvement."
SAIC Corporate Vice President John Christens, Jr., Entergy account program manager, adds, "As a service provider, sometimes you have the good fortune of working with a customer that is highly committed to excellence in service delivery, to openness and honesty in the relationship, and to continuous improvement -- and, as a result, you are made better for it. SAIC is fortunate to have just such a customer in Entergy."
Commitment, openness, honesty, and continuous improvement: good advice for any relationship -- and a great formula for a winning outsourcing alliance.
Find out more about SAIC and Outsourcing. To learn more about SAIC's work with Entergy, see our Energy and Utilities sections.