Free online Outsourcing Lifecycle Assessment launched to rapidly identify and fix outsourcing pain-points
The National Outsourcing Association (NOA), the professional body and industry association for outsourcing, is today launching its corporate accreditation programme, developed to recognise and reward excellence in outsourcing by the users of outsourcing services.
The NOA’s corporate accreditation programme is an in-depth assessment process that measures outsourcing performance against world-class standards with the key objective of driving best practice in outsourcing, so that companies can achieve the best value from their outsourcing programmes. It gives an organisation’s stakeholders and investors assurance their outsourcing is governed in line with global best practice standards – something frequently asked, but previously hard to prove.
The NOA’s accreditation programme has been developed over the past 12 months around the NOA’s Lifecycle Model, which has helped imbed best practice into over 200 organisations and been subject to continuous critique and review. For the first time, all that learning has been condensed into an integrated platform of tools and templates that tells an organisation, quickly and easily, exactly how they compare to leading-edge best practice. The NOA has partnered with Op2i to develop the platform which is powered by Governance Director, Op2i’s enterprise governance system.
As the first point on the journey to accreditation the NOA has developed a free and easy-to-use online Outsourcing Lifecycle Assessment (OLA) tool designed to give rapid insight into the performance of a project/division/company’s outsourcing maturity level against the NOA’s tried and tested Lifecycle model. The online assessment, which takes circa 15 minutes to complete, comprises 87 questions and contrasts inputted answers to NOA Lifecycle Model knowhow to deliver an immediate outsourcing maturity rating and personal performance report. The report also highlights areas for immediate process improvement and indicates readiness for industry accreditation.
Kerry Hallard, CEO of the National Outsourcing Association, commented: “Our Corporate Accreditation programme and free Outsourcing Lifecycle Assessment tool further demonstrate NOA’s commitment to driving excellence in outsourcing and complement our portfolio of professional qualifications for those working in outsourcing. Although the full accreditation programme is targeted at the buyers of outsourcing services, we actively encourage suppliers and advisors to use this tool in order to consistently drive performance across the outsourcing spectrum.”
Organisations showing readiness for full accreditation can either: subscribe to the NOA’s OLA integrated platform to quickly and easily guide them through two further tiers of Lifecycle processes whilst assessing their outsourcing maturity against NOA standards; or they can review their own performance against the NOA’s published LifeCycle model. Organisations then need to book in with the NOA for a pre-audit meeting or full audit session. The full audit involves reviewing practices in greater detail (at tiers 2 and 3) and providing the NOA assessor with clear evidence that practices meet NOA standards.
The NOA will accredit organisations who achieve Silver (Competent) and Gold (Excellent) standards, but will also categorise outsourcing maturity at Basic and Foundation levels. Accreditation lasts for three years, with a requirement to demonstrate ongoing commitment to best practice annually. Full accreditation can be achieved within a 3 month window if outsourcing processes are largely already optimised. It could however take in excess of two years if an organisation needs to embark upon a significant improvement journey.