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Bell’s partnership with VANOC
| October 1, 2009
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A superb example of an outsourcing relationship
This February, as the world gathers in Vancouver for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, a team of 400-plus Bell employees will already be hard at work as the Vancouver Organizing Committee’s (VANOC) communications department. Bell, a Premier National Partner for the 2010 Winter Games, will provide all of the voice, data, Internet, cabling, portal, two-way radio and mobility services needed to seamlessly run the Olympic Games. “This partnership is a superb example of the way Bell approaches outsourcing,” says Justin Webb, Bell’s Vice-President of Olympic Services.
In this outsourcing model, Bell has worked as the designer, architect, implementation arm and operator of the telecommunications solution for VANOC. “Our commitment to delivering these services in a professional, reliable and timely manner is something we focus on every day,” says Webb. “But, there are other less obvious factors that make an enterprise outsourcing arrangement work well.” These can be broken down into four key areas.
1. The first step in a successful outsourcing model is to place people into the organization that you’re supporting. “The priority is to get staff into the organization as early as possible,” says Webb. Having employees (primarily design people: data engineers, security specialists and voice architects) move into VANOC early allowed Bell to better understand its customers’ needs and obtain a clear vision of VANOC’s corporate culture, which Bell employees then began to adopt.
2. Next, it is important to establish a transparent joint-governance model, which ensures that all parties have a clear understanding of how the group is performing and whether objectives are being met. “We created a structure that involves a monthly report to the Olympic Technology Board and includes key decision makers from both Bell and VANOC,” says Webb. As a result, Bell has established itself as a trusted partner, providing strategic advice and working collaboratively with VANOC to resolve issues and challenges that may arise.
3. In a successful outsourcing arrangement, the service provider may take on an advisory role, offering advice and services to its customer that may not have been considered in the initial agreement. “We were hired as a communications provider, but as our relationship with VANOC progressed we found ourselves working as a trusted advisor in other areas,” says Webb. “As the organizing committee grew and had to accommodate an increasing number of staff, we helped them develop policies and procedures to determine corporate eligibility parameters for each user, be it an employee, contractor or volunteer.” In this case, VANOC benefits from Bell’s scale (for example, delivering hundreds of VoIP phones and cellphones each month) and resulting efficiency.
4. Finally, in order to ensure superior customer satisfaction, it is necessary to set clear boundaries in terms of the scope of the outsourcing agreement. “We set every team member’s performance objectives at Bell to align with those of VANOC in order to ensure that we delivered what was expected of us,” says Webb.
Vancouver2010.com
The project: An example of a project that has worked extremely well from an outsourcing perspective is the Vancouver2010.com portal. Bell provides the connectivity, hosting, hardware, content management and a portion of the applications and then works closely with VANOC and third-party partners who provide the remaining applications. “The site has leveraged our scale and expertise,” says Webb. “We provide not only the architecture and design but also strategic advice.”
The result: During the initial five-week ticket sale period, the site successfully transacted $350 million in sales and was able to accommodate huge spikes in traffic without any slowdowns or downtime.
For more information visit www.bell.ca
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A superb example of an outsourcing relationshipThis February, as the world gathers in Vancouver for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, a team of 400-plus Bell employees will already be hard at work as the Vancouver Organizing Committee’s (VANOC) communications department. Bell, a Premier National Partner for the 2010 Winter Games, will provide all of the voice, data, Internet, cabling, portal, two-way radio and mobility services needed to seamlessly run the Olympic Games. “This partnership is a superb example of the way Bell approaches outsourcing,” says Justin Webb, Bell’s Vice-President of Olympic Services.
In this outsourcing model, Bell has worked as the designer, architect, implementation arm and operator of the telecommunications solution for VANOC. “Our commitment to delivering these services in a professional, reliable and timely manner is something we focus on every day,” says Webb. “But, there are other less obvious factors that make an enterprise outsourcing arrangement work well.” These can be broken down into four key areas.
1. The first step in a successful outsourcing model is to place people into the organization that you’re supporting. “The priority is to get staff into the organization as early as possible,” says Webb. Having employees (primarily design people: data engineers, security specialists and voice architects) move into VANOC early allowed Bell to better understand its customers’ needs and obtain a clear vision of VANOC’s corporate culture, which Bell employees then began to adopt.
2. Next, it is important to establish a transparent joint-governance model, which ensures that all parties have a clear understanding of how the group is performing and whether objectives are being met. “We created a structure that involves a monthly report to the Olympic Technology Board and includes key decision makers from both Bell and VANOC,” says Webb. As a result, Bell has established itself as a trusted partner, providing strategic advice and working collaboratively with VANOC to resolve issues and challenges that may arise.
3. In a successful outsourcing arrangement, the service provider may take on an advisory role, offering advice and services to its customer that may not have been considered in the initial agreement. “We were hired as a communications provider, but as our relationship with VANOC progressed we found ourselves working as a trusted advisor in other areas,” says Webb. “As the organizing committee grew and had to accommodate an increasing number of staff, we helped them develop policies and procedures to determine corporate eligibility parameters for each user, be it an employee, contractor or volunteer.” In this case, VANOC benefits from Bell’s scale (for example, delivering hundreds of VoIP phones and cellphones each month) and resulting efficiency.
4. Finally, in order to ensure superior customer satisfaction, it is necessary to set clear boundaries in terms of the scope of the outsourcing agreement. “We set every team member’s performance objectives at Bell to align with those of VANOC in order to ensure that we delivered what was expected of us,” says Webb.
Vancouver2010.com
The project: An example of a project that has worked extremely well from an outsourcing perspective is the Vancouver2010.com portal. Bell provides the connectivity, hosting, hardware, content management and a portion of the applications and then works closely with VANOC and third-party partners who provide the remaining applications. “The site has leveraged our scale and expertise,” says Webb. “We provide not only the architecture and design but also strategic advice.”
The result: During the initial five-week ticket sale period, the site successfully transacted $350 million in sales and was able to accommodate huge spikes in traffic without any slowdowns or downtime.
For more information visit www.bell.ca
Supplements Archive
