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Contract Management

Playing by the Law: 1099s vs. Employees

by Chris Arlen

The beginning of 2011 finds me a little more ornery than normal. May be old age, or an unusually cold winter. Either way here’s a touchy topic and an ornery response. Suppliers [...]

click to continue → January 7, 2011

5 Hard Knock Customer-Supplier Realities

by Chris Arlen

Try this brief exercise. Think about the most important lessons you’ve learned in life, the truly important ones. –> Now pick the most important one. Your most valuable lesson learned. Got it? [...]

click to continue → November 18, 2010

The Value Picture: Surveying Both Sides

by Chris Arlen

Our Facility Service Value  survey went live on 4/1. This is an opportunity to better understand value in the minds of those who buy facility services, and compare that with those who [...]

click to continue → April 3, 2009

United reworking Customer Experience

by Chris Arlen

The airline industry is a great model for looking at big pain compressed into a short history. It provides insights into cost cutting strategies, and how they play out over time. Using [...]

click to continue → March 5, 2009

Footnotes #1 & #2

by Chris Arlen

Footnote #1: Received interesting feedback from the recent Revenue-IQ article, Zero-Based Servicing, here’s one that got me thinking: A contractor brought up the issue of how well customers understand the relationship between [...]

click to continue → February 26, 2009

A New First Consideration: An Industry’s Health

by Chris Arlen

It used to be more important to select a company to work for, rather than choosing the industry it was in. The belief was that a great company could outperform the industry [...]

click to continue → February 19, 2009

ROI: Facility Services’ Holy Grail

by Chris Arlen

Return on Investment (ROI) is the holy grail for facility services. For managers of in-house departments or contract facility services, showing an ROI would help justify your spend upstairs. Getting budget approval [...]

click to continue → January 21, 2009

Self-respect in the Service Role

by Chris Arlen

Rodney Dangerfield‘s “I don’t get no respect” setup his punchlines. The service role can say the same thing that it doesn’t get respect either, but it’s not funny. Janitors, security guards, landscapers, [...]

click to continue → January 8, 2009

Interconnected

by Chris Arlen

The world, our world, evolved a while ago into one world. It’d been happening for decades, helped by technology that enabled information to pass instantly from one side of the planet to [...]

click to continue → December 15, 2008

What’s the Right Price for Service?

by Chris Arlen

If you’re buying, or managing, a contract service, this is the big question. Yet it feels more like a riddle than a question. And like a riddle, the answer is simple and [...]

click to continue → November 20, 2008

The Endgame of Support Services

by Chris Arlen

If I could ask the wisest person on the planet 2 questions about support services I’d ask: #1 Why do support services exist? #2 How can you tell if a support service [...]

click to continue → October 6, 2008

The Trust Index – A Key Success Metric

by Chris Arlen

Success measurements. Most take an aggregated look. Measuring performance over an entire market, an audience, or a population of customers/end-users. What about on a 1-to-1 basis? That’s how success is achieved, isn’t [...]

click to continue → August 18, 2008

Determining Expectations

by Chris Arlen

No one starts from a blank slate when engaging service. Both the buyer/user and seller/provider come at the engagement with expectations – before the first interaction. Determining expectations explicitly and fully understanding [...]

click to continue → July 26, 2008

Budget Remorse & Sandbagging

by Chris Arlen

You manage a budget. You rarely overspend, showing slight, but noticeable savings year after year. You’re a professional manager, say, a Business Owner of an outsourced service. What if you could end [...]

click to continue → June 3, 2008

If you could ask Microsoft, Yahoo and Expedia…

by Chris Arlen

Wouldn’t it be great to ask world-class companies about outsourcing, contracting and buying? Lucky you. Today’s blog gives you the opportunity to do that. You can ask Microsoft, Yahoo and Expedia about [...]

click to continue → May 21, 2008

This Outsourced Service – But Not That One

by Chris Arlen

Sack of potatoes <–compared to–> Boeing 787 outsourced components Commodity <–compared to–> Respected high-priced solution Basic service <–compared to–> Strategic service Facility services <–compared to–> IT & Business Process outsourcing

click to continue → May 14, 2008

Contract Governance: The Movie

by Chris Arlen

This is a drama about outsourcing, procuring and managing contract services. It’s based on real life. And like a good melodrama, the hero prevails in the last reel. It was prompted by [...]

click to continue → May 9, 2008

3 Types of Stuck: Rimrocked, Plateaued & Picassoed

by Chris Arlen

Why consider which way you’re stuck? Stuck is stuck, right? The way you’re stuck matters. Take a wrong step and you fall off a cliff. Or you wander in wilderness for 40 [...]

click to continue → April 29, 2008

3 Questions about Turnover Rates

by Chris Arlen

I have a friend/client from Kansas. At least once every time we’re putting together numbers for one of his customers he’ll say “Figures lie and liars figure”. That Midwest wisdom points out [...]

click to continue → April 18, 2008

The Service Contract Manifesto

by Chris Arlen

A declaration of customer-contractor interdependence. In the course of history, it becomes necessary to state the separate and equal principles that bind customer and contractor together in commerce. As business practices evolve, [...]

click to continue → April 9, 2008

Shrinking Spend Year-on-Year

by Chris Arlen

Continual budget reductions are a pain to customers and contractors alike. Here’s a scenario that’s probably too familiar. A customer has hired a facility service contractor. A fair market price has been [...]

click to continue → March 17, 2008

Heartbreak in Contracts

by Chris Arlen

The potential for heartbreak exists in all relationships, contracts included. But the risk / reward calculation tips us into engaging. Contract relationships start out rosy. Then, when familiarity settles in, expectations go [...]

click to continue → March 4, 2008

When is the Right Time to Improve?

by Chris Arlen

That’s a leading question coming from a consultant. Is it self-serving? You bet. Now that’s out of the way, let’s look at why this question is worth talking about. At any time [...]

click to continue → March 2, 2008

Customer Contract Vigilance?

by Chris Arlen

Why would customers allow contractors to over promise in their bids and under deliver after receiving the contract? Customers’ only tool to look into contractors’ future performance is the bid process. The [...]

click to continue → February 19, 2008

Does the NY Times read Revenue-IQ?

by Chris Arlen

On December 14, 2007, Revenue-IQ posted “Consequences” about executive mistakes that cost 1,000s of jobs, yet the execs can easily find new jobs. On January 27, 2008 the NY Times ran “What’s [...]

click to continue → January 28, 2008

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