Having regularly heard about customers complaining about the woes of their AMS partner(s), and being part of such engagements in various roles, it would be quite natural to express my observations and insights into the whole thing and make people understand the situation. Mainly because the prospective AMS partner was a failure elsewhere and the incumbent partner was a grand success elsewhere and that was the reason they were awarded the contract in the first place. And it is the same set of IT Service providers.

Here is the sequence of phases that happen over a lifecycle of a typical engagement. And each of them is equally a post in itself. I intend to cover them in much detail in my future posts.

– Lead generation (aka, knowing of an expiring contract or a stakeholder referring an upcoming RFI / RFP)

– Preparation of RFI or RFP

– Request for Information

– Request for Proposal

– RFP Response creation

– Technical validation

– Commercial validation

– Shortlisting of vendors

– Solution Presentation

– Solution Defense

– Key Personnel introduction

– Negotiation

– Award

– Honeymoon

– Reality strike

– Reconciliation

– Multiple Discussions / Escalations

– Giving up / Loss of faith

– Getting ready for a new contract

– Attempt to repatch

– More incidents of distaste

– New RFI/RFP

– The Cycle continues.

The main reason for the engagement to fail is when the passion in the team is lost or key people on both sides leave. Other reasons include inaccurate pricing, the lack of cultural fit, improper support models, unrealistic expectations implied or promised, and wrong selection of vendors. The diligence and responsibility start diminishing once the people instrumental in realizing this contract gain their credit and see the prospects for further mileage start to fade.Otherwise, it is the same sincere working team that works as hard as always trying to deliver good work.