5 rules of the road for offsite packaging

It can be tempting to treat your packaging partner as a replaceable utility, but IT directors who keep an open mind will find measurable benefits to putting their trust in a team of professional consultants who understand their priorities.

By respectfully welcoming your application packaging partner into your team and communicating the business imperatives that you expect from your own employees, you'll reach the finish line faster and with a better end product, without increasing your financial commitment.

Follow these five rules of the road for a perfect application packaging partnership, where you will never feel trapped by your contract.

1. Right size the service to your advantage
   • Remember why you engaged. Was it to reduce costs? Was it to add capacity? Or simply take the problem away? Whatever combination, stay focused with your partner and make sure you’re both aiming for that every day.
   • Sign up for what you need, beware of generous volume discounts with hidden trap door penalties for not using agreed volumes
2. Keep it flexible
   • What flexibility do you have as your business changes – Covid brings that into stark contrast!
   • Make sure you have the ability to adapt the service without too much disruption
   • Focus on what’s important to you today, what was vital in Q1 may not be today! eg: how important today is a super quick turnaround vs say, a better price?
3. Rubbish in Rubbish out
   • If you’re providing the discovery information, remember “measure twice, cut once.”
   • A poor company will package to the lowest common (and often easiest) standard without checking!
   • Packaging errors cost you time, effort and more importantly they are ‘publicly’ picked up by end user testing. This reflects badly on your team and processes.
   • A good packaging partner will interact with your team and resolve queries before they start.
     
     
4. Think partnership, be part of your team – not a threat
   • Your partner should be part of your team so don’t keep them at arm's length
   • Integrate and interact with your partner as part of your business.
   • Invite to meetings, share your roadmap direction and challenges they can share industry best practices and signpost potential trapdoors where technology is changing.
   • Build relationships and get to know one another. Being able to look your partner in the eye and work together through tough technical or deadlines is powerful vs watching an SLA timer and arguing over contractual fine print!
     
     
5. Agree Common Rules of the Road
   • Well-defined, logical, consistent application standards ensure consistent, repeatable quality whichever team it comes from
   • Agree together checks and balances to focus on quality input from you and quality output from your supplier.

 These simple rules will allow you to gain maximum value from your packaging partner.  It need not be complicated to engage, you shouldn’t feel trapped in a contract and your results should never make you question overall value.