Qualitative Data Collection

For better interpretation of the pilot quantitative results, it was required additional information on each contractual alliance. This qualitative data was collected through interviews with current Programme Managers. PMs are employees of the provider and are in charge of managing the day-to-day details of the relationship with Users, including the tracking of the contract’s SLAs. PMs are also in charge of discussing new services in the scope of the contract, decommissioned contracts and renegotiations of the terms.

The interviewees were highly familiar with the details of each one of the contracts, and were instructed by their supervisors to speak freely about all the stages of the contractual alliance. They were aware of the confidentiality of the provider and users’ names and possible identification. The interviews were conducted over the telephone and all were recorded and transcribed verbatim.

Electronic sound files are available for additional analysis if required. Table 20 presents the interview protocol that was used to guide the interviews with the Provider’s Programme Managers. The topics of conversation in the interview protocol are closely linked to the main issues determining the potential answers to the research questions and to clarify the quantitative results obtained from the 11 contracts in the pilot study.

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Table 20 Interview Protocol Provider’s Programme Managers

GENERAL LINE OF INQUIRY TIME PURPOSE OF THE INQUIRY

Would you explain how these outsourcing contracts work?

What is the scope of activities in the relationship that you manage?

1 min Establishes the role of the person being interviewed and the activities the relationship/contract governs.

Who are your counterparts in the User site? 1 min Identify the network of people that manages the relationship

What is the role indicators play in managing

the outsourcing relationship? 5 min Introduces the topic of managing contract performance through the use of indicators How were the contract-operational indicators

negotiated between Provider and the User? 5 min Produces a historical background of how current SLAs (operational indicators) came to exist Do you think current SLAs are aligned

(coherent) with the User’s financial goals? 5 min Presents the concept of alignment. Gathers the managers’ perspective on the importance of alignment of indicators.

Do you think current SLAs are aligned

(coherent) the Provider’ financial goals? 5 min Introduces the concept of 3-way alignment: SLAs (target vs. actual), SLAs-User, and SLAs-Provider.

Is alignment (coherence) between contract’s

SLAs and financial indicators important? 10 min Discussion based on managers’ experience in different contractual relationships and explores the research main premise.

Let me share the results of the alignment

calculations of some sample contracts. 5 min Presents the basics of the alignment test and the results of the specific results for the manager’s contracts in the sample

Do the results of alignment make sense in

the context of the relationship you manage? 5 min

Explores the manager’s reaction to the results of the test and his/her sense-making of the results in the context of the actual relationship

Has high/low alignment have any relation

with high/low longevity of the relationship? 5 min Introduces the element of predictability from the level of alignment and the success of the relationship defined as longevity.

Has high/low alignment have any relation

with high/low stability of the relationship? 5 min Continues the predictability analysis from levels of alignment and the success of the relationship defined as stability.

Do you have another question or comment

that you would like to discuss? 3 min Prompts for additional elements that may have been missing from the conversation.

In addition to individual interviews with the programme managers, two meetings were held key executives at the Provider. The participants in these meetings are the sponsors of the research and they are in charge of relationship management and structuring contracts with different Users for the provision of outsourcing services. The meetings helped with an additional layer of validation and insights into the research questions and their possible answers.

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All interviews and management meetings were recorded, transcribed and coded. The results were processed in a cross-case analysis around key issues arising from the interviews, and the analysis of the quantitative results in context of the actual details of the relationship and the companies that are into it.

Chapter 5 presents the results in detail.

4.3.2 Coding

Coding is an analytical technique employed to identify and summarise key constructs from a set of content, in this case from interviews and minutes of meetings with PMs from the Provider. The codes used for the transcription did not emerged from the conversation with the interviewees but rather mirror very closely the operationalised variables in the quantitative analysis that is aiming to complement. Those variables were translated initially into the interview protocol already introduced in the data collection section above.

Table 21 below shows the general codes used to analyse each one of the topics of discussion during the interviews and meetings with the representatives of the Provider.

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Table 21 Coding Constructs for Qualitative Analysis of Interviews CODING CONSTRUCTS FOR

INTERVIEW ANALYSIS DESCRIPTION

Role of Indicators Strategic use of performance indicators in managing contractual relationships

Definition of Indicators Describes how current indicators (SLAs) were adopted and selected to govern the relationship

Setting Targets For Indicators Describes how both partners in the contract defined a specific value to become the target performance of the SLA

Definitions of Alignment Explores the individual perceptions of what alignment is, why is important and how can it be measured or its presence verified Operational Alignment Explores personal explanations of what operational alignment is and

why is important

User Alignment Introduces the concept of contractual SLAs aligned with user’s financial targets and explores the perceived importance of such concept.

Provider Alignment Introduces the concept of contractual indicators aligned with the Provider’s financial objectives and explores the perceived importance of such concept.

Contract Success Records personal perceptions on what can be defined as a successful contract and how this concept can be measured

Drivers of Contract Success Introduces the concept of contractual indicators aligned with user’s financial objectives and explores the perceived importance of such concept.

Measurements of Alignment After being presented with the results of alignment measures, this coding node registers the reactions of the interviewees to the coefficients

Alignment Matters? Summarises general reactions to the research question if contractual success can be predicted by the alignment of goals across the contract and its two partners