Case Scenario
You are a project manager in the human resources department for a global investment management firm, LRH Financial. You are currently updating your benefits administration to an external company; this is expected to be a minimum 5-year operational commitment. As part of this move, you are revising your benefits options, updating the employees on the changes, revamping the intranet to include self-service benefits administration, and redeploying about 20 human resources benefits staff to new positions with the human resources department. The vendor that will be taking over benefits administration operations has not yet been chosen. Due to a lack of resources in the information technology department, a vendor will be used to update the intranet and train employees on the new self-service functionality. It is not yet clear how the redeployment of the benefits staff will be completed. In the past, this type of activity has been handled by a boutique management consulting company.
You just met with your boss, Pat, the Vice President of Human Resources. Pat emphasized that you will have responsibility for all the contracting, negotiating, and vendor management activities. You will need to work closely with purchasing and accounts payable as you complete these activities.
Question 1: You were able to resolve the photograph issue and move on with the communication pieces of the project. You breathe a sigh of relief and start thinking about what you would do differently. What steps could you take to avoid this or a similar situation in the future?
Question 2: The project is not over yet, but the work of the vendor responsible for the human resources benefits staff redeployment is complete. You are meeting with Pat tomorrow afternoon and will discuss the close out activities that need to take place. Prepare for the meeting by creating your meeting notes. Be sure to identify in detail:
- the approvals needed to consider the vendor "complete"
- the activities needed to close-out the contract
- the topics of discussion for the final conversation with the vendor