As a membership body should we even be considering the outsourcing of Professional Membership services?
The very emotional nature of the outsourcing decision, especially in a professional membership body means that you must have good information on which to base it. Too often such decisions are made on the basis of good intentions and limited information. MRPC fills the information gap, giving its clients the ability to make informed decisions about the outsourcing of Professional Membership services and help to implement the project.
Effective outsourcing of Professional Membership Services has always been an important part of running a successful membership organisation and is likely to become even more essential in the current economic conditions. Alternatively, if the right course of action is to stay/come in-house, the benchmarking process will highlight the process improvements necessary to reach best practice levels of performance and cost efficiency.
Case Study 1 (Outsourcing of professional membership services)
Client: Institute
Department: Magazine Publishing
Turnover: £11m
Objective: To compare their current supplier with others in the marketplace and to use the intelligence gained in contract negotiations with the incumbent.
Process: Produce brief for shortlist of content agencies, printers, distributors etc. based on internal market knowledge and external consultant feedback
- Evaluation of data received
- Production of dummy budget and business plan for term of contract
- Presentation of findings and recommendations
Outcome: Using the information from the benchmarking the Institute was able to negotiate from a position of strength and achieved an extra £1.2m of profit compared to their current contract.
Case Study 2
Client: Institute
Department: Subscription based technical publishing
Turnover: £1.7m
Objectives: After 10 years of being with the same subscription management supplier the client wanted to discover if:
- They were with the right supplier or not
- They were paying the right market rate
- They would make efficiencies and economies by bringing it in-house
Process:
- Define the needs of the current operation
- Produce a tender document in conjunction with the client
- Research and produce a list of potential suppliers using current knowledge and research through contacts
- Evaluate potential of bring the project in-house
- Assess the responses to the tender
- Shortlist and visit suppliers
- Recommendation of direction
- Produce a contract and Service Level Agreement
- Post award monitoring
Outcome: Client decided not to go in-house but move to a new supplier sourced by MRPC, who was ideally suited to their business
After 6 months of monitoring service levels were excellent and costs had been reduced.