- Overpromising during the sales process, creating unrealistic expectations on the customer’s part
- Inappropriate structuring of the relationship, resulting in a divergence of interests over the life of the engagement
- Lack of attention to transitional details, resulting in relationship problems at the outset
- A lack of flexibility by both parties as business needs and operational requirements change
- Cultural mismatches between the organizations
- The use of benchmarking data to defend existing positions instead of generating improvements
- A high rate of turnover, especially among individuals responsible for managing the relationship
- Implied expertise in relationship management that does not exist
- Customers failing to think through their business objectives, especially as these change during the engagement
- Business leaders use a multidimensional approach when measuring alliance success as opposed to the one dimensional measures (cost savings, relationship factors, or resource access factors in isolation)
- A variety of financial, supplier competence, responsiveness, relationship, and resource access measures should be used to determine the success of alliance relationships
- Suppliers should offer more than lower costs to potential strategic customers

Experience transformational outsourcing with Rigel Networks.