Middleware

I've been doing some analysis of a client organisation's infrastructure set up recently and have decided that although it sounds incongruous the sourcing and relationship advice that we at source provide to our customer is analogous to the role middleware plays between different IT systems.

Middleware acts as the invisible magic glue that enables applications to talk to each other. It's the plumbing that seamlessly enables customers to buy products or staff to connect to systems, accessing remote machines, or databases that in turn connect to a whole variety of linked systems while the end user remains protected from the behind the scenes magic that makes the technology work. I've decided that this analogy makes sense for a number of reasons:

Firstly the role that middleware plays in a complex IT infrastructure is often misunderstood, I'm not sure that many non techies actually really understand what middleware is, they just know that it's necessary. The same could be said for the sourcing advisory services we and others provide in that business users are often initially confused as to the exact role that sourcing advice plays, as the term "advisory/consulting" term is used to cover a whole range of services, but after experiencing it and seeing first hand the value that independence and experience add to the sourcing process, the vast majority would hopefully agree that it's absolutely necessary.

Secondly, In the sourcing context the role that the advisor plays helps ensure that the majority of the end users, certainly those not involved in shaping the service, don't need to be involved in the intricate detail and complexity that makes the deal work, they should be made aware of course and kept informed of the context and background throughout the process, but ultimately they should be able to simply access the services and outputs of the outsourced partner in an efficient and effective way enabling them to complete their roles as simply and easily as possible

Finally middleware makes disparate systems, built at different times, on different technologies and standards work together in a seamless way, which is precisely what we as sourcing advisors do for our customers. We bring two or more different organisations together, each with different cultures, styles, objectives, people, processes and technologies and we help them connect and work together in a seamless way that delivers positive results to everyone involved. So - it may still sound a little incongruous, but just as middleware provides the plumbing that helps different systems work together, source provides the plumbing that helps different organisations work together - so in a way we're like plumbers, I'm not sure my kids will find that very inspiring :-)

Barry