Abstract
This chapter focuses on the translation of public sector client aspirations and fears into a specification of the services necessary for a complex, long-term service availability contract. The contract is complex in many senses including that many independent organisations must work together to deliver contracted service outcomes and long-term being in excess of 10 years. These factors imply the need for enterprise level management processes in addition to stakeholder centric management. The alignment between the contracted services and the client’s needs is investigated and the implications of partial mismatches are discussed. Particular issues raised are the effect on behaviours around contract operation; potentially missed opportunities to co-create value and build trust; and challenges to the achievement of enterprise-wide management processes. The research highlights the potential role of evolving and explicitly shared Client and Provider aspirations and fears as a basis for enterprise-wide management.
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Notes
- 1.
ATTAC (Availability Transformation: Tornado Aircraft Contracts) is a long-term, whole-aircraft availability contract where BAE Systems take prime responsibility to provide Tornado aircraft with depth support and upgrades, incentivised to achieve defined levels of available aircraft, spares and technical support at a target cost.
- 2.
The contract does address “surge” requirements using the key metrics, however many requirements for flexibility are completely new.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge and thank their sponsors within BAE Systems, Louise Wallwork and Jenny Cridland, and especially John Barrie for his support and direction. We would also like to thank the Tornado IPT, RAF Marham and the BAE Systems ATTAC management team for their engagement with our work. This research was supported by BAE Systems and the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council via the S4T project.
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Mills, J., Parry, G., Purchase, V. (2011). Towards Understanding the Value of the Client’s Aspirations and Fears in Complex, Long-term Service Contracts. In: Ng, I., Parry, G., Wild, P., McFarlane, D., Tasker, P. (eds) Complex Engineering Service Systems. Decision Engineering. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-85729-189-9_5
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