Xchanging’s acquisition of MM4 already bearing fruit as the company played an important role in landing STS contract by Jon Hansen

“We used MM4’s technology in a logistics test case for STS.  The case demonstrated that the use of the tool could assist in providing significant savings.  MM4’s technology will play (is already playing) a role in delivering savings for STS, as part of a seamless, tailored bundle of sourcing services we are building to meet the goals of our client.”

Have you ever noticed that beyond sustaining itself with new immediate to story developments, the coverage of stories in this industry – as well as others – often ends with the next big and usually unrelated headline.  Specifically, there is no real follow-up or epilogue to an original post.

The unfortunate part of this fact is that you, as the reader, never really get the opportunity to connect the dots to see a complete picture over an extended period of time.

For example, when I first wrote about Richard Arbuthnot’s success at introducing a shared services strategy at NASA in May 2010 (NASA’s Success with Shared Services Determinedly Led and Clearly Explained by Richard Arbuthnot), I indicated that he had accomplished a feat that few before him had been able to do.

Move ahead a little more than a year later to May 2011, and the follow-up post (Failure and a lack of preparation pose the greatest risk to public sector shared services success), and you will discover that Arbuthnot’s success was more illusion than real.

The reason we were able to write the follow-up post and in the process provide you with a complete and up-to-date picture, is that we actually track stories weeks, months and yes even years after an original article has been posted.  This is critical because if you made a decision to pursue a similar strategy as Arbuthnot and were not gaining traction you might never know why, and thus not be able to change course.

In short, our basic belief is that a story once introduced is never really over.

Let’s look at Xchanging’s recent acquisition of MM4.

In our September 20th, 2013 post (BREAKING NEWS: Is the acquisition cup half full or half empty: A tale of two takeovers! By Jon Hansen), I talked about the merits of the acquisition – which was also discussed at length during our Blog Talk Radio interview with senior executives from both organizations.

Now if our coverage had ended at this point, there would have been no opportunity for you to learn if the anticipated benefits had ever actually materialized.  Once again, this is the inherent flaw with most industry coverage in that stories are often siloed into a disconnected chain of single events.  You might have read about the contract win with Severn Trent Services, but lost the meaning of its significance in relation to Xchanging’s overall strategy associated with the MM4 acquisition.  Specifically, the key role that MM4 played in Xchanging’s ability to secure its first Utility customer.

MM4 played a big part in Xchanging landing its first Utility Customer.

This is an important point as it speaks to Xchanging’s clear and deliberate vision in terms of where the company wants to go in the future and, what it needs to get there.  As a result of this underlying corporate self-awareness, highlighted by leadership’s purposeful decision-making process, the market’s overall confidence in Xchanging’s ability to meet its needs will likely be enhanced.

We will of course continue to track the Xchanging story, including how the Severn Trent Services contract plays out over the coming months and years.  Or has they used to say in the early days of television . . . stay tuned.

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