REAPING THE BENEFITS OF SOW: STATEMENT OF WORK SERVICES FOR AN IT LEADER

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STRATEGIC ACHIEVEMENTS

  • 25+ SOW PROJECTS MANAGED FOR IT CLIENTS
  • SUCCESSFULLY TRANSITIONED TALENT ON PROJECT TO PREVENT SHUTDOWN
  • COMPREHENSIVE REPORTING INCLUDED FOR ALL SOW PROJECTS

WHAT YOH BROUGHT TO THE TABLE

  • Statement of Work Management Services

Degree of Difficulty

  • 8/10
  • Strict compliance regulations
  • Need for team consistency
  • Challenging project environment
The Dilemma

Having a vendor go under in the middle of a Statement of Work (SOW) project is less than ideal. For an international IT and engineering leader working on a high-importance project, it could’ve been a disaster. But thankfully, there’s Yoh. Working as the company’s current Managed Services Provider (MSP) partner, Yoh stepped in and took over the project, successfully transitioning the entire existing staff to ensure the project would remain on track.

The Strategy

Yoh reps partnered seamlessly with the company’s HR department to negotiate with the project's employees and ensure they remained on the project to complete it on time and within scope. Assurances were given, negotiations were met, and no one missed a beat.

The Effect

Now the go-to vendor for nearly all of the company’s SOW projects, Yoh manages these detail-oriented projects with talent that provides reporting to show progress and status. Each project receives customized and flexible SOW management, and tenure issues are handled without…well…any issues.

Start on a road

When it comes to contract labor versus statement of work (SOW) labor, the differences can sometimes be difficult to recognize on first pass. They are both, after all, not full-time employees but working for a period of time with no guarantee of future employment once a project or timeframe has reached its conclusion. But therein lies the difference.

Due to tenure constraints and compliance guidelines set forth by the IRS and Department of Labor, temporary contractors are limited in the amount of time and amount of work they can do for an employer before requiring benefits befitting of a full-time employee. SOW workers, on the other hand, are independent contractors who will work on a project until its completion, usually directing only the result of the work and not what will be done and how it will be done.

So when a project or piece of work requires the services of SOW workers, it’s critical that the management of these individuals is done by experts who know compliance rules, can provide proper project reporting, and have experience on-boarding and off-boarding these types of workers. An expert like Yoh, for example.

In this particular case, Yoh’s client, an international IT and engineering company, needed someone to handle one project in particular whose previous SOW vendor went belly up and could no longer manage the project on a full-time basis. In came Yoh to the rescue, saving the project at hand and taking over management of dozens of other SOW projects as a result of an initial job well done.

Can You Save Us?

As the company’s Managed Services Provider (MSP) partner for some time, Yoh already knew the business better than most (and sometimes better than all). So when disaster struck one of the client’s software engineering SOW projects, where the SOW vendor went under and put the entire project and its talent of screeching to a sudden halt, Yoh was called upon to help save the day.

The problem was the client required that all of the existing talent be kept on to maintain the momentum and consistency the project already had. If new talent were to be needed, the entire project may have required a restart. That wasn’t an option here.

After some negotiating, including reassurances for a team that had been on the verge of losing jobs as well as a number of completion bonuses, Yoh experts persuaded the talent to remain on site and made sure the project was completed successfully and on time. Partnering seamlessly with the company’s HR department and project managers to negotiate with the 10 workers, Yoh not only took over the entirety of the client’s SOW program but quickly and efficiently trained and transitioned an entire staff from a previous vendor over to Yoh management for this multi-year project. No delays, no angry workers, no sweat.

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SOW What Else Can Yoh Do?

Following the successful transition of a project teetering on the edge of doom, Yoh quickly became the client’s go-to vendor for all types of SOW projects. From software testing and IT engineering, to enterprise software migrations and Alaskan satellite construction, Yoh develops and manages project-customized SOW processes to give managers peace-of-mind and ensure that SOW engagements are efficiently and cost-effectively flowing through the organization.

With any SOW or contingent labor project, there will always be some amount of risk involved, and it’s Yoh’s job to take that risk out of the client’s hands and into the waiting arms of experts well-versed in all the compliance regulations associated with this type of labor. At each step of the way, Yoh connects with the client’s project managers and consultants through in-person meetings and weekly update calls to assure them that all deadlines are being met, costs are being managed, and all talent needs are being fulfilled. Yoh also provides complete visibility to show where all of a SOW’s spend is in terms of time, dollars, and number of hours used at any point, quickly and easily.

By using its specially designed SOW process, Yoh can offer subsidized benefits to keep workers engaged and committed to the project, without having to worry about tenure requirements hampering productivity. And, of course, Yoh’s deep pipeline of vetted candidates makes it easy to tap qualified talent to work on a project from the get-go, augment a skill, or fill a hole.

For both HR managers and procurement pros, SOWs can sometimes be just as much a headache as they are a mystery to deal with. But with our expertise and experience managing these sometimes confusing, albeit cost- and time-effective, contracts, Yoh is here to help companies in any industry through any project need.