Saunders admits that the IBM GSA deal has had its challenges, the key issue being customer focus, but thinks his own background in the IT services industry has helped him to get value out of outsourcing arrangements and get providers to concentrate on delivering what they should be delivering. Saunders spent the last eight years before joining Southcorp with DMR Consulting, during which time he was involved in a number of outsourcing deals from the other side of the fence.

"Having strategised, sold and implemented outsourcing deals, I know what outsourcing should deliver in terms of [value] to the customer. My background helps me understand the outsourcing environment and the expectations that flow from it," says Saunders. "With Optus, it's business as usual and there are no issues. We're still in a transition phase with IBM GSA but we think we have a way forward with them. They've now looked and listened and I understand that they have brought in a new team. Things have much improved and we have a much greater level of confidence now that we're going to achieve our original goals.

"Ideally, we'll get to the stage where the relationship works seamlessly and is transparent in what it delivers to the business. If [the arrangement] achieves the service levels you've defined and agreed with your service provider, you should have no reason to worry. The view I take in outsourcing is that the service level defines what we require as an organisation. I don't care how or what [the provider] does to achieve that service level. The onus is on them to figure out what they have to do - that's what they signed up for," Saunders says.

On the applications front, Saunders says that integrating Southcorp and Rosemount Wines involves a significant amount of work because the demand planning and sales forecasting models and principles of the two groups are different and the company wants to present a single face to its customers. Whereas Southcorp has traditionally produced wines and then distributed them to various countries, regions and key customers, at Rosemount the sales forecast is developed and production set more according to customer demand, not to what it might have available.