What Are… Managed Outcomes?
Finding and retaining expertise in financial services poses an ongoing problem for many organisations. Managed outcomes offer a modern, flexible, and results-driven approach to technology resourcing, bridging the gap between capability and delivery while reducing risk and accelerating transformation.
Zack Keane
Technology & Innovation Consultant
zack.keane@caspianone.co.uk
The financial services industry is facing increasing pressure from digital transformation, regulatory demands, and the need to modernise legacy systems. The competition for top tech experts is fierce, and the cost of delays or misaligned hires can be significant. Managed outcomes is a resourcing solution designed to deliver results, not just people. This model is gaining popularity as organisations seek more agile, accountable, and cost-effective ways to achieve their technology goals. Understanding how managed outcomes work is the key to unlocking faster, smarter delivery. This article will explore what managed outcomes are, why they’re becoming essential in financial services, and how they can help overcome some of the industry’s most pressing challenges.
What is a Project with Managed Outcomes?
Managed outcomes is a resourcing and delivery model where organisations engage external partners to achieve clearly defined results. Rather than acquiring individuals or teams on a time-and-materials basis, businesses contract for specific deliverables, tracked against milestones and performance metrics. This approach ensures that the focus remains on achieving business objectives rather than simply filling roles or logging hours.
It’s a model built on accountability, transparency, and performance. The vendor is responsible for delivering the agreed outcomes, which are often tied to fixed pricing and structured timelines. This creates a shared sense of ownership and a stronger alignment between vendor and client goals.
How Managed Outcomes Differ from Traditional Outsourcing and Consultancy Models
Unlike traditional outsourcing or consultancy models, managed outcomes shifts the focus from hours worked to outcomes achieved. The central aim is not just to fill seats but to solve problems. Traditional resourcing often involves long lead times, onboarding, and the risk of misalignment. Consultancy models may offer expertise but can lack integration and flexibility.
Managed outcomes, by contrast, blends the best of both worlds, integrating deep expertise of consultancy with the agility and integration of embedded specialists. This approach offers greater accountability, cost predictability, and alignment with business goals, making it ideal for complex, high-stakes projects. Here is a deeper look at some of the key benefits managed outcomes provides:
Outcome-Based Delivery: Projects are scoped with clear deliverables and timelines, often tied to fixed pricing. This ensures predictability and reduces the risk of scope creep.
Embedded Teams: External experts integrate with internal teams, aligning with company culture and workflows. This builds collaboration and long-term knowledge transfer.
Flexible Engagement: Organisations can scale teams up or down based on project needs, without long-term commitments. This is particularly valuable in fast-moving environments where priorities can shift rapidly.
Why Financial Services Need a New Resourcing Model
Acquiring top-tier tech experts is increasingly difficult. The most in-demand professionals—especially those with niche skills—are often locked into high-paying roles or are reluctant to move. The acquisition process can take months, and even then, there’s no guarantee of a good fit. Additionally, the cost of sourcing, onboarding, and retaining specialists continues to rise, putting pressure on budgets and timelines.
Three key challenges include:
Scarcity of niche skills (e.g., KDB, low-latency trading systems, regulatory tech).
Long lead times for finding specialists and onboarding.
High attrition rates, especially in competitive markets
Traditional resourcing models often exacerbate these issues because they require long-term commitments for roles that may only be needed temporarily. In high-stakes environments like financial services, this can lead to over-investment in in-house capabilities that may no longer be essential or even required once a project concludes, resulting in both economic and operational inefficiencies.
The Cost and Risk of Project Delays or Skill Gaps
Financial institutions face constant regulatory scrutiny. Compliance projects often require rapid mobilisation of specialised teams. At the same time, many firms are burdened by outdated systems that need modernisation—projects that demand both speed and precision. Regulations such as MiFID, Basel III, and DORA are driving the need for real-time reporting, data transparency, and operational resilience.
Delays in regulatory or transformation projects can lead to significant financial penalties and reputational damage. Skill gaps can derail timelines, inflate budgets, and compromise quality. For example, a delay in implementing a compliance system could result in fines or missed reporting deadlines. Similarly, a lack of expertise in a critical technology could lead to flawed architecture or unstable systems.
Managed outcomes provide a way to meet these demands without overburdening internal teams or compromising on quality while also mitigating risks by ensuring the right expertise is in place from day one, with clear accountability for delivery.
Core Features of a Managed Outcomes Engagement
At the heart of managed outcomes are a set of foundational principles that ensure delivery is not only efficient and scalable but also deeply aligned with business goals and operational realities. These principles underpin some of the core benefits to this method of resourcing; getting them right can lead to better results.
Outcome-Focused Delivery
Success is measured by results, not hours. KPIs and SLAs are aligned with business objectives, ensuring that delivery partners are incentivised to meet or exceed expectations. This model encourages proactive problem-solving and continuous improvement, rather than reactive firefighting.
It also allows for better budget control, as costs are tied to deliverables rather than time spent. This makes it easier to forecast, plan, and justify investments to stakeholders.
Embedding Niche Expertise
Teams are not just external resources; they become part of the organisation. With deep domain knowledge in areas like finance, risk, and compliance, they bring both technical and business insight. This integration ensures smoother collaboration, faster onboarding, and better alignment with internal processes.
Well-integrated teams also help with knowledge transfer, ensuring that internal teams are upskilled and systems are well-documented for long-term sustainability.
Scalability and Flexibility
Managed outcomes allow organisations to scale delivery teams up or down as needed. This is especially valuable in agile and DevOps environments where priorities shift quickly. Whether it’s ramping up for a regulatory deadline or scaling down after a product launch, the model supports dynamic resourcing without the overhead of embedded resources.
This flexibility also supports innovation, allowing organisations to experiment with new technologies or approaches without long-term risk.
Governance and Transparency
Regular reporting, milestone tracking, and clear accountability are built into the model. This ensures compliance with both internal controls and external regulations. Clients have full visibility into progress, risks, and costs, enabling them to make better decisions and communicate effectively with stakeholders.
Governance frameworks also help manage vendor performance, ensuring that expectations are met and issues are addressed promptly.
Benefits for CTOs, CIOs, and Hiring Managers
Managed outcomes offer a strategic advantage for technology leaders seeking to deliver faster, smarter, and more sustainable results across complex initiatives. These four products of managed outcomes projects are crucial for understanding if this resource model is right for you.
Faster Time-to-Value on Tech Initiatives
By tapping into pre-vetted resource pools and proven delivery frameworks, organisations can accelerate project kick-off and execution, achieving value faster than traditional resource acquisition allows. This is particularly important in highly regulated and competitive markets, where speed can be a differentiator.
Faster time-to-value also means quicker ROI, helping technology leaders demonstrate impact and secure future investment.
Reduced Overhead and Risk
There’s no need to manage resourcing cycles, onboarding, or long-term risks. The vendor handles delivery, while the client retains strategic oversight. This reduces administrative burden and allows internal teams to focus on core priorities.
The end product is a fully delivered solution, not a team of people. This outcome-based approach minimises the risk of misalignment and ensures that business objectives are achieved.
Access to Niche Skills
Whether it’s cloud migration, data architecture, or AI/ML, managed outcomes provide access to hard-to-find expertise without the overhead of embedded resources. These skills are often critical to transformation projects but difficult to source internally.
Having access to these capabilities on demand allows organisations to stay ahead of the curve and respond quickly to emerging opportunities or threats.
Improved Project Delivery and Stakeholder Satisfaction
With clear deliverables and regular progress updates, stakeholders gain confidence in project outcomes. Success is measurable, and accountability is shared. This leads to improved communication, fewer surprises, and higher overall satisfaction.
Stakeholder trust is critical in large-scale transformation projects, and managed outcomes help build and maintain that trust through transparency and performance.
How to Choose the Right Managed Outcomes Partner
There are several impactful considerations when choosing the right vendor to fulfil a project with managed outcomes. Some of the key areas to look out for include domain expertise, delivery track record, and cultural alignment with your organisation. Understanding how a vendor satisfies these considerations can go a long way towards choosing your next resourcing partner.
The right partner should feel like an extension of your team, not just a vendor. Look for those who demonstrate a genuine understanding of your challenges and a commitment to your success. However, you should be mindful of overpromising during the pitch and underdelivering in execution as well as a lack of transparency in team composition or delivery methodology. You should also ensure that any potential partner has a clear exit or transition plan in place post-delivery and can provide comprehensive reporting and documentation throughout the project. Ask these questions when evaluating a vendor:
Can you provide references from similar projects?
Validate their claims with real-world examples and client feedback.Who will be delivering the work, and what are their credentials?
Ensure that the proposed team has the right skills and experience.How do you define and measure success, and what happens if outcomes aren’t met?
Clarify KPIs, SLAs, and recourse options to protect your investment and reputation.
Exploring these issues upfront can help to prevent project delays, increased costs, and long-term dependency on the vendor while giving you the most precise understanding of how the vendor will deliver.
At Caspian One, we have over two decades of experience in locating and delivering highly skilled resources and subject matter expertise for complex and high-demand projects across financial services, broadcast, and other industries. Our managed outcomes service covers the entire project lifecycle, from statement of work creation and resource planning to risk analysis, compliance, and status reporting. By leveraging our network of Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), we ensure rapid scalability and effective project delivery. Get in touch with one our experts to learn more about how managed outcomes can help to build more clarity and predictability into your next complex project.
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