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Outsourcing was supposed to make life simpler. Instead, most organizations now live in a maze of suppliers, tools, contracts and dashboards that all look “green” while the service misbehaves.

The Retained Organization is about fixing that — not with more coordination, but with architecture. This book introduces the Retained Organization (RO) as the owner of the service management architecture: the function that keeps coherence, responsibility and experience intact in a multi-supplier ecosystem.

Where its companion guide The Service Integrator focuses on operational coherence (making suppliers work as one system), this book focuses on architectural sovereignty (who owns the rules of the game). Together they form a twin blueprint:

  • The Retained Organization – how to design and govern the system: tasks, authorities, responsibilities, interfaces, agreements, RO maturity and evolution.
  • The Service Integrator – how to operate that system day-to-day: cross-supplier workflows, integration policies, transparency and experience.

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Read the RO book if you’re a CIO, CEO, IT manager, enterprise architect or sourcing lead who needs structural control over a fragmented landscape. Pair it with The Service Integrator if you also carry responsibility for SMO/SIAM, tooling, or daily service integration.

You’ll learn how to:

  • retain ownership of the service management architecture while outsourcing execution
  • enforce one management system across all actors (USM’s 1-5-8 logic)
  • make suppliers interchangeable without losing coherence
  • turn outsourcing from dependency into strategic advantage.

💾 Free download (no registration)

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This page offers The Retained Organization – A USM-based blueprint for architectural governance in an outsourced world as a free PDF download. Click the cover at the right to download your copy ======>

Use it on its own, or together with its companion guide The Service Integrator, as your reference set for building a sane, coherent multi-supplier ecosystem.

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Join the USM Community

Interested in applying the USM knowledge in your organization (or with your customers)?

  1. Take a deep dive in the USM Wiki or read the USM book.
  2. Take a USM Foundation class or do the self-paced USM E-learning.
  3. Join the USM Professional track to be part of the USM Professional community.
  4. Follow the USM LinkedIn Newsletter