Many silo-based IT departments and service providers fail to deliver on their promises of cost savings, service improvements, and innovation. In addition, the finger-pointing among multiple internal and external suppliers and often inflexible contractual constraints render it difficult to address market challenges in an agile way. The complexity and lack of transparency make it hard to understand the necessary action items to achieve the necessary end-to-end service levels and meet the expectations of the service consumers.

Driven by the need to manage the results of typical multi-supplier eco-systems and to accommodate the increasing need for go-to-market speed, organizations are now looking for a multi-supplier sourcing model to address the necessary governance and achieve the expected but hitherto missed opportunities. Network Services Integration (NSI) is a sourcing model based on leading practices observed at major global organizations. It is a functional group that provides the governance and a single point of responsibility for the delivery of integrated services to the client, based upon an operating model that focuses on core organizational competencies and delegates or outsources the activities that are deemed non-core or commodity. The granular services, provided by multiple internal or external service providers, are integrated by the NSI function to ensure end-to-end service levels and transparency. The NSI function is responsible for matters pertaining to interoperability, cross-functional coordination, governance, and end-to-end service levels.

The main goal of NSI is to coordinate internal and external suppliers and their services in a cost-effective way to achieve the end-to-end service levels needed to support the goals of the business functions. NSI is a layer between the suppliers and the IT functions that supports and enables the integration of the services offered by multiple (internal and external) service providers.