When businesses talk about customer experience, the conversation almost always focuses on the end user. That’s understandable, but dangerously narrow. In modern service ecosystems, particularly those governed by service integration and management (SIAM), the customer experience depends just as much on those behind the scenes: employees delivering the service and suppliers supporting it. Yet, too often, these groups are treated as an afterthought. As organizations pursue efficiency, reduce costs, and delegate responsibilities to third parties, they risk overlooking the people who are crucial to delivering service quality.

During my 30-year career in the information and communication technology industry, I’ve seen this shift up close many times, and I’ve been part of various large-scale outsourcing initiatives, both as the initiator and as an affected employee. Many staff activities are outsourced to business process companies. And subsequently, not long after these transitions, the work is offshored again, with roles moving to locations such as India or the Philippines. Employees whose activities were outsourced face losing their jobs due to redundancy.

That story isn’t unique. What’s concerning is how routine it has become. In the rush to reduce costs, companies are fragmenting their service capability without fully understanding what they’re sacrificing.

Replacing experienced employees with lower-cost offshore teams might look attractive on a spreadsheet, but it brings with it tangible and measurable risks. The result is often a loss of institutional knowledge, disruption to service quality and continuity, and frustration among both staff and customers. In my own experience, I’ve seen KPIs slip as new teams, however talented, grapple with complex processes they weren’t given time to absorb. Cultural gaps widen the divide. Tickets get stuck, escalations grow, and service level agreements (SLA) are missed. It’s no surprise that customer satisfaction scores begin to fall.

I’ve also worked with clients who now insist that support teams are in specific locations, having seen firsthand what happens when service quality declines. Sometimes, the lesson for low-cost alternatives can turn out to be expensive.

SIAM is designed to coordinate multiple service providers to deliver a seamless outcome. It introduces governance structures, accountability, and shared processes, precisely the kind of framework needed to manage complex, distributed environments. But SIAM isn’t just about tools and contracts. It’s about people. And this is where experience management, especially employee and supplier experience, must be given equal priority.

Experience management continually monitors and manages the experience of not only the end users of the service, but also the employees and suppliers delivering the service. While morale can’t be dictated from the top, it can be supported through thoughtful transitions, inclusive collaboration models, and proper onboarding.

Experience level agreements (XLA), similar to SLAs, as an agreement with relevant stakeholders to achieve a certain experience, have started to shift focus from pure metrics to user perception. The next step is to extend that same thinking to the entire service chain.

Asking some difficult questions early in the process can make a difference: Are employees being engaged before a change, or just informed after the fact? Are suppliers being treated as partners, or just as interchangeable vendors? Is time being allocated for knowledge transfer and cultural integration, or is everyone expected to “figure it out” on the fly? SIAM provides the governance scaffolding to address these questions, but only if we prioritize it. We need to embed experience thinking into supplier contracts, onboarding programs, and transition plans, not just at the customer interface.

Let’s put it another way. Outside of consulting, I keep chickens. And I’ve learned that if you want healthy eggs, you don’t just focus on the end product. You have to care about the whole ecosystem, including feed quality and supply, stress levels, and the environment. The same applies to services. If your employees are disengaged, or your suppliers are unsupported, your end-user experience will suffer, no matter how polished your customer portal is.

Employees and suppliers aren’t just cogs in a delivery chain; they’re extensions of your service capability. In a SIAM environment, each supplier plays a specific role, and the quality of their contribution depends heavily on how they are engaged, informed, and integrated. Too often, organizations treat suppliers as purely contractual entities, measuring them solely against SLAs and cost targets.

Although performance metrics matter, they rarely tell the full story. A supplier who meets the letter of the contract but feels excluded from key communications or strategic discussions will struggle to deliver their best work. Supplier experience means ensuring they have the context, relationships, and feedback channels needed to operate effectively. It means creating a climate where they can raise risks early, propose improvements, and feel invested in the service ecosystem and its shared success.

Neglecting the supplier experience creates consequences that ripple outward. Fragmented communication, unclear escalation paths, and a lack of mutual trust can erode collaboration and delay problem resolution. This not only strains day-to-day operations but also damages long-term resilience.

In contrast, organizations that actively manage supplier experience often see higher service stability, faster innovation uptake, and a more adaptable supply chain. Embedding XLAs that measure collaboration quality, responsiveness, and mutual satisfaction alongside traditional SLAs helps shift the focus from transactional compliance to value co-creation.

In SIAM, this approach isn’t just “nice to have.” It’s a competitive advantage. By making suppliers feel like strategic partners rather than interchangeable vendors, businesses can unlock deeper commitment, better knowledge sharing, and ultimately a better customer experience.

The good news is that this shift is already underway. Experience management is becoming central to service management conversations. But we must go further. We need to stop treating employees and suppliers as line items in a budget and start seeing them as experienced stakeholders. SIAM, properly implemented, can be the framework that enables this broader, more sustainable service approach.

If you’d like to know more, I’m speaking about experience integration within SIAM at Scopism’s Service North Conference on Monday, Nov. 3. Join me as we explore how employee, supplier, and customer experiences can all be aligned for better service outcomes—not just cheaper ones.