Considering Outsourcing?

The first imperative is to establish your sourcing strategy. How will your business model be improved by outsourcing? Should you outsource by process or by function? What do you hope to gain?

Having decided to outsource, the factors to be taken into account before any outsource deal is made are numerous and complex. For example, how much is your current service costing you? How can you be sure you have accurately assessed what it is you are trying to replace?

You need to be able to compare suppliers on a like for like basis, and creating a comprehensive specification of requirements is essential to allow you to make the right choice.

Outsourcing inevitably means ceding some control of your business to a third party. Are you ready to do this? Do you understand the governance processes you need to put in place to ensure that you get what you have contracted for? Do you have the right people in place to manage the relationship?

How do you structure the contract to give you the flexibility you require? Without expert help you can easily find yourself tied into contracts that increasingly drag your business down through cost escalation and inflexibility, and that you can only get out of by paying punitive exit charges.