The fundament for successful outsourcing of Information Services (IS) is largely built during the preparation. Developing a long-term service delivery relationship between parties, however, is not so easy.

Besides the design of the desired relationship and the selection from among available suppliers, attention should be paid towards the steering and control mechanisms of the outsourcing relationship.

Within this relationship, certain risks and blockages may arise; these need to be identified as early as possible to prevent (intellectual) value destruction later on. Within this outsourcing context, the business and IS targets are dominant; including the accompanying steering models, the maturity of the internal IS organization and the control mechanisms of the demand or retained organization.

The ultimate target is a well-balanced outsourcing decision (make-or-buy) and - more importantly - proper service delivery that is free from headaches. Sometimes, though, the results fall short of the expectations.
Prevent incremental cost in outsourced services is Quint’s white paper on deal making, market-based pricing and sourcing governance. This white paper reflects our philosophy on benchmarking and performance management in relation to IS outsourcing based on our core competencies.

How can benchmarking and performance management add value to your organization on the edge of management and information systems within the sourcing domain?
Please download the white paper http://itsourcing.quintgroup.com/white-paper.pdf.

Arno IJmker is a partner at Quint Wellington Redwood and responsible for Quint's worldwide sourcing consultancy practice. He has written several publications on (out)sourcing and has an international business background in banking and insurance. Visit my blog
and outsourcing publications via Quint Wellington Redwood