In other words, many customers are ill-prepared to negotiate the contract and manage the relationship, and they're paying the price. But walking away from a bad outsourcing deal isn't cheap either. Some customers have had to cough up tens of millions of dollars to void their long-term contracts, and it's even more costly (and more difficult) to rebuild an in-house operation.
The point here isn't to bash outsourcing, which continues to make sense for many, many companies, especially those with the expertise and foresight to manage these relationships like they run their core operations. IBM didn't amass a $123 billion market cap on the back of a flawed, dysfunctional business model.
The point is that IT strategy, service, development and support isn't a shrink-wrapped product easily transferred from outsourcer to multiple customers. Although vendors and customers may have conflicting agendas, the successful outsourcing engagement is a partnership in an age in which this overused term has lost meaning. Treat outsourcing with the care and feeding that true partnerships demand.
Rob Preston is editor in chief of Network Computing. Write to him at [email protected].
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