10 Questions To Ask Before You Outsource
Small and midsize businesses typically lack in-house expertise when it comes to sourcing and managing relationships with third-party IT service providers. That includes picking a provider in the first place. Wondering how to make the most informed decision? Here are some questions that experienced sourcing managers and outsourcing advisers typically put to service providers to accelerate the short-listing process:
- Do you have same-size reference customers in our industry that have worked with you on this type of application or process before?
- 2What is the average number of days of training provided to the team that will be delivering our services?
- What is your organization's staff-attrition rate, and what steps will you take to help retain your organization's most effective workers?
- Do you bring a team on-site, or is the service conducted entirely from your offices?
- How much time will you need once the contract is signed to staff up a team, train it, and begin service delivery?
- If there is a service-delivery problem, or we are dissatisfied for any reason, how high in the organization will you escalate our concerns -- and how quickly will we hear back from a senior executive?
- Is the IT service-delivery team we would work with certified in ITIL? What is the CMM-I level certification of your application development team?
- How many "Black Belt" certified Six Sigma consultants do you have on your team, and how many would be assigned to work on our business processes?
- Are you willing to pay penalties to us for each day your organization fails to complete a contractually promised delivery date?
- For ongoing processes or services, will your organization commit to an annual cost reduction so that we can share in the productivity gains realized by your organization?
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