Outsourcing Dilemma: The Search for Competitiveness, The

Using more than one provider

There has been a steadily increasing trend amongst major client organizations to split the overall IT function into sub-functions that can be operated and managed separately by outsourcing service providers. The stated objective of some of these organizations is to obtain the best specialist suppliers for each sub-function. Others have taken this route for defensive reasons, which include not committing everything to one external supplier and the belief that outsourcing in this way makes it easier to take the service back in house should it become necessary. From a contractual point of view it is certainly possible to get just as good an exit strategy built into an arrangement with one provider as it is with many. ...