So when it came time for her company, Geon, a maker of chemical compounds (since acquired by PolyOne), to outsource its desktop support operations, Brunk had a pretty good idea of what she didn't want in a vendor-neither a dictator nor a passive partner.
"We were looking for a company that was going to work with us and not somebody that was just providing IT," says Brunk, who is now the SAP administrator at PolyOne. She considers the company fortunate to have chosen Compaq Global Services, which has brought to the partnership a combination of strong desktop expertise and a spirit of openness.
But for every Kris Brunk, there's an IT manager who is less than satisfied with the whole outsourcing experience. And that is a source of considerable frustration in the US$56 billion global outsourcing industry.
On a theoretical level, it's hard to find anyone who disputes the strategic benefits of farming out mission-critical operations to a reliable third-party. But in their dealings with customers, outsourcing providers continue to behave in ways that call into question their ability to provide reliable service. To hear customers and their attorneys talk, even the largest outsourcing firms have yet to figure out that there is more to this business than striking a good deal.
"Most of the problems that come up revolve around mistakes in getting the relationship started, because there is a level of mistrust and the vendor has to clear the air," says Robert Zahler, a partner at Shaw, Pittman, Potts & Trowbridge, a law firm specialising in negotiating outsourcing deals for Global 2000 customers.
John Halvey, an attorney who co-authored a major book on outsourcing in 1995, agrees that it's the early flaws in the agreement that create the most mistrust and inevitably lead to legal wrangling down the road.
"A lot of the work outsourcing attorneys get involved in is to eliminate the friction," says Halvey, founder of the Global Technology Transaction Group at Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy.
A classic example was the ill-fated deal under which the State of Connecticut was to outsource all of its IT operations to EDS. Several major problems, including a lack of communication, internal confusion at EDS, labor union intransigence, and disputed contract language, led to the cancellation of the agreement in 1999 before it was even signed.
Sources say EDS has since made enormous strides in customer friendliness, financial flexibility and internal coordination, but back then it was a poster boy for poor customer relations. "That [deal] was a meltdown from the start," says Louis Gutierrez, the CTO at Harvard Pilgrim HealthCare, who followed the events in nearby Connecticut.
But perhaps the most unfortunate manifestation of ill will in the outsourcing process is the growing prevalence of contract terminations and renegotiations once the deals are already in operation. This particular legal niche barely existed a few years ago and today accounts for the bulk of major outsourcing transactions.
Industry observers remain bullish on the outsourcing market, from the data center, to app development and maintenance, and Web hosting. IDC, for one, expects outsourcing revenue to surpass $100 billion by 2005.
But that heady projection may be in jeopardy, critics say, if providers don't start getting their acts together. Maureen Bertocci, CTO of the Port Authority of Allegheny County, is one of the sceptics. "I've seen deals fall apart because the outsourcing vendor was more worried about the contract than the client," she says.
The following are the most common and potentially disastrous failings. Call them the five deadly sins of outsourcing. Avoid each of these sins, and you'll go a long way toward keeping the peace with your customers.
