You're thinking of outsourcing. You want quality work. You haven't ever written down what constitutes "quality," but that's OK, because you know it when you see it.

You're about to get in trouble.

I can't tell you how many times we've started up an outsourcing evaluation — looking at work performance and costs — only to find that quality measures are nonexistent at the organization looking to outsource. More often than not, a dearth of measures is a sign of trouble ahead.

Oddly enough, most organizations that have no existing measures of service quality (or "service levels," in the industry jargon) actually are quite eager to outsource. My experience tells me that a functional manager who has no objective measure of service quality is wearing a bulls-eye in his or her company's corporate hierarchy and thus wants to offload the business process of service that could get him or her shot.

That aside, to make an informed decision on whether and how to outsource, you need to know about two things: service quality and costs. These data inputs are influenced by a third factor: service volume. So before you pick an outsourcing/offshoring solution, make sure you can articulate to your potential provider:

Now — and only now — can you accurately gauge the relative benefits and risks of using an outside solution.

But believe me when I say you'd be surprised to know how many organizations are too busy doing the work to be able to tell you how well they're doing it or how much it's costing them. These are the same organizations that end up guessing when they outsource. They may still end up with an improvement, but it'll be hard to measure the success.

Articulating service quality, cost and volume is a science. Get in the lab before you go offshore.
— Peter Allen

Peter Allen is a partner and managing director for market development with the sourcing advisory firm Technology Partners International. You can reach him at peter.allen@tpi.net.

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