Smarter Outsourcing: An executive guide to understanding, planning and exploiting successful outsourcing relationships

. . . even to breaking point

This is a further reason why regular senior management or even board-level review of the progress of outsourcing negotiations is every bit as critical in outsourcing as in an M&A deal. A company making an acquisition must keep its eye out for market changes that affect the deal – especially if they have the effect of undermining the original rationale. As with a good M&A deal, a sound outsourcing agreement can rapidly lose its value case because of developments beyond the control of anyone involved. So the client has to be prepared to test and retest the value proposition, even to deal-breaking point if necessary.

Short of calling the deal off, fluctuating external changes may require the client or supplier to push ...