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

Clear responsibilities in a shifting environment

Having identified the competencies and capability positioning of the retained organization, the next step is to define its responsibilities – the most important of which are set out in the accompanying box. As we have already pointed out, the retained team needs to be composed, at an early stage, of the very best available people, to make realization of the benefits as certain as possible. It also needs the budget, career structure and board-level backing to manage the supplier relationship effectively. And it must benefit from the skills, empowerment and experience necessary to oversee commercial, training and cultural issues.

Clearly defining the responsibilities of the retained team Effective ...