Chapter 5

Internal Risks During Outsourcing

But first you must master their language, their dialect, proverbs and songs.

Don’t trust any clerk to interpret when they come with the tale of their wrongs.

Let them know that you know what they’re saying; let them feel that you know what to say.

Yes, even when you want to go hunting, hear ’em out if it takes you all day.

—Rudyard Kipling, Norman and Saxon1

Managing the Internal Risks to the Principal

Understanding and controlling risks is the key to deciding when, what, to whom, and how to outsource. Showing how critical this is, some academic research places the chance of information systems (IS) outsourcing success at only about 50% and, furthermore, highlights that despite wishful thinking IS ...

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