Outsourcing in Australia: the vendor's perspective

Almost all outsourcing literature takes the client's perspective. Clients' concerns been studied but the vendor's perspective has been neglected. We hypothesized that an outsourcing vendor's behaviour is strongly influenced by several concerns e.g. unrealistic client expectations; negotiating and updating contracts; and maintaining appropriate relationships with clients. We interviewed eight senior executives of organisations supplying a variety of outsourcing services and three senior client executives responsible for outsourced services. The findings broadly verified hypotheses. Unanticipated findings were vendors being very jealous of their reputations, clients using outsourcing to defer capital expenditure, the importance of continuous contact with clients, and emerging problems of intellectual property.