Best Practices for Communication between Client and Vendor in IT Outsourcing Projects

Abstract

It has been reported that outsourcing specialist knowledge work can enable business excellence by enhancing business competitiveness, economic value added service, quality, and market branding. Much of this may be supported by seamless technical communication flows between the vendors and clients of an outsourcing project. However, the potential loss of confidentiality, authority, and security are key factors organizations take into consideration before venturing into outsourcing. Developing an information communication platform which promotes a secure knowledge exchange culture in an environment conducive to trust is fundamental to mitigate these information risk factors. The empirical study reported in this paper investigated the central postulate that effective management of technical communication at every stage of executing an IT outsourcing contract reduces associated risks and establishes trust in an outsourcing relationship. The objective of the study was to provide knowledge managers with an insight into the effective- ness of communication flows for various outsourcing activities in order to support knowledge mobilization for effective service delivery. The field research was conducted through a survey of industry practitioners from vendor and client organizations with a sample size of 70+ respondents from 20+ organizations, about an equal number of clients and vendors. It is the intended contri- bution of this work to prescribe a socio-technical platform for professional technical communica- tions between clients and vendors of outsourcing services that effectively manages information risks and the notion of trust arising from the project life-cycle.