2. Who owns the process?

The customer owns the process, and the MSP executes it. For example, Whirlpool Corp. recently signed a 10-year contract with Cincinnati-based Convergys Corp. to provide Web-based human resources services to the appliance manufacturer's 68,000 employees worldwide. Whirlpool's compensation requirements vary by country, and the company is able to modify its processes on a country-by-country basis, says Abby Luersman, vice president for HR solutions at Benton Harbor, Mich.-based Whirlpool. At the same time, Convergys is using SAP software worldwide to deliver the Web-based services, so Whirlpool gets the benefit of global data consistency.

"Our HR generalists can leverage data globally around issues like diversity reporting and talent pool management," Luersman says. "We have one global [software] platform, with consistency and standardization."

3. How will users be affected?

The biggest change with an MSP arrangement is that users can now bypass internal IT organizations. At the same time, users should expect to interact with the MSP in a more structured, disciplined way than they interact with internal IT, experts say. MSPs are very process-oriented, and there is a clearly defined set of steps users will need to take to obtain support or make a change. These are established at the beginning of the customer/MSP relationship via service-level agreements or contracts.