Now, McIntyre says, many of those contractors have converted to full-time employment.

A winning formula

There isn't an exact recipe for successful outsourcing. But among the ingredients is keeping strategic decision-making at home while sending out tasks that constitute the core competency of the partner company. Partners should be able to perform tasks in large volume using scalable, repeatable processes that lead to across-the-board savings for many customers.

IT leaders underscore that while a "set and forget" approach would be convenient, leaving a partnership unmanaged is a death knell to outsourcing projects. Successful sourcing, in contrast, requires an IT department to consider its outsourcing partner as an extension of its staff minus much of the overhead, with staff managed and project results measured accordingly.

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