4 Employee's background check - Request for resumes of employees, especially the key personnel. Their background and experience is important to ensure the provider has the capabilities to support your IT team.

5 Specific SLAs-Make sure service levels are specific and measurable to avoid finger-pointing when expectations were not matched.

6 Project management structure-Study the outsourcing team structure and the metrics for monitoring and measuring the performance.

7 Walkthroughs-It is a good idea to walkthrough with your outsourcing providers to find out how project is carried out. A specific step-by-step software development process or infrastructure maintenance process is helpful when making decision.

8 Data security - Ensure your sensitive corporate data is handled securely, find out where are the servers placed, what is the providers' security policy to ensue client's sensitive data won't be shared by another team within the same outsourcing house.