The Outsourcing Manual

Citation

Croom, S.R. (1998), "The Outsourcing Manual", International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Vol. 18 No. 1, pp. 107-108. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijopm.1998.18.1.107.1

It has been estimated that the value of outsourcing contracts including IT services for 1996 was in excess of £160 billion, and it is anticipated that in five years’ time 45 to 50 per cent of IT service budgets and up to 60 per cent of ancillary services budgets will be outsourced. In such a large growing sector, there is a real need for effective, professional contract management in order to ensure that the performance of outsourced services enhances the business operational as well as financial efficiency and it is with this in mind that this text has been written.

The authors are practitioners with more than 35 years experience in the field between them, and this has clearly positioned their book as a guide for the growing audience of managers concerned with the nature of outsourcing as part of their budgetary responsibilities. Given that the range of services falling into the category of “outsourcing” can range from maintenance, building and estates management to information services, the approach taken here has been to provide a general guide to the management of service contracts, specifically targeted at the non‐professional purchaser or contractor.

For me, manuals are handy reference guides which facilitate problem identification and solution. On first reading, this book did not feel so user friendly. The structure and style of the book is typified by short sentences, short paragraphs and short chapters (there are 20 chapters crammed into only 192 pages) which left me feeling that this is a book which is the result of the accumulation of some interesting and undoubtedly useful training programmes, rather than a comprehensive text aimed at taking the reader through subject issues in a clear, conceptual and cogent manner, which in itself posed some particular challenges for the reviewing process. After my first, unsatisfactory, reading of the book, I decided to use it explicitly as an instructor’s manual by constructing a number of rough presentations from the materials. This actually made more sense of the structure and style of the materials, helped to clarify the extent of the authors’ knowledge, but unfortunately also demonstrated their lack of scholastic and literary expertise.

Having made this criticism of the style and structure, the majority of the content is quite useful from a practitioner’s perspective. Having worked with managers responsible for facilities management for several years, I have seen at first hand the complex and varied operational role which they have to fulfil, and the concomitant demand for a more “hands‐on” approach to the challenges of outsourcing. Most managers in their situation are not professional purchasers or contract managers, frequently having been responsible for the management of internally‐provided services. As such, a lot of basic material is needed in order to establish a strong common base of understanding. Thus, the practising manager’s response to this book will be far more positive than that of the academic or student. In itself, this is no bad thing, for a clearly targeted text is the publisher’s dream, for the obvious reasons of clear delineation of the potential market.

The book explores the process of outsourcing in three parts. In the first part, the establishment of the criteria and rationale for outsourcing is dealt with at a managerial, rather than strategic, level. In 32 pages the authors attempt to incorporate organisational and operational dimensions of outsourcing in a somewhat technical manner. This is useful, in as much as there are some techniques which serve to inform the outsourcing decision, but on the whole provided little analysis of the issue. With this type of approach, I believe there is a need for short examples or case notes which would both explore and enrich the presentation.

The second part of the book addresses the preparation for contracting of service requirements. This part I found to be useful, if a little expansive in its scope. The identification of the procurement process is very helpful, but I found here again that all too often the sub‐sections were poorly written, being somewhat tautological in the manner. It is at this stage in the book I feel the authors begin to lose their way a little, and it is only on the specific chapters concerned with charging and the human resource issues that they offer any significant clarity and information.

The third part of the book relates to the procurement of the contract agreement. On the whole, this is again rather weakly presented and I found, in particular, the examination of negotiation to be facile. There is so much more useful material available elsewhere that I question the value of the whole of part three in this book. This is a serious concern, for many potential readers of this book will be concerned with how outsourced contracts are negotiated and managed. I feel that the authors provide little, if any, informative help here.

The final part of the book contains three case studies, which I found to be the most valuable parts of the book. Here, real decisions are discussed which provide a useful illustration of the main issues facing practitioners; it also serves to clarify many of the ideas which had been introduced earlier. It is a shame that greater use is not made of the cases, as the authors merely offer them up at the end of their materials for the readers to make of what they will. I made a lot of them, in fact, and would heartily recommend to anyone considering writing another book on this subject to seriously consider the mix of case and concept.

In conclusion, The Outsourcing Manual by Robert White and Barry James is not a book I would recommend you rush out to buy. Rather, I see it as a mildly useful instructor’s manual to be used in conjunction with one’s own materials and background experience. Had the authors given more care and attention to their style and the structure of the text and made better use of case examples, I believe they would have produced a valuable and important contribution to the field. As it is, they merely provide a mediocre source of materials for the already knowledgeable user.