Getting Innovation via Outsourcing Contracts

by Sara Cullen

Most client organizations expect that their providers will continually innovate or carry out some form of value-adding when there is an outsourcing contract. I write "some form" because a typical outsourcing contract does not specify what innovation is expected, let alone when it is to occur (just at the start? continuously?), where it is to occur (technology? process? just within the scope or outside?), and how it is to occur (by osmosis? through proposals?).