Business Process Outsourcing Risks: A Multitude of Flavors

by Yuwei Shi

This Executive Update, Part I in a series, presents the results of a recent Cutter Consortium survey of 97 business-IT professionals that reveals a complex structure of BPO risks. First, it pinpoints the leading causes for BPO project failures. Some of them coincide with known outsourcing risks; others are obscure. What is more revealing is how the well-understood risk factors are influenced by the lesser-known causes. Second, the survey identifies effective ways of dealing with those risk factors. Third, beyond the risks of BPO project failures, the survey results also show several potential outcomes of BPO that are significant and hazardous to BPO client companies.