This book develops a common understanding between the client and the provider in each of the four stages of strategic outsourcing. These stages range from discovery, where the parties envision their future collaboration; planning, where they lay the ground work for the contract and the project; building, where they effectively carry out the work; and lastly to running, where they orchestrate the relationship on a daily basis to ensure that the new, enlarged company achieves the results sought. In a simple yet direct style, it highlights the dos and don'ts the parties should bear in mind at each stage of the process and combines both the client's and the provider's perspectives by comparing their respective involvement at each stage of the process and considering, equally, their obligations in establishing a balanced relationship.

The book is primarily intended for those in the private sector with experience of dealing with complex outsourcing situations and who are looking for the small or bigger differentiators that will support their decisions and actions. The target audiences include, on the client side: CCOs, CIOs, lawyers, procurement managers, outsourcing consultants and IT Service managers and, on the provider side: account managers, bid managers, outsourcing project managers, operation managers and service managers. However, it is also useful for anybody involved in outsourcing who is seeking to develop a global understanding of the main processes and roles upstream and downstream in the chain.