Outsourcing agreements almost always include preparation for disaster recovery based upon common delivery failures caused by outages, major workload spikes, and force majeure situations. There is even coverage in case the provider becomes financial instability or the client begins to believe it is in their best interest to transition to a new provider or bring the function back in house.

So what if you, as the CFO or CIO of a major corporation, woke up one morning to discover Provider Delivery Armageddon? Overnight, your outsourcing provider has completely ceased operations, and 70% to 90% of the provider workforce supporting your company is based offshore. How would you respond? What would you do first? How could you have been prepared; and how could this have been prevented?  This scenario has never actually occurred, but that being said, a senario like Enron had also never occured - until it did.

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As I’m sure was true for most of you, my parents regularly stressed the importance of making a good “first impression” throughout my grade school, high school and college years.  Obviously that was to improve the chances that I would win over my teachers, get that special girl to go out with me on Saturday night and as I approached college graduation, to secure that all important first job!

Having won over my fair share of teachers, successfully finding a wife and spending 25 years with my first employer, I’d say I understood and have successfully applied the principles of making a good first impression in the most important areas of my life.

So why doesn’t the principle of making good first impressions seem to apply to the process of finding the right sourcing partner?

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