Many organisations choose to outsource certain activities, for various reasons. They may consider them to be non-core activities, want to outsource a particularly specialist or risky process, or do it purely to save money.

Outsourcing can make good commercial sense, but only if the implications and risks are properly understood.

Several organisations have suffered serious embarrassment or damage to their reputation owing to an outsourced supplier’s failure to deliver. Whether it’s IT, manufacturing, call centre, purchasing, delivery of products or whatever, someone else’s problem can quickly become yours.

If things go wrong your customers will turn to you, not your supplier. You might have outsourced the process, but you retain the risk, and the responsibility, and the reputation, and the hassle if things go wrong.

So make sure your decision to outsource is an informed one. One that includes a thorough risk and impact assessment and an understanding of the supplier’s own continuity plans.