Applications Outsourcing Customers Weigh In On Best Practices And Key Success Factors

Although customers remain highly satisfied with their applications outsourcing (AO) suppliers, they still struggle with a common set of service provider delivery challenges. These include the ability to deliver transformation and innovation, deliver technical skills rapidly, and execute on specific vertical market challenges. Yet, over the next decade, outsourcing customers and vendors will face entirely new requirements; a result of the strategic impact outsourcing partners can have on clients' business-technology goals. Our survey of 68 client reference customers, as part of the upcoming 2013 The Forrester Wave™: Applications Outsourcing evaluation, highlighted the changes that some leading clients are driving in the applications outsourcing marketplace. The largest and most mature customers we spoke with see both challenges and opportunities ahead in sustaining strategic partner relationships, retaining qualified staff, and accessing the full breadth of new technology offerings from vendors.