Define Your Governance Model For Outsourcing Relationships

At Forrester, we see clients apply a variety of vendor governance models in their outsourcing relationships. These governance models cover the spectrum of IT services engagements, including: managed contracts that are purchased in a staff augmentation model and fully controlled by the client and vendor governance for managed services that focuses on business outcomes and strategic partner relationships. While the first option is more of a resource management model, the latter is a more complex model based on clear interface definitions and strict responsibility descriptions. This document discusses the different ways to apply vendor governance to several common outsourcing relationships. It provides best practices for managing partnerships within staff augmentation, managed services, and public cloud-based models. It also addresses how to prepare your vendor governance program for the future IT services environment.