subject: How to Decide What Goes [print this page] In fact, a sign of good transaction relationships is that contract negotiations are straightforward. The outsourcing services are extractable, and companies and vendors have similar goals for the arrangement: Make it fast, easy and cheap. "It's a lot easier to get to success with transactional-type outsourcing [than with other types] if the customers have well-defined requirements," says Mary Lacity, professor of information systems at the University of Missouri. "If the customers know exactly what they want, they can tell the vendor, and the vendor can price [the contract] correctly. The expectations [for the outsourcing arrangement] can then be well defined in the contract."
