CIO.com reported that “One of the biggest mistakes an IT organization can make when outsourcing is failing to consider the total cost of the relationship — including all the hidden costs that are likely to accrue.”  The September 30, 2020 article entitled “The hidden costs of outsourcing” included these comments from Daniel Masur (at Mayer Brown) about #15 Regulatory requirements:

The global proliferation of privacy and cybersecurity legislation creates challenges for all companies,…, but an outsourcing provider’s service delivery solution can exacerbate a company’s compliance challenges when the provider processes or stores its data in new or different geographies.

An outsourcing customer must pay close attention to whether the proposed service delivery solution will require it to incur the cost of complying with privacy or cybersecurity requirements it would not otherwise be subject to or expose it to potential liability in such jurisdictions,…

Here are all 16 issues that may lead to increased costs:

1. Unanticipated disruption

2. Organizational change management

3. Unnecessary change orders

4. Lax demand management

5. Consulting creep

6. Insufficient governance

7. Third-party risk

8. Failure to innovate

9. Aspirational services

10. Retooling for intelligent automation

11. Knowledge loss

12. Duplication of work

13. Employee disengagement

14. Provider integration

15. Regulatory requirements

16. Bubble costs

What has your experience been in outsourcing?