Outsourcing
Outsourcing has grown increasingly more prevalent in the public and private sectors since it emerged in the 1980s. It involves the transfer of projects and functions to specialist third-party providers – otherwise known as ‘contractors’ – in return for a fee. Among the most commonly outsourced areas of activity are IT services, advertising and marketing, human resources and facilities management, legal processes and customer service. The agreements that document outsourcing arrangements are vast and complex, attempting to anticipate all possible situations. When things go wrong and the third-party supplier fails to perform its contractual duties, in come the litigators.
