Although businesses may save money and gain productivity benefits from outsourcing services, such as telecoms or IT, it has been suggested that regular communications between both partners is vital.

According to QPC, a firm specialising in outsourcing savings, the best tactic to ensure success in an outsourcing contract is to set goals and performance indicators.

"Communication between the business and its outsource partners within customer service is essential," said Martin Blacher, director of marketing for QPC.

"The performance indicators within the service agreement are crucial to this communication as they state what is important to both parties."

Mr Blacher warned that without such markers, it could be that the outsourcing deal is carried out in a different way than desired by the client and proves to be less effective than hoped.

"Organisations need to make sure they defend their brand reputation and decide on the performance measures and rules... that mean that they are doing this," he said.

Firms may choose to outsource their IT systems in order to focus on building their business instead of dealing with technology issues, which outsourcing firms are better equipped to deal with.