Secured Contract Announcements
One of the things that makes outsourcing news is awarded contracts. We see these types of announcements all the time, and you’ve probably seen them as well. “Company XYZ awarded $50,000 ABC Contract” or “Ziggy Widgets Wins Contract to Manage Customer Support Services at Half Past Midnight, Inc.”
Reasons vary, but for the most part, service providers announce new outsourcing relationships for the same reason any company announces news. They want to remind future, potential clients that they’re alive and working.
This is good for the service provider making news, but it may not be appropriate for the client that’s being serviced.
How the News Should be Made
As stated in our outsourcing book, news about outsourcing can anger a community(find demo in news) — especially when it’s handled indiscriminately without regard for how it will impact a company’s customers and/or employees. They may rebel, for instance, without fully understanding the reasons or the indirect benefits of outsourcing. And that’s reason enough to tell your provider how the news should be made.
Generally, you, the outsourcer, will want to make these kinds of announcements, since you know your community best. You’ll know what types of questions they’ll have, and you’ll know how to answer them. Your service provider won’t, and by giving them full reign of the news media, you’ll risk miscommunications and/or misinformation.
A service provider may claim, for example, that your reason for outsourcing was to obviously cut staff and save costs when in reality, you outsourced to gain a higher skill set and provide higher quality products. Since you don’t want to send your community mixed messages, make sure you’re the one in control of what’s said, when it’s said, and where it’s said with a non-disclosure or confidentiality agreement.
The contract is the best way for hire.