Conclusion

Outsourcing often works, but certainly it is not for every organization. Outsourcing works, but only if it is fully resourced and is given the

unremitting support and commitment of every manager, from Board level to shop floor, and from concept through to implementation. Along the way, it demands drive, energy, highly defined business acumen, balanced judgment and a keen eye for detail from all key decision-makers. Anything short of this is likely to result at best in a failed initiative, and at worst in a costly, unsatisfactory and unreliable service, possibly even from an unscrupulous supplier who takes every opportunity to ramp up costs in response to every effort to address problems. The secret to success lies in adopting a structured approach from the

outset, detailed planning, rigid implementation and unflagging endeavour to arrive at a robust agreement with a reputable and reliable partner, based on trust, flexibility and shared risk-which in the final analysis is the route to shared benefit, profit and reward. It is recommended that the concepts outlined in this book are applied

in support of any records management outsourcing initiative, both to steer the path towards successful implementation and to realize the full benefits for the business. The writing of this book has been a remarkable and valuable experi-

ence: a highly effective exercise in research, self-education and the comprehension and balance of others’ views and opinions against my own; it has also been, of course, a useful exercise in descriptive writing. The consistent theme that emerged from my research reading and

real life experience has been that outsourcing works. There is no

question about that-only differing experiences of how well it and for whom, and varying degrees of detail about the convinced that, providing that the subject is properly resourced according to the concepts I have outlined here, the records management function of an organization can be a winner.