Picking an Outsourcing Partner

O’Melveny & Myers marketing director Suzanne Donnels gets called on to do some fairly mammoth research projects.

But no matter how big the project or how horrendous the deadline constraint, Donnels has an instant team of researchers at her disposal: That’s thanks to vendor Debjani Deb, an MIT-Stanford graduate whose four-year-old EmPower Research deploys college-educated researchers with advanced degrees in Bangalore, India, to tackle clients' projects.

Say you want to know whether your firm should expand its semiconductor work, says Donnels, who is based in San Francisco. "And you’re trying to find out where there's the highest concentration of semiconductor companies in the world. You can use them."

Donnels, who met Deb at a legal marketing association conference and cites her research capabilities as well as her knowledge of the legal arena, added, "It's nice to have 80 researchers at your disposal when you need them."

It can seem overwhelming to sift through the growing cadre of vendors offering off-premises workers to law firms, providing research, transcription, coding and even -- with clients' OK -- legal research and the drafting of some legal documents. But a thoughtful approach -- such as asking careful questions about security, or making your own on-site visits -- can make the process more manageable.

Today's choices include domestic work centers located outside of expensive major metropolitan areas. Electronic discovery firm Discover-e Legal, for example, offers software for law firms to do their own work, or will tackle offsite projects as an outsourcer and deliver the results electronically from a secure facility based in Portland, Ore. Then there are options, like EmPower Research, that use workers in countries such as India, where a large, educated and
relatively inexpensive pool of English-speakers can work into the United States' night shift.

Since a decade ago, when many firms began shifting their messenger, mail, duplication and maintenance services to vendors who provided on-site workers, firm administrators have had to contend with contract negotiation, security, and in many cases, the blending of in-house and contracted workers in a single facility. Now, add to those concerns the fact that contemporary outsourcing often means dealing with a vendor whose employees you may never see.

"Some of the same principles apply," says Scott Wilson, co-publisher of "The Black Book of Outsourcing," which annually surveys businesses that use outsourcing vendors and ranks their customer satisfaction. "But if you're talking about sensitive legal-minded issues, they have to be addressed more than say, the mail room."

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Source: Law.com
By: Jill Duman