Out-Law News

Contract and relationship management most in-demand skills for data centre outsourcing, survey says


Expertise in contract and relationship management are the skills businesses look for the most when outsourcing data centre and cloud data centre services, according to a new survey.

Technology news provider Computing.co.uk said that research it conducted showed that the ability to "manage service partners and oversee contracts and their delivery" are the skills businesses mostly look when entering into data centre outsourcing agreements.

People with skills that have "a strong security focus" are second most in demand by businesses entering into such outsourcing deals, according to the Computing.co.uk report.

IT contracts expert Iain Monaghan of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said: "In identifying negotiating and contractual skills as keys to success, the research echoes our experience. The best managers understand what has been agreed, preferably by having been involved in the original negotiations, and can apply their understanding and skills both to ensure that suppliers deliver what they’ve promised in the contract but also to identify areas of the contract that require attention – where, for example, an innovation in service delivery could be better exploited by an amendment in the contractual terms."

"Rather than 'putting the contract in a drawer', they use it as a living instrument that describes the relationship between the two companies and develops as that relationship develops," he said.

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