How to Select an Outsourcing Partner

Magram agrees, adding, "Is the outsourcer willing to have its agents key orders directly into your system, so you can offer real-time inventory availability to your callers — something that's especially important in the holiday selling season?"

Some outsourcers, he says, don't want their agents to switch computer screens to take orders for various catalog clients or to have to learn different screen prompts. "They'd rather use just one order-management system, their own, and send your orders in batches, say, once or twice a day.