This information paper addresses outsourcing, the process of contracting out work to external service providers. It examines several areas that an institution may wish to outsource to a separate organisation and provides practical guidance on the issues that must be considered when negotiating with a third-party. A case study on the collaboration between the Scottish Traditions of Dance Trust and the Arts and Humanities Data Service is provided as an example of outsourced work that provides mutual benefit. Finally, the paper concludes with a description of service providers that the reader may contact to perform different types of work.

The creation, curation and distribution of digital resources are complex processes that require significant expertise. An organisation that is conducting a digital project may possess the required funding to perform work, but they may not have the necessary staff skills or resources available in-house. The decision to perform the work through the funding of internal development or contract a third-party should be reached through consideration of the relative costs and benefits of each option.

To develop an infrastructure, an institution must build a business case to support the investment. It may be helpful to consider the context in which the institution operates. The development of internal expertise and establishment of the necessary infrastructure may initially be a costly option, however it may be a better investment, if several similar projects are expected in the future. Moreover, the development of expertise in a particular area may provide a future income stream, which will justify the initial investment.

The primary reason to outsource certain activities is that the institution does not possess key requirements necessary to perform the work internally and the cost investment in developing the necessary infrastructure is too high. Possible examples may include sufficient number of staff, appropriate knowledge of the field, equipment, or infrastructure. Institutional staff with requisite knowledge may be available, but are committed to other projects and do not have sufficient time to perform the task. In such circumstances, staff may be hired and/or training could be provided.

A second, more strategic reason to outsource is that it removes the onus from the organisation running the project. A service provider that regularly performs the same activity may implement better quality, appropriate use of standards and a higher throughput in comparison to an institution that has recently moved into the area. Penalty clauses can be built into contracts to ensure that suppliers take responsibility if work is not completed on time, to the agreed price and quality criteria. Any benefits must be weighed in comparison to the costs of paying a contractor. Economies of scale may provide reasonable quotes for large tasks that can be easily automated or several small projects may collaborate to ensure a better rate is achieved for all.

A decision to outsource a process does not necessarily indicate that work may be contracted out in its entirety. An institution may have a commitment to perform a task. In many circumstances it may be more appropriate to complete part of the work internally and to only contract out the more complex parts: an organisation may elect, for example, to digitise the bulk of a photographic collection internally but to contract out the outsized material, or contract a third-party to curate and preserve the digital output for an allocated time period once it has been created. Each decision should be made on a case-by-case basis.

Several activities may be outsourced to a third-party service provider:

1 Digital resource creation: The process of converting an analogue original into a digital format is a common activity performed by many service providers. Providers may specialise in simple image or slide digitisation through to scanning and photographing fragile, outsized or 3D material. The use of a third-party may prove beneficial in circumstances where specialist equipment is required. For example, fragile books often require additional support during capture and 3D object scans require further editing to replicate the visual appearance. Several digitisation providers also offer text-encoding services such as optical character recognition, intelligent character recognition, double re-keying and conversion to XML. These skills could quite easily be developed internally, however the repetitive nature of the work may mean a more consistent and higher quality output can be guaranteed when outsourced.
2 Resource management and preservation: The curation of digital resources for an allocated time period is an increasingly common service performed by service providers. The type and level of service that is required is likely to be influenced by the complexity and proposed usage of the material. A simple storage strategy, based on near-line and off-line storage may be acceptable if the resources will be required for a short time period and are in stable file formats. A curation and preservation strategy will be required if long-term access is required, in which the authenticity and integrity of the digital resource is paramount. A decision to fund curation and preservation activities, internally or through a third-party requires a sustained level of commitment that must be funded.
3 Dissemination: Website development and interface design solutions are frequently provided. The time needed to create an online access point for a small digital collection is minimal so often does not warrant the investment required to hire in expert staff or train existing employees. Organisations which frequently undertake digital projects may invest in dedicated technical support. For many though it is sufficient to outsource delivery and resource development work.
4 Consultancy: Many institutions offer consultancy services, paid for by the institution or a funding body. The Arts and Humanities Data Service offered technical support for projects submitting funding application to the AHRC and British Academy until March 2008. The KCL Centre for eResearch (CeRch) offers similar support for projects as a fee-paying service. IT and information professionals can be called in to assist with the setup of internal data capture and archiving systems. General advice can also be provided in terms of feasibility studies, troubleshooting and project management support. It can be useful to draw on consultants for short periods where skills are lacking. For example, a technical consultant could help to explain the differences in tenders and advise on the most appropriate strategy when outsourcing digitisation activities.

Details of service providers are available in the final section.

A diverse range of institutions operates as service providers, as a subset of their normal activities. It is common for publicly funded heritage organisations, data archives and commercial entities to advertise services that an institution or project may use. Regardless of the type of institution with whom the project wishes to outsource their project, some basic principles should be followed to ensure the process is successful. The formality and conditions of any agreement will vary according to the type of institution with which the project is in negotiation. Commercial providers are likely to expect a financial agreement, however when valuable resources are being created it may be possible to trade services for a share of revenue obtained from distribution. Data archives may be willing to conduct work or accept collections for preservation for a nominal fee. However, there may be conditions attached, such as non-exclusive rights to make the data available to academic researchers. Alternatively, cultural heritage and educational organisations may require only a semi-formal recognition that they have been contracted to perform work. If fees are applied there may be more potential in these circumstances to trade services or expertise.

Choosing a service provider can be a time-consuming process, requiring an extensive evaluation of the disparate services offered by each institution. The provider that offers the cheapest or fastest service may not necessarily be the most suitable, dependent on the type of work that must be performed. It is recommended that technical guidance is sought if the project does not have appropriate in-house expertise to understand the difference between contractors. Feedback from previous clients and samples of work should also be requested to confirm that the statements made by the service provider provide an accurate representation of their work history. The logistical aspects of performing the work should also be considered: can a single service provider perform everything that is required by the project in the allocated time period? If materials need to be sent to several specialist digitisation units, how will the additional preparation time, transport costs and administration incurred affect the overall outsourcing costs?

A fundamental condition of co-operation should be the agreement of a formal contract that clearly establishes the activities to be performed, the timescale in which it must be performed and the payment that will be delivered. Both parties should clarify misunderstandings and resolve their concerns prior to agreement. A formal contract will minimise complications and ensure each party is aware of their responsibilities. To assist with the process, the project should have a clear grasp of the expectations of the contract, to ensure it meets the project aims and the quality level that is required, prior to contacting a service provider. These expectations should be clearly defined and care must be taken to use common terminology to ensure both parties are working towards the same goal – assumptions must be explicit.

In circumstances where there is an existing working relationship, such formality may seem unnecessary. The adoption of a “gentleman’s agreement”, however, is likely to be a high risk strategy that will result in the demarcation of responsibility being unclear. Some thought should be given at the outset to aspects that may go wrong during the lifetime of the project. There should be a clear route for resolving high risk issues that arise, in the event that expectations are not met. Maintaining lines of communication and approaching the relationship as a partnership though should help to avoid such problems.

A project or institution is responsible for the overall management of work and should retain some control over the work that is being performed by a contractor. A condition of the contract should be the regular progress reports are written, against which performance and quality indicators may be measured. For digital resource creation, useful criteria could be a minimum capture resolution or agreement that the full image was always captured and that no noise (dust, hairs, fingerprints) was introduced. The criteria with which to assess performance may be based on a formal standard, such as the creation of text markup that comply with a schema, or an informal measurement, such as the creation of digital resources in an allocated time period. If off-specification work is identified early the effects on the budget and timescale are generally tolerable. If problems are only identified at the end of the contract resolving the issues will be a challenge.

The Scottish Traditions of Dance Trust (STDT) is a national organisation which exists to promote and encourage participation and enjoyment in all forms of Scottish traditional dance. The Trust has a considerable collection of archive material accumulated from its various dance development projects from the last 10 years including oral histories, artefacts, books, manuscripts, memorabilia, music scores, photographs and video clips. However, they did not have the internal expertise to curate and disseminate their digital resources. The project archivist approached the team at Performing Arts for assistance, leading to an agreement that AHDS would perform archival storage and delivery work on behalf of the Trust. AHDS Performing Arts has written a [case study] that describes the details of the collaboration and highlights the benefits of such agreements for smaller organisations.

Many organisations offer digital resource creation and archiving services. Some of these specialise in working with particular material or offer a limited range of services. The list below provides details of the main UK providers.

Guidance on creating and preserving digital resources is also available within higher education from research support offices, institutional repositories and university library & archives services. Some centralised services provide preservation guides, training workshops and advisory support. These services include:

* British Universities Film and Video Council (http://www.bufvc.ac.uk/): The BUFVC is a representative body which promotes the production, study and use of moving image, sound and related media in higher education and research. The Council makes collections accessible online, offers consultancy services, and runs a range of training courses.
* Centre for e-Research (http://www.kcl.ac.uk/iss/ccampus/cerch/): CeRch will incorporate the Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS) and build on its legacy, offering a range of business services to ensure the curation and preservation expertise built up by the AHDS over the past decade continues to be available to the UK HE community. The vast array of information papers, best practice guides and case studies created will continue to be accessible.
* Digital Curation Centre (http://www.dcc.ac.uk/) : The DCC promote expertise and good practice for the management of all research outputs in digital format. The Centre provides regular training events and conferences throughout the UK, as well as making reference materials available through its website and hosting an on-demand helpdesk service.
* Digital Preservation Coalition (http://www.dpconline.org): A core aim of the DPC is to secure the preservation of digital resources in the UK. In order to achieve this it campaigns to raise awareness of preservation challenges and produces guides to disseminate information on current research and practice.
* Technical Advisory Service for Images (http://www.tasi.ac.uk/): TASI provides advice and guidance to the UK's Further and Higher Education community on the issues of creating using and delivering digital images. The Service also runs a helpdesk, provides online reference guides and has an extensive programme of expert training.
* UKOLN (http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/): Based at the University of Bath, UKOLN is a centre of excellence in digital information management, providing advice and services to the library, information and cultural heritage communities. The organisation provides online reference materials and runs workshops and conferences.

Specific outsourcing guides that might also be of assistance are:

* Simpson, Duncan, Contracting out for digital preservation services: information leaflet and checklist, (2004), available at: http://www.dpconline.org/docs/guides/outsourcing.pdf
* Lacinak, Chris, Audiovisual preservation project outsourcing: navigating the client/vendor relationship to achieve your project goals, (2006), available at: http://www.avpreserve.com/resources/AVPS_Series_Project_Outsourcing.pdf

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