Most companies enter into outsourcing relationships on a FTE basis. (Full Time Equivalent). The engagements are not project based but rather utilize a Lease To Hire model. (LTH). The Lease to Hire model basically means that the company buys the use of personnel on a Full Time Basis.
Once the outsourcing team is established and commences its work the most relevant Key Performance Indicator being watched is utilization of the employee. There are various tools to measure the KPI's as it relates to the utilization rate of the employee. For call centers and customer service operations it is rather simple (time on phone. time on call), for software development there are auditing tools available to make sure that the developers do not "slouch".
However, one particular problem with outsourcing is that the outsourced operation is really good at the troubleshoot...but perhaps not so good at looking at the root of the problem as to why the troubleshoot happened in the first place.
Consequently faulty software or procedures tend to stay around much longer than they should. Everyone is content with resolving the trouble tickets but no one is looking how to change procedures or applications so that the trouble ticket does not happen anymore.
Of course..the very same operational characteristic can be found in a domestic business environment. What makes it more of an issue in an outsourced offshore environment is that it takes key management much longer to realize what is going on.
And this brings us to the "Bloat" your outsourcing operation might have accumulated. If you do not periodically (or better yet...have a constant quality improvement program) review the source of trouble tickets and scan for improvement to be made...you might have built up your outsourced team well above your actual operational needs if those issues were fixed.
Implementing a procedures which reviews the source of a trouble ticket and/or increase operational efficiency will result in less contacts needs by your customers. Reducing the point of contacts will then lead to reduced need of FTE employees...thus reducing the manpower bloat you might be experiencing.