Anyone who has ever negotiated an Outsourcing Deal realizes that it it a rather murky business environment to swim in. The company who will be performing the work resides in the Philippines, India, China or some other country which is hard to reach by the average person.
You might have local business partners to deal with but you really have no idea to know what it is going on in the office where you outsourcing will actually take place.
You can educate yourself as to what the going rates should be...but the simple truth is that the rates being offered and paid by high value customers are a very well guarded secret.
One determining factor in the pricing of any new outsourcing contract, and what it typically overlooked by clients, is what is known as the internal utilization rate of the BPO / ITO center.
Generally speaking any outsourcing center will have excess staff over and above their current commitments. This is not so much a luxury as it is a necessity. Once the contract is signed a certain level of service has to be delivered...and the client does not care how it is being accomplished.
In the ordinary case of business this is just part of the routine the outsourcing provider has to deal with. They have excess staff which needs to be paid so that in case of defections, illness and/or failure to meet deadlines there is a process in place to counteract against those events.
An interesting situation arises if and when your outsourcing provider is in a situation where a project is about to roll off, freeing up employees which are not yet assigned to a new project yet.
Those freed up employees are a drag on earnings for your BPO / ITO provider. They push the utilization rate down of the entire operation and thus create a drag on earnings.
If you happen to catch an outsourcing company right at that moment in time where their utilization rate is high you might be pleasantly surprised as to what type of rate you can negotiate. Just do not be surprised that when the time comes to renew you see a significant bump in those rates.