different vendor or adding another vendor for a multi-
sourcing arrangement would also mean another painful
transition period:
As a company, we haven’t acquired as many compa-
nies as we initially thought. But when we have
acquired, it has definitely been beneficial to have
ABC. They have a deeper bench and can bring in
the necessary resources at a last minute’s notice.
—Virginia KingBefore the latest restructuring announcement, the
plan had been to start the renegotiation process with ABC in
about six months. That would have given Schaeffer a year to
decide whether to renew the sole-source agreement with
ABC, and if it chose not to, there would still be ample time
to explore other alternative arrangements. But with the pub-
lic announcement about separating the companies, Reitzel’s
management team decided to start conversations with ABC
several months sooner. In preparation for discussions with
Reitzel’s top management, the vice president of IT began to
prepare a document that would capture what the company
had learned under the current outsourcing arrangement, and
what might be done differently in the future.
It was beginning to look like the outsourcing deci-
sions for the two new companies would be as complicated
and time-consuming as the original decision to contract
with ABC had been several years earlier.Case Study IV-4 • IT Infrastructure Outsourcing at Schaeffer (B): Managing the Contract 641