Some content-distribution providers, such as Akamai Technologies, charge by the amount of bandwidth used to deliver the content on a monthly basis, while some upstarts charge by the number of pages viewed at the servers. Other communications service providers are offering pricing based on expected financial returns for the customer, an alternative to open bidding. Newcome Electronic Systems, a Columbus, Ohio, company that provides design and installation of voice and data networks, developed a methodology to quantify the expected returns based on a customer's expectations of the network and its financial impact on the organization, and factored in costs such as network components and cable to determine a fee. It's difficult to generalize about outsourcing and systems-integration pricing models because so many deals are customized and specific terms and clauses often aren't disclosed. Now, companies want to track what services cost on a per-unit basis.
Users seem to like the option.
We can better track costs for each and find out if in some cases it makes more sense to insource rather than outsource. Melendez agrees there's a trend toward breaking out payments for different portions of outsourcing and integration deals. To show value, the service vendors today have to unbundle. That doesn't exist anymore. Also becoming more common, Melendez says, are service agreements with guaranteed results.