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Auditing, Due Diligence and Benchmarking of Outsourced IT Services: A UK Lawyers’ Guide

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Practice notes
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This Practice Note is a practical guide to auditing and assessing your outsourced IT service delivery. Such a review may take place before entering a new IT outsourcing arrangement, or under an existing outsourcing agreement pursuant to benchmarking provisions.

Background to the review of IT services

Technology refresh is vital for boosting efficiency and staying competitive. Historically, organisations would complete a full IT refresh roughly every five to seven years (shorter in some sectors), with smaller, interim development initiatives between major refresh cycles. For further detail on legacy IT refresh, see Practice Note: Legacy IT systems.

The long-standing appeal of IT outsourcing lies in reducing both financial outlay and staffing devoted to operating and enhancing IT operations and infrastructure, so those resources can be redirected to other strategic priorities. In addition, the emergence of new technologies—particularly those using the cloud—is central to driving digital transformation and supporting a more agile engagement with IT services. See Practice Notes:

  • The evolution of IT outsourcing
  • Key issues in IT outsourcing
  • Cloud computing—key legal issues

As businesses become ever more reliant on IT services for their operation...

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Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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