Vested outsourcing in corporate real estate and facilities management

In 2003 the University of Tennessee began a research project tasked to answer a simple question: ‘Is there a better way to outsource?’ Researchers studied some of the world’s most successful outsourcing relationships, including Procter & Gamble, Microsoft and McDonald’s. Researchers immediately saw trends in these successful relationships where organisations were shifting away from transaction-based agreements to collaborative outcome-based outsourcing relationships that the researchers described as a ‘vested’ mind-set. Researchers codified their learning into a methodology they coined ‘Vested Outsourcing®’, or Vested for short. Today, Vested is referred to as a mind-set, methodology and business model that enables highly collaborative relationships in which buying organisations and their service providers are committed equally to each other’s success. Organisations that have applied the concept often refer to it as a movement because of its power to transform the way organisations outsource. This article addresses the fundamentals of Vested Outsourcing as well as its applicability to corporate real estate and facilities management, including under what circumstances it can be most beneficial. Case studies from within Corporate Real Estate and Facilities Management (CREFM) are shared, including TD Bank, Vancouver Coastal Health and Novartis.