Evaluation of the mail delivery sourcing strategy in EDP: saving costs vs excellence quality provided decision

Abstract

The choice of a company to perform a service that impacts the core operations of a firm can affect the effectiveness of the business and be a major driver for success. In addition, defining a good system to check the performance of the chosen external service providers improves the chances of success. This research paper has the objective of studying what should be behind this important decision, what are the factors to considerate in this choice, how should the service providers be evaluated along the way, what should be the strategy in the sourcing decision. Using as example a company like EDP and its outsourced service of mail delivery, the paper gains even more relevance and constitute a practical view of what happens in real life business. The main findings of this dissertation suggest that a multiple-sourcing strategy, with the allocation between the service providers being decided in consistency with the performance assessed at the time of decision, is the most suitable for EDP, with quality associated being the principal driver of the choice.