Contrary to popular beliefs, outsourcing is not a miracle cure to any outsourcing deal. In order for outsourcing to work, you must exert effort to ensure that outsourcing would work for your advantage.

I've managed to stumble upon this article which focuses on the different things that you could do in order to make outsourcing "work for you". The steps were suggested by Sean Barker. The article discussed five steps and these five steps are:

a. Maintain your Control
b. Measure, Measure, Measure
c. Marry the Partner
d. Take responsibility for requirements
e. Review Regularly

Basically, these steps talk about being aware of your outsourcing deals and monitoring them. This is important because it is YOUR outsourcing deal. Knowing the start and finish if such deals and making sure that it is done properly is your key to success. These efforts that you put into your outsourcing deal would ensure that there is something to gain in the end.