Outsourcing isn’t new, but, by now, many IT shops have accumulated enough experience to use this service more effectively. According to Houston-based consultancy TPI, even though the overall outsourcing market is down 13 percent from last year, growth remains strong for U.S.-based contracts.

Certainly, the cost-saving motivation is still significant: The cost for programmers and support services overseas can be less than half of what their domestic equivalents can be. Nevertheless, to achieve those savings, you have to know how to work with the outsourcing vendor.

We spoke with several managers who have used outsourcers to build and augment their systems, and we came away with eight suggestions to help ensure that your next outsourcing contact—and contract—will be successful.

1. Make sure there is a strong cultural fit between your two organizations. This involves both the country of origin of the outsourcer and your own corporate culture. “The Dutch are very direct at telling you when you have done something wrong, but in India, that can backfire and shut things down immediately” says Scott McDonald, the CTO of FCI USA, in Etters, Pa., a manufacturing company with French headquarters that has used a number of outsourcers all over the world.

“The French like to have a lot more interaction than we do, and in Asia they like more structure and to understand the various components of a process. We hired an external consulting firm to help us understand the differences among the various cultures and how we operate.”

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