IT departments face pressure to improve business value by accelerating new applications while maintaining existing systems, which consume most resources. Outsourcing maintenance and development can help manage costs and resources to support current systems while enabling new initiatives for competitive advantage. While in-house teams still manage higher-level tasks, outsourcing arrangements are structured partnerships where vendors assume responsibility for delivery of business value from outsourced services, as measured by performance metrics in service level agreements. Both benefits and risks must be considered in planning and contracting for outsourced work.