A 'Simple' step to successful outsourcing

I have had quite an experience with outsourcing companies and the more I come across them , the more I get in love with outsourcing! However, I always witness clients that talk about having burnt their hands by outsourcing and so, consequently, have developed a negative feeling for it. This actually made me think if it is actually the service provider that screwed things up?

I was recently speaking with a Thailand based company who had had a 'BAD' experience with outsourcing and so I tried to drill down a little more to understand why outsourcing failed for them. During our conversation, he simply agreed that there was no issue on the quality of work but it was the wrong expectations that both had set for each other. This is when I realized the two important points to always keep in mind while outsourcing your work:
1) Why do you need to outsource?

2) Who to outsource to?

I am not even touching the first point in my post because it is something an outsourcing company will itself tell you! :)

Bringing focus back on the second point, though there are a million more ways to completely identify the right company than listed in this post, I am just going to cover the first basic step.

"Which company to outsource to" is a question that one needs to find out on his own as no one else will do it for you. For the sake of simplicity, I have divided all outsourcing companies into 2 categories:
Category A) Give'n'Take
Category B) Ask'n'Select

Let's assume that I want to outsource the development of my company's website and I have one company each in both categories to approach. Whenever I go to Category A, it will ask me for any samples, designs that they could refer to, in order to successfully build the desired website. Meanwhile, whenever I go to Category B, they show me 5 different templates and I choose the one I like.

This was easy but what I am trying to put forward is that you need to identify if the outsourcing company that you want to approach will need your constant involvement or do you trust them enough to let them come up with the desired product independently. This is where companies usually do not focus and in turn choose the wrong category. If your product needs constant monitoring, it is best to choose a Category A company and if you really want to focus on something else, while your outsourced product /service is being taken care of, a Category A will be a disaster!