As part of this evolution, organizations such as the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals now award certification to outsourcing professionals who can demonstrate skills in aligning outsourcing with corporate strategy, identifying the right opportunities for outsourcing, and structuring outsourcing arrangements.

Other relevant skills include the ability to implement processes for offshoring, sustain desired service levels, create and collect metrics, and ensure that everyone sticks to contract terms, says Danny Siegel, director of data warehousing and business intelligence technologies at Pfizer.

"I'm starting to see a desire for effective vendor management -- the ability to broker these deals and make them fly," he says.

"If you can find vendors with the right resources -- and that don't bother you with geographic concerns like immigration issues -- that's a personal competence."

According to Gartner, there are six requirements for successfully managing an outsourcing relationship:

• Setting overall objectives, priorities, policies and procedures that make the agreement work.

• Identifying capabilities needed for the business, and selecting appropriate service providers.

• Building and maintaining disciplined cooperation among all the service providers and the company.

• Controlling commercial arrangements like funding, pricing and billing, as well as the ownership of assets and intellectual property.

• Monitoring the performance of all the stakeholders (not just service providers) against agreed-upon targets.

• Ensuring regular reporting, capturing lessons learned and providing the information needed for short-term corrections and long-term enhancements.

Right now, such competencies are hard to find. According to a recent survey of 530 U.S. and European companies by Duke University and consultancy Booz Allen Hamilton, one of the most significant challenges of offshoring for CIOs is the lack of people with the skills to manage an offshore workforce.

"Often, IT managers are too technical or do not have appropriate multicultural and multinational experience to successfully manage offshore employees," says Vinay Couto, a principal at Booz Allen.

That's why IT professionals with these skills will find themselves in increasing demand. As Siegel says, "The technology management folks are becoming the real secret sauce in this equation."