Global companies outsourcing their legal processes across the world seem to prefer doing business with smaller companies, the results of a new survey suggests.

The survey conducted across 6,547 clients globally shows that smaller vendors, including legal outsourcing, LPO and legal KPO companies are satisfying more clients and to a greater degree compared to their larger counterparts.

The survey was conducted by the Black Book of Outsourcing (BBO) as part of a revamped and professionalized survey methodology in 2010. UK-based business research firm Datamonitor Group had acquired the BBO last year.

In a press statement, Datamonitor Research Director Eamonn Kennedy sais "Although feedback on the big names, such as IBM and HP, has been generally positive, the companies that have excelled and delighted, through the services they provide, have been smaller players."

The report takes particular note of Philippines-based legal process outsourcing company, American Discovery, and the high-end Indian legal outsourcing company, SDD Global Solutions as the two top ranked outsourcing companies in the world dealing with LPO.

The client survey covered all outsourcing fields, including IT, KPO, legal process outsourcing or LPO, and BPO. Clients ranked SDD Global, which is the only Indian LPO managed by a U.S. law firm, as the best outsourcing company in both India and the UK, ahead of countless larger players.

Says Kennedy,"Smaller outsourcing providers like SDD Global have been pushing their specialist knowledge and deep client understanding as their unique selling point for some time now, claiming that specialists provide a better service. While all outsourcers talk up their ability to specialize, this survey suggests that SDD Global and other relatively small players are best positioned to deliver on that promise."

In this year's Black Book survey, customer satisfaction was assessed using nine performance criteria: requirements awareness, shared goals, financial benefits, risk mitigation, partnership approach, problem resolution, corporate reputation, skills and resources, and future orientation.