Selective outsourcing requires critical strategic decision making about the interactions between the service-purchasing company and the supplier at the operational level. Therefore, it is important to detect possible non-conformances to mitigate them efficiently in a timely manner. However, few previous studies have dealt with success at the operational level or the factors used to evaluate a global selective outsourcing situation. We defined a set of evaluation factors based on our review of the relevant literature. This paper aims to examine the quality of operational practices in the following units of Nokia devices: the information technology (IT) unit; the logistics delivery quality (DQ) unit; and the corrective action preventive action (CAPA) unit. These case units selectively outsourced their IT service and insurance claims management activities. Action research, interviews and surveys were used to collect data. We analysed the case units’ operations and identified new operational-level indicators and interdependences to identify the success of their outsourcing-based operations. The findings of our study contribute new knowledge about selective outsourcing at the operational level, which could be exploited by other global selective outsourcing projects.