Thinking About Outsourcing?

Cost savings. Labor arbitrage. Give your headaches to someone else. Focus on your core business. Turn CapEx into OpEx. Lots of reasons to outsource. But are these the right ones? Especially in the strange economy we find ourselves in, outsourcing can be a sound long-term strategy. But only if it's done right. In fact, it's widely accepted that about half the outsourcing arrangements end up as failures.

Most of us in the outsourcing business initially looked at Sourcing Advisors with a fair amount of suspicion. Why did we need a middleman to complicate the bidding process and negotiation? Well, after nearly two decades of living with them, and now working for one, we've seen that good, objective Sourcing Advisors help level the playing field, bring the best vendors forward, and most importantly, help clients realize and rationalize a long-term outsourcing strategy that works.

Jay Looney's recent paper is a sound primer on sourcing the right way. He reminds us it's not just about labor and cost, but about people, culture and sound decision making.