Knowra Outsourcing Outsourcing Outsourcing is the practice of contracting an external provider to perform work or provide services that an organization might otherwise handle itself.
Make-or-buy decision : An organization's choice between producing a good or service internally and obtaining it from an outside provider. This decision establishes whether a task becomes a candidate for outsourcing.
Business process outsourcing : The contracting of an external provider to operate a business process, such as payroll or customer support. It applies outsourcing to ongoing operational processes rather than isolated tasks.
Insourcing : The performance of work within an organization using its own employees or resources. It is the direct alternative when deciding whether to keep a function in-house.
Core competency : A distinctive organizational capability that contributes substantially to customer value or competitive advantage. Firms often retain activities tied closely to capabilities they consider strategically distinctive.
Frederick Winslow Taylor : An American engineer whose early twentieth-century scientific management system sought to standardize and optimize industrial work. His management ideas helped make tasks measurable and separable across organizational boundaries.
Service-level agreement : A contract section that specifies measurable service standards, responsibilities, and remedies for missed targets. These measures turn outsourced performance expectations into contractual commitments.
Information technology outsourcing : The use of external providers to deliver or manage an organization's information technology services. IT operations and development are among the most common outsourced functions.
Offshore outsourcing : The contracting of an external provider in another country to perform work or provide services. It combines external provision with an international location, unlike domestic outsourcing.
Knowledge transfer : The movement of knowledge between people, teams, or organizations through communication and practice. Outsourcing can transfer expertise to a provider, while also risking loss of internal know-how.
Globalization : The growing integration of economies and societies through cross-border flows of goods, services, capital, and information. Lower barriers and improved communications enabled service work to be contracted across national borders.
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