Cambridge Business Association
Smartsourcing
Book

Smartsourcing

Driving Innovation And Growth Through Outsourcing

Thomas M. Koulopoulos and Tom Roloff
Platinum Press, 2006
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Editorial Rating

6

Qualities

  • Applicable

Recommendation

Outsourcing is a trend that’s not going away, at least not as long as companies can save money by hiring other companies to manage some parts of their business, even as they continue to perform their core competencies. This book focuses on the reasons and rules of outsourcing. According to authors Thomas M. Koulopoulos and Tom Roloff, many companies aren’t taking the right approach to outsourcing and, therefore, are not realizing its full benefits. The book covers a complex topic and, though it sometimes gets too technical, it will help you take a hard, honest competitive look at your outsourcing strategy, diagnose its gaps and improve the way you outsource. getAbstract believes executives and managers should read this book to learn how intelligent outsourcing can help their companies save money, innovate and compete.

Summary

Outsourcing Plus Local Jobs

Employees shouldn’t fear that offshoring is going to take away their jobs. General Electric (GE) offshored about 100,000 jobs, yet its U.S. offices enlarged their tasks and added more people. Rather than cutting American jobs, offshoring helped GE create more jobs. A company that delegates its noncore processes to an outsource partner gains more time and energy to focus on innovating and improving its core competencies and activities.

When a company "outsources," it delegates a nonessential process to another company. This is called "lift and shift." Outsourcing partnerships often create separate companies rather than collaborating. Outsourcing streamlines operations. It is part of "smartsourcing," which streamlines the complete value chain, including the outsourced function.

Three Key Ingredients of Smartsourcing

Smartsourcing has three cornerstones:

  1. Economy of scope - A company lowers its risks, improves its performance and enables more internal innovation by focusing on its crucial functions, and placing less crucial jobs with an outside provider. Smartsourcing companies can save money in several areas...

About the Authors

Thomas M. Koulopoulos is the CEO and founder of a consulting firm focused on technology strategies. He’s a regular contributor to national and international publications. Tom Roloff is a corporate vice president and chief technology officer.

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