Have you ever heard of the term smartsourcing? Apparently, this should be the main approach of companies who are expecting more than saving cost when outsourcing. Smartsourcing is also a book written by Tom Koulopoulos, founder and CEO of the delphi Group.

In his interview he pointed out the difference in outsourcing and smartsourcing. According to Mr.Koulopoulos, outsourcing contracts usually has one thing in mind- to cut on cost. Smartsourcing on the other hand "advocates using partners who can help a company to focus on its core, balance risk and opportunity, lower costs, increase innovation across all of its processes and finally, put in place attitudes to optimize all of these factors, socially and politically".

This kind of approach would generate the saving that firms strive to achieve and at the same still maintain the quality of the firm even if their non-core processes are already outsourced. Aside from that, people should be aware that the concept of globalization is more than acquiring cheap labor, it includes the three trends when dealing with global outsourcing. These trends are:
a. cost
b. education
c. mobility

The book, Smartsourcing by Tom Koulopoulos is available at Amazon and other online bookstores.

Image from: Amazon site