Some one told me recently that they were outsourcing their accounts to the local accountant. As they are a newsagent I did not see this as outsourcing. After a brief discussion it became apparent the outsourcing is becoming one of the buzz words of our time. used by many understood by few to the point were the meaning is get blurred around the edges.

What outsourcing is not is getting a professional to supply you with their services. This would include accounts, tax advisers, insurance etc. You would not consider you outsource your bank account would you?

However if you were an accountant and you got another account ant to do some of your client work that would be outsourcing.

One aspect of outsourcing can be the sourcing of services supplied to customers from a 3rd party. As in the above case of the accountant.

We have all heard about companies outsourcing their IT but they are not IT companies so how is this outsourcing.

IT as such is not a professional service like accountancy. If you want an accountant to do your accounts you give then the raw data and the follow the accounting rules and you get your account. This is not how it works with IT, there are no rules to follow that will result in you getting IT, the IT you get will be very specific to you meeting your requirements and not the standards laid down by a regulatory or other party.

From this we can see that you are outsourcing if you are providing services supplied from a 3rd party or you are using services that are special to your requirements or are not generally available in the form you are using them.

So if you need outsourced or offshore IT provision see 3B-Workshop

Offshore IT provision - now what is that?