Outsourcing as a business strategy. (includes related articles)(Cover Story)

Business Credit, September, 1998 by Old, Forrest

Outsourcing is redefining business. Once viewed as a cost-saving measure reserved for highly specific functions, companies now see outsourcing as a strategic means for ensuring quality in a variety of non-core areas. Many define "non-core" as broadly as "anything that does not appear on a brochure or invoice."

The numbers reflect this. In the 1998 Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) Barometer of Global Outsourcing, executives from companies with more than $50 million in annual revenue predicted $235 billion will be spent on outsourcing services this year - a 27 percent increase over 1997. No wonder the Harvard Business Review called outsourcing "one of the most influential management ideas and practices of the past 75 years."

Outsourcing allows a company to focus...