Advantages of Outsourcing
One of the biggest advantages can be lower personnel costs. By outsourcing job duties to non-employees, a business does not have to pay consistent wages or offer additional employee benefits. The company may pay lower taxes because independent contractors, the people who complete the outsourced projects, pay their own withholding, social security, and other taxes. This can add up to substantial savings.

Some businesses choose to take their outsourcing one step further by choosing a vendor, located in another part of the world. Doing so typically saves them more money because they end up paying a much lower wage than would be necessary in their home country. The disadvantage is that these vendors may not understand English and communication is more difficult.

Many times, outsourcing speeds up production time. Since the third-party vendor will only be concentrating on one specific task, instead of numerous office duties, actual production time can be greatly increased.

Outsourcing gives a business the flexibility to change third-party vendors whenever necessary. This process is not as time-consuming as the normal employee hiring process, because they are not screening individuals, they are considering established companies with proven track records.

An excellent example of this is customer service. When a business outsources its customer service department, it does not have to hire and oversee thirty individual operators. Instead, it can hire one call center, which will perform all needed tasks.

Recent studies show that information technology-related tasks are outsourced more than anything else. Other common department functions that are outsourced include: human relations, training, accounting and supply management.

Whether a business chooses to outsource on a temporary basis or permanently, the advantages are well worth the decision to do so. Most businesses, which set out to outsource temporarily end up making an ongoing commitment.

Disadvantages of Outsourcing

One of the biggest disadvantages of outsourcing is undesirable results. This is especially true when a company hires a third-party vendor to mass produce a product. In the event that the finished products do not meet quality standards, the manufacturing process must be repeated by a different vendor.

Not only is this a waste of time and materials, it can also be very costly for the company who outsourced the project. They are essentially paying twice for the same job. In addition there is always the possibility that the company may lose sales, during this same period because of the lack of available product.

Another disadvantage of outsourcing is a loss of jobs. Many times work is outsourced simply as a means to save money. Outsourcing to a foreign country typically saves a company a great deal in wages. So, the choice is made to reduce their local workforce, at the expense of the laid-off employees.

In turn, it can cause community uproar and even a decrease in business and profits. This happens when local consumers make the decision to shop elsewhere, as a way to voice their disdain.

Outsourcing customer service jobs, to foreign countries, is on the rise. Many large corporations including credit card companies, shopping networks and computer manufacturers are making this change.

The problem with this is a lack of communication. It can be very frustrating for a consumer who is calling in with a customer service issue. When this individual cannot understand the customer service representative they are speaking with, it just causes more frustration and does little to solve the problem.

Awards Criteria: Best use of outsourcing to achieve the buyer’s objectives for ITO while also achieving mutually beneficial outcomes.

Lessons from the Outsourcing Journal:

* Buyers have to work closely with service providers when designing new systems. If they don’t get involved, the systems may not work.
* A good service provider will go the extra mile to fix a problem, even if it means buying another company!
* Buyers appreciate open, honest communication, especially when a service provider cannot do what the buyer asks.

Personal Outsourcing To An Assistant

In this list we are going to look at 100 different ways you can use an assistant to save you time. Some will work with a virtual as well as an on site assistant, some will only work with on site help. Obviously you need to match the job with the skills of your assistant, but this can provide a valuable starting point of ideas if you are interested in outsourcing some tasks and saving time.
One word of warning. Don’t expect an assistant to save you time on every task at first. Unless your needs are very mundane, you will probably want to invest some time in letting them learn your preferences and the style in which you like things done. As they learn what you need, they can start to make decisions based on how you are likely to make them and this can be one of the greatest time savings of all.

1. Grocery store trip – It may or may not be efficient to send someone to do your detailed shopping, trips to pickup milk, bread and other staples can be handled by someone else.

2. Meal planning – This can be nicely coupled with grocery shopping. You could even set certain targets you want to hit regarding nutrition.

3. Meal preparation – If your assistant can cook, this might be a good time saver for you. Obviously this doesn’t work very well with a virtual assistant.

4. Deposits – With a rubber stamp, you can give someone else the ability to make bank deposits for you. Obviously it needs to be someone you trust.

5. Scanning – If you are trying to implement a paperless office, having someone else do your scanning can save you a lot of time.

6. Filing – If you haven’t gone paperless.

7. Proof reading – A second pair of eyes can often spot issues much faster than you can yourself.

8. Contacts cleanup – If you have a setup that syncs contacts from your computer, phone and other devices, it is likely that you have a bunch of duplicates or incomplete contacts. Let someone else clean them up and make sure your information is up to date and accurate.

9. Send handwritten letters – Using a font like vLetter, you can give someone else the ability to print and send handwritten letters for you.

10. Pay bills – You may or may not want to give someone else access to your online bill payment service. If you still use checks, someone can save you time by getting everything ready so you just have to sign the checks.

11. Get your oil changed – The 30 to 60 minutes it takes to get your oil changed can easily be handed off to someone else.

12. Transcribe voicemail – Depending on your workflow, it might be much more efficient to have your voicemails transcribed and sent as email.
13. Shred sensitive documents – This can be particularly important if you are scanning in a lot of documents that can’t be thrown away due to the information they contain.
14. Buy airline tickets – This can be tricky because there is a lot that usually goes into picking out tickets that requires your personal attention. However, if your needs are simple, this can be a small task that you can delegate.
15. Wait on hold – It is easy to waste a lot of time just waiting for someone else to answer the phone. While you can’t hand off every phone call to an assistant, the ones that you can will save you time.
16. Tech support – If you deal with a lot of electronics you probably spend at least some time fixing problems, working with tech support and getting parts replaced. In some cases these are activities that could be delegated.
17. Mailing letters and packages – It isn’t hard to mail a package, but it can be time consuming and that makes it a great canidate to delegate.
18. Send birthday cards – Sending birthday cards is a great networking tool. An assistant can help by getting the cards ready, addressed, stamped and even signing them using a signature font.
19. Birthday shopping – With a little organization an assistant can help you keep up with your birthday gift giving. If you give them a list of people, birthdays and a list of possible gifts they can make sure you never miss a gift giving opportunity.
20. Finding deals – An assistant can help find the best deal (including shipping and tax charges) on a particular item you need to purchase. American Express’ concierge generally does a good job of this.
21. Answer phone calls – Using something like Google Voice or Ring Central you can forward your phone calls to an assistant so callers get a real person during the times you would normally send them to voice mail.
22. Library run – It is easy to order books off Amazon simply to avoid the inconvenience of going to the library. Sending an assistant to the library is particularly useful if you have a small library where a lot of specific books will need to come through library loan.
23. Proof reading – A second set of eyes to look over things before you send them out can drastically reduce little errors. This can be a bit challenging if you are trying to use someone in India where they speak a slightly different version of English.
24. Phone calls – Sometimes you need to get a message to someone and simply leaving a message won’t do. An assistant can keep calling until the person answers and give the message.
25. Bill collection – If someone owes you money, having an assistant call and inquire about when to expect payment can help keep you out of the bill collector role but still get the payment in the mail.
26. Researching lists – For example, if I want a list of the top 100 peer blogs to Productivity501 along with various stats about them, an assistant can gather that information easily into an document where it can be sorted and analyzed.
27. Interviews – Virtual assistants are great for querying a large number of people and compiling their answers.
28. Organizing personal library – Have you ever wanted to have your home library organized according to the Dewey Decimal system?
29. Book index – If the Dewey Decimal system is to much, you still might like a master index of your library.
30. Listing books on Amazon – If you have a bunch of books you want to get rid of, an assistant can get them listed for you on Amazon.
31. Update phone – If you can’t sync your phone with your computer, consider having an assistant update the contacts.
32. Locate photos and illustrations – A virtual assistant can save you a lot of time by locating pictures to illustrate blog posts and presentations.
33. Transcription – Sometimes you want to have a text copy of an audio file. It could be the recording of a conference call, meeting or even radio broadcast. This time consuming process is a great candidate for outsourcing to an assistant. If you have a tremendous amount of audio to transcribe, you may want to look into using services that specialize in audio transcription.
34. Categorize pictures – An assistant can help you categorize, rate and organize your pictures by adding tags or putting them in different folders.
35. Mail merge – A good assistant should be able to take a spreadsheet and a letter and do a mailing with minimal intervention on your part. This could be anything from sending out your Christmas letter to 50 family members or a huge newsletter mailing for your company.
36. Watering plants – This may seem trivial, but it is one other place that an assistant can save you a few minutes.
37. Setting up appointments – If you need to meet with a large number of people an assistant can setup your meetings and update your schedule.
38. Watching for news – An assistant can monitor various news sources and notify you when something comes up that you need to know about.
39. Garage sale shopping – Garage sales are one of those things that you don’t know what you are looking for until you find it. However if you do know what you are looking for, an assistant can scour the garage sales looking for used books or whatever it is you need.
40. Fill the car with gas – It isn’t a hard task, but it takes up your time. If you can send someone to fill the car up for you it will probably save you 15 to 30 minutes of time.
41. Driving – Letting someone else drive you can free up your time to work on the computer, read, make phone calls safely, etc.
42. Qualify leads – If your business generates leads that then need to be qualified, a virtual assistant can follow up by phone, ask a few questions and schedule a meeting with you. This helps you keep your time focused on the qualified customers.
43. Twitter – Most of our famous quotes on Twitter were researched and scheduled by my assistant.
44. Printing – It doesn’t always make sense, but sometimes it makes more sense to send your assistant a file and let them handle the printing, getting the right paper, printer options, etc.
45. Summarizing data – This can be a great way to use a virtual assistant. Let them send you summaries of news or financial information that you would wade through otherwise.
46. Article clipping – Instead of going through magazines and newspapers yourself, an assistant can clip the parts that are relevant to you.
47. Setting up appointments – If you need to meet with a large number of people an assistant can setup your meetings and update your schedule.
48. Watching for news – An assistant can monitor various news sources and notify you when something comes up that you need to know about.
49. Office supply stocking – An assistant can help make sure that you don’t run out of paper, pens or toner.
50. Reconcile accounts – Trying to find the missing transaction that is keeping your accounts from balancing is a great thing to delegate.
51. Preparing expense reports – You give them your receipts with a note on the back and they handle filling out whatever forms you need.
52. Sending out “good to meet you letters” – A great networking tool is to follow up with a physical letter. An assistant can handle doing this for you.
53. Letter sequence – Similar to the above, but you may want to send people out a sequence of letters. Once again, a great thing to delegate.
54. Wait for cable repair – Most cable companies give you a window of when they will come that is huge and keeps you sitting at home all day wondering when they will show up. Let someone else do the waiting.
55. Wait for important packages – If you have a package coming that needs a signature, you don’t have to be stuck waiting for it.
56. Locate and schedule carpet cleaners – You an give criteria such as: locate 3 carpet cleaners, get and follow up with references, choose the one that sounds like they will do the best job at a reasonable price.
57. Answer emails – I’m not crazy about giving someone else direct access to my email, but there are some situations where it may make sense. In particular it may be good if you are away from email for an extended period of time.
58. Transcribe written notes – Turn your written notes into searchable text.
59. Negotiate – Sometimes having a third party negotiate for you can give you an upper hand. Give them the parameters you are willing to accept and let them try to negotiate for you.
60. Accountability – Asking a virtual assistant to make sure you exercise, or make sure you leave work on time can help give you some accountability to do the things you know are important.
61. Worry – I’ve heard of people delegating their worrying to someone else. The virtual assistant promised to worry about a big contract so he wouldn’t have to. Sounds silly but this person said it was very effective.
62. Walk the dog – Of course this doesn’t help you get any exercise.
63. Pickup medicine from the vet – Simple time saving errand.
64. Mow the yard – Another timesaver.
65. Write letters to politicians – If you want to let your voice be heard on a topic, let your assistant track down everyone who has any political pull in that area and mail them your opinion.
66. Send out resumes – They can handle the printing and mailing part of things.
67. Writing cover letters – Let them help customize your cover letters for each specific company.
68. Customize resume – They can research each company where you want to apply and help tweak and reorder your resume to best appeal to that company.
69. Mail newspaper clippings – A great way to network with people in your town is to clip out anything about them from the local paper and send it to them with a handwritten note of congratulations. An assistant can help identify and clip these for you. (It is best to only do this with positive news. You don’t need to send someone a note saying that you read about their DUI.)
70. Confirm reservations – Let your assistant confirm you car rental, hotel reservation, etc.
71. Send holiday cards – You can get cards for pretty much any time of year. Let your assistant help keep your name in front of clients by sending St. Patrick’s day, Easter, and Groundhogs day cards for you.
72. Sell stuff on eBay – You will probably make a lot more selling old items on eBay than with a garage sale. Your assistant can handle the listing and shipping for you so it doesn’t eat up all of your time.
73. Search craigslist.org – If you need something, have your assistant look for any new listings for that item on craigslist each day.
74. Gather menus – Want to have better information in choosing a restaurant. Ask your assistant to get a copy of the menu from several different places ahead of time for you.
75. Parking and getting the car – This is particularly useful if you live in a place where you can’t park near your house or office.
76. Wait in line for tickets – If you want to get tickets to an event that will require a wait, send your assistant.
77. Wait in other lines – Your assistant probably can’t get a drivers license for you or register your car, but they can wait in line and call you to come when your turn is approaching.
78. Get quotes – Lets say you need to put a new roof on your house. Your assistant can locate a number of roofer and get quotes for you to look over.
79. Transfer your phone – If you need to switch cell phones it can be a time consuming process. Pass it off your your assistant, they can deal with the cellular company and make the changes.
80. Meeting minutes – This may be useful for things other than formal meetings. It might be beneficial to have written minutes of a conference call or other informal meeting.
81. Wakeup call – I’ve heard of some people having a virtual assistant give them a wake up call along with the weather report and reminders of any important things coming up for that day.
82. Keeping home items in stock – This could be your batteries, printer supplies, envelopes, trash bags, flour, light bulbs etc. Delegating responsibility to make sure you don’t run out of these things means you don’t have to think about it anymore.
83. Place Ads to Sell Stuff on Craigslist – They can also filter through the large amount of spam you are likely to get and help qualify people whoa re likely to actually buy.
84. Look for stuff to buy on Craigslist – Lets say you need a lawn mower. Once you determine the model, age and price you are looking for, an assistant can check for one that meets your criteria daily and do the initial contact to make sure that the ad isn’t a scam. (Hint: If they are trying to ship you a riding lawn mower from another country, it is a scam.)
85. Play devils advocate – An assistant can offer valuable feedback by letting you test ideas and taking a contrary point of view. This will help prepare you for likely objections to your ideas and proposals.
86. Get you off of mailing lists – Giving your assistant a stack of mail that you don’t want to get anymore, can save you a lot of time and reduce the amount of paper being used in the world.
87. Creating a Powerpoint presentation – If you can provide the general outline, an assistant can look up relevant statistics and add graphics.
88. Track loyalty program points – They can help you keep track of where you have existing points and how to make best use of them.
89. Identify potential jobs – People without a job probably aren’t the most likely to hire an assistant, but if you are looking for a job and wanting to play the numbers in your favor, getting some help might be useful.
90. Sending out resumes – An assistant can help you tweak your cover letter, mail out resumes and help you track where you’ve sent your information.
91. House sitting – If you are going to be gone for a few days, it may make sense to have someone stay in your house just to keep it occupied.
92. Online presence – Some people have an assistant do their updates to Facebook and Twitter. This might be useful for someone wanting to maintain a particular online image.
93. Personal metrics – An assistant can help you compile and graph personal metrics. This could be anything to how many miles you’ve walked each week, to your weight over time or the number of calories you’ve consumed.
94. Business metrics – Similar to above, they can keep track of how many sales calls you’ve made, how many deals you’ve closed, how many contacts you’ve followed up with, etc.
95. Plan your vacation – It might seem silly to have an assistant plan your vacation, but if they know you and your family well, they may be able to come up with a better schedule and locate more interesting things to do than you could for yourself.
96. Blog posts – If you need to maintain a certain style of online presence, an assistant can help you do that by writing about what you are doing in your voice. Not for everyone, but there are some people who might use this.
97. Conversions – I had an assistant move a bunch of my sites from Drupal to Wordpress. It wasn’t particularly difficult, but it was very time consuming and I had been putting it off.
98. Suggest cultural events – An assistant can keep track of the events in your city and suggest things you might want to attend. If you say, yes, he/she can make the necessary arrangements for you.
99. Comment filtering – An assistant can help you manage comments on your blog and make sure you keep spam out while letting legitimate comments through quickly.
100. Fact checking – If you plan to use a piece of data for a publication or in a presentation and need to verify it, an assistant can do this for you.

Source: Productivity 501

The highly competitive medical industry requires firms to utilize every possible resource, both
internal and external, to stay ahead of the curve. While many medical device companies have
been capitalizing on the benefits of outsourced labor and manufacturing for years, only recently
have upstream functions such as product design and development become a major part of the
outsourcing trend. Medical device manufacturers are realizing that they can capitalize on external
engineering expertise to gain several advantages, such as market leading products and reduced
time-to-market, without jeopardizing trade secrets or intellectual property.

There are many factors that must be considered to determine if outsourcing product design
and development is a strategic fit for your company. Outlined below are 10 key benefits that
medical device manufacturers can realize by contracting these functions.

1. Leverage Multidisciplinary Expertise
Two heads are better than one, as the adage goes. This is particularly true for product design
and development, where truly innovative products rely on a multitude of concepts and theories for
differentiation and market leadership. A design team with industry-spanning expertise can apply
the best technology to the product concept. A team of engineers confined to one industry does
not have this pool of knowledge from which to draw, and this can impede finding the best
solutions to complex problems.

There are many cases of breakthrough products that were a result of fresh ideas and cuttingedge
technologies from unrelated disciplines. For example, when doctors were finding it
increasingly difficult to obtain high-resolution internal imaging of their patients due to the growing
obesity epidemic, a defense industry technology provided the solution. To meet the doctors’ need,
a technology based on military sonar mine detection was developed. This enabled imaging devices
to resolve objects at twice the distance of current systems. In addition, the same sonar technology
used by the navy to detect enemy submarines was applied to fetal heart monitoring. Many leading
medical devices were results of technological innovations from an unrelated industry.

2. Quickly and Easily Expand Internal Engineering Capabilities
Some projects require rapid scale-up of manpower for short-term assignments. Hiring fulltime
employees is not economical and adding temporary help is time-consuming and presents
confidentiality risks. Outsourcing, on the other hand, allows you to assign your partner’s full-time
staff to device development projects quickly and cost effectively. The proper amount of the
targeted expertise can be applied at the right time. Companies can therefore avoid paying for
excess labor and engineering costs. The various staff scale-up options are presented in Table 1.

3. Capitalize on Technology Forecasting
Experienced partners have foresight as to what future technologies can play a role in
developing products and how these advancements will impact your business. These firms have the
time and resources to survey the field and look at what is coming down the pike. They also have
networks to rely upon for up-to-date information. Larger engineering firms have the ability to test
emerging technologies in their laboratories, providing an additional benefit to the outsourcing
relationship.

Due to a growing aging population and rising healthcare costs, the need to monitor patients
from their homes has become more urgent. The advancement of wireless technology made
possible the development of cost-effective devices for convenient and efficient patient home care.
Now, patients with low mobility can be diagnosed and treated inexpensively in the comfort of
their own homes.

4. Manage Project Timeline
Many medical device design projects fall victim to mismanaged or unmanaged timelines. With
internal engineering and management resources stretched thin, it is often hard to fully commit
resources to product development projects. Outsourcing partnerships offer an advantage because
the engineering firm not only assumes project time management responsibilities but also assigns
and manages resources. The partners will agree on a program timeline at the start of the
agreement and schedule periodic meetings for status updates. A contract with established
deadlines and deliverables for each party helps to keep projects on track.

G.D. Searle realized this advantage when working with an outsourced partner to develop its
trandsdermal nitroglycerine patch to treat patients with angina. The company’s engineering
partner designed the product and manufacturing process and completed the production facility in
53 weeks. A project timeline was established by the product development firm, detailing project
stages from first sketch through product release along with corresponding timeframes. Scheduled
meetings and deadlines rapidly advanced the project, enabling G.D. Searle to beat competitors to
market.

5. Control Project Costs
Similar to providing project timeline management, external engineering partners can help
medical device companies keep product development costs within budgeted goals. At contract
signing, the project budget is set and resources allocated, with written approval required for any
changes. Reports are developed and delivered on an agreed-upon periodic basis to keep all
parties abreast of current expenditures versus budgeted amounts. As opposed to internal product
development, during which it can be difficult to account for time and resources, outsourcing
relationships provide clear dollar values for each project stage. This will prevent costs from
unknowingly spiraling out of control. An example of a project cost sheet is illustrated in Table 2.

6. Reduce Time-to-Market
End-to-end solutions are another benefit of working with external design teams. Qualified
partners can provide complete guidance from concept development to product development
through equipment design, build and installation. Having one point of contact for all aspects will
lend efficiency to the project. Additionally, experienced firms can apply knowledge of similar
projects and technologies to enhance productivity and overcome technical obstacles that can delay
product introductions.

The design challenges posed by C.R. Bard’s one-hand biopsy tool called for knowledge of
several disciplines. Since a timely release was critical to the product’s success, the firm turned to
an outside engineering team. This third-party applied expertise in medical product design,
materials, and mechanism development to create a proprietary process for a more ergonomic
biopsy tool. This device, operated with one-hand, satisfied C.R. Bard’s objectives, including a
speedy market introduction.

7. Maintain Confidentiality
One of the major misconceptions about outsourcing product design and development is that it
will compromise corporate trade secrets. However, working with a third-party engineering firm
can actually provide stronger protection for a company’s proprietary position than would internal
development. First, outsourcing engineering functions can reduce the threat of an employee
takeover by competitors because engineering partnerships provide anonymity. Competitors will
not be able to track down the engineers responsible for the development of your market leading
medical device if the design was outsourced. In addition, reputable and well-established design
firms sign confidentiality agreements and provide competitive exclusivity to their clients.

Velcro® Group of Companies experienced first-hand the power of confidentiality in its
outsourced engineering relationship. The company worked with a partner who designed the
innovative and proprietary production process for its molded hook and loop fasteners, and
consequently assigned patent rights and competitive exclusivity to Velcro®. When Velcro’s
design firm was approached by a major U.S. diaper manufacturer with a project that conflicted
with its Velcro® partnership, the project was declined by the design firm because it posed a
possible client conflict. However, the engineering firm was able to establish a connection between
Velcro® and this company, leading to a prosperous and profitable business relationship. This
result of this relationship was the development of a truly market-dominating product – a diaper
with Velcro® resealable closures.

8. Create a Proprietary Market Position with Innovative Products
To gain market ownership, companies must develop medical devices that provide an
innovative solution to some unsatisfied need. An experienced partner will be fluent in industry
trends and up-to-date on current happenings and can therefore gauge which niche your company
can effectively fill.

Innovative products are also difficult to replicate, leading to complete and lengthy market
ownership. Medical device manufacturers can get caught up in the modification maze, making
small alterations to existing products and re-launching them. However, these types of projects do
not command price premiums. Relying on external sources for product design and development
brings novel ideas and wide-ranging expertise to the table, leading to innovative products.
Becton Dickinson leveraged the multidisciplinary expertise of an engineering partner to
develop a superior and convenient insulin delivery device that earned a market leading position.

This partner applied insight on ergonomic design, injection molding and materials to the project.
The result was an innovative insulin injector pen, superior due to its ease of use, audible dosage
delivery indication for visually impaired users and low cost.

9. Protect Intellectual Property Rights
Medical device manufacturers can outsource upstream product development functions
without compromising intellectual property by working with partners that agree to assign IP
rights after the program’s completion. This means that the engineering company will either
cooperate in preparing patent applications or will maintain the development process as a trade
secret.

Nova Biomedical lacked a high-volume production capability for its innovative and
proprietary disposable strips. Part of the sub-micro liter glucose monitoring system selfadministered
by diabetics to check blood sugar levels, these unique strips contain a miniaturized
biosensor to convey blood to an electronic reader. Nova Biomedical recognized that an
experienced equipment-engineering firm was needed to design and build customized
manufacturing equipment to fit their unique product requirements. But, involving a third-party
could jeopardize trade secrets. To solve the problem, Nova Biomedical chose an outside design
firm that guaranteed the security of its intellectual property and agreed to assign intellectual
property rights once complete.

Within nine months, two units were designed, built, and installed in the manufacturing facility,
with ownership assumed by Nova Biomedical. Nova Biomedical now possesses the necessary
capacity to meet market demand and maintain its competitive edge.

10. Because the Competition is Outsourcing R&D

Medical device manufacturers are increasingly allocating funds to outsourcing product design
and development functions. This is supported by the growing budget percentages allocated to
R&D. For example, in 2002, the medical industry spent 11.4 percent of its sales on R&D, higher
than any industry except that for drugs and medicine.1 And in 2003, medical companies increased
the R&D portion of their budgets by an average of eight percent.2 Whether their strategy is to
maintain or gain market leadership, an increasing number of medical device companies are
recognizing that outsourcing product design and development is a critical strategic tool.

Answer true or false to the following statements to find out if your product design and
development process can benefit from outsourced engineering.
1. Internal resources are stretched thin.
2. Medical device development projects often run over budget.
3. Product launches are often delayed, costing the company a significant dollar amount due
to lost sales and extended expenses.
4. My company has not released a market-dominating product in several years.
5. My engineering staff’s expertise is concentrated in a few core industries.
6. Our R&D department has several new ideas, but we cannot develop efficient
manufacturing processes.
7. It is difficult to keep up with the competition in terms of new product development.
If any of the above statements hold true for your company, outsourcing product design and
development may be the solution.

About the Author
Robert R. Andrews is medical division manager for the commercial group at Foster-Miller,
Inc., a QinetiQ company. He has more than 25 years of medical device experience managing
product development and operations. He has 11 issued U.S. medical device patents. He received
an MBA from Bryant College and Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in plastics engineering from
The University of Lowell. He can be contacted at (781) 684-4639 or randrews@fostermiller.com.

chris_heiler @ldesigngurl I hear ya. I’ve been outsourcing my bookkeeping to a virtual bk in Canada for about the last 10 months. I’ll never go back…

nlitenmebabe China investor finalizes deal on NBA’s Cavaliers (Reuters) : Reuters – A Michigan in.. http://bit.ly/7UWBhp [outsourcing sports??]

ttdotcom Join Matt Makowicz for ‘Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Outsourcing” webinar on Dec16th, 09 at 10am PST. http://ow.ly/M4wv

pass0614 New blog post: Outsourcing Tips: 5 Profitable Ways To Outsource To Multiply Your Earnings http://bit.ly/7×5ISe

MFM_GlobBusNews UK aerospace outsourcing, http://www.myfeedme.com/article/5833670.html

arcgateinc Trends and Opportunities in the Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) space – http://bit.ly/8U6RvG

Brian_Zimmerman What’s up with outsourcing? Does anyone have this figured out yet?

thecommoncents Why Should You Outsource: http://bit.ly/7EWi1f

starcomsystems Accenture dumps the Tiger: It’s the biggest story in town that consulting and outsourcing giant Accenture has dumpe… http://bit.ly/712vkI

by Kristi Oloffson

Employers and career experts see a growing problem in American society — an abundance of college graduates, many burdened with tuition-loan debt, heading into the work world with a degree that doesn’t mean much anymore.

The problem isn’t just a soft job market — it’s an oversupply of graduates. In 1973, a bachelor’s degree was more of a rarity, since just 47% of high school graduates went on to college. By October 2008, that number had risen to nearly 70%. For many Americans today, a trip through college is considered as much of a birthright as a driver’s license.

Marty Nemko, a career and education expert who has taught at U.C. Berkeley’s Graduate School of Education, contends that the overflow in degree holders is the result of many weaker students attending colleges when other options may have served them better. “There is tremendous pressure to push kids through,” he says, adding that as a result, too many students who aren’t skilled become degree holders, promoting a perception among employers that higher education doesn’t work. “That piece of paper no longer means very much, and employers know that,” says Nemko. “Everybody’s got it, so it’s watered down.”

Read more: time.com

Starting Out

Here are some pointers for launching your outsourcing operation.

1. First, define your core: Don’t hand over the core functions of your business. Consider outsourcing other operations that are not as strategic.

2. Evaluate a service provider like you would a full-time employee: Ask questions, check references and ask for feedback from other clients who have used the provider’s services.

3. Clearly define the scope and schedule for your project: Be up front about your project requirements so that service providers know about schedules and deliverables.

4. Don’t choose a vendor based solely on price: Discard the highest-priced and lowest-priced bid. You want a balance of good value and quality results.

5. Review portfolios and samples: Consider asking the provider to do a quick mock-up or provide a basic outline of a work plan.

6. Look for specific experience fit: You want a company with specific experience with the type of project that your company is undertaking. This is important when outsourcing complex technical projects such as software development.

7. Tie compensation to clearly defined project milestones: Define a work plan for your outsourced project, with clearly defined milestones.

8. Negotiate ownership of the work up front: Make sure that you are clear about who owns the resulting work product and any important components of that product. Make sure that the service provider understands how you intend to use the deliverables that they are agreeing to provide.

9. Don’t forget about support after the project is complete: Draft a support clause that ensures you’ll get continuing support from the vendor after the project is complete.

10. Get it in writing: Keep a written record of project goals, pay schedules and any changes.

11. Start small: Start with a project that is relatively small and simple in scope to give you a better idea of the provider’s style and capabilities.

12. Move slowly and commit incrementally: Don’t sign a five-year contract before testing performance and the relationship. Move slowly and commit gradually.

13. Get specialized and expert help: Browse a site that provides access to professionals around the world in your business’s field.

Skills to Consider Outsourcing

You may be able to outsource these job functions to make your small business run more smoothly.

14. Public-relations services: Most small businesses cannot afford a full-time public-relations pro.

15. Virtual assistants: Virtual assistants, or independent entrepreneurs, provide administrative, creative or technical support by handling tasks like scheduling and filing.

16. Outsource brokers: These brokers, exchanges and networks can recruit, interview and manage the services your company needs.

17. E-commerce solutions: Hire a provider that can turn your business’s Web site into a cash cow.

18. E-mail marketing: Your contractor can be thousands of miles and seven time zones away, but they’ll market your business like they’re in the same room.

19. Writers: Writing can be done from anywhere.

20. IT Professionals:Consultants are cheaper than hiring someone in-house.

Outsourcing Dos and Don’ts

Keep these tips in mind as your orientate yourself to outsourcing.

21. Carefully evaluate what can really be outsourced: Self-contained tasks or projects are more suited to outsourcing, while team tasks are not.

22. Consider management costs: Don’t end up squandering the savings in training and oversight costs.

23. Be prepared for challenges: Even from across an ocean, personalities can clash, and schedules can take a while to sync.

24. Don’t walk in blind: Get guidance in choosing a vendor and keep knowledgeable tabs on performance.

25. Consider having a staff employee(s) act as a liaison: Consider entrusting an in-house manager to oversee the outsourced help.

26. Watch out for hidden costs: Consider everything from layoff-related expenses and telecommunications costs for remote workers.

27. Know the outsourcing ABCs: Alignment: Is outsourcing the right move for your business? Business case: Have you taken all costs into consideration? Culture: Can you bridge the cultural difference between your company and the outsourcer?

Where to Find Outsourcing Candidates

Here are some sites that include professionals who can fill your small business’s needs.

28. Elance Inc.: You’ll find tons of freelance writers and designers on this site.

29. FreelancerNow.com: You’ll get services quickly on this site.

30. Guru.com: Post individual projects on this site and have professional bid on them.

31. SHARPSourcing.com: SHARPSourcing.com is an Indian HR outsourcing service that provides Web-development and Web-design outsourcing services to companies across the globe.

32. RentACoder: You can literally rent a Web coder from this site.

33. my pajamanation: Powered by an India-based blogger, this site offers insight into outsourcing, from events to related news from around the world.

34. ScriptLance: You can post a project on this site, which lists bids in a neatly organized list.

35. Integra Global Solutions:Outsource to this firm to expand your business.

36. GetAFreelancer.com: This site can help you find freelance programmers, Web designers and copywriters in India or any other country.

37. Kasamba: Find experts in a number of different fields on this site.

38. GoforFreelance.com: This site works for both freelancers and employees.

39. osLance.com: Post open-source projects here.

40. Sunday LLC: According to the company, “Sunday gives busy people the resources of a 24/7 personal assistant, travel agent, project assistant and tech-support pro, available via both telephone and Internet.”

41. oDesk Corp.: Outsource and manage programmers, Web designers and more.

42.Get Friday: A virtual-assistant resource that undertakes any task or business that does not require a physical presence.

43. DoMyStuff.com: This site is as simple as posting a task, selecting an assistant and getting stuff done.

44. Amazon Mechanical Turk: This Amazon.com-powered site offers companies ‘artificial’ artificial intelligence.

45. craigslist inc.: Post a job under “gigs” or any of the industry sections, and you can outsource work anywhere.

46. Workaholics4Hire.com: Find people 24/7 on this site people by “a team of workaholics who have a compulsive need to work at odd hours, drink too much coffee, and love meeting impossible deadlines.”

47. BrickworkINDIA: Get a remote executive assistant operating from an India to do your work through email.

48. iFreelance.com: Post your project for free to receive bids from hundreds of professional service providers.

49. Agents of Value: This Webmaster staffing company specializes in finding full-time programmers, graphic designers, journalists, researchers and link builders to help your business grow.

50. Netgear Solutions: Netgear Solutions is an IT-based solution organization with a strong crew of software professionals and Web professionals.

Tips for Outsourcing to a Personal Virtual Assistant

Virtual assistants can do your grunt work without taking up office space.

51. Minimize the kickoff effort: Set up a single inbox where your tasks will be dropped for quick assigninment.

52. There’s no such thing as too small: Even five-minute tasks can become cumbersome when they add up. Your assistant can get them done by “batching” them in meaningful ways.

53. Set up recurring tasks: You can have your virtual assistant perform tasks like keeping tabs on the blogs and newsletters of your business’s fans and competitors.

54. Empower the assistant to take further action: Clearly lay out the next steps of tasks and projects.
55. Revisit the to-do list: Basically, hold on to important tasks that you should do and give the support and research tasks to the virtual assistant.

Tools for Tasks and Projects

If you want to keep track of exactly what work an employee needs to do and when they must do it, check out these task organizers.

56. Backpack: Backpack is an information-management and to-do list organizer that can help your outsourced talent get the job done.

57. Wiki.com: Wiki.com features project tracking; searchable discussions; shared calendars; Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF file support; and 256-Bit SSL encryption.

58. Ta-da Lists: Ta-da Lists is the “Web’s simplest and fastest to-do list maker,” and even works on the iPhone.

59. CellTell: Send voiceNotes from your outsourced help from any of your phones straight to your Backpack page

60. Jott: Jott will act like your own personal assistant by supplying free voice-to-text service.

61. Campfire: Especially great for remote teams, Campfire is like instant messaging optimized for groups.

62. VIP Task Manager: VIP Task Manager lets multiple users manage tasks and access the common database.

63. Task Manager: Track personal and shared tasks, jobs and projects with Task Manager, which lets you quickly view all of the duties so you can prevent missing deadlines.

64. Excel: The Multiple Daily Tasks Excel spreadsheet assigns up to 50 tasks, shifts or clients to up to 20 employees.

65. Employee Task Chaser: Develop the execution abilities of your work team and get things done with this tool.

66. Shift Schedules: This tool lets you assign your people to daily shifts, tasks or locations in 30 minute increments.

67. Employee Project Clock: Employee Project Clock is ideal for companies that are involved in control engineering, manufacturing and automation, as well as tool-and-die shops.

68. OfficeView: This Web application includes a messaging system and software to track consultant information.

69. Personnel Organizer Deluxe: Personnel Organizer Deluxe provides an easy way to gather, organize and manage information about all consultants in your company.

70. VIP Simple To Do List: Tell your consultants what they need to get done when with VIP Simple To Do List.

71. Project Tracker: This extensive database program contains suppliers and purchase and estimation modules.

72. Employee Planner: Plan consultant work, schedules, travel, events, vacations, projects or meetings with this easy-to-use tool.

Web Sites

Check out these Web sites, which feature time sheets and scheduling software for overseas employees.

73. Atlas Business Solutions Inc.: This site features inexpensive downloads for consultant scheduling, HR needs and business plans.

74. InTime Solutions Inc.: InTime Solutions provides software downloads, as well as information and news about the automation sphere.

75. i-Staff: This site provides Web-based employee scheduling software.

76. TimeFox: Web-based time- and project-tracking tools make this site a smart place to go.

77. WorkPlace Systems: This treasure trove of business solutions and services features free downloads for workplace management.

78. Kronos Inc.: Choose from a host of time and scheduling software on this site.

79. Celayix Inc.: Scheduling and attendance solutions are available on this site.

80. WorkBuddy Solutions Pyt. Ltd.: WorkBuddy Solutions is your pal for automated workforce-management solutions.

81. Valiant Solutions Inc.: According to the company’s Web site, “Valiant brings Web-enabled, real-time automation through a centralized database to every phase of your workforce management lifecycle.”

82. AceProject: This site provides project-management tools, Web-based time sheets and free time-sheet software.

83. Personnel Scheduling Software: You can choose from a plethora of scheduling software on this site.

84. Michael Greer’s Project Management Links: Michael has taken it upon himself to post dozens of project- management tools on his site.

85. Advanced Time Reports: This whole Web site devoted to time report software is a must-see.

86. Microsoft Office Project 2007: This site gives you the lowdown on Microsoft Office Project 2007 software.

87. Basecamp: Set up headquarters at Basecamp, which lets you log hours and keep track of projects.

88. activeCollab: This site’s motto is “Eliminate Stress. Manage Success.”

Information

These sites offer information about the Indian market and can help you navigate the outsourcing realm.

89. U.S. Department of State Background Note: The Bureau of South Asian Affairs provides information on India’s geography, people, economy and relations with the U.S.

90. The Outsourcing Weblog: Stay on the up-and-up on outsourcing news from around the globe.

91. Doing Business in India: Find information here on investing in India, the country’s economic policy, government and more.

92. Doing Business in India: A Cultural Perspective: Read up on cultural differences between the U.S. and India.

93. Outsourcing to India: Get your legal, logistical and practical questions about doing business in India answered.

94. Country Information About India: Read through reports, surveys, papers, publications, news and more information about India.

95. A Buyer’s Guide to Offshore Outsourcing: Browse a worldwide comparison of prices, risks and other factors you should consider before outsourcing overseas.

96. Center for Global Outsourcing: For $85 per year, you’ll get resources that underscore the benefits of global outsourcing to businesses.

97. Current Realities in Global IT initiatives: This research, conducted by Zinnov Management Consulting, looks at the issues associated with offshore IT initiatives.

98. Outsourcing FAQ: Get all of your outsourcing questions at this Everest Partners LP-sponsored site.

99. Outsourcing Center: Read white papers, articles and research about outsourcing.

100. Offshore Outsourcing: Making It Work: InformIT, a Pearson Education Informant subsidiary, provides you with eight points to consider before moving business operations offshore.

By keeping costs low and intensely evaluating the potential and the plan, you can outsource to help your small business thrive. In no time, your company will be competing with the delivery capabilities of larger organizations, but you’ll still be your own boss.

Source: HR World

Definition of Outsourcing
Outsourcing is the act of obtaining services from an external firm.

Business Process Outsourcing
In the corporate environment, the term “outsourcing” often refers to a particular type of outsourcing, business process outsourcing (BPO). BPO occurs when an organization turns over the management of a particular business process (such as accounting or payroll) to a third party that specializes in that process. The underlying theory is that the BPO firm can complete the process more efficiently, leaving the original firm free to concentrate on its core competency.

Roots of Outsourcing
The concept of outsourcing was first made popular by Ross Perot when we founded Electronic Data Systems (EDS) in 1962. EDS would say to a potential client, “You are good at designing and manufacturing widgets, but we are skilled with managing information technology. We will sell you the IT services that you require, and you can pay us periodically with a minimum commitment of two years.” Today, EDS is a multi-billion dollar company with over 70,000 employees and is only one of many global BPO firms.

Offshore Outsourcing
Offshore outsourcing, or “offshoring”, refers to outsourcing to firms in foreign countries, often to take advantage of labor arbitrage. In the past 10 years, business process outsourcing contracts have increasingly been given to firms in developing countries. Typically educated workers in developing countries, such as India or China, work for a much lower wage than do similarly educated workers in developed countries, such as Japan. Savings from the lower wage rate must exceed the increased costs of management and risk associated with offshore outsourcing for it to be economically viable.

The Politics of “Offshoring”
Offshore outsourcing has recently become a hotly-debated issue in the national media. When the American economy began to pull out of recession in 2001, unemployment did not decrease as expected. Offshore outsourcing was blamed as a contributing factor to this “jobless recovery”. Information Technology was a particularly soft sector, and many American programmers lost their jobs to lower-paid foreign counterparts. Many economists however have recently conjectured that the higher-than-expected unemployment numbers were not the result of offshore outsourcing, and that offshore outsourcing has actually had a positive impact on the American economy. Undoubtedly the debate will continue into the presidential campaign.

Source: The Outsourcing Times