New terminology in offshore outsourcing – Part 2

A few weeks ago I wrote an article about the terminology we use in the offshore outsourcing landscape. (https://www.bridge-global.com/blog//outsourcing/terminology-offshore-outsourcing) I have posted the question in some groups and the Q&A in linkedin and on our blog; this generated a lot of new insights and terms. In this part 2 I list the reactions that we received. I still didn’t find one catchy term that could differentiate our industry from all others in the world though. I hope that some people will share more terms that come up after reading the outcome here.   I will summarize a few of the authors here who gave some definitions, because I think those can give us a base to explore the new terms. A few weeks ago I wrote an article about the terminology we use in the offshore outsourcing landscape. (https://www.bridge-global.com/blog//outsourcing/terminology-offshore-outsourcing) I have posted the question in some groups and the Q&A in linkedin and on our blog; this generated a lot of new insights and terms. In this part 2 I list the reactions that we received. I still didn’t find one catchy term that could differentiate our industry from all others in the world though. I hope that some people will share more terms that come up after reading the outcome here. I will summarize a few of the authors here who gave some definitions, because I think those can give us a base to explore the new terms. A few weeks ago I wrote an article about the terminology we use in the offshore outsourcing landscape. (https://www.bridge-global.com/blog//outsourcing/terminology-offshore-outsourcing) I have posted the question in some groups and the Q&A in linkedin and on our blog; this generated a lot of new insights and terms. In this part 2 I list the reactions that we received. I still didn’t find one catchy term that could differentiate our industry from all others in the world though. I hope that some people will share more terms that come up after reading the outcome here. I will summarize a few of the authors here who gave some definitions, because I think those can give us a base to explore the new terms. A few weeks ago I wrote an article about the terminology we use in the offshore outsourcing landscape. (https://www.bridge-global.com/blog//outsourcing/terminology-offshore-outsourcing) I have posted the question in some groups and the Q&A in linkedin and on our blog; this generated a lot of new insights and terms. In this part 2 I list the reactions that we received. I still didn’t find one catchy term that could differentiate our industry from all others in the world though. I hope that some people will share more terms that come up after reading the outcome here. I will summarize a few of the authors here who gave some definitions, because I think those can give us a base to explore the new terms.

Tim Kasse (http://www.linkedin.com/in/kasseinitiatives) gave us a clear definition of outsourcing:

“Outsourcing” involves transferring or sharing management control and/or decision-making of a business function to an outside supplier, which involves a degree of two-way information exchange, coordination and trust between the outsourcer and its client. Such a relationship between economic entities is qualitatively different from traditional relationships between buyer and seller of services. The economic entities involved in an “outsourcing” relationship dynamically integrate and share management control of the labor process rather than enter in contracting relationships where both entities remain separate in the coordination of the production of goods and services. Business segments typically outsourced include information technology, human resources, facilities and real estate management, and accounting. Many companies also outsource customer support and call center functions, manufacturing and engineering.

Unfortunately, in many books and papers, and contracts, the term “outsourcing” has taken on multiple meanings. If you ask someone to Xerox a document, you are, of course, asking them to make a copy even though Xerox is a brand name of a company that makes copiers. If you ask someone for a coke, it does not necessarily mean a Coca Cola but it could mean any dark colored sweet carbonated beverage.

Mikos Biro (http://hu.linkedin.com/in/miklosbiro) puts outsourcing and offshoring in a historical perspective:

I would like to contribute to the discussion with thoughts placing the issue in a historical perspective from the paper:

Biró, Miklós; Fehér, Péter (2005): Forces Affecting Offshore Software Development. In: I. Richardson et al (Eds.), Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Volume 3792/2005, Springer-Verlag, pp.187–201. (ISBN 3-540-30286-7). < http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/11586012_18 >

“Recent as it may seem, outsourcing is one of the oldest process reengineering activities of humanity, formerly called “specialization” or “division of labour”. The recent outburst of interest in this approach is due to the globally increasing share of services and intellectual content in products which opens new levels of outsourcing opportunities onshore, nearshore, and offshore depending on the factors discussed below.

It is the spread of Information Society Technologies which gave the most recent boost to offshoring whether through the establishment of offshore development centers fully controled by the mother company, or through offshore outsourcing to companies in the other country. In fact, in addition to being highly enabling, Internet services are themselves inherently outsourced offshore, since we definitely have to rely on services operated in other countries because of its fundamentally distributed nature.

Similarly to outsourcing, offshoring is also a new expression for an old business approach. Beyond technology, it is enabled by globalization whose history just goes back to the times of Chandragupta Maurya founder of the first Indian empire (321 B.C.) and Alexander the Great whose troops were the first to open the route from Europe to Asia called Silk Road later. The significance of globalization is clearly

Recognized by Adam Smith back in the 18th century[2]: “But if in any of those distant employments, which in ordinary cases are less advantageous to the country, the profit should happen to rise somewhat higher than what is sufficient to balance the natural preference which is given to nearer employments, this superiority of profit will draw stock from those nearer employments…”.”

Sharna Kahn (http://www.linkedin.com/in/sfkahn) puts offshoring into perspective relative to different labor market-services:

One word might be a dis-service to all the niches and nuances of the resourcing industry. As a reference, allow me to provide the industry standard terminology that I have been working with for the past ten+ years.

Contractors = individuals that contract directly with the client or are contracted with a client through a third party ‘staffing’ firm. In the U.S. this is known as a 1099 resource, referring to the non-employee status whom receives no benefits and must pay their own income withholding tax. They are typically used for jobs or projects less than 12 months, but not always limited to this timeline. Most corporations define contractors under a ‘staff augmentation’ label meaning expanding the existing employee numbers or backfilling an FTE (Full time equivalent that is an employee) that is temporarily gone, or filling a role temporarily until a new FTE can be hired.

Staffing firms = typically provide one or two contractors to companies to perform short term work and are known as Temp Staffing companies. There are many firms like this in the U.S. that focus on industry sectors and skill niches.

Outsourcers = typically define companies that provide service or project based teams of resources to take over a function or process from the client. So BPO, such as customer service functions (think Call Centers), would be an example. The resources could be domestic to the client or not.

Offshoring = simply denotes an outsourcing firm or even a staffing firm that provides contractors from locations other than the corporations home soil. This term has been expanded from only India based resources to anywhere on the globe.

Recruiters and Employments agencies = typically work on commission paid by the corporation once a candidate is placed for a full time (FTE) role. Agencies who perform some consulting for their client or do in depth candidate assessments for their client are usually ‘retained’ and paid a fee for the services regardless of if, or how many, candidates are actually hired.

Here are some general terms/thoughts that we received:

• Business Process Globalization; It includes all sourcing options – outsourced or captive. It also includes all location options – near or offshore. So bye bye “BPO” welcome “BPG”
• “offsiteworkforce”: a work force working for you at offsite!
• “IT Global Sourcing”: This covers insourcing or staff augmentation – supplying resources on a customer’s site. You can insource an entire Help Desk or NOC at a customers location.
• Foreign Outsourcing and Domestic Outsourcing
• Distributive development
• What you referred to as “staffing” I would normally call “staff augmentation”. Staff augmentation is a model of outsourcing, which, for cost reasons, is usually delivered offshore or nearshore. In my view, “staff augmentation” refers to a model of outsourcing in which you are basically just providing staff, with an office and a basic level of management (discipline, payroll…), and the actual resource management is done by the client.
• Cheapsourcing
• Cloudsourcing
• Staffsourcing
• For me, the one risky assumption I hear is that outsourcing = offshoring. These people clearly don’t know their nearshoring from their rearshoring!
• Resourcing
• ‘Delegated foreign IT’ or ‘Your foreign IT department’
• How about building from words about bringing together like “joint” or “aggregate” or “gezamenlijk”.

Tim Kasse (http://www.linkedin.com/in/kasseinitiatives) gave us a clear definition of outsourcing:

“Outsourcing” involves transferring or sharing management control and/or decision-making of a business function to an outside supplier, which involves a degree of two-way information exchange, coordination and trust between the outsourcer and its client. Such a relationship between economic entities is qualitatively different from traditional relationships between buyer and seller of services. The economic entities involved in an “outsourcing” relationship dynamically integrate and share management control of the labor process rather than enter in contracting relationships where both entities remain separate in the coordination of the production of goods and services. Business segments typically outsourced include information technology, human resources, facilities and real estate management, and accounting. Many companies also outsource customer support and call center functions, manufacturing and engineering.

Unfortunately, in many books and papers, and contracts, the term “outsourcing” has taken on multiple meanings. If you ask someone to Xerox a document, you are, of course, asking them to make a copy even though Xerox is a brand name of a company that makes copiers. If you ask someone for a coke, it does not necessarily mean a Coca Cola but it could mean any dark colored sweet carbonated beverage.

Mikos Biro (http://hu.linkedin.com/in/miklosbiro) puts outsourcing and offshoring in a historical perspective:

I would like to contribute to the discussion with thoughts placing the issue in a historical perspective from the paper:

Biró, Miklós; Fehér, Péter (2005): Forces Affecting Offshore Software Development. In: I. Richardson et al (Eds.), Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Volume 3792/2005, Springer-Verlag, pp.187–201. (ISBN 3-540-30286-7). < http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/11586012_18 >

“Recent as it may seem, outsourcing is one of the oldest process reengineering activities of humanity, formerly called “specialization” or “division of labour”. The recent outburst of interest in this approach is due to the globally increasing share of services and intellectual content in products which opens new levels of outsourcing opportunities onshore, nearshore, and offshore depending on the factors discussed below.

It is the spread of Information Society Technologies which gave the most recent boost to offshoring whether through the establishment of offshore development centers fully controled by the mother company, or through offshore outsourcing to companies in the other country. In fact, in addition to being highly enabling, Internet services are themselves inherently outsourced offshore, since we definitely have to rely on services operated in other countries because of its fundamentally distributed nature.

Similarly to outsourcing, offshoring is also a new expression for an old business approach. Beyond technology, it is enabled by globalization whose history just goes back to the times of Chandragupta Maurya founder of the first Indian empire (321 B.C.) and Alexander the Great whose troops were the first to open the route from Europe to Asia called Silk Road later. The significance of globalization is clearly

Recognized by Adam Smith back in the 18th century[2]: “But if in any of those distant employments, which in ordinary cases are less advantageous to the country, the profit should happen to rise somewhat higher than what is sufficient to balance the natural preference which is given to nearer employments, this superiority of profit will draw stock from those nearer employments…”.”

Sharna Kahn (http://www.linkedin.com/in/sfkahn) puts offshoring into perspective relative to different labor market-services:

One word might be a dis-service to all the niches and nuances of the resourcing industry. As a reference, allow me to provide the industry standard terminology that I have been working with for the past ten+ years.

Contractors = individuals that contract directly with the client or are contracted with a client through a third party ‘staffing’ firm. In the U.S. this is known as a 1099 resource, referring to the non-employee status whom receives no benefits and must pay their own income withholding tax. They are typically used for jobs or projects less than 12 months, but not always limited to this timeline. Most corporations define contractors under a ‘staff augmentation’ label meaning expanding the existing employee numbers or backfilling an FTE (Full time equivalent that is an employee) that is temporarily gone, or filling a role temporarily until a new FTE can be hired.

Staffing firms = typically provide one or two contractors to companies to perform short term work and are known as Temp Staffing companies. There are many firms like this in the U.S. that focus on industry sectors and skill niches.

Outsourcers = typically define companies that provide service or project based teams of resources to take over a function or process from the client. So BPO, such as customer service functions (think Call Centers), would be an example. The resources could be domestic to the client or not.

Offshoring = simply denotes an outsourcing firm or even a staffing firm that provides contractors from locations other than the corporations home soil. This term has been expanded from only India based resources to anywhere on the globe.

Recruiters and Employments agencies = typically work on commission paid by the corporation once a candidate is placed for a full time (FTE) role. Agencies who perform some consulting for their client or do in depth candidate assessments for their client are usually ‘retained’ and paid a fee for the services regardless of if, or how many, candidates are actually hired.

Here are some general terms/thoughts that we received:

• Business Process Globalization; It includes all sourcing options – outsourced or captive. It also includes all location options – near or offshore. So bye bye “BPO” welcome “BPG”
• “offsiteworkforce”: a work force working for you at offsite!
• “IT Global Sourcing”: This covers insourcing or staff augmentation – supplying resources on a customer’s site. You can insource an entire Help Desk or NOC at a customers location.
• Foreign Outsourcing and Domestic Outsourcing
• Distributive development
• What you referred to as “staffing” I would normally call “staff augmentation”. Staff augmentation is a model of outsourcing, which, for cost reasons, is usually delivered offshore or nearshore. In my view, “staff augmentation” refers to a model of outsourcing in which you are basically just providing staff, with an office and a basic level of management (discipline, payroll…), and the actual resource management is done by the client.
• Cheapsourcing
• Cloudsourcing
• Staffsourcing
• For me, the one risky assumption I hear is that outsourcing = offshoring. These people clearly don’t know their nearshoring from their rearshoring!
• Resourcing
• ‘Delegated foreign IT’ or ‘Your foreign IT department’
• How about building from words about bringing together like “joint” or “aggregate” or “gezamenlijk”.

Tim Kasse (http://www.linkedin.com/in/kasseinitiatives) gave us a clear definition of outsourcing:

“Outsourcing” involves transferring or sharing management control and/or decision-making of a business function to an outside supplier, which involves a degree of two-way information exchange, coordination and trust between the outsourcer and its client. Such a relationship between economic entities is qualitatively different from traditional relationships between buyer and seller of services. The economic entities involved in an “outsourcing” relationship dynamically integrate and share management control of the labor process rather than enter in contracting relationships where both entities remain separate in the coordination of the production of goods and services. Business segments typically outsourced include information technology, human resources, facilities and real estate management, and accounting. Many companies also outsource customer support and call center functions, manufacturing and engineering.

Unfortunately, in many books and papers, and contracts, the term “outsourcing” has taken on multiple meanings. If you ask someone to Xerox a document, you are, of course, asking them to make a copy even though Xerox is a brand name of a company that makes copiers. If you ask someone for a coke, it does not necessarily mean a Coca Cola but it could mean any dark colored sweet carbonated beverage.

Mikos Biro (http://hu.linkedin.com/in/miklosbiro) puts outsourcing and offshoring in a historical perspective:

I would like to contribute to the discussion with thoughts placing the issue in a historical perspective from the paper:

Biró, Miklós; Fehér, Péter (2005): Forces Affecting Offshore Software Development. In: I. Richardson et al (Eds.), Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Volume 3792/2005, Springer-Verlag, pp.187–201. (ISBN 3-540-30286-7). < http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/11586012_18 >

“Recent as it may seem, outsourcing is one of the oldest process reengineering activities of humanity, formerly called “specialization” or “division of labour”. The recent outburst of interest in this approach is due to the globally increasing share of services and intellectual content in products which opens new levels of outsourcing opportunities onshore, nearshore, and offshore depending on the factors discussed below.

It is the spread of Information Society Technologies which gave the most recent boost to offshoring whether through the establishment of offshore development centers fully controled by the mother company, or through offshore outsourcing to companies in the other country. In fact, in addition to being highly enabling, Internet services are themselves inherently outsourced offshore, since we definitely have to rely on services operated in other countries because of its fundamentally distributed nature.

Similarly to outsourcing, offshoring is also a new expression for an old business approach. Beyond technology, it is enabled by globalization whose history just goes back to the times of Chandragupta Maurya founder of the first Indian empire (321 B.C.) and Alexander the Great whose troops were the first to open the route from Europe to Asia called Silk Road later. The significance of globalization is clearly

Recognized by Adam Smith back in the 18th century[2]: “But if in any of those distant employments, which in ordinary cases are less advantageous to the country, the profit should happen to rise somewhat higher than what is sufficient to balance the natural preference which is given to nearer employments, this superiority of profit will draw stock from those nearer employments…”.”

Sharna Kahn (http://www.linkedin.com/in/sfkahn) puts offshoring into perspective relative to different labor market-services:

One word might be a dis-service to all the niches and nuances of the resourcing industry. As a reference, allow me to provide the industry standard terminology that I have been working with for the past ten+ years.

Contractors = individuals that contract directly with the client or are contracted with a client through a third party ‘staffing’ firm. In the U.S. this is known as a 1099 resource, referring to the non-employee status whom receives no benefits and must pay their own income withholding tax. They are typically used for jobs or projects less than 12 months, but not always limited to this timeline. Most corporations define contractors under a ‘staff augmentation’ label meaning expanding the existing employee numbers or backfilling an FTE (Full time equivalent that is an employee) that is temporarily gone, or filling a role temporarily until a new FTE can be hired.

Staffing firms = typically provide one or two contractors to companies to perform short term work and are known as Temp Staffing companies. There are many firms like this in the U.S. that focus on industry sectors and skill niches.

Outsourcers = typically define companies that provide service or project based teams of resources to take over a function or process from the client. So BPO, such as customer service functions (think Call Centers), would be an example. The resources could be domestic to the client or not.

Offshoring = simply denotes an outsourcing firm or even a staffing firm that provides contractors from locations other than the corporations home soil. This term has been expanded from only India based resources to anywhere on the globe.

Recruiters and Employments agencies = typically work on commission paid by the corporation once a candidate is placed for a full time (FTE) role. Agencies who perform some consulting for their client or do in depth candidate assessments for their client are usually ‘retained’ and paid a fee for the services regardless of if, or how many, candidates are actually hired.

Here are some general terms/thoughts that we received:

• Business Process Globalization; It includes all sourcing options – outsourced or captive. It also includes all location options – near or offshore. So bye bye “BPO” welcome “BPG”
• “offsiteworkforce”: a work force working for you at offsite!
• “IT Global Sourcing”: This covers insourcing or staff augmentation – supplying resources on a customer’s site. You can insource an entire Help Desk or NOC at a customers location.
• Foreign Outsourcing and Domestic Outsourcing
• Distributive development
• What you referred to as “staffing” I would normally call “staff augmentation”. Staff augmentation is a model of outsourcing, which, for cost reasons, is usually delivered offshore or nearshore. In my view, “staff augmentation” refers to a model of outsourcing in which you are basically just providing staff, with an office and a basic level of management (discipline, payroll…), and the actual resource management is done by the client.
• Cheapsourcing
• Cloudsourcing
• Staffsourcing
• For me, the one risky assumption I hear is that outsourcing = offshoring. These people clearly don’t know their nearshoring from their rearshoring!
• Resourcing
• ‘Delegated foreign IT’ or ‘Your foreign IT department’
• How about building from words about bringing together like “joint” or “aggregate” or “gezamenlijk”.

Tim Kasse (http://www.linkedin.com/in/kasseinitiatives) gave us a clear definition of outsourcing:

“Outsourcing” involves transferring or sharing management control and/or decision-making of a business function to an outside supplier, which involves a degree of two-way information exchange, coordination and trust between the outsourcer and its client. Such a relationship between economic entities is qualitatively different from traditional relationships between buyer and seller of services. The economic entities involved in an “outsourcing” relationship dynamically integrate and share management control of the labor process rather than enter in contracting relationships where both entities remain separate in the coordination of the production of goods and services. Business segments typically outsourced include information technology, human resources, facilities and real estate management, and accounting. Many companies also outsource customer support and call center functions, manufacturing and engineering.

Unfortunately, in many books and papers, and contracts, the term “outsourcing” has taken on multiple meanings. If you ask someone to Xerox a document, you are, of course, asking them to make a copy even though Xerox is a brand name of a company that makes copiers. If you ask someone for a coke, it does not necessarily mean a Coca Cola but it could mean any dark colored sweet carbonated beverage.

Mikos Biro (http://hu.linkedin.com/in/miklosbiro) puts outsourcing and offshoring in a historical perspective:

I would like to contribute to the discussion with thoughts placing the issue in a historical perspective from the paper:

Biró, Miklós; Fehér, Péter (2005): Forces Affecting Offshore Software Development. In: I. Richardson et al (Eds.), Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Volume 3792/2005, Springer-Verlag, pp.187–201. (ISBN 3-540-30286-7). < http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/11586012_18 >

“Recent as it may seem, outsourcing is one of the oldest process reengineering activities of humanity, formerly called “specialization” or “division of labour”. The recent outburst of interest in this approach is due to the globally increasing share of services and intellectual content in products which opens new levels of outsourcing opportunities onshore, nearshore, and offshore depending on the factors discussed below.

It is the spread of Information Society Technologies which gave the most recent boost to offshoring whether through the establishment of offshore development centers fully controled by the mother company, or through offshore outsourcing to companies in the other country. In fact, in addition to being highly enabling, Internet services are themselves inherently outsourced offshore, since we definitely have to rely on services operated in other countries because of its fundamentally distributed nature.

Similarly to outsourcing, offshoring is also a new expression for an old business approach. Beyond technology, it is enabled by globalization whose history just goes back to the times of Chandragupta Maurya founder of the first Indian empire (321 B.C.) and Alexander the Great whose troops were the first to open the route from Europe to Asia called Silk Road later. The significance of globalization is clearly

Recognized by Adam Smith back in the 18th century[2]: “But if in any of those distant employments, which in ordinary cases are less advantageous to the country, the profit should happen to rise somewhat higher than what is sufficient to balance the natural preference which is given to nearer employments, this superiority of profit will draw stock from those nearer employments…”.”

Sharna Kahn (http://www.linkedin.com/in/sfkahn) puts offshoring into perspective relative to different labor market-services:

One word might be a dis-service to all the niches and nuances of the resourcing industry. As a reference, allow me to provide the industry standard terminology that I have been working with for the past ten+ years.

Contractors = individuals that contract directly with the client or are contracted with a client through a third party ‘staffing’ firm. In the U.S. this is known as a 1099 resource, referring to the non-employee status whom receives no benefits and must pay their own income withholding tax. They are typically used for jobs or projects less than 12 months, but not always limited to this timeline. Most corporations define contractors under a ‘staff augmentation’ label meaning expanding the existing employee numbers or backfilling an FTE (Full time equivalent that is an employee) that is temporarily gone, or filling a role temporarily until a new FTE can be hired.

Staffing firms = typically provide one or two contractors to companies to perform short term work and are known as Temp Staffing companies. There are many firms like this in the U.S. that focus on industry sectors and skill niches.

Outsourcers = typically define companies that provide service or project based teams of resources to take over a function or process from the client. So BPO, such as customer service functions (think Call Centers), would be an example. The resources could be domestic to the client or not.

Offshoring = simply denotes an outsourcing firm or even a staffing firm that provides contractors from locations other than the corporations home soil. This term has been expanded from only India based resources to anywhere on the globe.

Recruiters and Employments agencies = typically work on commission paid by the corporation once a candidate is placed for a full time (FTE) role. Agencies who perform some consulting for their client or do in depth candidate assessments for their client are usually ‘retained’ and paid a fee for the services regardless of if, or how many, candidates are actually hired.

Here are some general terms/thoughts that we received:

• Business Process Globalization; It includes all sourcing options – outsourced or captive. It also includes all location options – near or offshore. So bye bye “BPO” welcome “BPG”
• “offsiteworkforce”: a work force working for you at offsite!
• “IT Global Sourcing”: This covers insourcing or staff augmentation – supplying resources on a customer’s site. You can insource an entire Help Desk or NOC at a customers location.
• Foreign Outsourcing and Domestic Outsourcing
• Distributive development
• What you referred to as “staffing” I would normally call “staff augmentation”. Staff augmentation is a model of outsourcing, which, for cost reasons, is usually delivered offshore or nearshore. In my view, “staff augmentation” refers to a model of outsourcing in which you are basically just providing staff, with an office and a basic level of management (discipline, payroll…), and the actual resource management is done by the client.
• Cheapsourcing
• Cloudsourcing
• Staffsourcing
• For me, the one risky assumption I hear is that outsourcing = offshoring. These people clearly don’t know their nearshoring from their rearshoring!
• Resourcing
• ‘Delegated foreign IT’ or ‘Your foreign IT department’
• How about building from words about bringing together like “joint” or “aggregate” or “gezamenlijk”.