Outsourcing

Outsourcing is when a company contracts out work to another firm.

eg. The School can and probably in the past has created a Yearbook. But normally it is contracted out to a Printer.

Indeed even the School Modernisation could have been done by the Council, but it was contracted out to a Construction company.

So why?

The good things for the company are:

• the work will be done professionally and of high quality.


• They can focus on their own, main business.


• They can buy in the contractor on a job by job (or project by project) basis (saving labour costs)


• They do not have to buy specialist equipment (as the contractor will provide the equipment)


• The firm may not have the staff or indeed the equipment to actually perform the job

Bad things are:

• it can be very expensive


• you have less control over the job (there may be delays which you can't influence)


• information may be accessed by the contractor that is confidential


• the firm may layoff workers who were doing the job in order to bring in the contractor