outsourcing

Situation where an organization passes the provision of a service, or other task previously undertaken in-house, to an external third party for them to perform on behalf of the original organization.

The US entrepreneur Ross Perot is credited, among others, with creating the modern outsourcing industry in the 1960s. Outsourcing arises from the realization that no organization can excel at everything. Activities that are not associated with the core competencies of a company are best left to specialist companies. An outsourcing agreement allows the provider company to supply a customer with services or processes that the company is currently sourcing in-house and this removes the need for that company to keep non-core skills and capacity.