Is It Time to Stop Using the Word ‘Outsourcing’?

IBA GroupMark Kobayashi-HillaryTechnology industry analyst HfS Research has launched a survey asking whether they should stop using the word ‘outsourcing’ in their coverage of the industry – and even whether the technology services industry should entirely stop using the word. Is it a dirty, tainted word?Most involved in technology outsourcing have moved on from the old days of labour arbitrage or augmentation. Service providers like IBA don’t just pitch themselves as the cheapest offshore service providers; they position themselves as the experts in whatever they do. They promote specific areas of business and expertise.The buy-side clients commissioning work (or outsourcing the work) from the service providers know that they are buying in expert services, usually services they could not perform in-house. They don’t want the cheapest provider – they want the best for their business.But the political rhetoric has barely changed. As the US presidential election approaches, outsourcing is still considered a dirty word for politicians and a way to score a few cheap votes by patriotically insisting that they would ban it forever. But we all know that US politicians say this at every election.These same politicians probably calculate their budgets using Microsoft Excel and broadcast information using Cisco services. They fail to see that any large technology company is already working with global resource and any company starting today with a need for some technology development will consider hiring suppliers from all over the world.It’s not that outsourcing is about shipping work off to cheap economies; it is that the Internet has created a global marketplace. If the marketplace is global then that can create both problems and opportunities back at home, but how come the politicians rarely focus on the opportunity of small niche companies being able to reach a bigger market?So do you agree with HfS? Is it time the industry stopped using the term outsourcing and if so, what would be better word to replace it?