When I use the word outsourcing, I am thinking of a mystical character named Rajiv who kisses his sari-clad wife goodbye, mounts his elephant, and makes his way down the crowded streets of Agra with his briefcase in one hand and his mobile phone in the other. Of course in real life, people in India only ride elephants for festivals since the cost of buying 600 bananas every time breakfast rolls around isn’t getting any cheaper. But, it is a nice caricature of Indians, having them ride exotic creatures.
But, outsourcing only means giving work to another company or freelancer to do. If the work is not done by an in-house staff member, that would constitute outsourcing.
Offshoring is another concept altogether. Offshoring is when you take your work and send it to some other country far far away. But, offshoring might not be outsourcing. If you had your own branch office in Nepal and hired your own people, it would be offshoring, but not outsourcing. If you are in Arkansas and hired a company next door to do your data entry, it would be outsourcing, but not offshoring.
Then, there is Nearshoring where you take your job and give it to somebody in another state or country that is not that far away. If an American companies hires someone in Mexico that would be nearshoring.
Then, there is Backshoring when you bring your overseas jobs back to the good ‘ole United States.
Then there is Non-shoring where you have your work done by the Outsourcing boat! Just have Isaac mix me another mojito!
All of these terms delight me, but what would be a good term for having someone on another planet do your work? What if your medium consults the spirits on the planet Gorkon for some deeply philosophical spiritual matter? Off-Planeting or Off-Terra-Firma-oring? Maybe Off-Terrestrializing.
Call earth for only 3 cents per minute!
You might also like:
Outsourcing: Why everyone is doing it. One bizarre example
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2014/03/25/outsourcing-why-everyone-is-doing-it-one-bizarre-example/
Don’t expect to get paid more due to your GPS coordinates
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2014/03/19/dont-expect-to-get-paid-more-due-to-your-gps-coordinates/