Outsourcing Freelancers

Outsourcing Services that Most Freelancers Offers

noreply@blogger.com (Freelance Linkbuilder/Virtual Assistant) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:20:00 +0000

Quick List of Web Services:

• Link Building

• Virtual Assistant

• Content Writer

• Web Designer

• Site Admin

• Webmaster

• Programming Support

• Web Developer

Descriptions:

Link Builders

Link building is a small part of Search Engine Optimization. However, link building is considered a core activity in making any SEO campaign successful. Unfortunately link building takes time before an agent can produce excellent results. Quick and easy methods may bring in multiple links, but at Agents of Value we believe that building naturally embedded backlinks through organic methods is the best practice. Though organic SEO is time-consuming any client we build links for is assured that the backlinks we generate are long-term and may become permanent.

Some link building tasks may require quotas for both agents and clients to track and manage the link building campaign. Other tasks sometimes require a lot of time and effort in analyzing sites and pages that will benefit our clients’ sites for link backs. These tasks, although repetitive, often require analytical quick-thinking skills.

As an innovative and creative entrepreneur, you may be competent in accomplishing any link building task. However, doing it yourself may not be the best way to leverage the resources you have. First of all, time as a resource is very important. Time with your family might be more important to you than time spent at work. Time to enjoy life may be more advantageous at this time rather than keeping your self isolated in front of your desk. So what’s the best way to leverage your resources and enjoy the time you have? Outsource!

Outsourcing a link builder to do multiple link building tasks such as URL submissions and article submissions will lighten the workload and bring in better chances of achieving your end goal of increasing sales.

Link Builder Skills:

1. Beginner HTML

2. Intermediate Writing Skills

3. Multitasking

4. Time Management

Link Builder Tasks:

1. URL Submission

2. Article Submission

3. Forum Posting

4. Blogging and Blog Commenting

5. Keyword Research, Keyword Analysis and Keyword Optimization

6. Basic Data Entry

7. Social Bookmarking and Social Media Marketing

Virtual Assistant

Virtual Assistants are the most sought after employees in the web today. Their value lies in the wide range of skills and abilities they possess from the technical to the creative. Although they might not need to edit a site’s source code, they are still expected to perform basic on-site SEO optimization. They also provide vital website help through emails, chats or live calls on-site with customers and site visitors. Because of that, Virtual Assistants must be intelligent, dynamic and quick learners.

Virtual Assistant Skills:

1. Advanced Written and Oral English

2. Advanced Typing Speed

3. Beginner HTML

4. Excellent Public Relations

Virtual Assistant Tasks:

1. Link Building Tasks

2. Client Support (Email / Call / Live Chat )

3. Transcribing

4. Internet Research

5. Writing Business Communications and Reports

6. Project management / Team leading

7. Basic Secretarial Work

Content Writer

Permanency and relevancy are two of the most important search engine ranking factors as well as high traffic and freshness of data. To maintain updates in your site you need to supply fresh information regularly. However, not everyone has the time to sit down and write new content each day. To help online businesses in their marketing endeavors, online writers, bloggers and copywriters are hired to create engaging and useful reading materials for visitors.

The best writers can write articles and sales pages that catch any reader’s imagination which moves them to action either to buy or sign up for more information. Building an email list is an effective prelude to generating sales. People who sign up for newsletters are highly interested in more info about your site’s product or service. These are the best possible leads you got.

Aside from that fresh valuable content has always been as the “King” in search engine optimization. To rank high in search results and drive more traffic to your site, always keep articles, blog posts, news, and other site content updated by a resident content manager at your site. This person must be an excellent writer and knows how to optimize content for SEO.

Content Writer Skills:

1. Advanced English Writing Skills

2. Beginner HTML

3. Intermediate Typing Speed

Content Writer Tasks:

1. Can Do Basic Link Building

2. Writing and Rewriting Articles / Web Content Optimization

3. Product and Website Reviews

Web Designer

Together with the Site Admin and Webmaster, the Web Designer works as one of the caretakers of a website. However, the Web Designer’s job is to maintain how a website looks to the user and make sure it appears as it should be across the most popular browsers.

With the wide use of CSS styling to design a site, web designing became an easier job to accomplish but harder to manage altogether. This is why it is better to outsource one’s website design projects to ease site design management headaches, and open up new design styles not often seen in mainstream media. Website design, after all, is an art, and Art thrives well when it comes from a diversity of origins.

Web / Graphics Designer Skills:

1. Intermediate Skills in Using XHTML in Web Design

2. Intermediate Skills in Using CSS in Web Design

3. Advanced Knowledge in Web Design

Web / Graphics Designer Tasks:

1. Site Administrators’ Tasks

2. GIF Animation

3. Photo Enhancing

4. Graphics Designing

5. Modification and customization of website design

Site Admin

The Site Admin (as it is commonly referred to) manages a website’s popularity and growth. Unlike the webmaster which takes care of the site’s functions and database, the site admin makes sure the site works as it should be when used or navigated through by visitors. Links are checked and site processes such as signing up for membership is queued for Quality Assurance. Simply put: site admins work as assistants to Webmasters.

Site Admin Skills:

1. Intermediate HTML

2. Beginner CSS Styling

3. Beginner Writing Skills

4. Beginner Graphics Design

Site Admin Tasks:

1. Can Do Basic Link Building

2. Maintaining and modifying Websites/CMS

3. Managing Adwords / Adsense Accounts

4. Reciprocal Linking and Three-way Linking / Banner Ads Management

5. Basic Image Cropping and Enhancing

Webmaster

Websites take time to grow and flourish that is why they need people who have the technical expertise and the know-how to maintain a site’s popularity. To run a website it needs a team, and included in this team is the Webmaster. The Webmaster takes care of the site’s database, its content management system and its server setup. They also make sure the site’s domain is duly registered and protected from domain flippers and schemers.

A webmaster must have an extensive range of technical and creative skills to maintain a site efficiently. The following are just the main tasks and skills a webmaster is required to develop.

Webmaster Skills:

1. Advanced HTML

2. Advanced CSS Styling

3. Intermediate Graphics Design

Webmaster Tasks:

1. Site Administrator’s Tasks

2. Setup Servers

3. Domain Registry and Setup

4. Create and Customize Website using CMS

Programming Support

The first in the hierarchy is the PHP Programming Support, which was created as a lower-level skill position nearest to a Web Developer. The PHP Programming Support does what the Web Developer does but has less authority to do so. He works in a team with Web Developers and functions like an apprentice to a guild master in learning the craft of web programming.

PHP Programming Support Skills:

1. Beginner PHP Programming

2. Intermediate HTML

3. Intermediate CSS Styling

4. Beginner MySQL

5. Beginner Javascript

6. Beginner Graphics Design

PHP Programming Support Tasks:

1. Site Administrator’s Tasks

2. Create Dynamic Websites

Web Developer

The First-Level Web Developer is a more experienced and better skilled programmer who takes on more complicated tasks than a PHP Programming Support does. Web Developer I programmers serve as mentors to PHP Programming Support, like the Juniors leading the Freshmen through the intricacies of Teendom.

First-Level Web Developer Skills:

1. Intermediate PHP Programming

2. Intermediate MySQL

3. Intermediate HTML

4. Intermediate CSS Styling

5. Intermediate Javascript

6. Beginner Graphics Design

First-Level Web Developer Tasks:

1. Tasks of Webmasters

2. Create and Maintain Static, Dynamic and/or Data-Driven Sites

The Second-Level Web Developer is a highly experienced and skilled programmer who takes bigger and more data driven tasks than a Web Developer II does. If a project needs the big guns, then they are the persons to call on.

Second-Level Web Developer Skills:

1. Advanced PHP Programming

2. Advanced MySQL

3. Intermediate HTML

4. Intermediate CSS Styling

5. Intermediate Javascript

6. Beginner Graphics Design

Second-Level Web Developer Tasks:

1. Tasks of a First-Level Web Developer

2. Create and Maintain Static, Dynamic and/or Data-Driven Sites

Philippines named 2nd top BPO destination in Asia-Pacific

noreply@blogger.com (Freelance Linkbuilder/Virtual Assistant) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:51:00 +0000

      The City of Manila has been named the second top Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) destination in the Asia-Pacific region by the International Data Corporation (IDC), just three months after the Philippines was named as the ‘Offshoring Destination of the Year‘ by the United Kingdom’s National Outsourcing Association last October.

       In the IDC list, Manila was ranked no. 2, second only to Bangalore, India.

       Three other Philippine cities have been included by the London Financial Times in the survey of ‘Top Ten Asian Cities of the Future‘, thus validating the country’s position as a major player in the global offshoring and outsourcing (O&O) market.

       Quezon City ranked 7th, Cebu 8th and Davao 10th in the survey commissioned by the London Times, comparable with cities like Hongkong, Singapore and Taipei which were the top three.

       President Gloria-Macapagal-Arroyo announced that her administration has targeted a 40% growth rate in the country’s O&O sector for this year and 40% growth target in the workforce “in order to cope with the industry demands”.

       “These distinctions from the O&O sector and global ICT firms provide our investor friends, who have come to E-services Philippines, with objective third party assessments of our O&O capabilities,” the President stressed.

       According to the President, the runaway growth of the O&O industry has echoed throughout the entire system, spawning impressive growth on other sectors like real estate, telecommunications, food and retail among others.

Philippines is Top Choice Among US Companies for Finance and BPO services

noreply@blogger.com (Freelance Linkbuilder/Virtual Assistant) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:49:00 +0000

      Consul General Cecilia Rebong of the Philippine Consulate General in New York, USA reported to the Department of Foreign Affairs that a capital markets analyst has said that the Philippines is the top choice among a growing number of major U.S. companies for finance, technology, telecommunications and consumer products, and accounting business process outsourcing (BPO) services.

      Consul General Rebong said this was essentially the message of Ms. Cynthia Houlton, Senior Analyst of RBC Capital Markets, in speaking on “Global Sourcing and Finance and Accounting Business Process Outsourcing Services” during a well-attended business networking reception organized by the Business Process Outsourcing Council, the Philippine Consulate General, and the Philippine Trade Office in New York on 23 May 2007.Welcoming the guests who were mostly CEOs, presidents, and managers of major American financial, banking, and investment companies based in New York, Consul General Rebong said, “The reception is only our second offering since the creation of the Business Process Outsourcing Council one month ago, and the goal remains to be to facilitate dialogue, information, and greater understanding of the Philippines Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector among potential global partners.”

       The Philippines was selected because of the country’s advantages over alternative Asian sites: Labor costs equivalent to China; lower and more stable than India; prevalence of spoken American English; cultural and social affinity with the US; modern and stable infrastructure such as water, power, roads, telecommunications; large pool of qualified college graduates seeking white-collar employment; access to specialized skills aligned with US professional standards; government support and tax breaks for the industry; and more familiar environment for expatriate trainers and managers than other Asian alternatives.

      “The ‘advantages’ clearly show that the Philippines’ attractiveness as a BPO destination is no longer limited to cost-reduction but also to being able to provide global partners with a human resource possessing the right skill sets and competencies supported by a sophisticated telecommunications infrastructure,” Consul General Rebong observed.

Philippine President Targets 40% BPO Growth

noreply@blogger.com (Freelance Linkbuilder/Virtual Assistant) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:48:00 +0000

Philippine president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is looking for a 40% growth in the country’s Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry for 2008.

Speaking at the e-Services Global Sourcing Conference and Exhibition, Arroyo said while the Philippines currently employ 300,000 people in the BPO and contact center industry, she wants these increased by at least 40% to meet the growing demand worldwide. She said the Philippines at present is only second to India in terms of supplying the workforce in the BPO industry, but it has already been recognized as the “premiere global destination for these types of IT enabled services”.

“We are proud of what we had achieved but we are anxious to solidify our gains. We’re anxious not to be complacent in the face of rapid change,” Arroyo said. “For 2008, we have targeted to grow our O & O (offshore and outsourcing) workforce by 40% in order to cope with the industry demands and also to achieve a 40% growth rate in the O & O sector.”

Why Outsource in the Philippines?

noreply@blogger.com (Freelance Linkbuilder/Virtual Assistant) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:47:00 +0000

What makes the Philippine call center outsourcing service better than the rest? A question that is often asked by foreign companies, who would want to outsource there business in the Philippines.

According to facts, the Philippines being a past American colony, its education system is a blue print after an American education system that embraces American-style diction and pronunciation of the English language. This gives Filipino’s a neutral American accent. An assurance of a better understanding with most American clients is also an advantage being. Aside from the fact that Filipinos are good at speaking English, most of them are college graduates, too.

In the current global business outsourcing market, the Philippines is considered to be the most dominant rival of India. All because India is a former British colony, Indians are educated in British-style English that is compounded by the heavy Indian accent, resulting in a language barrier. Because of this accent and twang edge, Filipinos are understood to be the best outsourcing location outside the United States, for US based businesses.

To prove this overall standpoint, there was research performed that shows that Filipino outsourcing employees tend to work harder, with skill and will factors that is held to exceed expectations and be dedicated in what they do. Without a doubt, the Philippines is the fastest growing country in terms of expansion in the outsourcing industry, with another 20% expected in 2009.

And did you know that in 2005, the Philippines ranked 3rd in the world for top business process outsourcing destinations? Now that’s something to think about! With all being said, surely, people who are in doubt are now able to answer the question that has been on their minds…

Why outsource to the Philippines? Why not?!

Outsourcing to Philippines

noreply@blogger.com (Freelance Linkbuilder/Virtual Assistant) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:40:00 +0000

Over the past few years, the Philippines has established itself as one of the top countries in the global outsourcing industry. The industry has grown rapidly because it has the ingredients critical to outsourcing service providers and customers. These include large-scale people resources, with close to half-a-million English-speaking students graduating from college yearly, a well-deserved reputation for excellence in communication skills, interpersonal warmth, customer-service orientation, problem-solving abilities, and cultural affinity with Western markets and customs, and an operational cost advantage, with costs competitive with any supplier country in the world.

Specific Advantages of Outsourcing

noreply@blogger.com (Freelance Linkbuilder/Virtual Assistant) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:28:00 +0000

Outsourcing has become a very popular alternative for a number of very valid reasons. Outsourcing initially emerged as a way for companies to cut costs by having processes such as manufacturing and assembly done in overseas locations where costs were much lower. Lower wages and operating costs both contributed to these reduced costs.

These lower costs were appealing because they greatly improved the profit margins for the companies. However, outsourcing is now gaining in popularity for a variety of other reasons. While cost reduction is still a primary advantage, other elements such as access to industry experts, a larger workforce and more flexible options are being embraced as welcomed advantages offered by outsourcing.

Cost Reductions from Outsourcing
      As previously mentioned reducing costs was the original purpose of outsourcing and although outsourcing has since been demonstrated to have other significant advantages, cost reduction still remains one of the prime advantages.

      Companies look to outsource tasks which would be more costly to complete in-house. An example of this type of task would be a software related task requiring specialized training. Companies who do not have an on staff employee qualified to complete this task can benefit financially by outsourcing this task.

      There may be significant fees required to retain the services of an industry expert on a contractual basis but the efficiency of this individual will enable him to complete the task much more quickly than it could have been done in-house. If the task were not outsourced an in-house employee would have had to complete the task and may have taken significantly longer costing the company more in the long run.

On Call Experts
In the previous section we discussed how having industry experts available to complete outsourced tasks can result in a cost savings for the company but having these experts on call also provides the potential for new opportunities for the company. With experts waiting in the wings to assist, the company is able to go after larger and more specialized types of work. This is important because in doing this the company can find themselves enjoying greater prosperity.

A Larger Workforce
Still another advantage to outsourcing is the benefit of enjoying a larger workforce when necessary without the hassle of maintaining a larger staff. Through outsourcing companies can bring in additional employees on a contract basis during times of prosperity without worrying about having to lay them off or keep them utilized when the surge of work begins to wane. This is particularly relevant in industries which enjoy peak seasons as well as off seasons.

Another advantage of having a larger workforce is the ability to generate a larger profit. This is important because smaller companies can find themselves in a position where they can compete with larger companies for bigger jobs by outsourcing a portion of the workload.

More Flexibility
Finally, more flexibility is another considerable advantage to outsourcing work. Even the most well planned projects may suddenly end up behind schedule or under a time crunch due to minor errors, changes in plans or other incidental activities.

Smaller companies who do not have the resources to compensate for these inevitable mishaps may find themselves in serious trouble without the ability to outsource work when necessary. These companies can take advantage of outsourcing in times of trouble to help them deal with problems without alienating clients or performing poorly on a project.

Advantages of Outsourcing

noreply@blogger.com (Freelance Linkbuilder/Virtual Assistant) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:23:00 +0000

To a layman, outsourcing would seem like a waste of time and money, as well as an unneeded complication. After all, why send business abroad when the work can probably be done better right at home? To a politician, the issue of outsourcing serves as a fortified objection to taking jobs away from ‘our own countrymen’. Sympathy towards this issue may elicit a few votes, but nothing more.

But to a businessman, outsourcing is a modern day boon. Outsourcing grants businesses the freedom to dump non – core, yet important sectors of its administration on companies specializing in those very individual aspects. Thus, leaving the businessman free to wholly concentrate on those areas of the company that bring in the real moolah.

The most enticing advantage of outsourcing is the cost effective factor. Human resource and IT services in the United States or Europe are not exactly inexpensive. Let’s avoid complicated business jargon and say that outsourcing is basically an option that offers these services at a much, much lower rate i.e., a cheap but highly productive mass work force. Let us take India as an exemplary illustration.

Thousands of highly intelligent people graduate in a variety of fields each year. Almost all of them speak English better than the English, and have dreams of making big money in a short period of time. The boom of BPO’s in the last 10 years has given them a chance to realize those dreams. It provides them with the opportunity to stay close to home and earn almost as much as they would if they took up a job abroad. On an average, an individual would earn $ 300 to $ 500 per month. A small sum to an American, but an Indian would be quite happy with that salary considering the conversion rate. It’s a win – win situation for your business as well as the company you’re outsourcing to.

There is no dearth of candidates willing to suffer incessant night shifts. Due to a constant effort of having to prove themselves, you can be assured of enhanced quality and productivity at all times. The company you outsource to will always be sure to reach your targets, deliver on time, ensure stringent security and maintain a level of productivity which won’t tempt you into taking your business elsewhere. Employees are regularly evaluated and terminated if found wanting in any aspect. The entire process of recruitment and the hassles involved with finding (and sustaining) the right person for the job is taken off your shoulders.

By 2006, in addition to human resources and IT services, companies that take on offshore contracts will also offer tax preparation and back office services. Hundreds of commerce students graduate in India each year and go on to become chartered accountants in a country where there is no dearth of them. Offering these services to countries abroad would be lucrative for both parties. The most advanced security procedures will be employed in this regard.

It all comes down to the money. Let’s face it; we live in a material world. And the technical term for material is moolah. So until the day the cons of outsourcing outweigh the monetary factors (read pros), outsourcing; as a legitimate and lucrative way to do business, is here to stay.

SEO Tips to Help Position Your Website High in Search Engines

noreply@blogger.com (Freelance Linkbuilder/Virtual Assistant) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:18:00 +0000

SEO optimization can be tricky business. Just when you think you have it all right, Google changes it all up again. In an effort to display the most relevant websites to a user's search, they are constantly changing their algorithms. Even the SEO guru's have a hard time keeping up and keeping their sites positioned high. However, there are some tips you can follow to help with this process.

      The first thing you need to do is make sure you are including a few keywords in your title tag. You only want to include a few, too much is not good. Provide a different title for each page of your website. You will also want to fill out your meta tags which include your keywords and your description. Although it is debatable whether or not search engines use the description tag to determine how to place you, it's still wise to use it as this will display in the search engines and will be what people see.

      Heading tags are important as they help search engines and users to find out what your site is all about. You should include your title which will be the (H1) tag and your sub headings (H2 and H3). If you have images (and it is wise that you include them in your website), make sure you add alt tags to them.

      Content is the most important thing for your website when trying to utilize SEO optimization. It has to be relevant to what your website is all about and it has to include your keywords. When adding keywords, you only want to add the most relevant and do not add too many or this will be considered a type of spamming and you will likely be banned from the search engines all together. Just write content that is useful and informative to your readers and sprinkle a few highly relevant keywords in. To make it simple, your content has to make sense.

      Another important step that effects your SEO ranking is the amount of links that are pointing to your site. These links are called inbound links and when other websites include a link to your site on their pages without you having to link back. You can obtain these types of links through article directories, blog comments, forum posts and other ways. The more links you have, the better. Before you decide to go out and gain as many links as possible, you need to understand that in order for these links to help your website out, they need to be relevant to your content and preferably a high page rank. Social media is another way to gain some links. Places like Twitter, Facebook and MySpace are good. Other things to consider would be the use of a sitemap to help your users navigate through your website and help search engines index it.

      Following these SEO tips above will help to get you placed higher up in the search engines, however, you need to understand that it will take lots of testing and consistent action to keep you there.

Why Outsource SEO Specialist?

noreply@blogger.com (Freelance Linkbuilder/Virtual Assistant) — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 17:36:00 +0000

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is defined as the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines thru search results for targeted keywords. It can also be stated as a highly specialized process of building a successful website. We could say successful because the earlier a site is presented in the search results or the higher it “ranks”, the more searchers will visit the particular site, thus if a commercial website cannot be found in the major search engines, it is not successful or it just isn't doing it's job. SEO can also target different kinds of search and industry-specific search engines.

Professional SEO specialists' on-going struggle is the priority of placement and keep top rankings daily. As part of its' marketing strategy for increasing a site's relevance, SEOs' consider how search algorithms work and what people search for. Its' efforts may also involve a site's coding, presentation and structure as well as fixing problems that could prevent search engine indexing programs from fully spidering a site. Other more noticeable efforts may include adding unique content to a site, ensures that content is easily indexed by search engine robots and making the site more appealing to users. SEO field, as a whole, needs to keep up the ever-changing technology and also has to be familiar with other web site marketing techniques such as banned ads, pay-per-click programs and even some offline advertising options.

SEO Specialist carry-out optimization projects on behalf of clients, and by employees who perform SEO services in-house. Search engine optimizers/specialists may offer SEO as a stand-alone service or as a part of a broader marketing campaign. However, this does not solve the purpose, as there are many more things that need to be done and an outsourcing SEO firm is one firm that manages to provide all the required help. Although the main objective of outsourcing is often cost reduction, still SEO professionals and specialists alike are closely accustomed to acquiring top-level search engine results for all their clients is the reason why companies prefer SEO outsourcing.

Outsourcing SEO is full of professionals who know all the the ins and outs of a having an online presence and using the internet as a medium of advertising. Today, one can see number of sites that talk about their services, their products, in short talk about the business. However, the important thing is that even though the medium can be used as an advertising tool, one needs to use it in a proper manner. Taking the help of outsourcing SEO helps to get the services right and helps one to use the medium of internet in the right manner. The service is indeed a useful help for any business owner who wants to use this medium to the fullest extent.

Outsourcing SEO helps a business in understanding the strategies that need to be implemented to use this medium in the right manner and to get a lead using this medium. Today, people find it really difficult to survive without using the medium. This is something that each business owner knows and therefore, they use the medium to make people aware of their products and services. Given to the competition that each business is facing today, it is important to upgrade their strategies. This would help them to stay in the competition and at the same time, get a lead in the market.

What is Outsourcing?

noreply@blogger.com (Freelance Linkbuilder/Virtual Assistant) — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 15:39:00 +0000

A few years back no one seems to know about outsourcing. But as technology has been developed, outsourcing seems to be the best way to many people who relies on the current technology for living. Though we can't deny that there are still few people who don't know what is outsourcing.

Well, Outsourcing is contracting another company or person to do a particular function. Almost every organization do outsource in some ways. Typically, the function being outsourced is considered non-core to the business. An insurance company, for example, might outsource its janitorial and landscaping operations to firms that specialize in those types of work since they are not related to insurance or strategic to the business. The outside firms that are providing the outsourcing services are third-party providers, or as they are more commonly called, service providers.

Although outsourcing has been around as long as work specialization has existed, in recent history, companies began employing the outsourcing model to carry out narrow functions, such as payroll, billing and data entry. Those processes could be done more efficiently, and therefore more cost-effectively, by other companies with specialized tools and facilities and specially trained personnel.

Currently, outsourcing takes many forms. Organizations still hire service providers to handle distinct business processes, such as benefits management. But some organizations outsource whole operations. The most common forms are information technology outsourcing (ITO) and business process outsourcing (BPO).

Business process outsourcing encompasses call center outsourcing, human resources outsourcing (HRO), finance and accounting outsourcing, and claims processing outsourcing. These outsourcing deals involve multi-year contracts that can run into hundreds of millions of dollars. Frequently, the people performing the work internally for the client firm are transferred and become employees for the service provider. Dominant outsourcing service providers in the information technology outsourcing and business process outsourcing fields include IBM, EDS, CSC, HP, ACS, Accenture and Capgemini.

Some nimble companies that are short on time and money, such as start-up software publishers, apply multisourcing -- using both internal and service provider staff -- in order to speed up the time to launch. They hire a multitude of outsourcing service providers to handle almost all aspects of a new project, from product design, to software coding, to testing, to localization, and even to marketing and sales.

The process of outsourcing generally encompasses four stages:

strategic thinking, to develop the organization's philosophy about the role of outsourcing in its activities;
evaluation and selection, to decide on the appropriate outsourcing projects and potential locations for the work to be done and service providers to do it;
contract development, to work out the legal, pricing and service level agreement terms; and
outsourcing management or governance, to refine the ongoing working relationship between the client and outsourcing service providers.

In all cases, outsourcing success depends on three factors: executive-level support in the client organization for the outsourcing mission; ample communication to affected employees; and the client's ability to manage its service providers. The outsourcing professionals in charge of the work on both the client and provider sides need a combination of skills in such areas as negotiation, communication, project management, the ability to understand the terms and conditions of the contracts and service level agreements, and, above all, the willingness to be flexible as business needs change.

The challenges of outsourcing become especially acute when the work is being done in a different country (offshoring), since that involves language, cultural and time zone differences. But recently, offshoring is already one of the most common method used by many business / internet marketers despite the differences to be considered.