INSOURCING OR OUTSOURCING: WHICH IS RIGHT FOR YOUR OPERATION? There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question; here’s what to ask yourself when weighing the options By Thom Roylance Growing up in southern California in a small, middle-class home, my parents taught me at a young age that certain words were inappropriate. After an unexploded firecracker (one of several that I had been playing with in the fireplace days earlier) suddenly went off during our Sunday night viewing of the latest Bonanza episode, I learned what a few of those words were! “What’s one of the dirtiest words in business? Chances are that the word “outsourcing” comes to mind. Some despise it, many business owners shy away from it and countless entrepreneurs depend on it.” That quote from YFS Magazine reminds me of an old Dennis the Menace comic strip: 22
JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2018 | MailingSystemsTechnology.com
“If I have to sit in the corner for sayin’ it, at least you could tell me what it means!” I’m here to let you know the good, the bad, and, perhaps, the ugly, of outsourcing. Regardless of how one feels about outsourcing, it’s not always a bad thing. And let’s not forget its opposite: insourcing, which has its own set of perks as well. Outsourcing is defined as “to procure (something, such as some goods or services needed by a business or organization) from outside sources and especially from foreign or nonunion suppliers [or] to contract for work, jobs, etc., to be done by outside or foreign workers.” Common synonyms include “contract out,” “farm out,” “subcontract,” and “delegate.”
On the flip side, insourcing is defined as the practice of using an organization’s own personnel or other resources to accomplish a task or provide a service. It can also be defined as delegating a job to someone within a company. In the simplest of terms: You do the work! Before diving into the ins and outs of sourcing your work, let’s look at the typical services found in many, if not most, mail service operations. INBOUND Most companies handle their inbound mail delivery. This can include internal delivery of large and small envelopes, magazines, and packages, as well as inter-office mail.