Global Sourcing

	Global Sourcing Global sourcing is the practice of sourcing from the global market for goods and services across geopolitical boundaries. Global sourcing often aims to exploit global efficiencies in the delivery of a product or service. These efficiencies include low cost skilled labor, low cost raw material, extreme international competition, new technology and other economic factors like tax breaks and low trade tariffs. A large number of Information Technology projects and Services, including IS Applications and mobile phone apps and database services are outsourced globally to countries like India and Pakistan for more economical pricing. Common examples of globally sourced products or services include labor-intensive manufactured products produced using low-cost Chinese labor, call centers staffed with low-cost English speaking workers in the Philippines, India and Pakistan, and IT work performed by low-cost programmers in India and Pakistan and Eastern Europe. While these are examples of Low ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu]
picture info	Procurement Procurement is the method of discovering and agreeing to terms and purchasing goods, Service (economics), services, or other works from an external source, often with the use of a tendering or competitive bidding process. When a government agency buys goods or services through this practice, it is referred to as Government procurement, public procurement. Procurement as an organization, organizational process is intended to ensure that the buyer receives goods, services, or works at the best possible price when aspects such as quality, quantity, time, and location are compared. Corporations and public bodies often define processes intended to promote fair and open competition for their business while minimizing risks such as exposure to fraud and collusion. Almost all purchasing decisions include factors such as delivery and handling, marginal benefit, and fluctuations in the prices of goods. Organisations which have adopted a corporate social responsibility perspective are also ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu]
	Benchmarking Benchmarking is the practice of comparing business processes and performance metrics to industry bests and best practices from other companies. Dimensions typically measured are quality, time and cost. Benchmarking is used to measure performance using a specific indicator (cost per unit of measure, productivity per unit of measure, cycle time of x per unit of measure or defects per unit of measure) resulting in a metric of performance that is then compared to others. Also referred to as "best practice benchmarking" or "process benchmarking", this process is used in management in which organizations evaluate various aspects of their processes in relation to best-practice companies' processes, usually within a peer group defined for the purposes of comparison. This then allows organizations to develop plans on how to make improvements or adapt specific best practices, usually with the aim of increasing some aspect of performance. Benchmarking may be a one-off event, but is often ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu]
picture info	International Trade International trade is the exchange of capital, goods, and services across international borders or territories because there is a need or want of goods or services. (see: World economy) In most countries, such trade represents a significant share of gross domestic product (GDP). While international trade has existed throughout history (for example Uttarapatha, Silk Road, Amber Road, scramble for Africa, Atlantic slave trade, salt roads), its economic, social, and political importance has been on the rise in recent centuries. Carrying out trade at an international level is a complex process when compared to domestic trade. When trade takes place between two or more states factors like currency, government policies, economy, judicial system, laws, and markets influence trade. To ease and justify the process of trade between countries of different economic standing in the modern era, some international economic organizations were formed, such as the World Trade Organization ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu]
	Strategic Sourcing Strategic sourcing is the process of developing channels of supply at the lowest total cost, not just the lowest purchase price. It expands upon traditional organisational purchasing activities to embrace all activities within the procurement cycle, from specification to receipt, payment for goods and services to sourcing production lines where the labor market would increase firms' ROI. Strategic sourcing processes aim for continuous improvement and re-evaluation of the purchasing activities of an organisation. In the services industry, strategic sourcing refers to a service solution, sometimes called a strategic partnership, which is specifically customized to meet the client's individual needs. In a production environment, it is often considered one component of supply chain management. Modern supply chain management professionals have placed emphasis on defining the distinct differences between strategic sourcing and procurement. Procurement operations support tactical day-to- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu]
	Sourcing Advisory Sourcing advisory is the use of third-party (external entity) advice during the sourcing process. As such, it may refer to advice sought during outsourcing, offshoring or global sourcing. Sourcing advisors Given the strategic nature of the advisory and the prevalence of sourcing amongst global organizations, most management consulting firms today offer sourcing advisory services. In addition, there exist a host of specialized sourcing advisory firms that focus on providing sourcing advisory and research inputs to the industry. Sourcing advisors can also be independent freelance consultants. In recent years software tools to automate sourcing advisory emerged. Building on Software as a Service (SaaS), the trade mark "Sourcing Advisory as a Service" (SAaaS) is used in the market. Services The range of services provided by sourcing advisory firms include: * Helping buyers identify functions to be outsourced or offshored (sourcing opportunity areas, shoring strategy) * Helping buyers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu]
picture info	Outsourcing Outsourcing is an agreement in which one company hires another company to be responsible for a planned or existing activity which otherwise is or could be carried out internally, i.e. in-house, and sometimes involves transferring employees and assets from one firm to another. The term ''outsourcing'', which came from the phrase ''outside resourcing'', originated no later than 1981. The concept, which ''The Economist'' says has "made its presence felt since the time of the Second World War", often involves the contracting of a business process (e.g., payroll processing, claims processing), operational, and/or non-core functions, such as manufacturing, facility management, call center/call center support. The practice of handing over control of public services to private enterprises (privatization), even if conducted on a limited, short-term basis, may also be described as outsourcing. Outsourcing includes both foreign and domestic contracting, and sometimes includes offshoring ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu]
	Offshoring Offshoring is the relocation of a business process from one country to another—typically an operational process, such as manufacturing, or supporting processes, such as accounting. Usually this refers to a company business, although state governments may also employ offshoring. More recently, technical and administrative services have been offshored. Offshoring and outsourcing are not mutually inclusive: there can be one without the other. They can be intertwined (offshore outsourcing), and can be individually or jointly, partially or completely reversed, involving terms such as reshoring, inshoring, and insourcing. Offshoring is when the offshored work is done by means of an internal (captive) delivery model, sometimes referred to as ''in-house offshore.'' Imported services from subsidiaries or other closely related suppliers are included, whereas intermediate goods, such as partially completed cars or computers, may not be. Motivation Lower cost and increased corporate prof ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu]
	Offshoring Research Network The Offshoring Research Network is an international network of researchers and practitioners studying organizations in their transition to globalizing their business functions, processes and administrative services. The ORN conducts annual surveys tracking global sourcing strategies, drivers, concrete implementations and plans across all business functions and processes. The ORN is managed by Duke University, The Fuqua School of Business, Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER). Offshoring, according to the ORN, refers to the process of sourcing business functions or processes supporting home-based or global operations from a foreign country, either through wholly owned organizational units (captive offshoring/ shared services) or external service providers (offshore outsourcing). History and current objectives The ORN project was launched in 2004 by the Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) at Duke University, The Fuqua S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu]
	Offshore Software R&D In software engineering, offshore custom software development consists in offshoring the software development process in a country where production costs are lower, thus decreasing budget spending. Background Early days Since the 1960s and the early days of the Silicon Valley, technology pioneers developed offshoring centers in the state of Jalisco, Mexico. In 1996, General Electric offshored its IT for the first time when it opened its own center in India. Given the rapid growth of this sector, several companies have started to use offshore development in China, India and other countries with a lower cost per developer model. In the early 2000s, the leading countries in offshore custom software development were Russia, India, Ukraine and China. The time difference when working with India and China for the Western world allowed work to be done round the clock adding a competitive advantage. 2008 Recession During the Great Recession, offshore software development spending l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu]
picture info	Offshore Outsourcing Outsourcing is an agreement in which one company hires another company to be responsible for a planned or existing activity which otherwise is or could be carried out internally, i.e. in-house, and sometimes involves transferring employees and assets from one firm to another. The term ''outsourcing'', which came from the phrase ''outside resourcing'', originated no later than 1981. The concept, which ''The Economist'' says has "made its presence felt since the time of the Second World War", often involves the contracting of a business process (e.g., payroll processing, claims processing), operational, and/or non-core functions, such as manufacturing, facility management, call center/call center support. The practice of handing over control of public services to private enterprises (privatization), even if conducted on a limited, short-term basis, may also be described as outsourcing. Outsourcing includes both foreign and domestic contracting, and sometimes includes offshoring ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu]
picture info	Offshore Company The term "offshore company" or “offshore corporation” is used in at least two distinct and different ways. An offshore company may be a reference to: * a company, group or sometimes a division thereof, which engages in offshoring business processes. * International business companies (IBC) or other types of legal entities, which are incorporated under the laws of a jurisdiction, that prohibit local economic activities. The former use (companies formed in offshore jurisdictions) is probably the more common usage of the term. In isolated instances, the term can also be used in reference to companies with offshore oil and gas operations. Companies from offshore jurisdictions In relation to companies and similar entities which are incorporated in offshore jurisdictions, the use of both the words “offshore” and "company" can be varied in application. The extent to which a jurisdiction is regarded as offshore is often a question of perception and degree. Classic tax haven c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu]
picture info	Domestic Sourcing Domestic sourcing is the activity of contracting for goods or services that are delivered or manufactured within the buyer's home country borders. Domestic sourcing is becoming central to the discussion of "Buy American" or the protectionist debate that is being discussed at the highest levels of all major countries. This debate is becoming particularly acute with the unemployment rate in the US rising above 8% nationally and now impacting more white collar jobs or service industry jobs. Advantages of domestic sourcing Fast delivery Domestic sources are usually closer to the distributor or retailer than 'imported sources'. Sources like raw materials, services or products can be delivered in shorter periods of time compared to foreign sources. After sales, exchange or refunds of faulty products will benefit as well; as it is always easier to communicate with local business rather than international cooperations. Further, there is also quicker reaction to emergency situations or fas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu]