Essentials: Seven Tips from the Sourcerers

Companies hungry for the cost savings promised by outsourcing are driving a global scramble. Contenders come and go, jockey for position, and define themselves over and over again, all the time vying for your business. Already the shape of global outsourcing is morphing drastically - Indian companies, for example, are now outsourcing some of their labor to China, where costs are cheaper.

Offshore labor arbitrage is creating a fundamental shift in the outsourcing market. Clients are now eliminating the middle vendor and managing offshore labor themselves, forcing offshore providers to reinvent themselves in order to remain competitive. “It’s huge,” Mr. Trowbridge says. “It’s creating an underlying riptide in the outsourcing market that is pulling everything to lower-priced deals. More