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In today's technology-saturated marketplace, the number of outsourcing opportunities and incentives has surged. Indeed, in a recent survey by Accenture of more than 800 executives in the United States and Europe, 86 percent of respondents said outsourcing gave them more control over business results in a variety of critical areas. Most important among those areas, they said, was the ability to plan. And while the executives-as might be expected-included cost-cutting on that list, they also reported gaining equal levels of control over reliability, cost variability, and effective implementation of ideas. A full 55 percent of respondents, moreover, said outsourcing allowed their companies to implement new strategies and business process changes at a faster but more controlled rate than was possible before.
According to outsourcing experts Armstrong & Associates, 78 percent of North American companies, 79 percent of Western European companies, and 58 percent of Asia Pacific companies now use third-party logistics services. So far, those activities have mostly been focused on warehousing, outbound and inbound transportation, and customs brokerage. But that's about to change-quickly and dramatically-as a handful of equally critical supply chain functions become outsourcing candidates. This new frontier in outsourcing includes:
Procurement-The number of companies that outsource their procurement operations is projected to grow by more than...