This is often beneficial to businesses, both for the financial advantages it has and because the expertise of the third party may improve the quality of the overall operation. Find more info at

The third party involved will generally control the management and daily organization of the task assigned to them. This is what differentiates outsourcing from simply purchasing the services or goods of an outside company.

Business sectors where this practice is common include IT, human resources, real estate and accountancy.

The benefits of outsourcing were first appreciated by a number of smaller, high tech companies that emerged in the nineteen nineties, who began contracting jobs out to specialist firms because the small size of their businesses meant they could not afford in house HR and customer service departments. The highly technical nature of the products also meant that these companies had to purchase the particular specialist skills that were needed.

However, the outsourcing of call center operations has been the subject of much criticism - as the call center staff could not tell customers they were not employed by the original company, yet they were often poorly trained and did not have the technical skill to handle all complaints.

Present day practice commonly involves data analysis services, since the Internet and growth in the use of computers have meant an increase in the amount of data that companies create - and the skilled task of extracting actual information from the data is easily delegated.

Outsourcing is often used in conjunction with the related term off-shoring. This refers to the outsourcing of services to companies overseas, particularly to countries where there are lower labor costs, which increases the profitability of this option.

Off-shoring is often condemned, as it is seen to take jobs away from workers in the home country and causes shortages of skilled labor in the host country.