Want something done cheap? You outsource it.
Want something done well? You hire a top-tier consultancy or agency.
With outsourcing, your primary risk is likely quality. With consultancies and agencies, your primary concern is likely cost.
But what if there were a better model?
There is: we call it Upsourcing, a “new” service model for today’s economy.
The basic philosophy is to assemble highly experienced, hands-on, independent experts to solve a specific challenge. A Special Ops team if you will.
It’s not crowdsourcing, it’s a team that knows each other, has worked together, is efficient, accountable to the mission (and each other) – and those are the keys to success.
Until now, a client needing (and being accountable for) high-quality, bottom-line results has had really only one option: Hire a traditionally structured agency or consultancy to get access to the exactly the right people for their immediate initiative. Not any more.
Upsourcing (n.) – the cost-efficient deployment of executive level, hands-on external resources in lean, custom teams designed specifically to deliver the highest value outcome for critical business needs.
Growth and acquisitions in the professional service economy has meant that many agencies and consultancies are now oversized relative to the lean, high-octane, often-smaller companies driving today’s economy. As a result, these professional service providers are facing a challenge in deploying right-sized teams for their clients’ needs – a challenge that their clients end up paying for.
Consequently, concerns about paying for the overhead of these firms created an opportunity for outsourcing companies. As a result, the nature of their business is changing: from a focus on low-cost replication of on-going operational services (things like call centers) to project-based leadership against specific business needs (resulting at least initially, in a much more competitive market for services like technical consulting). On the face of it, these lower cost alternatives should provide clients with more options, but as many of these firms lack a track record or the ability to provide clients transparency into their teams and process, they still aren’t an option for many clients.
Enter Upsourcing. The concept is built around two key ideas:
1) Problems aren’t solved by more people, they are solved by the right people
2) The right people must have a proven track record of working together as a coherent team to be immediately deployable
The right people are out there, and they’re not just working at start-ups and traditionally structured agencies anymore. Can a client build an internal rock-star team? Absolutely. Can they be expected to deliver at 100% on day one?
Now clients have the option to deploy proven, lean, Special Ops teams against critical, immediate needs with the highest chance of success and the lowest financial risk.
Oh, are you wondering why “New” was in quotes in the headline? Because Upsourcing is already happening all around you – it just needed a name.
