Deciding What to Outsource Offshore:
Avoiding the Pitfalls, Gaining the Value

Live Audio-Session with Scott Elliott Principal & Founder TechZecs LLC

Though companies are increasingly outsourcing knowledge work (including new product development) to Asia, India and other regions where labor costs are theoretically lower, the desired results are not always obtained.

There may be hidden costs, inferior product quality, communication/cultural difficulties, time delays, incompatible systems, and other challenges.  But even more worrisome is the question of value.  In gaining external talent and cost savings, are you also risking your company's core competencies? Changing your position on the value chain? Damaging staff morale?

To outsource successfully, there are two main considerations: 

1)    Deciding what to outsource and to whom - strategically, ethically and tactically

2)   Managing the remote collaboration process

In this special 90-minute audio-session “Deciding what to outsource off-shore: avoiding the pitfalls, gaining the value,” remote collaboration expert, Scott Elliott, offers practical insight on both. He will provide guidelines to help you choose, manage and improve your offshore outsourced projects.  He will cover the larger questions as well as the operational details.  Topics include:

• Knowledge work: how professionals add value to a company
• Measuring the value of offshore outsourcing efforts
• Effects of distance (geographic, time zone, organizational, cultural)
• The tyranny of core competency
• Deconstructing the value chain
• What to outsource, what to off-shore
• Developing remote collaboration
• Rebuilding a global, collaborative value chain

This audio-session is recommended for any company involved in or considering outsourcing or offshoring.  You will come away with a good sense of the pros and cons - and then how to get the best results if you do go ahead.  It is also suggested for those who are looking to improve the success rate of their current efforts.  Since it is an audio-session, your entire cross-functional team may participate together for one low, all-inclusive fee. 

About the Session Leader

Scott Elliott is well known globally for his experience in high-tech and electronics design, manufacturing and supply chain management. With over 30 years of engineering and management experience, Scott brings unique, practical insight to all aspects of the product life cycle, including business strategy alignment, supply chain management, world-class manufacturing and R&D management.  In the past several years he has focused on all aspects of remote collaboration and virtual teaming.

Scott founded TechZecs, LLC – a firm specializing in interim executive management and strategic consulting for high-tech companies. His current projects include working with a Malaysian company called InventQjaya (www.inventqjaya.com), helping to build a world-class research laboratory and incubation business for the region.

Scott was the founder and worldwide manager of the process consulting business for Hewlett Packard's Test and Measurement organization (now Agilent Technologies). In addition, during his 21-year tenure at Hewlett Packard he held a variety of senior executive positions in R&D and manufacturing. Prior to HP, Scott worked for Lockheed, Physical Electronics Laboratories and Addington Labs.