Homesourcing

Homesourcing also known as homeshoring is "the transfer of service industry employment from offices to home-based employees with appropriate telephone and Internet facilities".[1] Homesourcing is best thought of as a combination of outsourcing and telecommuting.

Homesourcing refers to hiring employees or engaging independent contractors. Homesourced workers are sometimes required to come to an office for training from time-to-time.

Traditionally, employers were most likely to homeshore call-centers and other customer service processes. However, this trend is changing as employers realize a wider variety of work is amenable to homeshoring. Knight Ridder Newspapers reports "it's no longer just call centers and information-technology jobs. Now it's architects, accountants, tax preparers and financial analysts."[2]

According to researcher IDC Homesourcing is expanding by about 20% a year and homesourcing is "on track to explode".[3]

Contents

Companies using homesourcing

US,UK and European companies which have employed homesourcing personnel include:

Firm Based Founded
1-800-Flowers.com[4][5][6]
Automatic Data Processing Roseland, New Jersey
Arise Virtual Solutions[3][5][7] Miramar, Florida 1997
J. Crew[5]
JetBlue Airways[4][5][6] Salt Lake City, UT (customer support) 1998
McKesson Corporation[5]
oDesk[3] Sunnyvale, California 2003
Office Depot[4][5][6]
Wyndham International[4]

Advantages of homesourcing

In popular culture

See also

Notes

Further reading

External links