"Outsourced Processes" in a Government Contract Service Provider Company

[GStough]

I'm hoping that someone can help me with this. Can anyone give me an example of an outsourced process in the world of government contractors/service providers? We provide various services to the government in CONUS and OCONUS locations. In the world of manufacturing, I understand what this means, but trying to apply it in this industry is a whole other ballgame.

Thanks in advance....

 

[Randy]

Probably be dependent upon the type and scope of contract, fixed-price, cost-reimbursement, cost + award fee, time-and-materials, letter contracts GOCO, etc.

 

[GStough]

The bulk of our business is language services - interpretation and translation. This is what is getting me - what kind of process can be outsourced here? We recruit and hire linguists who are either qualified US citizens or we hire local nationals. Maybe I'm missing something here, but I don't see how this can be an outsourced process. We have subcontractors and teammates who also assist. When I think of an outsourced process, I think of something like sterilization (former medical device manufacturing background here), where the product is sent out after it's been produced to be sterilized, then it's returned for packaging and distribution.

This service industry is a wee bit different.....

 

[harry]

.............. We have subcontractors and teammates who also assist. ...............

Do you consider subcontracting as outsourcing? In the engineering consultation business over here, many organizations choose to have have staffing for their regular capacity and 'outsourced' to others when the workload exceed their regular capacity or in instances where specialized know how is needed.

 

[Randy]

As you descibe it you're not outsourcing, I've got 18 years of hands on gov't contracting that included outsourcing and this ain't it.

Outsourcing in your case would be sending the translation work to another entity to perform. You're hiring folks to do the work as an employee or offical representative of your company to work exclusively for you.

 

[GStough]

Do you consider subcontracting as outsourcing? In the engineering consultation business over here, many organizations choose to have have staffing for their regular capacity and 'outsourced' to others when the workload exceed their regular capacity or in instances where specialized know how is needed.

As you descibe it you're not outsourcing, I've got 18 years of hands on gov't contracting that included outsourcing and this ain't it.

Outsourcing in your case would be sending the translation work to another entity to perform. You're hiring folks to do the work as an employee or offical representative of your company to work exclusively for you.

Harry, no, we don't consider subcontracting as outsourcing.

Randy, thanks for that insight. You're exactly correct.

Thanks, everyone, for your feedback. I appreciate it.