Outsourcing is now commonly used by all business be it big or small companies.

By definition, it practically means assigning work assignments to external parties be it freelancers or firms instead of having the company to do everything.

Most of the time, those freelancers and firms are not related to the company be it personal or business relations.

Over the last decade, outsourcing has become an essential part of businesses especially when it comes to completing what needs to be done within certain frame.

Though it is widely practised by management all over the world, not everyone knows how it came about in the first place.

Outsourcing started when people began manufacturing and promoting basic essentials like carpentry and repair tools, food, household items and services.

As the population and demand grow, it soon became clear they need additional help to cope with their customers and replenish the stock every now and then.

That is when they get and train others to do what they have been doing.

That way, it is a win win situation for everyone. The customers are happy that their needs are being met with everflowing supplies and merchants do not have to dedicate all their time on work but able to relax and spend time with their families.

But even so, that was more like employment as the people merchants hired to help have to be present at the market or stores every now and then for the businesses to grow.

This employment mentality continued for generations even after baby boom. Companies were set up and took care of everything from stocktaking, production, manufacturing, deliveries to customer service.

Each of these had their own individual departments and supervisors to oversee the operation.

The same goes for payroll, taxes and legal issues which were handled by an internal department most bosses felt more comfortable allocating to.

As time goes by, it came apparent that outsourcing was necessary especially with the popularity of specialization contracting in service industry.

Services such as insurance, engineering and architecture were the first three assignments to be outsourced to third parties within the same country, province or region.

That contributed to the rise of onshore outsourcing which most businesses felt were more productive and time saving.

At first low valued products like apparents, clothes and toys were outsourced. Then followed by high valued products like appliances and electronic gadgets.

However when manufacturing companies expanded with branches and factories developing overseas, most management decided to come up with the concept of offshore outsourcing.

The objective was to save costs and yet continue to meet the market needs.

Yet business proprietors remained apprehensive of this. However with the improvement of logistics, they became more open.

With the improvement in education and skills of lower wage countries, the value of offshore outsourcing soared in popularity.

Especially with the rise of computers and information technology where hardware and software were the next to be outsourced offshore.

Today with internet access and mobile communications, outsourcing no longer needed to be done with both parties meeting face-to-face every now and then.

They could exchange email via PCs and SMSes on mobiles to keep in touch and even send work assignments to each other.

The same goes for wages whereby the employers can do an online transfer to pay those they outsourced to when the work was completed to their expectations.