An Executive’s Guide to Direct Sourcing of Contract Work/Services (Part 1)

Direct sourcing of work/services, in the simplest terms, means sourcing workers/providers without traditional intermediaries like a recruiting firm or temporary staffing agency.

It is not a new practice, but over the past several years, it has become something significantly different than what it was 10 years ago.

While direct sourcing — particularly of permanent workers — is old as the hills, a new and distinct way of direct sourcing contract work/services has been emerging in only the past five years.

This three-part PRO series is intended to provide a practical executive’s guide to this emerging form of direct sourcing of work/services.

• Part 1 examines: (a) how direct sourcing has changed over the past 10 years, (b) what it is today and what benefits it provides and (c) what the emerging “direct sourcing ecosystem” consists of today.
• Part 2 looks at current direct sourcing technology: (a) what it does and (b) what technology solution providers are in the market today, what they do and how they differ. We do this based on our SolutionMap demos, scoring and ranking — as well as discussions with solution providers.
• Part 3 considers the implementation of direct sourcing programs and provides some guidance on what to expect.