It is a common story- project gets outsourced, vendor fumbles project, project moves back onshore. The biggest threat facing outsourcing is lack of communication and control between outsourcer and client. Not any more, says James Stinson owner of Global Sky Inc, due to a new service called seat leasing.



Seat leasing presents a way in which clients can take their projects offshore, manage it personally (or assign their own management) in an offshore environment without the incurring the cost of overhead or risking quality issues with an unproven vendor.

Seat leasing clients basically "lease" seats on an hourly basis. Costs are around $4 per hour for call center projects and $3 per hour for back office projects like data entry.

Why outsource if you've still got to manage it yourself? "Lots of reasons", says James Stinson, owner of Global Sky Inc., a call center based in Manila, Philippines. "The biggest reason of course is cost savings. Typical salary of an offshore agent is about $2 -3 per hour. So add that to our workstation rental and you're paying a TOTAL of $6 - 7 an hour. Compare that with other full service providers in the US or even offshore providers. You won't find that kind of pricing anywhere."

Global Sky does offer full service for clients that still don't want to manage it themselves, or feel they will eventually transition to the seat leasing model.

Think about how your business might be able to benefit from the seat leasing model. If you are based in high cost center like US or UK and you have no choice but to work understaffed, or even worse, do the work yourself- this might be an affordable alternative.

If your business is done over the internet and geography is not the chief concern, you might even consider relocating to the Philippines to operate your business. Entrepreneurs around the world are taking this option and moving to where the opportunities are.

The Philippines offers pristine beaches and little known hot spots for diving and surfing around the country. Despite its bad press as a potential terrorist threat on the CIA web site, James, now living in the Philippines 2 years, contends it has to be one of the safest and most beautiful countries in the world to live.

If you've been waiting to outsource a project - Global Sky might just be the solution you're looking for. Before you ring them up however, James cautions "We are looking for long term clients. We invest our resources in long term clients, where we get our best returns. The clients we do work with are grateful we conserve our resources for them."