3COM: Managing outsourcing as "core competency"

For some companies, outsourcing means taking away the routine functions so you can focus on what's important and brings in the moolah. But with more and more companies following trend, sometimes proper management is the key differentiator.

For networking company 3Com, outsourcing is not just about cost-savings. Its about looking for the right partners to help keep the company competitive.

In a Strait Times article, 3Com chief Bruce Caflin outlined some of the strategies which helped bring back the company to profitability - and from shaving annual capital expenditure from US$ 100 to US$ 20 million.

3Com's outsources not only routine stuff like marketing, finance or marketing. Being a technology company that churns out products, it has also outsourced the company's most important [and critica] process - manufacturing.

The company's laundry list of outsourced items includes R&D and production hru partners in China, Taiwan, US, Singapore and India.

In the words of Caflin himself, 3Com is in the business of "getting others to do something you can't to be more complete in front of customers".