Outsourcing is contracting work out to external sources/partners rather than performing the work in-house. Subcontracting is another word for this action. Functional service providers (FSP) may involve the outsourcing of only one select activity. Application service providers (ASP) are vendors that lease software applications.
Examples are many, and may include:
- Hiring freelancers to write documents (laboratory procedures, educational modules)
- Hiring contract employees (for the laboratory, perhaps in addition to using the facility's human resources department - especially useful when a lack of properly credentialed candidates is present)
- Subcontracting IT support
- Subcontracting accounting services
- Subcontracting pathology services (especially useful for a small laboratory)
