While these firms offer great potential benefits, even projects of this small scale require careful planning to yield expected results. Points to consider include:

•			Understand who is conducting the research, and if it is primary research, define if the firm will speak on your behalf or conduct it anonymously

•			When using a firm like one of these for a small project, you’ll quickly face several challenges:

			<			Issues of working with a team in a different time zone, speaking a different primary language, one not embedded within your company and lacking a clear sense of your company strategy

			<			Graphics and visual messages that work in one culture aren’t always as effective in another culture — it may not be realistic to outsource creative solutions.

•			If outsourcing large-scale graphic design work, it is critical that a company develop a formal brand architecture, and define acceptable graphical styles from which to choose

•			Using time zones to your advantage will keep projects on track, whereas delays in review and edit cycles will likely double the time to complete a project.

Life Sciences — R&D Outsourcing

Other small-scale projects include R&D (not always outsourced) in the life sciences/pharmaceutical industry. A recent article in The Economic Times cited that 8.9% of clinical trials registered with U.S. health authorities are conducted in emerging countries, primarily Asia and Latin America. GlaxoSmithKline is carrying out 122 clinical trials in India — the largest number by any life-sciences company. According to the article, the native population pool, various disease profiles and robust infrastructure drive the demand for clinical-trial patients. Clearly, it is as much about access to a pool of candidates as it is a labor-arbitrage endeavor. The article mentions that trials will continue to expand in these areas, as residents of countries with access to strong social-security systems are less likely to enroll in drug trials.

In conclusion, there are many opportunities to explore globalized services — either through outsourcing or by creating internal offshore centers. Other areas actively outsourced on a smaller scale, but not covered in detail in this article include finance and accounting, tax, analytics, HR, mortgage and claims processing. While very few of these deals make the headlines, they often provide access to increase skills and flexibility, reduce costs and yield faster results for the companies that outsource. The service providers mentioned in this article, among many others, have created thriving businesses by providing services on small-scale projects. The megadeals are not dead, but the strong anti-megadeal movement is certainly worth evaluating.