In a previous career I ran an outsourcing facility for HSBC.  We handled the administration of motor and household insurance policies for a variety of organisations including BMW, First Direct, and Fiat.  The argument for outsourcing has always been that you should concentrate on your core strengths and outsource the non-core work.  If I recall my MBA correctly the starting point for this was a Harvard Business Review article by Hamel and Pralahad.

Anyway, when Bowland was first created I was careful to avoid a suggestion that we were an outsourcer.  By then outsourcers had a poor reputation and I would have fought to the death any suggestion that a company should outsource HR.  If managing and developing your own people isn't a core strength then you have problems!

Recently though a number of companies have approached us to manage the 360 degree appraisal process for them.  They are not looking to hand over the appraisal exercise  - they just want to hand off the administration.  In continuing my theme on how Bowland Solutions' handle the 360 process I want to draw out the possibility of handing over the administration to a 3rd party.

The benefits of using a managed service are

• the provider should be skilled at driving completion rates
• you should be free to support the initiative rather than administer it
• for some organisational cultures a 3rd party provides comfort around anonymity and confidentiality
• you should save costs compared with doing it yourself

360 degree feedback can be a highly bureaucratic process.  The introduction of a system is a good start in reducing that burden.  But a further step to a managed service can provide a highly efficient method of ensuring an annual process is seen as worthwhile and not a chore.

Brendan