1) Find an alternate understanding of outsourcing and reproduce it giving the source from

where taken. Then analyze what the difference and which is correct according to you
Source: http://scm.ncsu.edu/scm-articles/article/a-brief-history-of-outsourcing
OUTSOURCING

Outsourcing can be defined as the strategic use of external resources to perform activities
traditionally handled by internal staff and resources. Outsourcing is sometimes also referred as
facilities management.
Outsourcing is a strategy by which an organization contracts out major functions to specialized
and efficient service providers, who acts as a valued business partners for the business.
Companies have always hired contractors for particular types of work, or to level-off peaks and
troughs in their workload, and have formed long-term relationships with firms whose capabilities
complement or supplement their own.
However, the difference between simply supplementing resources by subcontracting and
actual outsourcing, is that outsourcing involves substantial restructuring of particular business
activities including, often, the transfer of staff from a host company to a specialist, usually
smaller, company with the required core competencies.

WHY DO COMPANIES OUTSOURCE?

Controlled operating costs

Improved focus

Free internal resources for other objectives

Risk Reduction

Difference:

There are a lot of definitions present and all have some differences among them. The only
difference I could figure out in what you explained and I read on the mentioned source is that
there is a very thin line between outsourcing and contracting outsourcing involves substantial
restructuring of particular business activities including, often, the transfer of staff from a
host company to a specialist, usually smaller, company with the required core
competencies.

2) What is the difference between procurement and outsourcing?

Outsourcing is used in relation to a service, product or process that an organization contracts to
another organization who has specialized in that service, product or process. This product,
process or service acts as a direct value addition to the end offering of the buyer company.
Whereas
Procurement is generally used in relation to the raw material or material that is processed further
by the organization to add value to it. The material purchased is not a direct value addition to the
companys end product.