Outsourcing is when a company hires another individual or company to perform a specialized task, whether it's making a product or providing a service such as human relations or information technology.Think of an individual homeowner, for instance, who needs his house painted. He could go out and buy paint brushes, rollers, scaffolding, ladders and insurance and then, take the risk that he can do a good enough job -- and not fall off the scaffolding! He'll also be stuck with the expense of purchasing all that equipment for a task that he only needs to do once every few years. Despite outsourcing having come into a lot of controversies in recent times, industry watchers predict that outsourcing as a business practice is on a growth mode. More and more companies are drawing up plans to outsource work to offshore locations. The trend is clearly in favor of outsourcing larger volumes of work. Vendors are moving up the value chain to include in their service offering a range of additional services that require greater skills, research support and expertise. As offshore vendors become more streamlined and improvise on the offshore outsourcing model, it is not difficult to see why outsourcing is here to stay. How outsourcing works: