Since 1993, The Outsourcing Institute has been delivering independent information, analysis and advice to executives through its Roadshow Series as well as surveys and special reports.

You may have seen our recent fifth edition of the Outsourcing Index published last fall, which captures the trends, spending plans and concerns of buyers representing companies of all sizes.

The marketplace's reception was so great, we have embarked on an ambitious new product--Outsourcing Essentials. This is the first of what will be a quarterly publication, produced by the Outsourcing Institute.

This is clearly not a marketing brochure. It is researched,
written and edited by a prestigious array of professional business journalists, many of whom have written about outsourcing in the past for such publications as CFO magazine and CIO magazine. Stephen Taub, Outsourcing Essentials' editor, heading up the editorial team, has been a financial and business journalist for 25 years and has served as the editor of cfo.com, individualinvestor.com and Financial World magazine and also served as editor for the Index.

Each issue of Outsourcing Essentials will delve deeply into one critical topic in an effort to provide a comprehensive analysis.

The first issue zeroes in on the Middle-Market, an area that seemingly has been caught in the middle but as our reporting reveals, is poised for huge growth, as Ian Springsteel explains in, "Middle Market Preparing to Explode."

Outsourcing human resources tasks has already caught on in a big way among midsize companies, as Russell Banham explains in, "HR Outsourcing Leads the Way."

And, Richard Gamble notes in "Financing and Accounting Inching Forward" that outsourcing finance and accounting functions is starting to catch on as well.

Of course, information technology has traditionally been the outsourced task of choice. Samantha Joseph serves up a rundown of the most popular functions that middle-market companies are choosing to farm out these days in, "IT Outsourcing Expands Around the Middle (Market)."
And, don't miss "Inside Outsourcing," a collection of short articles and surveys that are of interest to middle market companies.

We hope you find Outsourcing Essentials educational and helpful as you try to navigate in this treacherous and competitive economic environment.

Let us know what you think. E-mail us at: editor@outsourcing.com.