Delivering Seamless Service... "If you think that your job is safe from offshoring, think harder... A hip replacement that's $39,000 in the U.S. is $3,000 in India... The offshoring of surgeons suggests a few realities we had all better face..." ("Think Your Job Can't Be Sent to India? Just Watch," Fortune, Dec 13, 2004)

Did I get your attention? Sure, commercial real estate is not there yet. But why not outsource tasks in the U.S. to reduce the cost of delivering your services? That's the challenge articulated by Kevin Manning, Director, Client Solutions, at Cornish & Carey Commercial / Oncor International (C&C) in Silicon Valley.

"Most global providers believe they must be vertically integrated to provide seamless delivery and accountability. Unfortunately, this model creates large, lumbering profit center bureaucracies that
are more concerned with internal political
survival than innovation.

"... C&C Client Solutions purposely formed its group almost entirely from exclusive relationships with fleet-of-foot, entrepreneurial providers who innovate out of necessity, leaving our core group free to perform high-level intellectual integration of these services on behalf of our clients."

So Manning's team of ten includes seven outside consultants with "dual-branded business cards and common protocols for approaching new assignments." This team provides a range of services, including strategic planning, facilities management, property tax consulting, financial advisory, project management and portfolio administration.

Naturally, an outsourced organization is "extremely cost effective," reflecting the lack of overhead of maintaining a large staff, and Manning claims success winning business in client presentations. What do you think? Is this the wave of the future?

--Peter Pike