Interesting although have some questions and thoughts: Is project management really defined the way you suggested it is? I am a qualified Prince 2 practitioner and as a methodology it is pretty straight forward and not to expensive comparative to other subject areas (Prince 2 is five days and a couple of grand). In my mind a project management methodology should be consistently aplied regardless of the project. My instructor used Prince 2 to run ever project she had ever run – even organised xmas using Prince 2 (www.ogc.gov.uk/prince2/).

Also you say: ‘the core of recruiting ? your ability to build, develop, and maintain great relationships ? cannot be outsourced (domestic candidates will never respond to people calling them from overseas)’

Why does it have to be overseas? Is outsourcing only defined by geography? In fact I think all of the recruitment processes can be outsourced like every other non-core function because whether we like to believe it or not recruitment is not core to any business except for recruitment agencies.

In fact I think when you talk about outsourcing to agencies you are actually talking about outsourcing just the sourcing aspect of resourcing and as such (correct me if I am missing something) the rest of your comments are specifically designed for the processes required to manage a specialist supplier of sourcing solutions and not a the more wholistic RPO suppliers. Yes?

Excellent article. I will be sharing it with some of my client partners.

Could you please email a copy of your SLA sample agreement.

Warmest regards,