One of the hottest buttons in purchasing right now is procurement outsourcing. Small wonder. Purchasing jobs are dropping fast. Two reasons: Internet sourcing initiatives and the still-weak economy. One of the good things that emerged during the dot.com insanity was that new software programs made purchasing more organized, automated, and electronified. Legions of paper-pushing procurers were told to re-train or de-train. Then the economy buckled and companies eyed sweeping solutions to control cost. At Lucent Technologies, purchasing ranks contracted from 24,000 to 7,000 in less than two years. And buying got better! See the report on our 2002 Medal of Excellence winner at www.purchasing.com. Lucent moved big chunks of buying to outsourcing en masse.

A debate on procurement outsourcing broke out on these pages in recent months. Bill E. Koskie of Lone Star Steel eloquently wrote "The Case Against Outsourcing" in the May 22 issue. His most telling point was that purchasing itself should be viewed as a core competency. We agree. Company after company we visit this year is moving buyers into the boardroom because of the enormous impact they can have in a poor-profit economy. I visited DuPont in June where management cleaned house and rebuilt the venerable CPI giant around five growth platforms. Gone soon will be the giant textiles and interiors business. Great cash flow, pathetic ROI. Management also more than doubled cost reduction goals and brought in a new team leader, John Campi.

Make certain, however, that outsourcing has a place. Each company is different; each product sector is different. As a generalization, though, if your company has not aggregated spend for less-strategic products, you are an excellent candidate for the outsourcing pros. We will take up the debate on the Internet Oct. 16 with old friend Tom Stallkamp, former purchasing chief at Chrysler where he used outsourcing to turn the automaker from near bankruptcy to shining star. Tom now is CEO at Michigan-based MSX International, where he is building a practice of supply chain outsourcing. He will be the keynote speaker at our annual supply chain expo and will address head-on the pros and cons of outsourcing. Sign up for the free program at www.supplychainlinkexpo.com. Send questions for Tom to me at dsmock@reedbusiness.com. Please also feel free to send letters on outsourcing that we can publish in your journal, PURCHASING.

At the very least keep an open mind and be prepared for continuing change. Tune into the Internet next week to hear Tom Stallkamp's views.