1. Definition and background

Outsourcing activities are going through a period of rapid change. In the early 1990s, they were limited to the physical activities of transport and warehousing, or to information processing resources. Today, this phenomenon is often at the heart of business-to-business competition, and the shift towards outsourcing of high value-added activities is already taking place in a context that seems to favor this policy choice. We will therefore begin by defining the term "outsourcing" and the various situations it covers, before describing its context and evolution.