Outsourcing refers to the practice of obtaining services from another company for work that could have been accomplished within that company itself. Rather than have the work completed in-house, the company utilizes another company to do the work for them. In some cases, time constraints, an overload of work, or the opportunity to have the work accomplished for a lower cost is the motivation for outsourcing. For example, utilizing a third party’s resources for IT management can be less expensive if the company has not yet developed an in-house IT management team. Another example is the outsourcing of data storage needs when the company does not want to store and manage an in-house data storage system. Onshore outsourcing refers to the practice of obtaining services from outside the company but from inside the same country. Offshore outsourcing refers to the practice of obtaining services from a company or someone outside of the company as well as outside of the country.
External links:

• Wikipedia definition of outsourcing
• Outsourcing guides
• IT outsourcing news
• IT and BPO resource

WMO or website management outsourcing refers to the practice of outsourcing the management of the website of one company (company A) to another company (company B). With WMO, company B takes over the online environment of the website for company A. Company B utilizes the skills and talents of its developers, designers, hosts, editors, project managers, and marketing experts to create and effectively manage the totality of company A’s online presence.

This practice of website management outsourcing allows companies without qualified technical staff to create an online presence that can effectively compete with other websites. In general, WMO services work in conjunction with the internal project team and staff members of company A in order to generate a website with the desired business requirements. WMO could involve the following tasks: the creation of micro-sites, the marketing of the site, the optimization of the site, content storage and manipulation, and changes in website functionality.
External links:

• Wikipedia definition of WMO
• About Fresh Enterprise WMO

The abandon rate refers to the percentage of calls that are made by potential customers to a live operator or by an automatic dialing device to potential customers that are not intercepted by the telemarketer before a disconnection by the customer occurs. A high abandon rate would be indicative of poorly managed resources. Anything higher than a 2% abandon rate is looked upon unfavorably. The abandon rate is affected by several factors including the length of time the potential customer remains in the queue, the potential customer’s level of patience, and the reason behind the call.

The abandon rate also refers to the percentage of individuals who leave their shopping cart without proceeding to the checkout versus those individuals who proceed to the checkout from their shopping cart. Since some individuals will use their shopping cart as a way to size up future purchases, the abandon rate might include shoppers who will make a purchase at a future date.

External links:

• Questions and answers on Abandon Rate Standard
• An Answers.com explanation of abandon rate