Outsourcing timeline

1776: Adam Smith, in the 'The Wealth of Nations', formulates a theory of competitive advantage, extracting the notion of outsourcing as a way to cut costs by hiring cheaper labour in less developed countries.

1830s: England's textile industry is so efficient that eventually Indian manufacturers can't compete, and work is outsourced to England.

1960s: It becomes common to outsource tasks that involve massive amounts of information, such as data processing, to external vendors, due to the large costs and physical storage requirements associated with computers.

1962: JCR Licklider of MIT publishes a paper discussing his "Galactic Network" concept. He envisions a globally interconnected set of computers through which everyone can quickly access data and programs from any site.

1963: Electronic Data Systems signs an agreement with Blue Cross of Pennsylvania for the handling of its data-processing services. It's the first time a large business has turned over its entire data-processing department to a third party.

1969: The ARPAnet is born. The ARPAnet, intended to link research centres across the country, provides the foundation for advanced networking and breaks a path toward the Internet.

1970s: It is common for computer companies to export their payrolls to outside service providers for processing.

1970: The earliest known device that bears any significant resemblance to the modern personal computer is launched. A programmable terminal called the Datapoint 2200 is made by CTC (now known as Datapoint) and is a complete system in a small case bearing the approximate footprint of an IBM Selectric typewriter.

1972: The first computer-to-computer chat takes place at UCLA, and is repeated during the International Computer Communication Conference.

1980s: Outsourcing enters the business lexicon. Accounting services, payroll, billing and word processing all became outsourced work.

1980: Widespread development of workstations, PCs and LANs.

1985: The Internet is a well-established technology supporting a wide community of researchers and developers.

1989: Outsourcing is formally identified as a business strategy.

1989: Eastman Kodak decides to outsource the IT systems that underpin its business, a revolutionary move for business and seen as a watershed event.

1990s: Shift to outsourcing mainframes, PCs, and telecommunications. Outsourcing becomes very profitable with the advent of the WWW.

1990s: As organisations begin to focus more on cost-saving measures, they start to outsource those functions necessary to run a company but not related specifically to the core business.

1991: The World Wide Web is developed at CERN (Centre Europ'ean pour la Recherche Nucl'eaire; European Laboratory for Particle Physics) by Tim Berners-Lee.

1991: The first Web server is nxoc01.cern.ch, launched in November, and later renamed info.cern.ch.

1991: Wide Area Information Servers (WAIS) are invented by Brewster Kahle, released by Thinking Machines Corporation. WAIS is a distributed text-searching system that searches index databases on remote computers.

1998: Outsourcing is a $100 billion per year industry.

2003: Outsourcing accumulates $298.5 billion in global revenues.

2004: Outsourcing is one of the topics of debate between the candidates in the United States presidential election.

Compiled by Mia Andric. Sources: The History and Development of the Internet: a Timeline, Rhonda Davila. A Brief History of the Internet, Barry M Leiner, Vinton G Cerf, David D Clark, Robert E Kahn, Leonard Kleinrock, Daniel C Lynch, Jon Postel, Larry G Roberts, Stephen Wolff. Outsourcing: A Survey and Analysis of the Literature, Jens Dibbern and Tim Goles. Wikipedia. Keith Lynch's timeline of Net-related terms and concepts. A Computer Geek's History of the Internet. Hobbes' Internet Timeline. Ezine. A history of the computer. Information Technology Industry TimeLine.