We had a little bit of good news this week – we’ve been asked to take over some outsourced research for one of the world’s largest advertising conglomerates. That makes it sound like a big deal but it’s not, at least not yet – it’s perhaps 0.5-1 full time equivalent, but hey, it’s something, especially in this environment!

The significant thing is that the work is now coming to Business360 instead of an Indian-based supplier that had the contract for a number of years, which means the work will now be completed by US-based researchers working from home. It’s not much, but if every company in the US did the same we wouldn’t be in a recession!

I don’t have the full reasons that the client changed but I gather we’re about the same on price but the advantage of having the work done within the same time zone and by experienced researchers (professional librarians, corporate librarians and the like) made the switch worthwhile.