Out of Control

So reads the headline from the Earth Institute at Columbia University about its new study on offshore outsourcing.

The report, a working paper of the Center on Globalization and Sustainable Development, finds that:

--A major driver of offshore outsourcing is companies seeking skills they can't find at home.

--Seventy percent of companies that outsource report increases in quality of work.

--Actual cost savings, which remain the primary reason for outsourcing, were achieved by 67 percent of the companies to the tune of 5 to 50 percent.

--The main downside to outsourcing perceived by American businesses is loss of institutional knowledge, data security, loss of intellectual property rights and political risks.