The purpose of this research is to provide an understanding of the influence of outsourcing decision processes on the design of development policy, especially in terms of organisations’ operations optimisation. The subject of this article is outsourcing, which is considered to be an important component of development policy of organisations. By including external service providers in its business activities, the organisation obtains the resources, knowledge and, most importantly, the competitive advantage. This research provides an empirical analysis from a survey of 266 representatives of Slovene organizations. More specifically it examines the characteristics of the market of logistics services and IT solutions and by analysing statistical data finds sector promising growth. The results of the research provide a considerable number of possibilities for judgement and guidelines which can help the organisations to ease the assessment of their own medium-term strategies and objectives set. Having included the external service providers into the processes, i.e. the activities, organisation’s core competencies become more comprehensive and, at the same time, strengthen their programmes. Outsourcers can fi ll the gaps in the development policy, especially the ones, which an organisation is not capable to fi ll by itself due to the lack of needed resources. The decision about outsourcing should not affect a company’s core competencies, deemed as a basis for long-term competitiveness and business performance.Svrha je ovog istraživanja pružiti razumijevanje utjecaja outsourcing procesa na projektiranje razvojne politike, osobito u pogledu optimizacije poslovanja organizacija. Tema ovog članka je outsourcing, koji se smatra bitnom komponentom razvojne politike organizacija. Uključivanjem vanjskih pružatelja usluga u svoje poslovne aktivnosti, organizacija dobiva resurse, znanja i, što je najvažnije, konkurentsku prednost. Ovo istraživanje pruža empirijsku analizu putem upitnika provedenog među 266 predstavnika slovenskih organizacija. Točnije, ispituju se karakteristike tržišta logističkih usluga i IT rješenja i analizirajući statističke podatke pronalazi sektor s obećavajućim rastom. Rezultati istraživanja daju znatan broj mogućnosti za prosudbe i smjernice koje mogu pomoći organizacijama olakšati procjenu vlastitih srednjoročnih strategija i ciljeva. Nakon što su uključeni vanjski pružatelji usluga u procese, odnosno aktivnosti, ključne kompetencije organizacije postaju sveobuhvatne i, u isto vrijeme, osnažuju svoje programe. Korisnici outsourcinga mogu popuniti praznine u razvojnoj politici, osobito onih organizacija koje to nisu u stanju ispuniti same, zbog nedostatka potrebnih resursa. Odluka o outsourcingu, koja se smatra temeljem za dugoročnu konkurentnost i uspješnost poslovanja, ne bi trebala utjecati na ključne kompetencije nekog poduzeća
