Bob Moffat, IBM's senior VP of integrated supply chain, says his area of Big Blue no longer uses the word "outsourcing." He says that carries the connotation that you give the task to someone else to perform. Instead, his staff describes their activities as "optimized sourcing." Moffat, speaking at the Supply-Chain Council's Senior Executive Retreat held in Phoenix in February, says this terminology more accurately describes how IBM shares certain functions with its supply chain partners and more accurately describes a collaborative and interfaced process.