We may be witnessing a harmonic convergence of sorts in the name of operational excellence. While the inclination for any business may be to try to do as much as it can with the resources it has on hand, that’s not always effective. Sooner or later, what seems like the fastest, easiest path to getting the work done results in an overloaded workforce and a gradual decline in quality and productivity.

We try to find the remedy in better systems, tools and processes—but sometimes what we really need is more people power. The surest way to boost the effectiveness of your in-house agency may just be doing a better job allocating resources, distributing workload, and giving people the time, space and support to do a good job. And that may mean looking outside for resources to augment your existing team—which is where the harmonic part comes in.

As an industry, we are at a juncture where more and more talented people are part of a free-agent marketplace. And while they may be seeking work, they aren’t necessarily seeking jobs. Concurrently, new outsourcing platforms are emerging that leverage digital connectivity to marry the talent surplus with business needs. This opens the door to a whole new set of resources that can be a suitable, even preferable way to help get the work done—meeting content demands while relieving the burden on overextended creative teams.

We’ll be exploring one such platform this week during the IHAF webinar, “Inside-Out Creative—A Crowdsourcing Case Study.” Join us on Thursday, February 13 at 1 p.m. EST to hear how Fortune 400 retailer, PetSmart, partnered with ideasourcing frontrunner, Boom Ideanet, to successfully implement a new strategy that generated more ideas, more quickly, while delivering cost-efficient production solutions. We may be at a turning point where the old adage, “do you want it fast, cheap or good…pick two” goes out the window, enabling companies to achieve all three without compromise.

Boom Ideanet® partners with marketers to source ideas and bring them to life through a network of vetted, free-agent problem solvers. For more on how Boom Ideanet can be a resource for your idea-creation needs or to become a member of its vetted crowd, go to boomideanet.com.