Does outsourcing work for your advantage or disadvantage?
For a layman (or an individual who understands the concept of outsourcing in a sea-level understanding), outsourcing may seem like a complete waste of time and financial resources, which can end up with unwanted complications. Why assign work to other individuals if you know what will be good for your business? Why delegate the work to outsourcing professionals abroad if you can do much better right at your own territory? You know what is best for your business, and you don’t need other individuals to deal with things that you can handle by yourself, or with the help of in-house personnel.
However, outsourcing for business owner can be considered a “modern day boon”. Many business owners have realized that outsourcing provides them the freedom of dumping all of the non-core, yet vitally important, aspects of their business and delegating the work to an experienced individual or group of individuals who can give justice to the process. Thus, it will leave business owners free to focus instead on the core of their business. At the same time, the outsourcing firm is only responsible for the specific work delegated to them, thus a cost-efficient business model. That is one of the primary advantages of outsourcing.
Another enticing advantage of outsourcing is being one of the cost-effective measures that you can take for your business. Business owners are aware that information technology (IT) services and human resource in United States or in Europe are expensive, which can affect the way they hire additional manpower in case of business expansion. Outsourcing provides an option in getting highly-productive manpower in a cheaper rate. For instance, offshore outsourcing (delegating the work to off-shore destinations such as India and Philippines) is popular to U.S.-based businesses because of the cheap working rate. An ordinary American who will earn an average of $300 to $500 per month is just a small sum, but for Indians and Filipinos, they would be quite happy with this salary range considering the currency conversion rate. Thus, this is a “win-win” solution for the company you are outsourcing to as well as for your business.
However, other industries such as customer service, virtual assistants, and website design are areas in which local outsource support may serve your business better. As a business owner it is important to consider if and how the outsourcing company will directly affect your clients. While it may cost a bit more budget-wise to hire an on-shore support staff, how will it affect your bottom line in the customer relations department?
Another convincing advantage of outsourcing is saving substantial amount of money in required training. Outsource support personnel are experts in their fields; thus bringing the knowledge, know-how, and up-to-date methods to your company. You will avoid recruiting new personnel who will handle the development as well as training them, thus reducing the recruitment and training cost for your business. The purchase of necessary technology may be handled by the outsourcing company, thus saving money which you can use on other important business aspects.
There are many other advantages of outsourcing, yet the aforementioned advantages are the most noted ones. Do not be misled by rumors and gossips about outsourcing. You are the business owner—and you know what is good for your business. Do your research. Crunch the numbers. Then make the best decision for your company on if, how, and when you will seek outsource support.