Companies have tried to increase their competitive advantages since the Industrial Revolution. However, in the 1950’s and 60’s diversification and economies of scale became the new trend, and in the 1970’s and 80’s those companies who wanted to compete globally, were handicapped due to the complicated management structures that had come into place.
It was not until 1989 that outsourcing became formally recognized as a so called “business strategy”, and from the 90`s the areas such as those below became the focus for outsourcing.
Human Resources
Security
Office and Plant Maintenance
Accounting
Mail Distribution
Recently, developing partnerships and strategic advantages have been used as a means to get closer to the customer. For example some companies use outsourcing companies to handle their customer service department, since it is such an important portion of their business.
Advantages of Outsourcing
Even though the benefits of outsourcing are many, each project should be dealt with on an individual basis. There are many ongoing operational costs that can be avoided if you outsource and that should be taken into consideration, however it should be noted that any organization that outsources the work can reduce costs and be more flexible, more effective and more efficient.
Some advantages of outsourcing are:
Transfer of knowledge to permanent staff
Projects reach market faster
Experienced, creative and flexible problem solvers
Predictable and cost-effective means
Flexibility in staffing requirements
Access to more professionals
Focus is on competency
Disadvantages of Outsourcing
The negative side of outsourcing cannot truly be universally applied to all industries of all types. However, a few common situations that we can come across are:
Jobs may be lost
Employees will find themselves with handling new tasks
Staff may have to be relocated
Workload amount may vary before and after outsourcing
Change of employer may take place for the employee
Employees may have to relinquish some of their responsibilities
The problems and dangers with these is that some former or long time employees may not take to this new trend easily. Facing disgruntled employees is something you need to prepare for if you are considering outsourcing a very important function in your organization.
It does seem however that, outsourcing is more advantageous than not especially for companies that want to cut down on employee size and be more financially efficient and are willing to take the outcome of the exercise in their stride.
The word outsourcing and offshore are normally considered as the same entity but they do have distinct differences. Outsourcing can be done within a country but offshore outsourcing means to give projects and accept projects from another foreign country. Software outsourcing means to give out software for development to companies other than one’s own.
The advantages of outsourcing are tremendous although it also depends on the nature of work being outsourced. One of them is lesser costs as compared to taking on the work in house. Outsourcing is like a temporary contract meaning that an individual or a company would be under the contract until the certain project is complete. They may be hired later if a need arises but the buyers are not bound to choose only a particular service provider.
Another advantage that outsourcing can have is related to offshore as well. A buyer can give their demands offshore and outsource it. Offshore outsourcing also has a beneficial effect on the overall costs of the project. Some countries have a higher labor cost and when the work is outsourced to countries where labor is cheaper it could help save a fortune. Companies outsourcing work also scout for countries known for a particular talent or expertise. A software development company for example would like to target companies is a specific geographical region which are reputed and known to produce quality work at reasonable costs.
Software outsourcing is not limited to the development of new software alone. There is also the option to develop the software in house and later outsource the software for testing and debugging. Software development is one part of the software market and testing the prepared software and fixing its problems is another aspect. There may also be an option to add some new features if the necessity arises during testing. So even if the software has not been outsourced for development, it can still be outsourced for testing and debugging which can help save a few precious dollars.
Countries whose software related talent pool is limited or expensive can benefit greatly from outsourcing projects to countries which boast of cheap yet qualified software professionals. This not only helps them economize and divert funds elsewhere but also ensures that quality of work is not compromised in any way. They get professional services at lower costs and get to provide the same standard of service to their customers.
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