Labor and process inefficiencies remain the most persistent deterrents to both productivity and profitability of businesses of any size. Most companies are on the lookout for the most cost-effective solutions through which they can maximize productivity and efficiency of business operations. Developing this kind of efficiency in house is not impossible, but takes a long time for most organizations to achieve. However, if your business context demands your organization to move at a speed and scale that’s higher than average, you simply cannot afford to wait that long to achieve the same level of efficiency. Fortunately, there is a way in which you can implement the desired level of efficiency from the get-go and shorten your time to market and ROI significantly. This means leveraging the power of IT Outsourcing Services.
Irrespective of what your attitude towards outsourcing may be, fact remains that with a reliable outsourcing partner, you stand to gain a grasp on the essential procedures and approaches that ensure seamless operations and maximum efficiency. Your outsourcing partner can also help you strategically approach, build and maintain relationships with customers with the right tools, business skills and insight. Despite the bad rap that offshore outsourcing has received in the past, the truth is that your business will gain access to a wider pool of talent with key critical skills that you may be struggling to find right now. This is critical in order to carve out a competitive edge for your business in an oversaturated market.
Recent statistics bear out the argument for outsourcing IT services. Despite, or perhaps because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the percentage of their budget IT departments spend on outsourcing continued to rise from 12.7% in 2019 to 13.6% in 2020. Grand View Research expects a compounded annual growth rate of 8% in outsourcing IT services in the period between 2020 and 2027. The efficiencies you stand to gain with outsourcing IT services are time-tested and you should never let prevalent beliefs and attitudes stand in the way of proven metrics in unlocking your business’ potential. Start harnessing the true potential of your business by focusing on innovation and growth and let outsourcing IT services partners take care of the grunt work of daily operations and maintenance.
Types of Outsourcing
Offshoring
Offshore outsourcing refers to the practice of IT outsourcing services to a distant location to leverage the cost-benefit of more competitive labor costs, economic conditions, time zones, or access to a more diverse and wider talent pool. Time differences, in particular, can be of significant advantage to companies dedicated to providing seamless, uninterrupted customer service or those that need updates and maintenance round the clock with 24/7 IT support.
Nearshoring
Nearshore outsourcing refers to outsourcing software development and other IT functions to a location that is generally in the same time zone or at least within a few hours of it, i.e. outsourcing centers that are closer to your offices. This enables smoother communication and collaboration thanks to outsourcing teams and in-house teams sharing both time zones and cultural affinities.
Onshoring
This is often referred to as ‘homeshoring’ and indicates a process where IT processes are outsourced to a center within the country. This kind of outsourcing also leverages lower labor and operational costs and greater availability of required talent. This can be particularly suitable for IT Outsourcing for Small Businesses.
Multi-sourcing
When a single organization leverages multiple outsourcing vendors, thereby diversifying risk in vendor operations as well as leveraging specific strengths, the process is known as multi-sourcing.
7 Factors to consider for taking outsourcing decisions for your business
Cost Savings
This is the most common reason why businesses look to outsourcing. It’s been proven over the years to significantly improve business bottom lines through reduced operational costs and improved efficiencies. The two chief expenses for business often lie in labor costs and capital investments in infrastructure. Both of these can be efficiently managed through outsourcing at a fraction of the cost. However, you also need to keep an eye out to maintain or enhance the quality of service provided by the outsourced employees/firm.
Pricing
While cost savings may be your primary motivation behind looking at outsourcing options, you should almost never opt for the cheapest vendor you can find. Instead, focus on comparing all vendor programs and do a cost-benefit analysis of competitive offerings. You also need to see which of the additional services provided by the vendors prove to be the best fit for your business. Also consider the vendor’s>reputation in your respective field and their ability to manage pricings and offerings from hardware/ software companies.
Consider vendor resources and technology
When you decide to outsource your code infrastructure and processes to a reliable outsourcing partner, you need to ensure that they have the right tools, technology and resources in place.
Meeting agreed-upon deadlines
A proactive vendor results in your business being better prepared to face whatever may come your way. This is why timeliness is such a crucial factor in outsourcing. Failure to meet deadlines can result in major bottlenecks in the delivery process. One way of checking this before signing on the vendor is to see whether they have the right quality control measures in place.
Minimal Supervision
If you are working with the right vendor, you really should not have the need to supervise their work. They should be able to take charge of the project from the get-go and practically provide you with reports on a regular basis so you can stay on top of things without exerting your internal resources. Essentially, the outsourcing partner like Managed IT Services should be able to take care of everything from scratch so you can simply focus on core business processes, innovation and growth.
Trustworthiness
Apart from background research on the vendor, you should also ask for references in your specific industry. Find out as much as you can about the firm’s past work, infrastructure, Industry associations, safety practices, ethical beliefs and philosophies in order to assess their suitability.
Communication
Communication is key to collaboration, irrespective of whether your team is onshore or offshore. You need to ensure that language or cultural issues do not crop up in any communication. This will help you to avoid miscommunications in understanding requirements or conveying finer technical points.
