Last month, we took a look at five major factors to consider when deciding to consider outsourcing. Some businesses are aware of the particular advantages it brings, but do not how to properly adapt it. Some may also not even need to consider outsourcing at all!
Additional Points To Ponder
As we also stated last month, there are major challenges when businesses consider outsourcing. An outsourcing provider manages a team to handle your chosen functions and roles. However, aligning goals and objectives is another responsibility. It falls on the company to carefully consider which functions they want to outsource, how much they are willing to spend and face any potential issue that may arise.
True Cost Savings
Outsourcing is most known for being able to cut labor and operational costs while increasing profit margins. Some reasons companies do not see these cost savings are they either choose the wrong processes to outsource or have partnered with the wrong provider.
The quality of outsourced talent you hire will determine your company’s cost savings.
One of the most common misconceptions about outsourcing is that highly skilled yet cheap talent is readily available. While outsourcing prides itself with providing a very deep talent pool, you will still get what you pay when considering cheaper options. It’s important, therefore, to refrain from spending excessively while also avoiding any drastic cost cutting measures. Be reasonable and consider what you are paying for will affect your company in the long term.
Provider Experience
Earlier, we stated that companies may end up partnering with the wrong provider when they consider outsourcing. This occurs even with companies who are familiar with outsourcing’s benefits and the advantages of potential destinations they are considering. The quality of your talent pool will define your outsourcing success. It should be qualified to meet the requirements you have set for yourself and for similar projects. With more business requirements, your supply of talent should meet these demands.
So how can businesses research about their provider experience? Aside from browsing their website, they can get testimonials and reviews from trusted sources. This can lead to discovering success stories related to them, often from people who’ve collaborated with them before. Most of all, they are able to get feedback on potential roles they are look to outsource. A company’s social media presence also speaks volumes of their industry reputation that businesses should be aware of. Overall, extra and diligent research on a company’s part will help with evaluation of the potential outsourcing providers and their location.
Agility and Flexibility
Outsourcing prides itself as strategy that businesses of all sizes can adapt. This also means working with a provider that allows for flexibility to get things done. The level of flexibility should be within the budget you have set for yourself and corresponding objectives. Good providers allow you to hire the number of people you need for your tasks and for how ever long you need them for.
In turn, this also aids in your business’ agility. Outsourcing is one of the most modern approaches to developing business agility. It can cope with rapid changes especially in today’s business environment. Through outsourcing, company can quickly adapt to address any market or business requirements they need. They can simply tap on an outsourcing provider with ease and can even remove staff when they are not needed. This is especially evident when call centers increase their staff during peak seasons.
Major Time Zone Differential
When most hear about offshore outsourcing, they often think of people working night or graveyard shifts in another country to align with a company’s time zone. There’s certainly no going around this; working with a provider in another country means adapting to particular time zones. Major gaps in this are often seen as a disadvantage when they consider outsourcing. Delays in communication and objective alignment at much different hours can cause conflict between companies and their provider.
It certainly is more challenging to partner with a workforce abroad than locally, and time zones are one of the major barrier. Global companies recognize the need for a global workforce, and have leveraged the use of various online collaboration tools. Emails, project managers and instant messaging all play their role in shortening the gap between time zones. For their part, outsourcing companies recognize the need to cope with these time zones. In the Philippines, numerous companies provide outsourcing services to North America, meaning time zone differences of as much as 18 hours. They meet these demands through dedicated night shift support, 24 hour access to amenities and government differentials.
Before any working relationship is established with a company and an outsource provider, they must first align modes of communication and adjust to the appropriate time zone.
Attrition Rate
On the other hand, attrition rate is not something most companies think about immediately when it comes to outsourcing. However, this is still just as an important factor to consider. When you look at a country like the Philippines, its level of attrition is much lower than countries like Malaysia and India.
Good outsourcing providers are responsible for low client attrition.
Through proactive, responsive communication, their tasks can be streamlined by a good outsourcing provider. No industry can ever achieve zero attrition, and good outsourcing providers understand this. Instead, they look forward and seek out the best ways to retain those that have remained loyal.
Benefits when you consider outsourcing
Outsourcing continues to make its mark in the current modern era of business. Its cost saving but globalized approach has more companies realizing what benefits they can take advantage of. By properly considering the different factors that go into partnering with an outsourcing provider, companies of different sizes will be able to leverage themselves into global competitors. Through the right provider, businesses are ready for the next level.
Learn more about outsourcing with HGS and what it can do for your business. Contact us today.
