What does outsourcing enable companies to do? Well, to start, outsourcing as a strategic business approach allows a business to reduce business overheads. More so, this approach makes use of talent working for companies as consultants rather than relying on on-site workers. When the functions of a company are achieved through virtual assistants, this is known as contracting out. Outsourcing is the practice of delegating work to third parties to complete. As such, outsourcing involves outsourcing employees and outsourcing tasks. This means that hiring an outside company to perform some or all of a system’s development projects is known as outsourcing. As such, in this article, we will investigate what outsourcing enables companies to do.
Why do companies choose to outsource work?
The general reasons given for outsourcing (and what outsourcing enable companies to do) are more than simply cutting labor costs. Although it’s true that a company can save up to 70% on its operating costs and overheads. More so, there are other advantages of outsourcing for businesses.
Outsourcing enable companies to: The 4 main reasons
Firstly, a business is then more easily able to focus on its core function. The benefit of this is that the business can enhance its competitive position by outsourcing its arduous processes to outsourcing services or virtual assistants. Secondly, outsourcing permits a business to free up its own resources. These resources include funds and their on-site staff. Such resources can then be utilized for other purposes. Thirdly, with outsourcing, the risk is shared with the outsourcing company. Lastly, with outsourcing, the business is flexible and can be agile. The benefit of this is that the business can much more quickly adapt to changes. Also, the business is more efficient. Because more is done, the company operates much more smoothly.
Most popular types of outsourced work
As outsourcing is a common source of external capacity, some tasks are easily delegated to virtual assistants. However, the type of tasks that are outsourced is dependent on the company and its needs. There are two main groups of outsourced tasks. The first is non-core tasks such as admin work. Examples of non-core tasks include customer support service, human resource management, accounting and bookkeeping tasks, research tasks, data entry, telemarketing and marketing, and project management tasks. The second group includes tasks that are more specialized. Examples of these tasks include graphic design, software development, video editing, and transcription tasks.
Is outsourcing appropriate for your business?
Outsourcing is not free from controversy. Especially during the Trump presidency, Trump, as he had held as a campaign tenet, heavily promoted the idea of bringing jobs back to the US under the campaign ‘buy American’. Trump pronounced, “We must protect our borders from the ravages of other countries making our products, stealing our companies and destroying our jobs.” Trump added, “We will follow two simple rules — buy American and hire American.”
‘Protection will lead to great prosperity’, Trump said
Many American companies, including Trump’s own business ventures, and that of his daughter Ivanka Trump, were importing goods. Ivanka’s company Ivanka Inc. was shipping in clothing items from abroad. More so, the container vessel OOCL Ho Chi Minh City docked at the Long Beach harbor in California with 500 pounds of spandex-knit blouses for Ivanka Inc. The company Ivanka Inc had an additional 10 ships with branded cardigans, shoes, and leather bags for Ivanka’s stores. The argument against outsourcing is that it causes domestic job loss.
Others, like Janet Yellen, disagrees
However, economists such as Janet Yellen once declared, “In the long run, outsourcing is another form of trade that benefits the U.S. economy by giving us cheaper ways to do things.” An in-house company can benefit from outsourcing so long as such outsourcing is correctly applied. For instance, if a company outsources its lead generation to a virtual lead generation assistant, the remote worker can source the opposite leads. The sales team can then use the leads that are sourced for the company. Here the sales team members are on-site workers for the company. More importantly, as the leads increase, so does the need to hire more salespeople. In this example, domestic jobs are thus increased through outsourcing.
Roundup
The business practice of hiring workers in another country is known as outsourcing. Providing value to a customer is the primary goal of any organization. Outsourcing helps a company to reduce its own operating costs: the savings can then be passed on to the customer. The customer is thus able to buy items for less. Therefore, outsourcing benefits both the company and the client.
Learn how you can benefit from outsourcing
Are you considering outsourcing some of your tasks? Or do you want to scale up and use outsourcing as your staffing model? Do reach out and speak to our outsourcing expert. Simply book your complimentary consultation session, and we will guide you through the process.