If you have been engaging in outsourcing or plan to start in the near future, and are apprehensive if it can stand the test of the time, you may very well rest your fears. Outsourcing will unquestionably endure the present and still be here in the future.
In this post, we explore outsourcing challenges and project on future outsourcing trends.
How It All Started – A Brief Background
Outsourcing has undoubtedly revolutionized how business operates nowadays. In the earliest days of outsourcing, it was constrained to low-risk functions such as data entry and payroll administration. Much Later, operations such as customer services were outsourced on a huge scale.
This turn highlighted the immense cost benefits, and organizations started taking a closer look. Companies with global operations desired to leverage the cost advantages of outsourcing and began outsourcing high-profile function such as research and development, and IT.
Today, outsourcing is much more than just a buzzword for low-cost labor. It has evolved into a major business strategy for enterprises who commit only to their main business operations and outsource everything else to specialized vendors.
The Debate – To Outsource or Not to
While a majority of organizations across various industries swear by the benefits of outsourcing, the debate remains over its long-term viability. Outsourcing antagonists contend that the downside to outsourcing comprises poor quality control, lack of control on project management, and lower possibilities of innovation. Outsourcing skeptics maintain that increasing salaries, in prominent outsourcing destinations such as India, takes away the shine from outsourcing and consequently it may not be as cost-effective in the long run.
In spite of such observed negative facets, outsourcing has only continued to flourish. Actually, all types of organizations are currently embracing outsourcing across the world.
Crisis business situations have only assisted in furthering the case for outsourcing. Recent events such as the global economic meltdown attests to the fact that businesses need not only learn to survive a crisis but also have to explore newer means of overpowering weak economic situations.
Future Outsourcing Trends To Look Out For
• Outsourcing relationships are now standardized, and people-driven as opposed to driven by price. This transformation is believed to balance the playing field for providers of outsourcing services in the future.
• Cost burdens will open up opportunities for custom-made outsourcing contracts that are adaptable in their scope of delivery.
• Small and medium-scale enterprises will greatly adopt outsourcing to decrease their operational inefficiencies and raise their time to market.
• Increasing raw material, logistics, and oil costs will make it imperative for companies to explore outsourcing as a means of maintaining low operational costs.
• More critical functions will be outsourced, while the outsourcing of low-key services will even out.
• Africa and Latin America may pose a stiff competition to Asia as the preferred outsourcing destination.
• Support and development for cloud outsourcing will upsurge as more businesses adopt cloud technologies.
Will outsourcing endure in decades to come? Yes, definitely! Outsourcing will keep thriving in the future, as it delivers access to specialized skills and saves on time, and saves on effort, which can be routed to other core business functions.
Are you prepared to take the next step and launch into outsourcing? Contact us at Sullivan Taylor Company to discuss your needs and develop a custom outsourcing solution.
