Who, Why, What, When and Where to Outsource?

More than just a procurement program, outsourcing arrangements need close management from the outset in order to achieve optimum performance. The decision to outsource is not something to be taken lightly - it is fundamental to an organization’s strategy and business model.

The outsourcing event should not be viewed as simply another procurement program to be executed by a purchasing department rather the purchasing department needs to work closely with the business, IT, the legal team, HR, tax and commercial departments and staff representatives to maximize the potential benefits.

Who should outsource?
Every Business or company: From entrepreneurs, small and medium enterprises (SME), large businesses and empires with diversified interests and varied business processes. Every business benefited in past or mass scale through outsourcing because technology is changing so fast, you have to be competitive and in profits with every day passing. And needed to take this step before your competition.

If your competitors are outsourcing and you do not, you're putting yourself out of business. Kuan Yew

Why should I outsource?
Industry Experts believe that outsourcing is essential for companies to be competitive and with growing profits in their books since 90s.

Outsourcing gives you:
• An skilled edge on the competition, without capital investment
• Faster development, start up
• Lower cost, Enhanced performance
• Better managed business infrastructure, focus on core activities
• Reliability & Security
• Maximizes uptime with 24 hours operations in lesser cost than 8 hours operations
• A more effective operating environment at the backend

"As our customers want to transact 24 hours a day, we need to protect ourselves from any attack that may lead to our services being unavailable," said Bob Spencer, Head of Group IT Security and Risk, Lloyds TSB Bank, on his outsourcing decision

What should I outsource?
Any IT and IT-enabled tasks, products and services. Even, laundry is good example of outsourcing in your daily life, the list is too long:

• Web Design, development and solutions
• Software development, testing, maintenance
• Web & Network security
• Web hosting e-commerce: B2B, B2C and C2B
• Transaction management
• Billing, HR, Law

Business process outsourcing (BPO):
• e-CRM (electronic Customer Relationship Management)
• SCM (Supply Chain Management)
• Back Office Operations
• Payroll, Accounting
• Telemarketing and Call Centers
• Contact center, Product Support, Technical support

When should I outsource?
• Losing focus on your core business and too busy handling operations
• Facing a time, money, skilled man power or human resource crunch
• Have a mission-critical project that needs all your time and energy, plus specialized skills which aren't readily available or costly
• New product, service development, maintenance needed
• You are customer focused but not specialized in choosing right people

Any company, where I can outsource?
Please Visit us at http://www.cisin.com to know more about how we can be your help.


Auther: Amit Agrawal
Experience: 6+ years of working exp in Indian outsourcing industry, and CIS Co-Founder.
Ref: Various internet sources