Outsourcing has come to be an integral part of the global economic scenario today. Thanks to the advances in technology, it is no longer essential to have the employer and the employee work together in the same office. They could be continents and time zones removed from each other and still manage to work successfully together. True, outsourcing has simplified (and saved) many a company's financial dilemma as well helped fill the vacuum of expertise and professional skills in several instances.
That said, all jobs cannot be outsourced for obvious reasons. So, let's quickly examine the general criteria that determine exactly which jobs can (and should) be outsourced.
The domains that lend themselves to easy outsourcing include:
1. ITO — Information Technology Outsourcing. This is one of the most commonly outsourced domains to India since this country has proved itself to be one of the global leaders in IT and software development. A whopping 80 percent of the companies in the US and Europe voted India as their preferred destination when it came to IT outsourcing. In addition to Indian IT professionals being highly skilled in various IT-related fields, what acts a huge motivating factor is that fact that Indian outsourcing vendors have cutting-edge technology (latest hardware, software and infrastructure besides excellent satellite communication) at their disposal that makes IT outsourcing so popular.
2. BPO — Business Process Outsourcing. Again, an extremely popular choice for outsourcing since all it really needs is people who have a proficiency in English and access to excellent communication channels. This domain largely depends on communication set-ups and includes running call centers, processing insurance claims and the like. For many small, medium, and large businesses, to outsource a call center is an excellent way to generate sales. To outsource to India a call center can enable companies to help current customers with 24x7 tech support and customer support issues.
3. Software R&D — Offshore outsourcing of software application development makes its way to India all the time. Obviously, it makes sense to outsource to a country that has dominance in a particular field. A company can outsource the following software application services to India: custom application development, DotNet application development, DotNet application development using C#, application re-engineering, application migration (Java, .Net, Oracle and Database).
4. KPO - Knowledge Process Outsourcing covers job processes that require a higher skill set such as reading X-Rays, performing investment research on stocks and bonds, handling the accounting functions for a business or executing engineering design projects.
Why and when should a company really outsource? These questions need to be answered before taking the outsourcing plunge.
Your checklist needs to have these boxes ticked.
1. Is there a significant salary/ wage difference? Obviously, outsourcing involves investment of time, effort and resources. At the end of the day, it has to be worth all the effort. A significant wage difference can cut comparatively smaller hole in your monetary resources, thereby justifying the decision to outsource.
2. Is it something that can work using only a telephone? Call centres are best left to those who have the infrastructure, manpower and excellent telephone connections in place.
3. Can the work be transmitted over the Internet? Does your work involve writing content, making graphics, reading X-rays? Can these files be easily transmitted over the internet? If the answer is in the affirmative, then, yes, the work can be outsourced.
4. Is it easy to setup and start the work? Work that requires intensive initial setup and a prolonged start-up time is best not outsourced since managing and supervising such work in a long-distance manner may not work out.
5. Is the work repeatable? Building web pages, writing blogs, press releases and website articles, reading X-rays, coding, database management are all work that are more or less repeatable. So, yes, these jobs can be outsourced.
Keeping these tips in mind should help a company to make a well-informed decision about outsourcing.
Daya Mukherjee is a Senior Content Writer and Editor working for a Remote Staffing Outsourcing company in India. You can find out more information by visiting our outsourcing Services, Outsource, offshore outsourcing Websites.