More than 94% of organizations use some form of IT outsourcing.
Outsourcing has become an effortless and cost-effective strategy used widely in today’s digitization world. Developed countries choose to outsource their business operations to developing countries like India. Before moving any further, we first need to know what exactly outsourcing implies.
Outsourcing is when companies and organizations hand over work to an outside vendor. Any task process which can be handled from the external location of the organization can be outsourced. This is also known as offshore outsourcing. Offshore outsourcing allows the organization to acquire high-quality services at a relatively low operational cost.
There are three main categories of offshore outsourcing:
- Business Process Outsourcing (BPO): it deals in the back and front-office outsourcing.
- Infrastructure and Technology Outsourcing: it accords with networking and technology solutions.
- Software Outsourcing: it deals with the designing of software services.
Outsourcing of work is also done for tasks like content writing, data entry, editing, typing task, image manipulation services, transcription, and data conversion services. It can be done for customer care support, inventory management, payroll, etc. A lot of call centers also outsource their work.
India is the number one country offering efficient offshore outsourcing services to its clients; it provides outsourcing services in almost all outsourcing areas. Apart from India, other countries efficiently working in offshore outsourcing services are China, Russia, Egypt, etc.
Benefits of Outsourcing
Why has it become such an important tool for various businesses worldwide? It is so because it has several benefits attached to it. These benefits are enlisted below:
- Cost-effective: The most crucial benefit is that it permits one to get the work done at a meager cost and much more efficiently. There is a vast difference in the wage patterns between the western developed countries and developing companies. The kind of work done in the west at a very high price can be obtained at a much lower rate in developing countries like India; the difference varies up to 65%.
- Higher level effectiveness: Outsourcing work reduces the efficiency and quality of the work. It is done to people or organizations with more excellent knowledge of the work and extensive understanding in that discipline. This aspect automatically uplifts the quality of the work, and it can be done quickly and efficiently.
- Saves on investment: One can spend less on developing infrastructure. When the work is outsourced, the partner who takes over the outsourced work makes necessary infrastructural changes per the work’s requirement.
- Cost cutting on training and recruitment: When a specific type of work is outsourced, the company or organization does not require hiring skilled people. The result will be handed over to people who are already adept in that trade. There will also be no need to arrange training programs for the same. This will also bring efficiency and quality to the job.
- Round-the-clock work: It has a great time zone benefit. There will be a time zone gap in the time of one’s country and the country where the work is outsourced. For example, the time gap is twelve hours if an American government assigns work to Indian land. One can set position and relax, as the task will be done by the time one wakes up the following day. Thus, work will be going on around the clock.
Although outsourcing work has proved to be one of the dominant mantras for people in business worldwide and is well appreciated for its multiple benefits, one needs to be careful in outsourcing one’s work. The following things are required to be kept in mind while outsourcing any work:
- Security policy: if one desires to outsource one’s work and roles to other partners, one should have a secure and rational security policy for backup. The authorities and managers of the organization should form clear policies to set up guidelines and quality for the work process and data security. Security policies should specifically take care of data classification, which can differentiate between sensitive and standard data.
- Selection of outsourcing partner: The right outsourcing partner or vendor is significant. The partner you want to outsource your data to should be loyal to you. It should abide strictly by all security policies and guidelines of the organization. He should ensure there will be no privacy leaks and copies from their end.
- Protection of data: Before outsourcing your work to any firm, one should develop ways and strategies to monitor the database. It should also use an application that would protect the data from getting tampered with. Devices such as firewalls should be used to prevent exploiting and abusing sensitive, vulnerable data. Also, ensure that the vendor you outsource the work to possesses such security software and applications to avoid database misuse.
- Training: Before outsourcing your work, ensure that the people who will work for you from the vendor’s side are acquainted, proficient, and familiar with procedures and applications regarding protecting and handling sensitive data. The vendor’s team working for you must be updated with modern security and privacy tools to secure your organization’s data. Also, ensure regular training and skill upgradation is done regarding these employees from time to time.
Wrapping Up
Although outsourcing work has numerous benefits, one needs to be careful while outsourcing their work. Measures should be taken to choose the right vendor, and strategies should be developed to secure the organization’s database and to check any data tampering or leakage. Plans are also needed for tracking the data flow process and the employees of the vendors. It is also essential to maintain an excellent long-lasting relationship with the partners.
