Outsourcing Times

Outsourced Burgers

The next time the lady at the drive-through burger joint asks you if you’d like fries with your burgers, you’d probably need to pinch yourself to realize that the lady is probably miles away. What’s happening? Outsourcing! Boston.com reports:

Already, Wendy's says the call center is paying off. Drive-through sales jumped 12 percent at the six stores that installed multiple drive-through lanes that are connected to a call center, according to Kevin Fritton , executive vice president of 256 Operating Associates , which runs the call center and 14 Wendy's restaurants in New Hampshire and Vermont. The call-center employees, who earn about $8.50 an hour, are trained to urge customers to add items to their order and are timed on how long each call takes.

Read more: Miles away, 'I'll have a burger'

Outsourcing Re-engineering Services: Rewards & Dangers

--By Priya Jestin, Staff Writer

When a firm outsources its re-engineering services, it can do away with the necessity of having to provide large infrastructures with the requisite machinery. Not only is this method more practical, it is also very cost-effective. This way, the firm can concentrate on its core activities. And now that the market is expanding, there is a growing business segment that offers re-engineering services.

While all this sounds very good, there’s one worrying aspect. Does the outsourcing argument allow for quality management in re-engineering services? One of the biggest problems a firm may face is of ensuring that the final quality is as good. Also, the work should be in line with original-equipment manufacturer specifications. These are important factors that influence the operational reliability of plant and equipment.

Tips To Know When It’s Time To Outsource

Outsourcing has today, become more of a need as companies feel an increasing need to reduce costs and focus on the core business of developing, manufacturing, and marketing their products. Pharmaceutical companies are no different. Only problem is, how does a company know when the time is right to outsource? Manufacturing.net reports:

There is no better indicator of a company’s health than its financial results. All companies are driven by their return to shareholders or owners. If the results are not as strong as they should be, it is time to thoroughly examine the cost structure. This is more than a financial analysis; it is a strategic and organizational exercise as well.

Read more: Determining When To Outsource: Indicators For Pharmaceutical Companies

Research Outsourcing Worries US Academic Circles

While outsourcing has been widely accepted as a necessary evil across the United States, there is one area, which is still held as sacrosanct in academic circles – research (where effective communicating and conferencing can be difficult across oceans). Now, there is growing concern that the US might lose its competitive edge by outsourcing jobs, which are on the bleeding edge of research to countries like India and China. DNAIndia.com reports:

University of Texas Professor Ted Rappaport’s research shows that all but five of the 57 major research initiatives announced were located outside the US. “The professor believes that as a result, US students have lost interest in entering graduate school to pursue research in the telecom field,” said the BusinessWeek column.

Read more: Research outsourcing worries US

Now We’re Outsourcing Drug-testing As Well!

Now every time you pick up that phone to call a help line, you probably wonder if your call will be routed to India. If you say you didn’t think of that possibility, you are only kidding yourself. The fact is that the names India and China have become a byword for almost all kinds of work. Now if this latest bit of news is to be believed, even the drugs we take will not be spared of the India/ China effect. How?

There is a very strong likelihood that these drugs will have been tested on people who live outside the United States. This means they live in places like India, China or Russia. I really don’t know if this is a good thing or a bad thing. But let’s face it. Human clinical trials are a necessary part of any drug’s development. Courierpostonline.com reports:

Big pharmaceutical companies are increasingly looking outside the country to find locations to conduct the human clinical trials that are crucial to the development of new drugs, according to Gannett News Service. Drug companies are finding it quicker, easier and cheaper to test subjects overseas rather than in this country, experts say.

Read more: Outsourcing extends to clinical trials

Bio-outsourcing is Booming

The bio-outsourcing market is booming, thanks to the benefits of outsourcing for the biomanufacturing organizations. Many biomanufacturing companies are outsourcing their operations to offshore destinations. According to estimates, over 50 percent of biopharma companies will outsource at least some aspect of their biomanufacturing activities. The reason is clear. Biomanufacturing is a complex, costly and labor-intensive process. Ongoing labor shortages and increasing costs of building biomanufacturing facilities have forced many biopharma firms to turn to outsourcing for help.

Read my previous post titled "Are You Looking to Outsource?" to get some tips on outsourcing.

Outsourcing of Analytical Laboratories

According to research studies, outsourcing of analytical laboratory market is growing at a rapid pace. It is expected to grow further over the next seven years. However, small laboratories are in danger of declining. According to a report published by Frost & Sullivan, the revenue generated by the analytical services market in the US was $603.1 million. It registered a significant increase of 2.9 percent in the first two quarters of 2006. The market is expected to reach $743.3 million by 2012. This boost in the analytical market is driven by steady demand from pharmaceutical companies.

Our previous post titled "Right Balance for Outsourcing" will give you useful information about outsourcing.

Outsourcing goes extra-terrestrial

It's truly the era of outsourcing. After carving a big pie for itself in industry segments catering to the material requirements on the ground, outsourcing is set to cater to requirements in outer space. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is now turning to the outsourcing way by farming out its satellite and rocket development work to private companies.

If all goes well, private companies will soon be building entire satellites for ISRO. The step has become necessary because of the increasing demand for putting satellites into orbit every year.

It is interesting to note that the recent crash of the GSLV satellite was because of a mechanical fault in an engine built by a private firm. However, this doesn't seem to have deterred ISRO in its outsourcing program.

ISRO has already short listed eight companies—including industry leaders like L&T, Tatas, Mahindra and Godrej—and in the next few months, proposals from these companies will be reviewed and finalized one way or the other.

IBNLive has more on the story.

Offshoring Risks

Domestic outsourcing and offshoring share most risk characteristics. A more complicated chain of control incur when offshoring financial services and related data may create new risks when compared to domestic outsourcing. Offshoring introduces an element of country risk to the outsourcing process. Significant offshoring risk areas include:

• Country Risk
• Operations Risk
• Compliance Risk
• Legal Risk
• Credit Risk

Read my previous post titled "Did Outsourcing Raise Level of Wages?" to get more information on outsourcing.

Outsourcing Opportunities for Indian Advertising Industry

Recently, I had written a post titled "Media Outsourcing Services in India" that focused on media outsourcing services in India. today, it is the turn of advertising industry. It seems that opportunity is knocking at the doors of Indian Advertising Industry. Now the Indian Ad agencies can go and grab international business in a more focused and organized manner.

The global advertising outsourcing business is estimated at $280 billion. Of that amount, $50 billion is believed to involve creative work and production. Experts started to believe that Indian would become the next hot destination for Ad outsourcing. The Indian advertising industry is estimated at $2.8 billion. However, it has the skilled personnel who work at low price. That will help it to become a global outsourcing powerhouse.