Outsourcing Times

Right Balance for Outsourcing

Before outsourcing your business, reconsider the base on which you are making the decision. You must examine every process, every management policy, every initiative and the complexity of the current product or service. When there is a competition among the companies, design, quality, cost and customer satisfaction come into fore. While outsourcing their business, companies always focus on these factors.

The central issue of outsourcing is the actual cost savings realized by an organization in comparison with its own domestic costs. The most important factor behind outsourcing is the level of commitment made between concerned companies. The basis of the outsourcing decision should be the result of a balance among performance, values and willingness to dedicate organizations to performance excellence.

Read my previous post titled "Choosing the Right Time for IT Outsourcing" to get some tips on IT outsourcing.

How to Select an Inbound Call Center?

Selecting the right inbound call center is a challenge for any company that is seeking to outsource its business. The outsourcing of inbound calls includes cost saving, process management and better customer service. It is important to know whether the chosen inbound call center possesses the capacity and scheduling to handle your calls. You must have a complete understanding of your requirements before investing time in examining inbound call centers. Once you are clear about your requirements, you will be in a better position to make the right cut.

You have another way of determining whether a particular call center is a useful partner or not. You can find this by visiting the site. A visit to the site will help you understand how the company treats its employees and if its staffers are energetic and positive or not. You can also read sample scripts and listen to phone calls. That will present a clear picture about how the call center handles its customers. The most important thing to be remembered is that your preferred inbound call center must have customer service as first priority.

Knowledge Process Outsourcing in India

In today's competitive environment, there is a growing trend of specialized skill sets. Now companies focus on their core competency areas and outsource the remaining business. Most companies acknowledge that outsourcing not only minimizes the cost, but also propels the growth of the organization. Knowledge process is one such area that requires outsourcing to bring more effectiveness and efficiency in the process. India is witnessing a high growth in terms of knowledge process outsourcing. Following are the main characteristics of knowledge process outsourcing:

• Excellent infrastructure and security system
• Well-qualified professional having in-depth knowledge and experience in respective fields
• Quality work
• Consistency in quality performance
• Adaptability to various data formats
• High productivity

Companies that outsource their knowledge process have the following tasks that are managed by skilled professionals in India:

• Research and Analysis
• Business and Market Research
• Investment Analysis
• Legal Research
• Finance and Accounting Services
• Educational Services
• Medical Services
• Network Management
• Report Writing
• Content Rewriting
• Data Management

There is no dearth of knowledgeable and skilled professionals in India on the above areas. They produce quality work at a lower price. This is the main reason why knowledge process outsourcing is growing in India.

Role of Enterprise Risk Management in Outsourcing

It has been noticed that companies import risk from external organizations via links through enterprise resource planning (ERP) and supply chain management (SCM) systems. However, the fastest growing source of importable risk is from your outsourcing partners. Evidences suggest that the quantity and scope of enterprise risk from outsourcing is expanding rapidly. Many small and medium sized companies are now relying on outsourcing through their IT systems.

Although outsourcing brings efficiency and cost saving, a poorly managed outsourcing relationship may put your entire IT system at risk. When you have options, why take a risk? It is strongly recommended that ERM must be extended to your outsourcing partners. That will definitely negate the strategic and market risks associated with your organization.

China to Promote Outsourcing Business

China has become one of the major outsourcing destinations for the companies that are doing off shore business. Although China is still lagging behind India on outsourcing, it has made significant progress over the past few years. In order to give a boost to its outsourcing industry, the Chinese government has decided to prioritize service outsourcing in the coming years. The government will establish specific policies to encourage service outsourcing in China.

For long, the Chinese government has been seen opposed to outsourcing. However, the situation has changed to a great extent. The government will also provide enterprises with financial support such as low-interest loans and insurance of credit for large-scale offshore projects. The government has also decided to persuade 100 multinational corporations to transfer their outsourcing businesses to China. If everything goes as per the schedule, China will definitely become a major hub for outsourcing activities.

Healthcare IT Outsourcing in Europe

European healthcare organizations are planning to outsource more IT operation because of tremendous financial burdens. They are unable to maintain their IT operations with the limited resources. Hence, they find it necessary and useful to outsource the entire operation to third parties. Most hospitals in Europe lack the resources and skills to build IT infrastructure and maintain them efficiently. They are also unable to train their staff to handle complex software packages. Under such circumstances, outsourcing the function remains the only viable solution. The trend towards IT outsourcing is also being encouraged by many governments in Europe, as they want to modernize and improve their IT systems.

According to Outsourcing-Russia -

"Healthcare IT outsourcing is now a proven business model in Europe due to highly visible contracts such as those between Britain's National Health Service (NHS) and British Telecom (BT), as well as many smaller contracts in different countries in Western Europe," said the Frost & Sullivan analyst, Siddharth Saha.

Offshore Outsourcing is Set for a Huge Growth

There is no denying that offshoring has become a growing phenomenon. However, it has received more criticism than positive responses. Critics say that it disrupts distribution of communication paths and violates human rights. However, the supporters argue that offshoring is a free international trade that is positive for global economies. Despite the controversies, a large number of outsourcing deals involving outsourcing are currently under negotiation.

Indian companies still dominate the outsourcing industry. Although outsourcing demand in Europe has fallen drastically, the UK's demand for outsourcing is growing steadily. The strength of the UK market has been demonstrated by the growth in BPO by the UK companies. The UK accounts for more than 25 percent of the total value of business process contracts signed worldwide in 2006.

Is IT Outsourcing Boom is Over in India?

It seems that the IT outsourcing boom is over in India and elsewhere in the world. This is because the companies have learnt to be strategic and selective. However, it is too early to say that the It outsourcing is at the fag end of its growth. In India, outsourcers are now looking to China to reduce their growing labor shortage.

Major IT and BPO hubs are reaching labor saturation and are desperately looking for educated resources in other parts of the world. The current situation in India will drive both buyers and service providers to expand their list of possible locations for operations. It will provide an opportunity to other countries to grow in outsourcing business.

Financial Express reports that -

The latest Diamondcluster study reveals some troubling signs for onshore service providers. For example, less than one in three buyers of onshore services reported that all their expectations are being met, compared to 47 per cent of the buyers of offshore services.

Indian Companies Dominate the Global Outsourcing Deals

Outsourcing business has become an integral part of Indian industry in the recent years. According to reports, Indian companies have bagged the biggest outsourcing deals in 2005-06 made their presence in the global arena. Indian companies have received the lion's share in the global outsourcing industry. Despite the controversies surrounding off shoring in Britain and elsewhere, outsourcing deals are being signed on a constant pace.

Some British firms such as Powergen and Abbey have withdrawn their call centers in India. However, that did not deter others from outsourcing their work to India. The economic compulsion of outsourcing of back office operations holds the edge here. The current trend shows that there is hardly any dissatisfaction with offshore outsourcing.

Daily India reports that -

The analysis reveals that this growth in offshore outsourcing is further evidenced by impressive gains for the Indian service providers, whose market share has risen to 5.2 percent of the total value of contracts signed so far this year - up from less than 3 percent in 2005 and just over 1 percent in 2004.

Wiltshire Signs £12m Outsourcing Deal

Wiltshire County Council has outsourced the management of its IT infrastructure to services provider Steria in a £12m five-year contract. Steria will take over the operations of the Wiltshire County Council's IT infrastructure at the beginning of October 2006. It will manage systems used by 3,500 council workers. About 900 workers are now based at County Hall in Trowbridge. Other workers are based at 200 other sites across Wiltshire. This contract will provide the flexible framework to deliver improved services. Developing a new infrastructure and improving technology are part of the business change process.

According to VNU Net -

Tim Gregory, head of IT at Wiltshire said: 'We are enabling major changes across the authority, and we wanted to be able to try and drive that change by providing technical facilities and a good IT service to ensure that we can make the changes in HR practices and Financial management that we need to make.'