The Pros and Cons of Outsourcing There is a great chance that you own a computer or any other piece of electronic equipment. There is also a great chance that you ran into some problems with these devices and called the manufacturer for technical support. There is a good chance that the technical support you called is located thousands of miles away from the company in another country. This is called outsourcing. Companies today are now considering outsourcing their jobs in other countries, such as the Philippines, Mexico, India, and China because of cheap labor. The reason why outsourcing is very popular among companies today is because of cheap labor, quality services and it allows the company to focus more on important factors involved in letting the company grow. Help desks, and technical support services aren’t the only outsourced jobs today. Now, companies are also outsourcing their payrolls, their business process, data entries, human resources and a lot more. Because of the growing competitiveness of other countries in the information technology, outsourcing companies are now widely available. Here are some of the advantages of outsourcing services and the reason why companies are considering outsourcing their jobs: • • • • • • • • Lower personnel costs Allow the company to focus on more important factors Free up space in the company building for other important uses Increase productivity Effectively manage the jobs of a company Reduce cash flow Free up management time Increased company efficiency
However, with all the advantages of outsourcing, there are also disadvantages that you should consider. Here are some of the disadvantages that outsourcing will have: • Loss of local jobs, particularly jobs related to customer service and technical fields • The company losses direct control over the management • Quality problems • Slow response time, which can lead to frustration and anger of some of the customers • Foreign agents sometimes have different accent that may be hard for local consumers to understand • Slow resolution times • Reduction of product sales because of frustrated customers or people who boycott a company’s products because they outsource These are some of the disadvantages of outsourcing. However, if your target is cheap labor, you can definitely consider outsourcing. But you have to make sure that the quality of the services of an outsourcing company should be at par with your standards. For example, if you need a
call center to be outsourced, you have to make sure that the employees of the call center company should be competent and qualified to get the job done. You should also consider the fact that they should be able to speak fluent English with an accent that is easy to understand. Outsourcing has a lot of benefits that your company can take advantage of. However, before you outsource, you should first weigh the advantages and disadvantages and know whether outsourcing is for you. If you want to provide jobs for your countrymen, then you shouldn’t consider outsourcing or you should consider outsourcing your company’s jobs to local outsourcing companies. These are some of the things you should consider when you plan on outsourcing. You have to keep in mind that there are a lot of advantages as well as disadvantages in outsourcing. You have to be able to weigh it in order to arrive at a good decision in whether you want to outsource or not.