Outsourcing is a normal part of todays modern economy. Companies and organizations hire services of other companies to do specific works. Not just that, there are a lot of books, articles, literatures and seminars with outsourcing as the topic.
Outsourcing garners both positive and negative feedbacks. It has its own advantages and disadvantages. However, most of the time, the advantages or disadvantages depend on the situation.
Pros Of Outsourcing
Outsourcing has been the source of many debates and discussions by both workers and the media especially in developed countries. These kinds of discussions however may only be temporary and may die down in the near future as the perspective of people mature.
One way of looking positively at outsourcing is the mere fact that it can help companies and organizations cut cost as well as it can give them the edge over other competing companies. Outsourcing also provides opportunities for other people to showcase their skills and talents in producing high quality products.
Basically, the main advantage of outsourcing is in the facet of finance. By outsourcing several functions of a company, operational costs can be cut down. In fact, operational costs can be cut down to as high as fifty percent when outsourcing. Why? First, companies can avail of cheaper but nonetheless very efficient labor. Second, since the company does not need to provide training anymore for a specific function, they can remove the budget for training.
Another pro of outsourcing is getting better results or output. Remember, you are hiring a person or an organization that specializes in a specific task. These organizations have the knowledge as well as the tools to efficiently do a specific task or job.
Focus is also another pro of outsourcing. Instead of the company focusing on non-core functions, they can put all their efforts on the core – the more important aspects of the business. This is because all the non-core functions are already outsourced to other companies.
Cons Of Outsourcing
There are some people who see outsourcing as a disadvantage rather as an advantage but this probably because this idea is quite new especially in newly developed countries. But the truth of the matter is, there are actually several cons in outsourcing.
One of the most controversial aspects of outsourcing is trust. When hiring a certain company for their services, you need to be able to trust them that they will do the job as ordered or that they will provide you with very good results. Trust is also needed especially when it comes to confidentiality. A certain hired company may stab you in the back and sell information to some of your companys competitors. Though these are rare circumstances, they do and can happen.
To Outsource Or Not To Outsource
To outsource or not to outsource: that is the question. Given the facts the pros and cons of outsourcing, should your company outsource or not. As have been said, this all depends on the situation. If a company has the ability to stand alone by itself since it has all the tasks covered, then there may not be a need to outsource tasks.
However, if you think that the company needs to put more effort on the core competencies of the company rather than the non-core aspects, then you may opt to go for outsourcing.