It’s hard to imagine a successful company that doesn’t use any form of outsourcing. Western organizations, in particular, use this business practice to reduce labor costs, thus staying competitive in their respective markets. Furthermore, outsourcing is fantastic for reducing micromanagement and simplifying your day-to-day operations.
However, although outsourcing sounds excellent on paper, there are many situations where you’d instead perform tasks in-house. Despite all the financial incentives, using external providers will lead to a loss of control and potential security breaches. The issue is more noticeable for companies that invest heavily in research and development.
Because of that, you should understand at least a few basic concepts. Business owners should learn more about prices and how to find great providers. In this article, we’ll talk about six tasks that companies most commonly outsource and the benefits of such a decision.
1. Office Cleaning
You might be surprised by this, but office cleaning is one of the most common tasks that businesses outsource. Due to the nature of the process, most providers operate in the same city where the client company has headquarters. Outsourcing cleaning services doesn’t cost much but can significantly reduce micromanagement.
Business owners should never understate the importance of having a good office maintenance provider. “Employees who work in a clean environment are 94% more productive,” according to Compass Cleaning Solutions, a reputable cleaning company from Phoenix, Arizona. According to the company representatives, outsourcing this service carries little to no drawback.
2. Accounting
Most US, Canadian, and UK companies outsource their accounting abroad. Unlike legal services, accounting is a universal process done similarly in all countries. In other words, foreign outsourcing providers can always provide a good service by your local standards.
While smaller brands can perform their accounting, they’ll need to hire professional help as the company starts growing. You can also execute this process in-house, but it might be too expensive because you must cover employee paychecks and costly software. An external organization can assist you with every aspect of accounting, ranging from taxes to compliance, payrolls, and more.
3. Marketing
Marketing is another universal business process that knows no bounds. In fact, most digital marketers you encounter online have no formal education and have gained knowledge through working with clients. This makes sense because most business schools don’t teach classes such as social media, search engine optimization, and paid ads.
The tricky thing about marketing is that it relies on various tools. If you’re looking to execute a comprehensive strategy that involves several tactics, you’ll likely need ten or more programs. By outsourcing the task, you can eliminate software costs while saving money on paychecks.
4. Sales
Unless we’re talking about door-to-door, sale is a process that companies can perform online. Whether it’s via phone calls, emails, or messaging services, providers can reach out to your target audience and close deals without having direct contact with your employees.
The main reason why businesses outsource sales is because they can benefit from veteran experts with years of experience. In comparison, you would need a lot of time to assemble a similar team and get them on the same page. As if that wasn’t enough, outsourcing sales are fantastic if you plan to scale your business, as it gives you extra flexibility.
5. Informational Technologies
Keeping several software experts on your payroll can make a significant dent in your budget. As if that wasn’t enough, you must also cover all the expensive programs and hardware. The issue is especially noticeable for smaller brands and companies that require occasional support.
Besides cutting costs, outsourcing IT to a large external business will provide enormous flexibility. Bigger providers have numerous specialists on their teams, offering tech support, installation and configuration, security services, and software and hardware maintenance, just to mention a few. They also have comprehensive workflows to tackle various situations, making them especially useful during crises.
6. Customer Support
The biggest issue with customer support is that it’s so expensive. An average call center requires dozens, if not hundreds, of employees, on top of computers, devices, furniture, and office supplies. You also need to consider utility bills, which tend to ramp up quickly.
Luckily, most customer support jobs aren’t that hard, and, in most cases, all you need is a team that speaks good English. That said, you can effectively outsource the task to countries with cheap labor. Veteran outsourcing companies have well-trained staff, complete infrastructure, and methodology that can adapt to any industry.
Conclusion
Outsourcing sounds like a great solution unless you need complete control over a specific company process. Hiring providers from cheaper, foreign countries can save a lot of money on paychecks, office supplies, and software. Most importantly, you don’t have to create internal departments with outsourcing.
Remember that you don’t have to outsource all the services mentioned in this article. Still, you would be foolish not to consider at least some of them.