Outsourcing Definition & Meaning Pros, Cons, 5 Examples

The concept of outsourcing labor became popular in the mid 20th century when US firms were looking for ways to cut costs and manufacture products less expensively. Since labor costs in Japan and other Asian countries were so much lower than the United States, many companies would set up manufacturing facilities in these countries and use local labor instead of US labor. This concept is now most commonly referred to as outsourcing jobs or moving jobs overseas.

Outsourcing meaning

The transferring of certain business functions from internal staff to outside contractors. Outsourcing also is an excellent way for management to shift or even avoid responsibility. By the 1990s, organizations began to focus more on cost-saving strategies. This included functions that are necessary to run a company but are not specifically related to the core business. Companies started contacting emerging specialized companies to deliver outsourcing services such as accounting, human resources, data processing, internal mail distribution, security, and maintenance work.

When a business owner hires a payroll service to avoid spending weekends preparing payroll, he or she is transferring a specialized function, payroll. When a large corporation hires a company in India to provide over-the-phone tech support for computer and software installation, again a function has been transferred. But when a producer of bedsprings closes its U.S. factory and opens a factory in China, it has outsourced a complete operation. Outsourcing refers to the practice of buying services externally rather than producing them internally.

As part of the supply chain, Apple outsources multiple components from Samsung such as the flash drive and the mobile DRAM. Instead of focusing on the development of new components, it can outsource these whilst it focuses on its core competencies. Outsourcing itself is an efficient cost-cutting measure that businesses use to help increase efficiency and profitability. In a way, it can be seen as the division of labor between businesses.

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Negotiating The Best Outsourcing Deal

Their plants and factories are placed in countries with cheap labor costs. This way, they reduce the costs, make a competitive product, and increase the income. This list of functions provided by labor protection outsourcing companies is not complete. But it clearly shows that this volume of work needs special training and additional resources.

  • If you don’t require a full-time worker, there are also part-time options available for most categories.
  • When businesses outsource to suppliers outside of their own country, it is often referred to as offshoring, or offshore outsourcing.
  • This not only creates employment to its qualified workforce but also creates an outsourcing destination that businesses around the world can hire for various tasks.
  • Do you know that many famous brands don’t produce their products in countries where they were created?
  • The slides are easier to understand than a blocky pdf, enabling the presenter to bring everyone on the same page in analyzing the feasibility of outsourcing.

Manufacturer outsourcing services are usually quite industry-specific. An automobile manufacturer, for example, may have an outsourcing arrangement for building and installing windows in all their models. Such outsourcing arrangements can result in significant cost reductions and quicker assembly time. Information technology services, such as software development, network services, application support, testing, database development, and infrastructure support.

Instead, it outsources those areas where it has little expertise in – which would require significant levels of investment and time. As the firm doesn’t have to focus on 100 different components within the business – it is able to focus on factors that separate it from the competition. For example, Nike focuses on designing, developing, and marketing its product, but outsources the actual manufacturing process. By outsourcing production, particularly abroad, the firm is able to operate on a 24-hour basis.

Outsourcing Pros And Cons

Basically, it involves moving one’s business to another part of the world where people will willingly under slavelike conditions and for 1/10 the pay of a Poverty-Class American worker. James Bucki has nearly two decades of experience in consulting, manufacturing, publishing, healthcare, software outsourcing and outstaffing banking, and education. He is also the director of computing technology at Genesee Community College. Get free online marketing tips and resources delivered directly to your inbox. The concept ‘outsourcing’ came from the American Glossary ‘outside resourcing’ and dates back to 1981.

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Criticism Of Outsourcing

An increasingly popular process in which a company contracts with another company to manage services that it needs but that it doesn’t want to provide itself. Typically, outsourced services are non-core activities such as janitorial services, information technology, and food catering for the employee cafeteria. Sometimes companies outsource manufacturing and focus on sales and marketing. Outsourcing is popular because it allows companies to reduce short-term costs.

For instance, an accounting outsourcing firm can also do auditing and invoicing on behalf of the company. There are various outsourcing examples around the world that show how the noble idea is put to use. Out of the 10 examples of outsourcing, you will find everything from jobs to manufacturing and other business processes. You may use successful outsourcing examples as an inspiration to get started with hiring third parties for your business.

Outsourcing meaning

IT outsourcing is the use of external service providers to effectively deliver IT-enabled business process, application service and infrastructure solutions for business outcomes. The outsourcing companies usually hire its own staff and works from its own office. Moreover, this outsourcing company operates on a business model that may be completely different from the partner company. For example, Apple’s business model revolves around the development and sales of its products to the final consumer.

Why Should You Consider Outsourcing?

Firms may outsource to partners outside the country, or even in different regions of the same country. Some firms may have a relaxed and laid back culture – which may not be conducive to a firm that is very strict and demanding. This may be cultural, or structural to the business, but can create significant friction between firms that can impact on the final product. Many companies have outsourced administrative tasks such as invoicing, database administration, and third-party communications.

Nearshoring still hasn’t overcome all barriers, but proximity allows more flexibility to align organizations. Many years ago, the multi-billion-dollar megadeal for one vendor hit an all-time high, and the big IT service providers of the world couldn’t have been happier. But wholesale outsourcing has proved difficult to manage for many companies. These days, CIOs have embraced the multi-vendor approach, incorporating services from several best-of-breed vendors to meet IT demands. Most major IT services players have done their best to adjust to this trend.

Customer service jobs, such as those in call centers, and computer programming jobs also are outsourced by companies seeking ways to reduce costs. A large number of companies outsource at least some functions of human resources tasks, such as employee benefits management and payroll. In the past ten years, companies have increasingly begun to look to hire outside of their company. This is commonly referred to as “outsourcing” and can be an opportunity to minimize payroll expenses and decrease costs. Common outsourcing functions include human resources, accounting, customer service, marketing, design, content writing, and legal services.

As the name implies, insourcing refers to the practice of having in-house teams perform functions that could be handled by outside companies or contactors. In addition to delivering lower costs and increased efficiencies, companies that outsource could see other benefits. For example, they outsource because they’re unable to hire in-house, full-time employees with the specialized skills and experience needed to perform certain jobs.

Nowadays, you don’t need to maintain a special transport department. According to legislation of every country, every employee has the right to safe working conditions. At a large company, labor protection functions must be carried out by a suitably qualified specialist. Historians and economists agree that human progress is directly linked to the division of labor.

Reasons For Outsourcing

It is categorised into different types based on the kind of activity outsourced and the location it is outsourced to. Outsourcing is generally viewed unfavourably by the public as it is perceived that jobs are being lost abroad. In fact, this was one of the main drivers that won Donald Trump the presidency in 2016. Subsequently, firms that engage in outsourcing, particularly abroad, have started to develop a bad reputation.

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Whether or not these policies provide the security and fair compensation they promise is debatable. The impact of offshore outsourcing, according to two estimates published by The Economist showed unequal effect during the period studied 2004 to 2015, ranging from 150,000 to as high as 300,000 jobs lost per year. Among problems encountered were supply-and-demand induced raises in salaries and lost benefits of similar-time-zone. Another reason for a decrease in outsourcing is that many jobs that were subcontracted abroad have been replaced by technological advances. A number of outsourcings and offshorings that were deemed failures led to reversals signaled by use of terms such as Insourcing and reshoring. Insourcing entails bringing processes handled by third-party firms in-house, and is sometimes accomplished via vertical integration.

As the firm has no direct control over what goods or services are being produced, they may suffer from a sub-par standard. Whilst they may be able to negotiate with their outsourced partner, it may be difficult for them to adjust to the firm’s requirements. https://globalcloudteam.com/ Larger firms like Nike and Apple may have greater power over their outsourcing partners, but smaller firms may find it more difficult. This is particularly true when the firm is trying to outsource new products from their partner.

In times of shrinking economic activity, it easier to buy less of something or to eliminate buying something altogether than it is to lay off employees and to close departments. It is easier to shop an activity around when higher quality or greater speed is the objective than to get an internal supplier to change its behavior. Any manager of a small division in a large corporation whose main supplier is another and larger division knows how unresponsive the internal vendor can be.

According to a 2005 Deloitte Consulting survey, a quarter of the companies which had outsourced tasks reversed their strategy. In the area of call center outsourcing, especially when combined with offshoring, agents may speak with different linguistic features such as accents, word use and phraseology, which may impede comprehension. While Pfizer moved some of its R&D from the UK to India, a Forbes article suggested that it is increasingly more dangerous to offshore IP sensitive projects to India, because of India’s continued ignorance of patent regulations.

This allows companies to devote more resources to what they do well, which can improve efficiency and increase competitiveness. Production can be streamlined and production times shortened while reducing operational costs. Outsourcing (sometimes referred to as “contracting out”) shifts tasks, operations, jobs, or processes to an external workforce, by contracting with a third party for a significant period of time. Businesses typically do this to reduce costs or improve efficiency.

For example, when you need qualified specialists for a season’s work or a particular project. Outstaffing is suitable if your employees need a sick leave or vacation. In this case, the employee works on the territory of the client’s enterprise. If you have an outsourcing agreement, the work is carried out in whole or in part on the contractor’s side. Recruiting companies specialize in the search and selection of personnel.

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