Outsourcing or Offshoring is often used by a business for a specific process, skill or area of expertise that cannot (for whatever reason) be handled internally by a company.
A lot of the time this is done where an organisation cannot handle all aspects of a business process internally.
There are of course pros and cons to outsourcing, though most of the time the advantages of outsourcing outweigh the disadvantages.
Some outsourced work is temporary if the organisation does not plan to bring in-house professionals or if the piece of work is short term and the business is looking to explore a new or update product or solution, perhaps through an MVP or through User Testing an idea.
PROS
1) Outsourcing to specialists in their field means that most likely the tasks can be completed more effectively, faster and with a better quality output than could be done in house. These outsourced vendors will have specific technical expertise along with the relevant tools to deliver.
2) By outsourcing it allows the business to concentrate on core elements, rather than focussing on the ancillary ones and allows additional time for the business to focus on it.
3) Outsourcing also provides the business with risk sharing opportunity. With elements of your project and process with a specialised vendor, it means that responsibilities fall outside of the business area. Further this reduction of risk alleviates stress in your own employees, making them more productive.
4) Outsourcing allows a reduction in both recruitment and operational overheads within a business, with a potentially quicker route to market or project completion. This potential on-cost and associated headaches is one of the key advantages of outsourcing work. Even if the hourly or project rate is higher than hiring and employee, the business may save thousand of dollars by not committing to an annual salary and associated employee benefits.
CONS
1) Confidential Information Risk can be potentially exposed when outsourcing, but the risks can be mitigated with the appropriate agreements and paperwork in place at the outset.
2) Delivery timelines and quality can be at risk if you select a sub-standard outsource partner. Therefore, ensure that you select quality and with a track record
3) Hidden costs can come and bite you back in an outsourcing model, but with correct internal alignment and timeline synchronisation internally and externally these risks can be managed.
4) Being sold the A-Team and the D-team turn up to do the work. Stories such as these are well known in the digital industry, especially when the organisation has different stakeholders involved to sign off and then run the project. Ensure that you know who and where the resources are that will be ‘doing’ your work and that there are planned regular check-ins to ensure things don’t slip and the work is on track.
Summary
In reality, most companies end up with neither an outsourced or in-house model, they go with a hybrid solution. For example, you may have marketing experts in-house and retain specialist agencies to run your development and design functions.
The team at SQUID Digital have seasoned experts, that are Australian based, in User Experience (UX), Design, Creative, Web Development, Mobile Development and Project Management to ensure that your outsourced projects and processes are successful every time.
If your thinking of exploring outsourcing a digital piece of work, we’d love to chat further.