For many companies, outsourcing is the new way to control the most critical support functions. Thanks to this solution, the company that uses it is more competitive.
If you are successful, it is because you outsource your most time-consuming activities to outside vendors and focus on those that allow you to improve your performance. Then you can provide services that are better suited to the actual needs of consumers. Outsourcing an activity is a practical technique, but to use it better it is necessary to identify some main elements.
Outsourcing: what is it?
When a company decides to outsource an activity, it hires an external service provider and delivers it to them. Subcontracting then consists of entrusting an external professional with the tasks that were originally carried out internally. The customer uses this solution to focus more on their core business. He dedicates his best human, financial and material resources to it.
The activities considered in outsourcing are different. They can range from IT services to communications, human resources, accounting, and marketing solutions. The outsourcing operation can be carried out in the short, medium or long term; it is the real demands of society that prevail in this case.
The benefits of outsourcing
Business outsourcing is an interesting option because it has many benefits. Used well, this method allows the company to demonstrate its competitiveness.
Focus on your core business
This is usually the main benefit of outsourcing. When a company uses this method, it ends up with fewer activities and functionalities, especially those with less added value but which are still important. Then you can focus more on the main features without losing your pizzazz. This favorable situation contributes to its full growth on several levels.
More flexibility
A flexible or flexible company is a company that optimally adapts to changes within its field. By using the intervention of an external service provider for a specific mission, the company is given the opportunity to increase its flexibility. Responses are tailored to the needs of customers. The service is also optimized.
Better cost control
Outsourcing allows the company to reduce business expenses. In fact, the hiring of personnel and their training to carry out a project are important items of expenditure. The salary burden increases over a long period of time. Thanks to outsourcing, missions are delivered to a professional for a defined period at a fixed price. There is no hiring process to complete, much less create open contracts. The company does not have to take charge of the social contributions that correspond to the personnel. It also reduces your investments and inventories in the long run.
An improvement in the quality of services
In the outsourcing market, external service providers specialize in a certain area. Therefore, they offer high-quality services at affordable prices. The company that requests it can take advantage of its experience to improve its own services. The service provider offers the opportunity to benefit from all the innovations in the sector.
Get a new skill
Outsourcing enriches the company that adopts it to the extent that it receives services from professionals specialized in a given field. These bring new skills to the ordering company and increase its competitiveness. You can perform some missions more efficiently without wasting a lot of time.
Are there any risks in outsourcing?
Outsourcing is definitely a method that increases the competitiveness of the company that adopts it. But it is not without its fables. These are risks that it is important to identify in order to better avoid them.
Risks related to the project itself
These are the risks associated with the outsourced activity itself. They are generally due to poor preparation of the outsourcing project by the manager.
Risks associated with the external service provider
When the customer chooses an unreliable third-party provider, it is certain that the goals of outsourcing can no longer be achieved. This is one of the reasons why the choice of provider must be made with care. For this, it will be necessary to take into account the legal risks linked to the contract as well as the socio-economic and political context of the country where the external professional is located.
There is also a risk of loss of competition that the principal must take into account. Providing this allows the company to re-internalize the activity without fear of a loss of productivity.
Risks related to the execution of the subcontractor’s project
When the outsourcing project starts, you may encounter various issues. These are generally:
Dysfunctional performance issues of the external professional;
Delays in delivery
Concerns about additional costs etc.
In addition to these risks:
The risk of losing knowledge of professional data
The risk of dependence on the external service provider.
How to avoid the risks associated with outsourcing?
You can prevent the risks associated with outsourcing. Therefore, the client company must establish an accurate consignment note. The latter informs the objectives and conditions of the subcontracting contract without forgetting the means of control.
It will be important to take stock of the strengths and areas of the company. In relation to the service provider, it will also be necessary to precisely determine his areas of expertise in order to offer him services that he can cover. This type of relationship, trust must exist between the principal and the subcontractor.
Addition to this, the outsourced activity must be monitored regularly to ensure that tasks and delivery deadlines are respected. A board can be set up for the case.
Several good arguments support the outsourcing of an activity. This very practical method and now widely used by several companies is a means of competitiveness. However, its implementation requires serious preparation.
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How to outsource an activity?
For a company that wants to be competitive in a constantly changing environment, it is important to outsource certain activities. Outsourcing then becomes a means of competitiveness, insofar as it allows the ordering company to be faster and focus on its core business. But taking an outsourcing operation, even activities without great added value, should not be taken lightly. The business manager must take the time to analyze certain key parameters.
What are the reasons for outsourcing an activity?
Outsourcing represents a real interest for the company that wants to focus on its core business to ensure the fulfillment of its objectives. If you entrust secondary activities to an external service provider, you focus your human and material resources on high value-added activities.
Outsource to focus on business development.
Running a business is a full-time activity. To keep its growth curve ascending, it is required that the commercial manager is constantly looking for new clients, developing his list of partners and suppliers without forgetting to develop the offer. He must also communicate, recruit and train.
To all these activities must be added the weight of French economic and administrative constraints. These generate many time-consuming, low-value-added tasks. The company that wants to manage all these activities on its own quickly finds itself trapped. To focus on the main activities, it will be necessary to free yourself from all the time-consuming tasks. It is at this level that the usefulness of an administrative task outsourcing operation is revealed.
Outsource to benefit from a dynamic and scalable vision
When a business manager starts a project, he generally needs the support of a professional. In most cases, companies turn to the auditor. Unfortunately, the latter cannot always offer effective options; focuses more on the accounting of the company than on the real needs of dynamism and development of this. Using the skills of a professional who specializes in a certain field is undoubtedly one of the best ways to advise on integrated services adapted to the real needs of each one.
Outsource to reduce expenses and better control the budget
Outsourcing human resources, for example, is an ideal technique for keeping a tight budget. In reality, the company does not have to make new hires, train recruits, and manage new payroll costs. On the market, several external providers offer à la carte services. The company knows in advance the time it will take for the provider to carry out the subcontracted missions as well as their fixed costs. The budget is under control and the company guarantees a good performance of the trustworthy services.
Outsource to benefit from sensitive issues expertise
Once the Back-Office functions are taken care of internally, the company quickly faces a major problem: lack of experience. In fact, human resource management, accounting, legal and administrative functions require real skills. The slightest mistake can lead to heavy penalties (fiscal or social adjustment, penalties, fines, etc.).
For ex. By choosing to outsource production and other sensitive activities, the business owner can be assured of an experience worthy of the name. It ensures that the legal and fiscal framework is respected, as well as the other regulations that govern these areas. It protects the company directly in terms of liability.
Outsource to ensure flexibility and business continuity
The management of all internal activities exposes the entrepreneur to two options. First, he can decide to control all the functions. However, this option will have a significant impact on your schedule in terms of strict fiscal, social and administrative obligations.
The second option is to hire an employee who can handle these functions. But in this case, for example, the entrepreneur is exposed to training, compensation and absence, best real estate wholesaling.
To avoid all these hassles, outsourcing logistics to better restructure the business seems to be one of the best options. Faced with the vagaries of the life of a company, it ensures the continuity of activities.
What activities can be outsourced?
A company can decide to outsource the chosen activity. We offer you a non-exhaustive list.
Human resources
Hiring new employees takes time. This activity takes time. However, when the company decides to outsource this task to a third-party provider, such as a recruiting firm, it saves time. It is up to the company according to the needs of the client to place announcements, receive and analyze CVs and organize interviews. The entrepreneur should only meet the candidate (s) selected for the vacant post at the time of signing the contract.
Responsibility
Managing business accounts cannot be learned in an instant. It takes several years of accounting training. In addition, the rules in the field are very strict; errors are not allowed. To eliminate the fear of a VAT miscalculation, for example, seeking professional intervention in the case is the right option. Accounting outsourcing also ensures the transparency of your accounts.
Valid
Laws are regularly voted. Some replace the old ones, while others are intended to supplement them. It can be very easy to get lost in this legal jungle. Using the skills of qualified lawyers Townsville allows you to stay up to date and avoid mistakes as no one should ignore the law.
Pay
The salary is the moment. In addition, it obeys constantly changing laws. For example, the calculation of contributions is often not the same by. An. Outsourcing this task allows compliance with the regulations in force.
Delivery
Outsourcing saves time. The company responds quickly through specialized players to delivery requests from its customers. Your level of competitiveness can see real growth with customer satisfaction at this point.
The call center
Professionals in this field provide dynamic teams to support telemarketing campaigns. The service can be provided on a full-time basis. These experts can also respond quickly and efficiently to customer phone calls. The company improves its image and its constant presence with its customers.
Ad
This is important for a company that wants to increase its notoriety. You have to communicate well. This requires mastering and applying the right methods. The company must understand the advantages and disadvantages of the solutions it wishes to use to influence through its campaigns.
Writing
Writing quickly and well requires the practice of certain methods. It is a profession in itself. This activity is time consuming and its profitability is variable; but it’s still important. These are the reasons why it is imperative to entrust this task to an expert.
Various other activities can be transferred to an external service provider. These include:
Community manager;
The relationship with the press;
Reception and telephone appointments;
Maintenance;
Family;
IT management;
Manufacturing;
Production;
Logistics.
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The stages of a good business outsourcing
The outsourcing of the employees of a company or other activity, regardless of the added value, requires the implementation of certain elements. It is a whole process that deserves a good organization.
Define business needs
The first thing to do is define the real needs of the client. To do this, you need to ask yourself a few main questions:
What are the reasons for opting for an outsourcing of construction companies for SMEs? (experience, cost, quality of service, etc.)
Will the service be maintained within the company? It will move? ;
How long does the outsourcing last? (temporary or short term, medium term, long term, etc.)
Which internal staff will be affected by outsourcing?
What are the expected performances?
These are some important questions, among many others, to which it is important to find answers before any action. This is when the company is considering outsourcing business processes.
Write clear and precise specifications
Once the needs are defined, writing the specifications is the next step for the company to tackle. This document is even more important since it allows the trust missions to be clearly informed, as well as their order of priority. Contains a full description of each outsourced function. Then it will be much easier to make sure you have the same wavelength as the third party provider.
Choose your third party provider
This is one of the crucial stages in the success of the outsourcing operation. To do this, the commercial manager must take the time to compare the suppliers that respond to his offer without focusing too much on the price. While it is important, it is not very crucial. It should depend more on the experience and skills of the service provider, given the missions they have already performed. You can even ask for opinions from clients the provider has worked with.
Given the quality of the relationship that is established, it also contributes to a good choice. The business manager must be able to trust the professional with whom he is discussing his project. You must take into account the vision that the service provider has for the project. It becomes easier with communication over the phone, Skype, or face-to-face.
To find an external service provider, it can be interesting to look for expert platforms. Various venues connect professionals from all walks of life. Profile analysis can help you make the right decision. The entrepreneur must take the time before a final choice to test his professional skills.
Establish the subcontractor
The time has come to move on to the drafting of the outsourcing contract. This mandatory document defines the basis for the collaboration. The main elements that this contract should mention are:
Outsourced Mission Details
The destination of the software and equipment to be used.
Details of internal corporate procedures
The exact schedule to establish the outsourcing operation;
The size of the service.
Define a monitoring system for outsourced missions.
To take advantage of outsourcing, mastery of collaboration tools becomes crucial for the ordering business. She allows herself to be in permanent contact with the service provider. You will be able to share documents that are important to the success of missions and exchange them more easily with the professional. The monitoring system or collaboration tool also allows the company to know the exact execution status of each task. Other devices or software that can be used for this purpose include:
Gentle;
Asanas;
Trello;
Mailbox;
Skype;
Google Drive.
Prepare for back sourcing
A smartly prepared outsourcing operation is one that takes care of your outsourcing. The company plans to return to the internal processing phase for outsourced tasks at the end of the contract. It is much easier for him to deal with various unforeseen events in case of dissatisfaction.
The success of an activity outsourcing an activity also depends on the quality of the exchange between the principal and the subcontractor. The commercial manager must communicate regularly with his professional about the development of projects. Then avoid situations of misunderstandings in the performance of missions.