With the massive growth of organizations (due to growing demands for their services over years, bringing about the growth of their workforce, which demanded an increase of infrastructure capacity to cater for the employees in workstations, remuneration, insurance, and pension schemes), came its own challenges.
Adequate Service Delivery was also at some point a challenge, in cases where capable hands that rendered excellent services (that translated to the increase in demand of the company’s services) retired from service, were not easily replaceable with equally competent hands. Quality of services dropped, customer patronage dwindled, yet remuneration of staff, and general maintenance increased, resulting in a net-loss.
The Outsourcing Industry
With the gradual shift from in-house mass hiring to outsourcing of services to dedicated service providers, the outsourcing industry gained popularity. It became easier to sit back and let an expert handle those projects for your company, while you focused on other areas. Outsourcing still made human capital relevant, while providing solutions for your business.
Automation and Outsourcing
Automation and Outsourcing both provide cheaper, more effective and reliable ways of handling projects in organisations. However, these innovations were not without their glitches.
With automated processes and the use of machines at work, service delivery and work process improves, but human efforts are rendered obsolete.
Outsourcing like Automation, provides cost effective ways of managing your business, yet created uncertainties for some.
Although, the fear of outsourcing taking the jobs of citizens was not as big a threat as automation, which entirely displaced workers from the field.
Creating a balance
The total out-phasing of the outsourcing industry will increase operations costs and put pressures and demands on entrepreneurs.
The idea of integrated-services by outsourcing companies is being kicked against in some sects, although it only makes sense that some interrelated services are better being run concurrently, than outsourced singly to various outsourcing companies. That is, if your company required call-centre services, and telemarketing services, outsourcing the telemarketing part to a telemarketing outsourcing company, and the call-centre for inbound calls to another organisation to handle that, would require you monitoring both organisations, which would be a bit more cumbersome than keeping tabs on one company that would cater for both projects concurrently.
Keeping human capital or human resources relevant, as well as effectively handling projects, is a striking a healthy balance in workforce evolution.
Daven Michaels is a New York Times Best Selling Author and CEO of premiere global outsourcing company, 123Employee. The company employs hundreds of young bright individuals on three continents. His International event, Beyond Marketing Live! inspires entrepreneurs build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.
Quite a lot of companies and businesses have turned to business and IT outsourcing to finish cyber security and preparation of big data, in order to free up current employees and save some bulks on internal salaries.
Observations revealed that shifts in the international tech landscape will bring new levels and expectations of support for both outsourcing companies and enterprises.
Here are outsourcing trends that will revolutionize IT and business.
1. There will be Increase in Demand for Soft Skills
While hard IT skills will carry on to be in demand, soft skills will as well turn out to be essential. These consist of leadership, teamwork, and communication, which all add to the success of IT projects. There will be nowhere to hide in the lean surroundings of future engagements. Developers must get ready to fully get hold of all the skills, both soft and hard, required to vie in the marketplace of tomorrow.
2. Companies will Concentrate Less on Cost and More on Value
Despite the fact that a good number of businesses outsource IT talent as a result of costs, they are focusing on the value of services offered by these firms, more and more. The consumers of these days are highly educated and totally conscious of failures associated with outsourcing.
This, and the need to convey IT solutions fast, will enhance the need to offer better value to the customers, with meticulousness. Although businesses will pay more to enjoy high-quality service providers, they will get value for their money.
3. There will be Increase In the Growth of Emerging Tech
As more companies are eager to implement technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain as well as the need for experienced developers’ increases, they may result to outsourcing providers, who will look for a scalable way out and put together improvement teams with hard-working skill sets.
On the other hand, these providers will have to spend on employees that have skill sets in the area of big data and cloud deployment.
4. The IT skill shortage will intensify
The demand for experienced IT workers will keep increasing as more businesses become motivated by technology,—encouraging new companies to embracing outsourcing IT roles. This will lead to huge demand for core skills from outsourcers.
Programmers who are having expert skills in newer technologies will even be very hard to find, while infrastructure and network resources will also be in high demand.
Daven Michaels is a New York Times Best Selling Author and CEO of premiere global outsourcing company, 123Employee. The company employs hundreds of young bright individuals on three continents. His International event, Beyond Marketing Live! inspires entrepreneurs build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.
A startup must put its own distinctive system in place so that it can gain recognition and grow far above the elementary stage. It must consider activities like outsourcing of development, firing, training, and elements such as values, structure as well as brand as all-important. Somehow, outsourcing is a general practice used to wrap up these tasks by a lot of startups.
As a matter of fact, there are startup entrepreneurs who outsource almost every task. This is due to the fact that outsourcing leads to high degrees of productivity at reasonably lower costs.
The fact is that, it is possible for you to outsource every facet of your business if you wish, but in establishing how imperative one facet of growth to each startup is, it is very important to look closely at the following things concerning outsourcing.
Producing a brand you will be proud of needs premeditated efforts. Making a decision about who handles your development is one of the intrepid steps involved. A good number of the available startup entrepreneurs prefer working with agencies. Don’t forget that there are benefits and drawbacks to each, whether you are going for individual freelancers or employing an agency. Therefore, carry out your findings first.
2. Think about the Standards of Technology
Technology has actually redefined and reshapes app and web development or any other kind of development you can think of. As a result, think about the technology standards you are using whenever you are outsourcing.
3. Incorporate Bespoke Communication
Make sure you don’t outsource development if there is no assurance of a personalized or bespoke communication. This is due to the fact that you will sooner or later come across technical problems at the completion of the project.
4. Get Updates on the Progress of Your Company Regularly
The truth here is that you are in charge and full control of your business. As a result, don’t follow the bandwagon of other founders and Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) who hand over to 100 percent management and control of the development of their companies to a third party.
You must get regular updates on the progress of your company on regular basis to be informed about the behind-the-scene procedures, even as outsourcing development is vital. Be involved in the ongoing development, rather than only the end result. Offer ideas, respond to questions and provide suggestions when necessary.
Daven Michaels is a New York Times Best Selling Author and CEO of premiere global outsourcing company, 123Employee. The company employs hundreds of young bright individuals on three continents. His International event, Beyond Marketing Live! inspires entrepreneurs build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.
As an entrepreneur, you always have more business operations to carry out, but the problem is that there is no much time to do it. This is the reason the majority of successful business owners outsource particular tasks to specialized freelance contractors to provide priceless time-saving services for a fee.
It is easier and more suitable to hire people to carry out tasks for a fee on an ongoing or one-time basis in the Internet based service economy of these days.
Here are five tasks you should think about outsourcing to experts, and a number of resources for finding skilled experts.
1. Administrative Assistance
A Virtual Administrative Assistant (VA) is probably all you need to restructure the annoying process and prevent you from being flooded by a steady flow of messages. VAs can perform some other clerical and secretarial tasks like making travel plans and appointments scheduling, in addition to prioritizing and consolidating your correspondence.
2. Taxes and Accounting
As a matter of fact, there is no successful business owner that should do his own taxes. Remaining on top of expenses is more complex and protracted and the bigger your business, the more complicating the process becomes. Outsourcing your taxes and accounting tasks to a reputable and specialized person will help you develop your business, and provide you wise advice. A CPA or Certified Professional Accountant will systematize your finances and help you identify areas of your business that will yield the most income. The best way to get a qualified CPA is through a word of mouth.
3. Social Media and Writing
Outsourcing to a professional writer is the best way to go when you need newsletter articles, premium blog posts, website verbiage, whitepaper reports, marketing materials such as ad copy and brochures, as well as case studies. On the other hand, a lot of writers can produce content for your social media profiles to get your message out on the available social media platforms.
4. Web Research
Whether you are collecting statistics and information for a future presentation or checking contacts or names of companies for a lead list, a web researcher can research information for you. Hence, consider outsourcing your web research to freelance contractors.
5. Graphic Design and Web Development
A specialized graphic designer will help your business to look its best, whether you are looking for a prettier website, striking print materials, and a brand-defining logo. There is always a web developer and graphic designer with the visual skills, aesthetic sensibilities, and talent to enhance your company brand and your vision, no matter your goals.
Daven Michaels is a New York Times Best Selling Author and CEO of premiere global outsourcing company, 123Employee. The company employs hundreds of young bright individuals on three continents. His International event, Beyond Marketing Live! inspires entrepreneurs build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.
Outsourcing is creeping into various aspects of businesses nowadays. Reports and studies have shown that businesses that outsource grow faster than those who do not. Maybe because these companies need it to grow rapidly. These companies are also known to have a lower number of employees as outsourcing cuts off the need to recruit extra in-house staff to handle tasks.
As a business person, it is difficult to do everything effectively on your own. As a result, there is need to outsource to a virtual assistant. Virtual assistants often known as VA are usually self-employed and work remotely from home. They offer professional, administrative or technical assistance to clients. Note that outsourcing involves contracting major functions of your business to a reliable third party online service provider. These providers when proven eventually turn out to be partners.
Business owners struggle when they try to do too many tasks all by themselves. It is wiser to leverage on the capacity of smart people who will help you get the job done effectively. There are various tasks that you could outsource to a virtual assistant such as personal errands, transcription services, customer support, social media accounts, email marketing among many others.
A virtual assistant frees up a lot of valuable time for the business owner to focus on other productive aspects of the business. This effectively reduces stress. Many more companies are beginning to understand the benefits of outsourcing to a virtual assistant, thereby creating more demand for the role.
However, to ensure that outsourcing to a virtual assistant is effective, there are necessary steps you need to take.
Organize yourself: Knowing what to outsource and what to keep in-house can sometimes be confusing to a business owner. First of all, reflect on the core activities of your business. Unravel what business tasks you need to do yourself for your business to be successful. Only when you have figured that out can you consider external support through outsourcing.
Begin little: As a business owner who has finally made the decision to outsource certain tasks, it necessary to take it gradually. Start from a few tasks so you do not overwhelm your VA with plenty tasks already while he doesn’t know enough about your business.
Build relationship with your VA: Help your VA understand your business goals and build a lasting relationship as it will only help contribute to increasing your business productivity. Do not forget to give steady feedback to your virtual assistant.
Outsourcing provides flexibility and increases business productivity as it frees up valuable time you will need to perform other core business tasks. It equally cuts out the budget needed to sustain new staff. As a business owner, outsourcing to a virtual assistant is one of the best decisions you will make.
Daven Michaels is a New York Times Best Selling Author and CEO of premiere global outsourcing company, 123Employee. The company employs hundreds of young bright individuals on three continents. His International event, Beyond Marketing Live! inspires entrepreneurs build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.
2017 was a year that marked a rapid increase in partnerships between clients and outsourced customer service, when it comes to outsourcing. The change in the way customers hear about products and then turn customers has been a major driving factor of this increase. The marketing professionals refer to this as the “customer journey”.
The “customer journey” experience has become more difficult. Normally, a potential customer will come across a marketing campaign, seek additional information, compare products and maybe make a purchase. In the case where a problem arises, they follow up customer service with a mail or call. Now, there has been a complete makeover in the way customers gain access to information about products. Information about a product can now be seen on social media, online customer review or recommendation. Many brands now offer options to purchase online, thereby changing the way, customers make purchases.
As a result of this behavioral change in consumers, outsourcing has been affected in terms of how brands need to create awareness for their products, how brands need to offer omni-channel experience, so as to diversify how customers get product information and make purchases.
This fast changing nature in business structure has increased the need for outsourcing services. Brands find it easier to run customer services functions and marketing by outsourcing to experts who have apt knowledge of how marketing, service environment and omni-sales work. This has resulted in a closer relationship, or rather partnership between customers and suppliers that deliver customer service, IT or marketing services like www.123employee.com. In the modern business environment, they are better referred to as partners.
This is a trend that will seemingly continue as business are exploring the significance of an omni-sales channel business environment for their customer service processes and IT systems.
Alongside the uptrend in outsourcing services, there have been a couple of strong trends, especially in Europe like the GDPR. The EU General Data Protection regulation that was enforced on May 25, 2018 changed how enterprises in Europe store and make use of data. This massive overturn in data storage gives customers the upper hand. You are no longer allowed to capture customer data if you cannot simply state to your customers what you want to use their data for. Note that huge fines apply for defaulters of this new rule. Businesses worried about legislation are turning to outsourcing services to ensure compliance of their systems.
The need for detailed analysis of captured customer data has increased security needs, which is covered by complying with the new GDPR approach. This change in procedures has led to increase in outsourcing to fix these issues.
The increased desire for businesses to understand their customers has resulted in demand for more customer data & improved data analysis. As this requires GDPR compliance, outsourcing helps to deliver these tremendous business benefits. Outsourcing services are in for a good time, as expertise in data analysis, management and security will be in huge demand.
Daven Michaels is a New York Times Best Selling Author and CEO of premiere global outsourcing company, 123Employee. The company employs hundreds of young bright individuals on three continents. His International event, Beyond Marketing Live! inspires entrepreneurs build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.
Security is usually not a one man affair. As human beings, we all have to tendency to rely on others for protection against threats of different forms. Your neighbors, lawyers, police etc all form part of this guard. However, you equally have a responsibility because you become less secure if you are reckless about risks. This is the same for businesses and the cyber-word. Businesses need to collaborate with international outsourcing services due to the complexity and epidemic nature of today’s threats.
Still, businesses have to perform some of its functions in-house. When it comes to security, what kind of IT security functions should you do in-house and which should you outsource?
Cloud computing
It can be very challenging to answer those questions as the boundaries between internal and external IT resources are not always clear. Thanks to cloud computing as departments rely on SaaS (software as a service) tools hosted on public clouds and set up business apps on private clouds with third-party data centers.
With the advancement of the Internet of Things (IoT), the IT domain is bound to broaden. Due to the democratization of IT, almost anyone can add a SaaS app or any other cloud service to a to a corporate IT estate. The individual may or may not have reviewed the regulatory compliance, network architecture and certifications of the provider. Nevertheless, an enterprise has outsourced much of their security just by making use of these services.
Governing, managing of risks and compliance
Although businesses can verify the licence of Outsourced IT providers, they are not in the position to verify their performance. Executives do not outsource their governance, because it represents important matters of corporate identity and business ethics.
As for risk management, it is for the top executives to set tolerance for risk while the responsibility to validate regulatory outcomes falls on the chief compliance officers. These expanding intricacies and scarcity of expertise have made businesses resort to outsourcing when it comes to compliance and risk management of IT.
For businesses, matters overlapping with corporate governance like risks management should stay in-house while IT resources and other security related management can be outsourced by utilizing SaaS and other cloud computing tools.
It is the responsibility of businesses, large or small to develop a consciousness for security, which ensures that every employee (from C-level executives to hourly employees) acquires the necessary tools, knowledge and exposure. However, collaborating adequately with reliable outsourcing services group remains the only way for enterprises to meet up with looming cyber attacks that are increasing.
Daven Michaels is a New York Times Best Selling Author and CEO of premiere global outsourcing company, 123Employee. The company employs hundreds of young bright individuals on three continents. His International event, Beyond Marketing Live! inspires entrepreneurs build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.
There is no disputing the role and impact that information technology (IT) has had in our world today. From the way we communicate to how we do and build business, IT has revolutionized almost every aspect of our modern world. This is such that businesses and intelligence organization alike now depend on IT to effectively function. This is not all; there are many that now suggest that cyber warfare will be the next frontier of global espionage. What this means is that businesses are all the more investing into different forms and formats of information technology use and this is at no cheap cost to their business. Nevertheless, with outsourcing many can now maximize the benefits of information technology for different purposes at a more rational cost.
We would be considering below 3 key areas where this appropriately applies.
Save it on the Cloud
The cloud has really been one of the innovations that have helped big corporations handle their data. Cloud computing as it is referred to can help business firm transfer their applications to the cloud from where they can be operated. There are different outsourcing teams that can be used for this with maximal benefits. Traditionally, getting a company to help you with cloud computing can be very expensive but by outsourcing it you will be saving your business a whole lot of money.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence or AI refers to the use of robotic technology to deliver services. This works through complex algorithm of automation. A lot of people have raised concerns of humans losing jobs as AI continues to gain ability to perform various tasks. But their ability to perform human task expeditiously and with almost zero error still makes it something that many are willing to invest in. The quality of this automation technology however would depend on how it was implemented from the onset. So depending on the automated solutions that you seek, outsourcing would provide a great way to get the best from artificial intelligence.
Hosted Applications
There are different applications that are hosted on the clouds for different companies. Companies and businesses today now have applications that enhance the smooth operation of their business. These apps often run on subscription and are quite efficient in areas such as financial management and customer relationship management.
This would take way the need for traditional infrastructural setup and as such help the enterprise to save a lot of money. These applications can be outsourced to teams who specialize in developing quality apps and with cloud storage that helps smooth operations.
Daven Michaels is a New York Times Best Selling Author and CEO of premiere global outsourcing company, 123Employee. The company employs hundreds of young bright individuals on three continents. His International event, Beyond Marketing Live! inspires entrepreneurs build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.
Since the internet and online marketing became the main stay for most private companies, outsourcing has rapidly become an integral part of this. Many businesses and companies use outsourcing because of its many benefits from the economical aspect to the potential pool of highly skilled workers that are available. There are however some misconceptions about outsourcing that are common today and below we would look at 5 of them.
Culture could be negatively impacted
Of course by culture one is referring to the culture in the organization. Some believe that because outsourcing involves getting workers who are not necessarily a part of the organization there could be a disruption of the organization’s structure. But this is not true and if the organization has a concrete framework on operations anyone can easily be incorporated into it.
You do not need to have a plan
Some people think that just because you can get anyone to work on the project at anytime you do not need a strategy put in place for the project. But this is not true and if you just outsource your work haphazardly, the project would either be poorly done eventually or remain incomplete which is worse.
Disruption in Communication
This is another misconception that gives people concern about outsourcing but it is not true. Once there is a well spelt out chain of command that one can follow, there would be no need for there to be a communication breakdown from outsourcing.
Outsourcing is an exclusive preserve for big businesses
This is one of the most common misconceptions. People believe outsourcing is meant mainly for big corporations that require hundreds to thousands of staffs. But nothing could be farther from the truth. As a matter of fact, small business may need outsourcing more to enable them to grow. This economical benefit means that they would spend less, save more and get quality hands to work for them.
Conflict of Interest is more with outsourcing
Finally, there is the issue of conflict of interest when it comes to outsourcing. But if the outsourcing team knows their role there is no need to fear a potential takeover or rights as to who’s project the work is. The outsourcing team should be well aware of the implications of offering their service to your business and why you retain the rights to the services rendered. If this is done right then the issue of conflict of interest would be nonexistent.
Daven Michaels is a New York Times Best Selling Author and CEO of premiere global outsourcing company, 123Employee. The company employs hundreds of young bright individuals on three continents. His International event, Beyond Marketing Live! inspires entrepreneurs build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.
It is certainly outsourcing all the way. Business process outsourcing or BPO as it is popularly called happened to be incredibly attractive for a lot of companies. This is due to the fact that shifting jobs offshore reduces cost even as the quality of the work performed does not suffer. However, BPO was not stable, just like any other industry paradigm.
BPO has grown into a refined and risk-free trend applied by a lot of businesses. Looking at it from the present situation of the market, BPO is just going to become larger. Come 2020, it is anticipated that BPO will turn out to be a multi billion market.
Here are a number of shifting trends that have actually used to reshape the BPO industry into what it is now.
1. BPO was Set Aside for Large Enterprises
Outsourcing was reserved for only the large business ventures, in a decade ago. Despite the fact that the price and quality of services were disproportional, small and mid-size companies were able to outsource their business processes. As a matter of fact, small and medium-sized companies jeopardized getting their budget drained, so that they can get to the best service.
Luckily, a new trend surfaced as business process outsourcing partners who give out their BPO services as mediators. They have the ability to offer the best reasonably priced services even for the wallets of small businesses, with their access and connections to assets, infrastructure, and talents. This, of course, was why outsourcing is very popular in the small and mid-sized business niche.
2. IT Plays a Vital Role Nowadays
It is true that BPO companies make use of the power of IT in their operations. This is for the purpose of cutting down expenses, establishing a better digital presence and making the procedure more efficient. Nowadays, IT is a very important aspect of the industry, but it was simply a tool used by BPO companies before.
IT has giving BPO companies the opportunity to increase their value to businesses further, by making use of the most modern technologies. Businesses can now gain access to BPO services such as social media platforms, cloud computing, process automation and several kinds of business analytics software, as an alternative to hiring top talent, investing in technology and infrastructure.
3. Communication Developed into Teamwork
Communication was one of the vital areas of outsourcing associated with the success of the whole process in the past. It was not possible to look forward to a good success of an outsourcing if there is no efficient communication. Communication development in the business world of today has made it a part of the teamwork.
From all indications, BPO industry is vulnerable to a lot of factors and IT is not the only factor that influences it. Human factor supported by expertise, knowledge and skills still remains the greatest shaping potential in the current BPO market.
Daven Michaels is a New York Times Best Selling Author and CEO of premiere global outsourcing company, 123Employee. The company employs hundreds of young bright individuals on three continents. His International event, Beyond Marketing Live! inspires entrepreneurs build & grow their business with revolutionary new theories and systems allowing them to design the business and personal lifestyle of their dreams.
