preview

Offshoring Benefits

Good Essays

Many business executives believe "offshoring" to be the destiny of any company that wants to remain competitive. Labor costs can be reduced by 25-30% or more, and companies across the country are doing it. How can responsible corporate officers not consider the offshoring option for their companies? But what are the real benefits and the pitfalls of offshoring? When does it make sense to pursue outsourcing, and how can you safely take advantage of lower cost resources in other countries without risk or loss of quality?

Background:

Moving jobs to cheaper work forces is nothing new. Even as recently as a few decades ago, significant segments of the manufacturing sector were transferred to locations such as Mexico, where labor was cheaper. Although …show more content…

Only 5 to 10 percent are using offshoring for complex projects and mission-critical operations. However, this is likely to change.

Sixty-four percent of finance executives polled recently responded that they planned to do more offshoring in the next two years. A great portion of recently offshored jobs paid $50,000 or more before being transferred overseas. Although much of the offshoring has been in the information technology area, call centers, finance functions, data entry, and human resource operations have also been outsourced.

Benefits:

There is no doubt that the primary benefit of offshoring is the cost savings. The ITAA estimates that outsourcing currently saves U.S. companies about $7 billion and that by 2008 the number will climb to $20 billion. The savings from offshoring varies. In the same survey cited above, over forty percent surveyed said they were saving as much as twenty percent or more. Nearly the same number are saving from ten to twenty percent.

Hazards:

The savings do not tell the whole story, however. Offshoring does have hazards which companies considering the option must …show more content…

Know what you want to accomplish and how much it should cost you.

· Offshore non-critical functions: Maintain the integrity of your core competencies by offshoring only non-critical functions. And start small. Just as you wouldn't jump in too deeply with a domestic company before gaining some history and confidence in the company, so should you be similarly cautious with offshoring partners.

· Know what to offshore: Software development, data entry, and transaction processing have been successful; customer service and voice interaction are more risky.

· Choose the right location: The type of work being outsourced will influence the location. India has gained a reputation for software development. Between 2003 and 2004 it has seen over a 30% growth in software and IT service exports, and by the year ending in March, 2004, Indian companies have earned $12.5 billion in technology exports. But India is not the only source of reliable but inexpensive labor. Countries such as China, the Philippines, Romania, Argentina, and even Ghana and Ireland are all centers for offshore operations of various

Get Access