Pragmatic Look At Outsourcing

By Author: Groshan Fabiola
Total Articles: 2678
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A large number of companies from all over the world look see outsourcing as a way to reduce their operational costs, thus increasing their chances to make it through the global economic crisis. The number of services and jobs that are suitable for outsourcing is constantly growing together with the increasing capabilities of today's technology. Whether offshore or onshore, companies are outsourcing a wide array of services, ranging from writing or transcription services to management and in some cases even customer care and technical support services.

This may seem like a bad idea because of the many known drawbacks of outsourcing and the unknown pitfalls of outsourcing, but outsourcing is seen by more and more companies as a winning solution to many of their problems. Even though there are plenty of pros to outsourcing, the large number of drawbacks should make those deciding whether or not to outsource, to really think twice about their options. One of the largest pitfalls of outsourcing is poor quality of service. Of course, we cannot generalize but out of the tens of thousands of professionals and outsourcing companies ...
... operating in every field possible, a great proportion are individuals advertising skills they do not possess.

Take writing skills for example. Believe it or not, the vast majority of so called writers advertising their services on freelancing websites have never written one page professionally. Sure, outsourcing some articles for your magazine in order to save some money is a great idea but if you fall prey to the pitfalls of outsourcing, you will only stand to lose. One of the most relevant drawbacks of outsourcing is the lack of proper work ethics and discipline. We can't generalize here either, but the reality is that a large number of all freelancers lack even the most basic work discipline. Having no one to direct their efforts leads to many freelancers becoming unreliable in the sense that they are not able to deliver projects on time, or deliver products which are of an inferior quality.

This is one of the drawbacks of outsourcing projects or services which involve a creation process. Also, two of the great pitfalls of outsourcing are insufficient communication and poor planning. Regardless of the effort you may put in, there are still considerable chances that the project will fail due to the outsourcing company or freelancer's lack of commitment. This is why, whenever you are outsourcing a project you not only have to make sure you have a strict set of guidelines to follow, but also outsource to professionals that are able to abide by your rules.

Another pitfall of outsourcing is the lack of consistency throughout the project. Even if you are able to find a professional that has proven to successfully carry out similar projects, due to slightly different demands and requirements, the professional may not be able to complete the project even if in the early stages everything was going as exactly as planned. No one can deny the benefits of outsourcing but before placing your company's funds and name on the line make sure you are well aware of all the risks and pitfalls of outsourcing.

For more resources about pitfalls of outsourcing or about drawbacks of outsourcing or even about risks for outsourcing please review these pages.