Outsourcing

In recent years outsourcing has been seen as a solution to many organisational issues including but not restricted to costs reduction, competitiveness, expansion and time to market strategies.Although outsourcing has the potential to certainly help the organisation to address those areas in a very effective way, it is also extremely important that other aspects of the equation are consideredwhen a company decided to take such a big jump.
In the first place, the organisation needs to consider and carefully determine what areas of the business they are planning to delegate to a third partyor potentially even a remote location (off-shoring) and the impact that any malfunctioning on these areas could have in the running of the organisation. If a company chooses the wrong tasks andfunctions and allows capability and “know-how” to get away from their control, their core business can be seriously affected.
Secondly consideration should be also given to the impact of job losses andlack of job security that outsourcing can generate among the workforce.
It is also important to ensure that a Business Contingency Plan is in place in order to minimise the impact of any eventuality inthe operational capacity.
And finally but not less importantly a well structured Business Plan that includes a SMART strategy. SMART standing for:
Specific – Making sure that the contract,supplier’s evaluation and implementation is documented in a comprehensive way including objectives and scope of services.
Measurable – Ensuring that a range of Standard Level Agreements (SLA) is in place toguarantee both visibility and control in the outsourced activities.
Achievable/Agreed upon – Realistic expectations and deliverables are part of the plan
Realistic/Result oriented – To have arealistic timeframe before evaluating results as well as clear defined objectives is key.
Tangible/Traceable – Operational Level Agreements (OLA) are also needed as the specific requirements in terms of...