Businesses have offshored various operations to other countries like India from a long time to get the work done in affordable rates. In the contemporary business world outsourcing from being a cost-saving measure has become a business strategy tool.
Today, the goal of outsourcing has become much more than making operations cheaper or improving existing operations. “Intellectual arbitrage” is a new phase to which the value gained from outsourcing has moved.
Its role has now shifted to making use of talent and partnering, such as with Professional Employer Organizations (PEO) who hire and take care of HR needs on their clients’ behalf, in various geographies as well as time zones.. This allows the growth and achievement of key business objectives along with winning market share.
Just like the manufacturing supply chain which went global before two decades, services value has also been seen going global in the last few years. Have you ever noticed what is written on the back side of the iPad? The inscription on it reads as “designed by Apple in California, assembled in China”. In the same way. Without the global supply chain, Caffe Nero could not pour a cup of coffee.
Like in manufacturing, the same thing is depicted in services as well. Let us take the instance of processing of car or life claims. Earlier everything used to conducted at one location. For example, let’s say the UK with offices across the country. But today the working has been spread all over the globe and now do not exist in the same way as before.
In order to gain the best results and access to the best talent, outsourcing is evolving into a global way of working. There are certain hotspots of outsourcing. Let’s get a greater view of this:
Some outsourcing markets like China, India, the Philippines are well-established and still working very well. There are many other regions apart from these that are starting to make their mark in the outsourcing world.
Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, and South Africa are among such emerging markets. These markets are offering multi-skilled, highly competitive and employable talent. Along with this, they have a high work ethic and strong language as well as domain skills.
Apart from these, the other advantages are sound telecom and IT infrastructure, cost-effectiveness, convenience to travel and excellent connectivity. The government is also supporting these countries with business-friendly procedures and policies.
This is prospering the political, social and economic outlook. However, it is impractical to assume that a single location can offer every single thing to all. In fact, they are complementing to each other. This has made the business of global sourcing procurement dynamic.
For example, India leads in enterprise application services, voice-based BPO solutions, and the key strength of China sourcing companies lie in specification-driven execution. Every country has its own specialization and the emerging markets will also develop such expertise which will depend on the set of skills and education available.
In the next few years, we expect to see many other emerging markets becoming attractive service delivery centers. Some of them might be Latin American and EU countries.
The role of innovation:
Innovation is the key focus for companies which are planning to expand globally. This will help them outshine among competitors as they will introduce something new. To get a greater insight into the best use of technology as well as ways of working, more and more businesses are contacting the outsourcing providers.
Analytics, social media and cloud technologies are driving business technologies. Businesses need to assess which organizations are most relevant to them as well as they should be trusted service suppliers.
Final words:
Globalization has changed the complete outlook and working of the outsourcing world. In order to assure success, businesses need to get in partnership with global sourcing companies.
