Outsourcing has become a crucial component of how businesses function to keep up competitiveness in today’s rapidly evolving business environment. Outsourcing has evolved over time from its early roots in cost savings to a strategic tool for firms to adapt, scale, and grow. In this article, we’ll explore the future of outsourcing and where this dynamic industry is heading.
Current Global Outsourcing Situation
Since its inception in the 1980s, outsourcing has progressed significantly. Initially, it was mostly connected to regular jobs and call centers. Nowadays, however, almost every task may be outsourced. From customer support to IT development, businesses are increasingly leveraging outsourcing to access specialized skills and resources.
The global outsourcing market has grown significantly, rising from $85.6 billion in 2018 to $92.5 billion in 2019. This increased trend suggests that the industry is growing rapidly rather than just surviving.
How Outsourcing Remains Important
Experts have been projecting the uncertain “demise” of the industry. With the likelihood of automation approaching, it is expected that non-core and repetitious occupations will soon become obsolete, effectively ending outsourcing.
The pandemic showed that outsourcing is a timeless industry with limitless opportunities. It filled the gaps in certain aspects that companies once looked over and avoided.
The industry, in particular, produced solutions for the following aspects:
- Sustaining business continuity: According to a Small Business Administration (SBA) report, around 25% of small firms affected by disasters failed to reopen. Yelp even reported a higher rate of permanent close-downs in 2020, during the peak of the pandemic. One cause for this is a lack of business continuity planning, especially among startups. Surviving businesses were able to maintain business continuity by outsourcing just when they needed it the most. They could easily manage the risks and threats that come with running an operation. This way, these misses will be handled better with the help of their service provider.
- Cost-saving tool: One of the primary reasons firms chose to outsource during the pandemic was to save money. With physical stores closing due to lockdowns, startups, and small businesses were unable to keep up with their expenses and labor costs while losing profits. The epidemic helped businesses recognize that outsourcing is the best way to keep costs low while running their businesses efficiently. Not to mention they can easily plug and play with their services and scale them easier whenever they need it.
- Encouraging remote work: Working remotely is not a new concept; firms such as WordPress have long used it to their advantage. In 2019, a growing number of firms want to enable remote work and balance it with in-house workers. Despite this, many firms, particularly large corporations, are still cautious about remote employment. This is because they have become used to managing their employees in a physical office. When firms were obliged to work remotely during the pandemic, several changes had to be implemented. Outsourcing made it easier for them to implement remote work and react to a digital world to give their clients uninterrupted service.
- Overcoming the Skills Gap: According to reports, the pandemic worsened the world’s already-existing skills gap. As the most in-demand jobs increased, more non-core work eventually became irrelevant, leading to an increasing gap between the demand and supply for workers. Aside from that, due to budget and travel limitations, small enterprises were unable to acquire suitable personnel in-house. This is where corporations benefited the most from outsourcing. Despite local employment limits and limitations, corporations were able to hire the greatest personnel from outside their area at a fraction of the cost of local teams.
Should you consider outsourcing in the future?
Outsourcing will improve in the future as the industry continues to improve. As the globe has become more globalized, competition among companies has grown stronger while those who stuck to their old practices quickly became outdated. When an organization outsources, it can now keep up with its competition and better adapt to evolving environments.
Getting started in outsourcing is simple; World Class Contact Centers (WCCC) is just a phone call or email away. Contact us today and take the first step towards streamlining your operations and boosting efficiency!
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