In today’s demanding consumer landscape, companies leverage every opportunity to stay ahead. Strategic outsourcing is a tried-and-tested way to improve an organization’s efficiency, reduces costs, and produces better goods and services. Through such a partnership, a business can utilize the expertise and assets of a strategic outsourcing company, giving it an edge over competitors.
Let’s take a deeper look at what strategic outsourcing is, identify its critical benefits, and dive into different types of strategic outsourcing solutions.
What is strategic outsourcing?
Strategic outsourcing or outsourcing in strategic management entails assigning specific operations or services to a third-party business process outsourcing (BPO) company. It is a long-term partnership between a client and an outsourcing provider, bound by expectations and with clearly defined goals and strategic objectives. In a strategic business process outsourcing relationship, the service provider acts as an extension of its client and is responsible for providing defined support and solutions.
Strategic outsourcing leverages external resources, skills, innovations, and expertise to enhance the overall performance of an organization. Requiring constant communication and careful planning, it can save a company valuable time and resources and enable its workforce to focus on core aspects of the business.
Benefits of Strategic Outsourcing
Strategic outsourcing brings many benefits to a business, from cost reduction to higher customer satisfaction. While you might have heard myths about outsourcing, countless success stories in different industries have debunked these misconceptions. Here are some key advantages of outsourcing:
- Reduced costs
- A company’s total outsourcing cost will always be significantly less than doing things in-house. It can take a lot of time, money, and effort to replicate the capabilities of another company internally. Imagine committing to invest in permanent employees, high-end tools, and training programs just for one campaign. Through strategic business outsourcing, you have much more flexibility when it comes to overhead expenditures and can tap talent in other countries that deliver the same (or even better) results while costing a lot less.
- Better quality and improved performance
- Strategic outsourcing allows you to benefit from the expertise of talented professionals, whether onshore or offshore. For example, a credible call center BPO will provide you with highly trained customer service representatives to boost your customer support initiatives and engagement. A digital solutions provider will help you improve technical processes and operations, leading to faster turnaround times. Furthermore, your internal workforce can focus on more critical tasks directly affecting the business, enhancing your company’s performance and profitability. Case in point is a large telecom company that veered away from its inefficient processes by tapping an outsourcer. The provider presented solutions that eventually led to the company’s increase in productivity by 40% and increased customer satisfaction by more than 35%.
- Rapid scalability
- A strategic outsourcing company will help you scale operations up or down, depending on current market conditions and your business needs. If your business is rapidly growing, you can hire the help of a supplementary workforce to sustain the increased demands of your customers. On the other hand, you can adjust your contracts and implement more short-term engagements if you need to scale down. Strategic outsourcing solutions can be flexible and customized to achieve your short-term or long-term goals.
- Better efficiency
- Through strategic outsourcing, a business can prioritize its core competencies and strategic goals. According to a survey by Deloitte, 57% of organizations say that outsourcing lets them focus on their core business. Delegating other non-core tasks and functions to an outsourcer will enable a company to become more efficient and optimize its internal operations. Additionally, the organization can accommodate new projects and unexpected workload spikes without disrupting core deliverables. More importantly, strategic outsourcing can help you reduce organizational stress and burnout, resulting in happier and better-performing employees.
- Global talent
- Strategic outsourcing companies have highly skilled and experienced people who can provide a wide range of solutions and services. Their support can help your organization adapt to changes and offer consumers better products and services. In addition to gaining access to a specialized talent pool, you won’t spend as much overhead as when internally hiring and training a workforce with the same skill and capabilities.
- Risk management
- You can rely on a reputable service provider with the resources and know-how to choose the right people for the job and deliver results without any setbacks. Through strategic outsourcing, you are diversifying your operations and splitting the consequences of crises. If your company suffers an IT breach, for example, only one area will be affected—allowing you to save part of it and continue running your business.
Strategic Outsourcing Examples
Now that we’ve gone through some of its benefits let’s look at some examples of strategic outsourcing. Each serves its purpose and offers specific solutions for client organizations.
- Business Process Outsourcing
- This kind of strategic outsourcing entails transferring internal (typically high-level) business processes to a third-party provider or outsourcer. This can include both back and front-office functions, such as customer services, human resources, marketing research, and financials. Depending on a company’s needs and location, business process outsourcing can be performed onshore, nearshore, or offshore.
- Logistics Outsourcing
- Logistics outsourcing is outsourcing logistical tasks like delivery and transportation. Companies that outsource their logistics can benefit from utilizing delivery vehicles and the logistical expertise of their provider. This not only results in reduced overhead expenses but also the optimization of their supply chain.
- Compliance Outsourcing
- Compliance outsourcing involves hiring a third party to manage particular compliance processes, allowing the company to adjust quickly to ever-changing regulations and avoid violations. This is one of the rising businesses in the BPO industry as more companies shift to financial technology.
- Partnering with experienced outsourcing compliance financial services allows companies to adapt to regulation changes swiftly. With outsourcing, you can get expertise and tools, and be able to train your staff instantly. Other outsourced compliance services include compliance training seminars, candidate sanction screening, whistleblower hotlines, and other processes requiring around-the-clock posts.
We’ve only scratched the surface of outsourcing. If you’d like to know more about it, check out this detailed infographic we prepared.
Make the Strategic Move: Outsource with Us
Make no mistake; the decision to outsource strategically is big. Any company will want to get the most out of its investment and collaborate with a partner that has mastered the outsourcing process. TaskUs provides SuperHuman outsourcing—combining human prowess with the latest technologies, such as generative AI, to optimize operations and deliver the best possible products and services to clients.
Recognized by the Everest Group as the World's Fastest Business Process (Outsourcing) Service Provider in 2022 and with glowing reviews in Gartner Peer Insights Review, we’ve been a consistent provider of strategic outsourcing solutions for over a decade.
Whether you need back or front-office solutions, we’re ready to deliver all the benefits mentioned earlier—and go beyond that, exceeding expectations and producing Ridiculously Good results.
- 2^What Is Software Outsourcing and Top 5 Benefits That It Brings
- 3^TaskUs Customer Service BPO Services Reviews
