3/30/2006

Offshore Outsourcing or Insourcing

In present competitive market the main question that arises in the mind of the vendor is whether to go for Offshore Outsourcing or insourcing. Which would be the better way for any business? But the answer of this question totally depends on the requirements of the business and market demands. In Information Technology industry, for a small business whose IT needs are limited to functional business applications and a working communications network, IT Outsourcing may be the perfect option to select. But for a company with complex technology requirements, insourcing may be the proper selection.

For several companies, offshoring whether in IT or elsewhere, performs as a form of credit to their business. This process allows the company to rent capital, in the different forms like hardware, software, or infrastructure, from another firm. This agreement is delightful when the firm in question either can not have the sufficient funds to invest in capital acquisition or when the firm's requirements are not immense enough to utilize the procured capital effectively. It can be of anything such as servers, need for manpower, development time, or hosting-level WAN access, or any other services.

To make this last point apparent in Offshore Outsourcing, think about a company that holds a huge annual shareholder's meeting. Should the organization build its own conference hall, or rent one for a week a year? The simplest answer of this question is to go with the option of renting one. The capital investment in a development would go to waste as the building would remain empty or useless for rest of the weeks a year.

This can be considered where the idea of core competency comes in to the picture and important for the
process of Offshore Outsourcing. Hiring property can surely be a profitable business model, but would it be beneficial for a corporation with no expertise and skills in building maintenance and hiring in Offshore Outsourcing? It may be, but definitely not as beneficial as it would be for a corporation whose core competency is leasing.

Perfect Offshore Outsourcing

Any successful company must understand and use the principle of division of labor for the perfect Offshore Outsourcing. The same rule applies to businesses also. It is why company like
Microsoft doesn't manufacture cars or airplanes etc. For these IT companies these business processes are not the core competencies, but their core competency is IT Outsourcing. Though they use all these facilities like car, airplane and many more, but these don’t make any sense for them to produce or service those vehicles. These companies believe in Offshore Outsourcing or onshore services for these facilities. IT Outsourcing is becoming more and more omnipresent and has been an essential part of almost all IT business activities and services.

The vital questions are "How much services do you require?", "Is it possible for you to do it yourself?", and "Are you ready to do it yourself?" All these are some of the important questions and would help you to select the option between onshore services or Offshore Outsourcing.