Outsourcing: The Upside of the Out-House

Times, as you know, are tight. It seems as though everybody, with the exception of the federal government, is tightening belts almost the point of busting our collective gut. So what options do we have to reduce costs at work? One of the most obvious: Outsource what we can to save money while keeping our level of service intact. Let’s look at a big negative and a couple of positives.

One of the major downsides, if not THE downside of outsourcing is a perception of loss of control. This perception, or reality, is usually due to lack of face to face communication. This can be overcome, but does take more effort than having employees you can always call for a quick meeting. The beauty here is that the tools available for communication over the Internet are vast and powerful. From Apple’s iChat (http://apple.com), that allows very easy audio-video conferences and screen-sharing, to Skype (http://skype.com/) that allows you to talk PC-PC (or Mac) anywhere in the world. Another tool: Gotomeeting (http://gotomeeting.com) is designed for online meetings. Gotomeeting costs are affordable and tools for collaboration are outstanding. If you don't need Microsoft Office live collaboration, a free tool, veyw (http://vyew.com/site/index2) is great for meetings. These tools (and many more) are free or very inexpensive and should (must) be utilized to both audibly and visually communicate with your team. In short, we have no excuse for poor communication, whether our team members are at our conference table or 3,000 miles away …on a beach …enjoying a tropical breeze (we really hate those guys...)

When using these tools, plan for time differences and work backward from your project deadline to establish set times for communicating with your team. Schedule this time and create a calendar event using Outlook, Google Calendar (http://calendar.google.com) or other software everyone on your team can access and utilize. To ensure your team members are on the same page, create an agenda for your meetings and share it with the team at least a day before. An agenda will go a long way in making your communication succinct, accurate, and cause a minimum of confusion. Include an action plan on the agenda with names and tasks assigned. This action plan can change during the meeting based on the discussion, but it’s great to have a starting point, an expectation of what you see coming out of the meeting. (Lisa B. Marshall gives some very good tips for effective meetings in Episode 40 of her Podcast here: The Public Speakers Quick and Dirty Tips website)

The BIG upside of outsourcing is an immediate reduction of personnel cost. Savings come from the reduction of monthly salaries and benefits, the indirect costs of office space, parking, electricity, computers, etc... In contrast, companies who contract with you bring their own tools to the playing field, work from their own offices, own or lease their computers, pay for their phones and internet, and buy their own health insurance. Heck! These guys even train themselves! And they do this so that they can serve you, their client, in the best way possible.

Budget control is another benefit of outsourcing. Working closely with a company with which you contract allows you to establish scope of work and the costs for that work. Those costs are static until you change the scope, up or down. Setup a quarterly review process with the company or companies to monitor next quarter's needs, quality of work, and to see if the company can provide other services to you. Based on these meetings, adjust your scope accordingly. Remember, as in any relationship, communication is vital.

This mercury-like market we’re in creates a need to ramp up and then down very quickly, sometimes overnight. Some weeks are incredibly busy with deadlines that threaten our sanity, and then some are so slow as to be almost hypnotic in their boredom. Create a list of companies and individuals you trust to work with you on your projects. Then keep that list updated and always be on the look-out for partnerships that will give you and your company the winning edge over your competition. Start now.

Allen