Effective Outsourcing Birmingham AL

As the implications of globalization have sunk into the business world, the idea of what a company should be has changed. Not long ago they were institutions-- buildings and factories with workers who drove to work in the morning and punched out at night.

Local Companies

Corsini Consulting Group
(205) 879-0432
6 Office Park Cir Ste 309
Birmingham, AL
Central Alabama Women's Business Center
(205) 453-0249
2 20th St N Ste 830
Birmingham, AL
Enterprises Answers Inc
(205) 989-6580
2032 Baneberry Dr
Birmingham, AL
Ods Professional Services Inc
(205) 397-0541
2101 6th Ave N
Birmingham, AL
Nex21 Llc
(205) 520-9916
325 Carson Rd N
Birmingham, AL
Blankenship Sports Management & Management Inc
(205) 458-1106
2015 1st Ave N
Birmingham, AL
Platinum Group Consultants
(205) 785-6554
2818 Avenue H
Birmingham, AL
Brassy Management Llc
(205) 833-0690
7220 Rome Ave
Birmingham, AL
New Concepts In Marketing
(205) 661-3400
3229 Veterans Cir
Birmingham, AL
Vantage Associates
(205) 879-0501
2100 Southbridge Pkwy
Birmingham, AL

As the implications of globalization have sunk into the business world, the idea of what a company should be has changed. Not long ago they were institutions--buildings and factories with workers who drove to work in the morning and punched out at night.

Business models have become much more customer centered since those days. It's not about your company or your staff, or even your product--your business is about your customers and what they want. This shift in focus has led to many companies experimenting with different structures in order to discover how to meet their customer's needs at the lowest cost and for the highest profit.

One of the most effective ways of doing this is outsourcing. Companies define their core competencies and then look to outside contractors to meet their other needs. Marketing, printing, archiving, human resources--for every business function, there are other businesses that specialize in providing it. Microsoft now employs between 4,000 and 5,750 temporary and contract workers.

Benefits of Outsourcing
  • Outsourcing allows businesses to focus on their distinctive core competencies, the specialties that the business is based on and that help it achieve competitive advantage.
  • Because they are working within their specialties, companies that provide outsourced services can often work on a project in a faster, more efficient and more sustained way than an in house team could.
  • Outsourcing allows businesses to better asses future costs because the company providing the outsourced services must clearly estimate and propose costs.

    Drawbacks of Outsourcing
  • Managers have much less control over products and services once they have been outsourced--you are placing trust in another company to meet your businesses needs.
  • Communication between your company and the contractor can be difficult. By transferring a function to a contractor you lose the ability to directly communicate your company's goals and values.
  • Outsourcing can result in the loss of in-house and local jobs due to its ability to lower costs and improve efficiencies. This can, in turn, make your company dependent on contractors to survive.

    How to Outsource Effectively
  • Make sure that you have a contact person with your contractor that you can easily communicate with and who will be accountable to you.
  • Have the service or product you want outsourced as clearly defined as possible before you hand it over to contractors
  • Make certain that you can draw from a pool of qualified contractors so that if you have problems with one you can find others to provide the services you need.

    Copyright: Copyright c 2006-2008 Nigel Fogden

    About the Author:
    Nigel Fogden is an English teacher and writer with 24 by 5
    Tech Comm, a technical writing company that specializes in fast, high-quality, software documentation. For more articles on
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