Companies constantly look for ways to improve their business operations to drive growth in today's competitive market. Offshore outsourcing is one of the most effective strategies leading businesses have implemented for years. This employment method allows firms to hire global talent, reduce operation costs, improve their time-to-market process, and diversify risks. In this blog, we'll discuss why your business should consider implementing offshore outsourcing, too.
Understanding Offshore Outsourcing
Offshore outsourcing assigns particular corporate tasks or procedures to overseas external service providers. This strategy enables businesses to concentrate on their core strengths while outsourcing skilled overseas partners for non-core activities. These offshore service providers offer various services, including content creation, data input, software development, customer support, and more.
Contrary to popular belief, offshore outsourcing did not start during the technological wave. While the said industry popularized it, the employment strategy has been used by businesses since the 60s and 70s, which means companies have been hiring offshore talents for 60 years now. It happened as large corporations transferred their manufacturing processes to lower-cost countries.
Experts predict that global spending on outsourcing could hit a whopping $731 billion by the end of 2023, with IT outsourcing being the most prevalent and BPO outsourcing coming in second. IT, Finance, Sales, Marketing, and Administrative are the top five most outsourced industries. With these figures, it's safe to say that businesses worldwide have wholly embraced the benefits of getting international talents to join their team.
Advantages of Offshore Outsourcing
Here are some of the benefits companies have when they hire talent from overseas:
Offshore Outsourcing is Cost Efficient
The potential for cost savings is one of the main factors influencing corporate decisions on offshore outsourcing. Experts suggest that a business can save up to 70% in operating costs through offshore outsourcing.
Developing nations are desirable locations for outsourcing because they frequently have lower labor and operating costs. Companies can dramatically save on hiring, training, compensation, benefits, and infrastructure by working with offshore service providers. Thanks to outsourcing's cost-effectiveness, businesses can commit resources to key activities or spend money on innovation and growth.
Businesses can deliberately outsource their operations to nations with cheaper labor expenses to take advantage of pay gaps and advantageous exchange rates. By doing this, companies can lower their salaries and benefits costs, increasing their profit margins. Additionally, attractive exchange rates make it possible for enterprises to shift earnings from international markets into their currency more profitably. This tactic enables companies to access labor pools that are reasonably priced and enhance their financial performance in a globalized environment.
It Lets Businesses Access Global Talent
Offshore outsourcing allows businesses to access a sizable global pool of highly qualified professionals. Companies can get specific information and experience that may not be easily accessible domestically. By working with offshore teams, they can take advantage of varied skill sets, creative ideas, and new views. This exposure to diverse talent fosters innovation and problem-solving, improving the work quality.
Most importantly, a significant number of outsourcing agencies take charge of training their talents. Companies can save time, effort, and resources by hiring offshore specialists. They no longer have to conduct training and workshops to familiarize their employees with the nature of their jobs.
Offshore Outsourcing Leads to Faster Time-to-Market
Gaining a competitive edge in today's fast-paced corporate climate depends heavily on speed. By taking advantage of time zone differences, businesses can increase their working hours through offshore outsourcing. Offshore teams can work on projects when the core team takes a break, speeding up development cycles. Companies may take advantage of opportunities, react quickly to market demands, and outperform rivals thanks to this shorter time-to-market.
Speed is essential for preserving a competitive edge in technology, software development, and e-commerce. Being the first to market innovative products or create software updates can significantly impact the rapidly changing IT world, capturing market share. Similarly, quick order processing, effective logistics, and speedy delivery times are essential in the e-commerce industry to meet client expectations and guarantee customer happiness. In these sectors, speed enables companies to take advantage of opportunities, adjust to shifting market trends, stay one step ahead of rivals, and provide excellent user experiences, eventually fostering customer loyalty for scalable growth.
It Lets Businesses Leverage Time Zone Differences
Time zone differences might be strategically valuable for companies that do offshore outsourcing. After the business day, companies can delegate duties to their offshore partners, who will finish them the following day. With this "follow-the-sun" strategy, production is guaranteed around the clock, and project turnaround times are sped up. Additionally, organizations can improve customer satisfaction by providing their clients 24/7 customer care.
This is especially important for industries where excellent customer service is essential to meeting client needs and expectations. Industries like telecommunications, e-commerce, hospitality, and financial services significantly rely on 24/7 customer support to answer questions, handle problems, and offer quick assistance. Continuous assistance guarantees that customers' concerns are swiftly addressed despite being in different time zones and having varied schedules, increasing customer satisfaction and conversion rates. Businesses may provide excellent service, foster customer loyalty, and preserve a competitive edge by adopting a 24/7 customer support approach through outsourcing.
Aside from this, tapping into international turfs empower your business to plan scalable global growth. Since some of your teams already know the coming and going of their countries, you can eventually expand, look for possible use cases, and target international countries, too.
Offshore Outsourcing Diversifies Risk
Having a business comes with numerous risks. Business owners can watch the company they've been building for years be dismantled overnight by an economic change. Fortunately, offshore outsourcing minimizes these risks and helps owners protect their companies.
Businesses can reduce the risks from unforeseen occurrences such as political unrest, natural disasters, and economic swings by dispersing their operations across several places. Offshore outsourcing supports business continuity and acts as a buffer against local disruptions. Functions can be quickly moved to another offshore location if one location encounters difficulties, minimizing the effect on the company. In short, the fewer strings attached to your employees, the fewer risks your companies have.
Best Countries for Offshore Outsourcing
Interested in exploring offshore outsourcing? Here are the top 4 regions which you should consider in getting your services:
Philippines
The Philippines remains one of the most lucrative locations for offshore outsourcing. As of this writing, the country has over 700 BPO companies across the archipelago. These BPO agencies cover numerous industries, such as technology, finance, health, etc.
The workforce in the Philippines is renowned for being highly skilled and English-fluent. It has become a top choice for back-office operations, IT and software development, customer support, and creative services. Businesses find the nation appealing due to its strong cultural ties to Western countries, affordable labor costs, and reliable telecommunications infrastructure.
And perhaps the most exciting edge of the Philippines, Filipino outsourcing agencies have significant support from their government. The Filipino government enacted numerous policies and incentives to entice foreign investment and promote the development of outsourcing infrastructures. With this, companies employing Filipino outsourced talents can ensure a favorable business environment, ensuring continuous revenue growth.
India
Like the Philippines, India has long been a leader in offshore outsourcing on a global scale. The country is a preferred choice for many sectors due to its sizable pool of technical expertise, cost benefits, and developed outsourcing ecosystem. India tops the world in business process outsourcing (BPO), software development, IT, and engineering services. Thanks to its sizable English-speaking population and solid outsourcing infrastructure, India remains a crucial player in the global outsourcing business.
Aside from all these, India has an established and robust outsourcing ecosystem. It has several outsourcing companies, including small to medium agencies, to accommodate all kinds of businesses. India has a reliable outsourcing infrastructure that includes established technology networks, telecommunications, and effective project management systems.
Companies can bank on a time zone advantage, too. India operates in a time zone that enables Western countries such as the United States and those in Europe to work with a strategic time overlap conveniently. This enables real-time communication, timely responses, and seamless collaboration between clients and offshore teams to ensure minimal delays.
Eastern Europe
While most European countries are mainly the clients of offshore outsourcing agencies, Eastern European nations like Poland, Ukraine, and Romania have become well-known sources of outsourcing talent. These nations provide a unique combination of technical know-how, cultural adequacy, and affordable prices. Eastern European locations are favored for software development, IT services, data analysis, and R&D due to their superior educational systems.
Most importantly, companies often prefer Eastern Europe because of their time zone overlap. Since they offer shorter time zone differences than agencies from The Philippines and India, companies can initiate synchronous working hours to boost collaboration on all operational channels. Business owners who hire outsourced European talents don't have to adjust their company culture to accommodate their outsourced employees. They share the same language and culture, so there are fewer hiccups when integrating the talents into the company's on-site team.
Latin America
Last but not least are Latin American countries. Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia are just a few of the prospective outsourcing locations when it comes to offshore outsourcing. Thanks to their closeness to North America, cultural affinity, and expanding talent pools, these nations provide various outsourcing services, including software development, customer support, finance and accounting, and creative design. Latin America offers an alluring combination of quality, affordability, and time zone alignment for organizations looking for nearshore outsourcing.
Aside from all these, the proximity of Latin American countries to the United States is considered their ultimate edge. Because of their location and time zone alignment, conducting face-to-face meetings is easy to ensure full cooperation and synchronization. They also have a significant cultural affinity to the United States due to historical and linguistic connections. Because of this, Latin American talents are also known to possess strong bilingual skills, assuring business owners that they will get seamless communication and effective collaboration.
So, just like in Eastern Europe, companies employing Latin American talents can expect a more seamless cultural integration between their outsourced and on-site teams.
Conclusion
Businesses in various industries can benefit from and gain competitive advantages from offshore outsourcing. By implementing this strategic strategy, companies can streamline processes, cut expenses, gain access to top specialists, and ultimately succeed in business over the long run. Cost-effective offshore outsourcing enables companies to devote resources to essential tasks or spend money on innovation and growth. It provides access to a vast network of highly qualified people who may provide specialized knowledge, new viewpoints, and innovative project ideas.
Additionally, due to time zone differences and 24/7 coverage, offshore outsourcing offers quicker time-to-market, offering organizations an advantage in sectors where speed is essential. Dispersing operations across several sites diversifies risk and ensures company continuity despite disruptions.
So, if you're running a business, consider offshore outsourcing. While it comes with some implementation hiccups, it can't overshadow the numerous benefits that come with this. Plus, we're here to help! Wing Assistant has a reliable onboarding process that will help you assess if offshore outsourcing will fit your current go-to-market offer, operations, and revenue. To learn more about this, book a call now!
Aya is Wing Assistant’s blog manager. When she’s not wrangling content briefs, editing article drafts and handling on-page SEO, she is crafting messages for Wing’s other communication materials. Aya writes about SaaS startups, marketing for startups, search engine optimization, and pop culture.
