IT outsourcing gained more importance when companies started to realize that optimizing their assets would be more effective if they concentrated on what they knew best and left the rest in the hands of specialists.
Nowadays, the concept is increasingly used, but a few years ago it was still confused with subcontracting activities with low added value and far removed from the companies’ vital business. Today, the panorama is completely different. Although sometimes people disagree with the idea of passing tasks to others.
It’s important to understand that, as markets grow and become more competitive, companies are forced to focus more and more on their main objectives.
Consequently, they have concentrated on the activities/tasks that are truly vital to the growth of their business, leaving the rest to external specialized teams. This is where IT outsourcing plays a fundamental role.
This is related to services subcontracting and, in the majority of cases, its ability to make the company more rentable. This is why the contracting of specialized external companies can represent a great advantage and opportunity for companies.
Outsourcing gives more visibility to costs and puts more human and technological resources at company’s use, which otherwise might not be available in that type of company and/or line of business. IT outsourcing companies provide consultants with a high level of expertise who will work with on your internal team, releasing employees for other essential tasks. The greater the know-how, the lower is the risk of failure.
Thus, IT outsourcing represents for companies a strategy to meet specific needs that go beyond internal knowledge and competencies.
To have technology consultants of our own in very specific areas often entails significant costs inherent in any specialized employment contract – often higher than those incurred when hiring these services.
According to an article by Brandon Gaille, in the U.S. 46% of companies said that they use outsourcing to reduce their operational costs.
In that same article are also mentioned the main reasons why some companies use IT outsourcing, which are:
- Costs reduction and control – 44%
- Access to specialized IT professionals internally unavailable – 34%
- Internal human resources reduction – 31%
- Higher focus on the business or clients – 28%
- Acceleration of company reorganization/transformation – 22%
- Project time reduction – 15%
- Access to management knowledge and tools that are internally unavailable – 15%
It’s clear that resorting to IT outsourcing is actually advantageous for any company in several ways – whether in terms of more rational and efficient allocation of employees, or in terms of facilities. The outcome? Considerable savings on staff costs, taxes, energy and production costs, since production can be simplified and its time reduced, lowering operational costs.
It allows the transformation of several fixed costs into variable costs, and guarantees a higher control and better budgeting of costs that your company may have.
The cost management that IT outsourcing provides for companies can mean that more assets can be invested in key areas of your business, improving your efficiency and increasing your competitiveness.
All these factors help to increase the value of your company. Thus, it’s possible to conclude that IT outsourcing can have a very significant role in your company’s strategy, allowing it to increase its margins – both operationally and financially – contributing to the evolution and success of your business.