Niyamath Parveez

The fact of the matter is, a number of years ago, a great number of firms wouldn’t have given the concept of outsourcing a second thought. When the market was booming and things were on the up, there can be a tendency to take an eye off the bottom line and bask in the upward trend of the market. Sure, the profits but they could have been greater and at times, vanity projects led to companies keeping a hold of all their tasks and duties as opposed to considering outsourcing to get further financial benefits. Now that the market has changed rapidly, firms are desperate to grab whatever they can, which places the outsourcing firms in a stronger position and may see the original firm left with a deal that is just enough to satisfy them but nothing more. As so many firms are looking to outsource their work and save money on labor costs, there is an inevitable movement in the supply and demand relationship which gives more of the power to the firm providing the outsourcing. The current credit crunch means that an outsourcing firm can’t be totally flippant with regards to obtaining work so they haven’t achieved full power but in these tricky times, the outsourcing firm has the chance to get the better end of the deal.

This means that the firms who took a risk and moved into outsourcing when the market was vibrant are now reaping the benefits of being an early mover. They have managed to build up reputations and relationships and these go a long way to convincing further potential clients that they are the right people to be working with. Of course, there is always evolution in this industry, there is even revolution with the onset of aspects such as cloud computing and this may allow new entrants to the market to gain a lot of headway and income but by and large, the firms who have proven their skills in the outsourcing area will find themselves in a tremendous position to bring in a lot of work.

There is always a pressure for the outsourcing firm to move with the times though and a reputation can be lost very easily and this is particularly relevant in one of the most important outsourcing markets, IT. The IT industry has greatly benefited from outsourcing both local and offshore as firms have not only reduced their costs but have managed to vastly improve their skills and knowledge base by hiring experts who have experience of working with many different firms and systems. This makes it easier for these representatives to keep abreast of the latest developments in IT which will bring a greater degree of benefit to the customers and end users. An IT outsourcing supplier would be advised to re-channel a large amount of profits in training for their staff and ensuring they keep up to date with the latest developments. This redistribution of profits should be considered as an investment to give the firm a better chance of obtaining outsourcing work in the future.