Niyamath Parveez

It is pretty easy to find fault with pretty much everything that politicians, elected council staff and people in charge of a public budget do. With so many different demands it is going to be impossible to please everyone but fairly easy to displease everyone. After all, no one enjoys paying taxes and the thought of working hard and then having the Government or local council come and take a good chunk out of your earnings before your bank account gets a sniff of it is pretty galling for most folk. However, taxes have to be paid to provide so many of the things that people take for granted and this means people have to pay up. And when there are taxes, there is the fact that people have to be paid to collate and collect the information regarding the taxes and then letters must be issued asking for payment. It can all be a costly business which makes the general public even unhappier but the Treasurer at Greene County, Indiana has came up with a way to reduce the cost of providing people with their tax bills.

Outsourcing has fast become one of the most important ways to cut back on costs and is used on a whole variety of businesses. As well as lowering costs, outsourcing is a great way of improving the skill levels of the task and hopefully bringing a far greater level of efficiency to the task. The Treasurer of Greene County, Shelby Meurer, found that outsourcing could not only get the tax bills from their office to the public at a faster rate but it could also greatly help to reduce the amount of money it cost to do so. This double whammy of benefits made outsourcing a fantastic choice and a tendering project was initiated.

Three vendors tendered for the bid and there was a big range in prices but the winning bid guaranteed to complete the work for a price of 30 cents for every parcel sent by the firm. This was almost 20 cents per parcel cheaper than the most expensive tender so immediately stood out as being attractive in the small tendering process.

One of the better aspects of the outsourcing task is that it went to a local firm so the work and more importantly the jobs were staying in the local area. For a politician and Government, safeguarding jobs in the local community is an extremely important task so the fact that a reliable outsourcing firm could be found on their own doorstep made the outsourcing task a lot more palatable for the Greene County office. Another benefit came from the fact that the task would normally take the County office three weeks to but the outsourcing firm managed to turn it around in one week. This meant that the tax bills went out a lot quicker than normal and the local citizens were faced with their bills sooner than normal. This may not have been welcomed by too many citizens but the fact that local jobs were preserved and for a lower cost to the tax-payer should be seen as a positive issue for the people of Greene County.

One of the most important things in any firm or industry is having the proper back-up and regardless of what you need to keep and how important it is, a failure to have a proper plan B is sure to be your downfall. Given the concerns over data protection and freedom of information and all the other legislations that cover the maintenance and storage of personal details, a failure to keep data safe and easily retrievable could land your company in hot water and facing a huge bill. Given the current financial climate, this is not the sort of expenditure that any firm can legislate for or ride out comfortably, so preventive medicine is easily the best solution.

It may sound easier said than done to be more proactive when it comes to protecting data and most firms do not realize they actually have a problem with their storage until it becomes too late but waiting until disaster strikes before setting up a backup plan is far too late. When you consider the different ways that proper storage can be undertaken in order to keep the data safe from harm, it may be worth reminding people about the benefits of outsourcing.

Okay, the concept of outsourcing definitely sits easier with help-desks and call-centers and far flung offshore companies but that is not even half the story when it comes to the benefits of outsourcing. There are many outsourcing firms operating in every country and all major cities and hooking up with a local firm and forging a new partnership could bring a solution to all the problems that storing data may entail.

One issue of the credit crunch and current recession is that firms are looking to reduce their costs in any way possible and it may be that storage is taking up a lot of your office or warehouse space. This space doesn’t come for free and whether its an area you could give up the lease for or use for a better purpose, undertaking an outsource solution to storing the data, could release the opportunity cost that comes with maintaining your own data. A local storage and record maintenance specialist would be able to apply their skills and experience to maintaining your data safely whilst saving you a great amount of money.

Using a local specialist will also ensure that you are complying with the legislations and guidelines that your firm needs to comply with, which will be a weight off any managers mind. There is a need for all firms to be aware of the current rules on data protection but with so much to consider, it can be easy to forget or miss these guidelines. Using the services of a local outsourcing storage firm will grant you access to the methods of storing applied to many firms and they can usually be relied upon to get it right. This extra peace of mind can be worth the cost of the outsourcing as the consequences and costs if it all goes wrong may not be worth thinking about.

It is pretty much agreed that outsourcing presents a brilliant business opportunity in these harsh financial times to save some money and gain a level of expertise that may not be available in your current business structure. Whilst there can be no complaints about the fact that many firms and businesses utilize outsourcing as a means of saving money and lowering their wage bill, it also allows firms to improve the quality of their service or product. Working with an outsourcing firm that provides a similar service for other organizations should allow a benefit to be made with regards to efficiency and work-rate. Traditionally, the use of outsourcing has went out of the country, a term recognized as offshore outsourcing but there are a number of reasons why more and more companies are looking to use outsourcing resources based in the same geographical border as themselves and cost is only one of the reasons for this change in behavior.

One of the key reasons why firms are looking to work with outsourcing suppliers in the same region is because they can have a greater degree of confidence that the outsourcing firm will be working to the same laws as themselves. With data protection and intellectual property laws and legislation placing ever increasing limits on what a firm can do with customer information, there is a need to keep this information secured as safely as possible. This is not to say that all outsourcing firms would be negligent with any information of this kind but when there are proper guidelines in place, it will be easier for any firm to maintain a better control of the vital information that is being processed.

Another reason is the pure simplicity of the location. Yes, video conferencing and other such technological breakthroughs are making it easier for the world to communicate effectively but depending on what type of product or service is being outsourced, there may be a strong need to meet in person and if the outsourcing agent is situated a great distance, this can be a timely and expensive affair. Having your outsourcing agent situated in a nearby region should enable your staff to meet with theirs at a shorter notice and should greatly reduce the cost of travel imposed on the firm. If the product being outsourced is required to be dispatched to yourself from the firm, there are obvious time and cost delays to be associated with that so if there is a need for a rapid turnaround, having a local based supplier will make it more likely that your product will arrive on time as expected and at a lower rate.

Allied to the location issue is the matter of time zones and being able to keep in touch during the working day. If the outsource agent is based halfway around the world, there may be little time when both offices are working and this can mean communication is undertaken mainly by emails or voice-messages. It is fair to say that emails are a fast way of communicating complex ideas and passing documents but only when both people have access to their mails at the same time. With the time difference between countries meaning it will take at least a day before any reply is obtained, this can be extremely frustrating and another good reason to use a local outsourcing agent for all of your outsourcing needs.