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Outsourcing company as a business. What is an outsourcing company

Outsourcing (from English outsourcing: (outer-source-using) use external source and / or resource) - the transfer by an organization, on the basis of a contract, of certain types or functions of production entrepreneurial activity another company operating in the desired area.

This is the definition of outsourcing as Wikipedia suggests it to us. Now on the Internet you can find a lot of different definitions of the term "outsourcing".

In simple terms, outsourcing is borrowing resources from outside. Outsourcing is now a fairly common phenomenon and many firms and organizations are actively using it.

The use of outsourcing is justified by the fact that each company needs all areas of its activities to be serviced with the highest quality. However, not every company can afford to keep highly specialized specialists on permanent staff, as their work is paid, as a rule, quite high. Therefore, it is much more profitable on the basis of an agreement to cooperate with various organizations, which will perform a certain range of tasks required by your company.

History of outsourcing

If we talk about Russia, then security companies became the first outsourcing companies here. With the help of them, many organizations were able to carry out reliable protection of their business, but not spend large amounts of money on the maintenance of security guards as permanent employees. Further, marketing appeared in the “world” of Russian outsourcing and began to develop rapidly. This is due to the fact that there are not so many truly professional marketers, so it is more profitable to seek help from a specialized company than to find and maintain a highly paid specialist.

When at the end of the 90s there was a "boom" of the Internet in Russia, outsourcing companies began to appear actively engaged in the provision of hosting, as well as work to promote and improve sites.

Already in 1997 more than 50% production organizations outsourced one or more of their business processes (according to the American Management Association).

Types of outsourcing

Outsourcing is conditionally divided into the following types:
1. Production (industrial) outsourcing. This type of outsourcing involves the transfer of certain tasks for the production of products to companies from outside. For example, advertising companies they outsource the printing of advertising booklets, that is, the outsourcer here is the printing house. Good example use of manufacturing outsourcing demonstrates IKEA company, which has absolutely no production capacity in its arsenal, while remaining one of the most highly profitable organizations.

2. IT outsourcing. This is the delegation of responsibilities for the implementation of those tasks that are associated with programming, maintenance of equipment, development software, hosting support and more.

3. Outsourcing of business processes. This is a type of outsourcing, which involves the transfer to an outsourcer to perform a business process. Most often, they delegate responsibilities for advertising, marketing, logistics, and accounting. Only those business processes that are not essential for the company are outsourced.

4. Knowledge management outsourcing. This is the youngest type of outsourcing, and so far it is found only in the United States. Knowledge management outsourcing is associated with those activities that involve deep analysis and specific processing of processes that significantly affect managerial decision-making.

Benefits of outsourcing

1) by outsourcing certain non-core activities, the company can pay more attention to the core business functions that bring the largest number income;

2) outsourcing eliminates problems with the search and training of personnel, since specialists are provided by the outsourcer; possible problems with the unexpected dismissal of employees, the provision of sick leave, vacations, etc. are also excluded;

3) increases the flexibility of the enterprise in the event of a crisis in the market;

4) the company gets the opportunity to use high quality services or equipment;

5) eliminates the need to search for and purchase equipment or components, as this is the concern of the outsourcer.

Disadvantages of outsourcing

It would be more correct to speak not about the shortcomings, but about the risks of outsourcing. The following situations may not occur, but every outsourced company needs to consider possible risks.

1) being too “carried away” by outsourcing, the company can transfer too many areas of its activity to third parties, thereby depriving itself of many opportunities;

2) the company may face a lack of effective management;

3) there is a risk associated with taxes;

4) the risk of losing confidential inside information.

How global companies use outsourcing

About 60% of all companies that have outsourced part of their activities initially did so for reasons of economy. But many of the world's leading companies have found significant benefits for themselves in outsourcing, and by their example they show how it can be used to achieve their main goals.

Many emerging markets often face the problem of a lack of qualified and talented workforce. Company Texas Instruments opened a research center in India, which has become a real salvation for many developing companies, supplying them with talented and competent employees.

American company Hasbro, a toy manufacturer, was able to overcome the "color crisis" that affected many toy manufacturers in 2007. Hasbro treats its contractors as strategic partners, despite the fact that many companies try to stay away from their partners and not let them "inside" their business.

pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca captured the Chinese market and became one of the largest in its field thanks to the investments it made in many areas from production to sales. Joint work with many universities and organizations also contributed to a significant rise.

Despite the possible risks, worldwide famous company Procter & Gamble nevertheless transferred some areas of its activities to other countries. After that, the company's productivity showed a significant increase, increasing by 60%. More than 400 products were developed outside the company, generating $10 billion more in revenue for Procter & Gamble.

There is an opinion that in times of globalization and the rapid development of the business segment of the economy, being a narrow-profile specialist is extremely unprofitable. This is a fundamentally wrong statement. The narrower the specialization of a company or person, the higher the professionalism and the deeper the knowledge. If some related activities seem burdensome to the company in terms of money or any other costs, outsourcing comes to the rescue.

Outsourcing, definition and origin of the word

The word "outsourcing" of English origin comes from the merger of two words: out "external" and source "source". Thus, outsourcing is in simple terms, the process of transferring a part of production or business processes by a company to another company that is an expert in this field.

Delegating processes, not related to the main production, but which are strategically important for the outsourcer (a company that takes on “foreign” functions), the company makes a mutually beneficial exchange.

It is worth distinguishing between the concepts of one-time support and outsourcing. One-time support is episodic, and an agreement is concluded with the outsourcing company for the provision of outsourcing services for a certain period of time.

What drives companies to outsource? Primarily unwillingness to waste precious time on the directions accompanying the main activity: software, accounting, maintenance.

Outsourcing allows you to entrust the management of these areas to professionals, and concentrate all your efforts on solving the main strategic and production tasks.

Types of outsourcing

Manufacturing outsourcing. Part of the production functions is transferred to a third-party organization. For example, advertising agencies that use the production capacity of a printing house.
Outsourcing of business processes. The company outsources business processes that are not its core business to a third party. The classic example is outsourcing. accounting services.
IT outsourcing. Information systems of the company are transferred for service to organizations involved in technical support and software. The list of transferred functions may include: website development, software support or its development, maintenance of computer and related equipment.

When transferring subsidiary business processes of an outsourcing company are implemented to evaluate and control the effectiveness. Properly selected metrics improve the quality of interaction between companies.

Outsourcing allows companies to focus on what matters most. Diversification - expand the scope of the organization or product range, read more about diversification.

Advantages and disadvantages

When deciding to transfer some functions to outsourcing, one should not rely only on the experience of Western colleagues. The general state of the economy and the position of the target market segment should be taken into account.

However, one cannot be 100% sure of success. this enterprise. This is due to some of the features inherent in outsourcing as a growing business.

The main task of outsourcing is to take non-core and highly specialized activities out of the business.

Let's start with the obvious advantages that the transfer of processes related to the main activity to outsourcing gives.

From an economic point of view, the involvement of an outsourcer allows the company to significantly reduce costs. After all, the company does not have to maintain an additional structure and inflate the staff. Transaction costs may also go down. Some fixed costs can be transformed into variables depending on the needs of the firm in a particular period of time.
In terms of implementation strategic objectives outsourcing makes it possible concentrate resources on core production and improve operational control. In addition, the process of introducing new technological or managerial operations is facilitated.
On the technological side, outsourcing opens up access to higher technologies. If the staff does not have the necessary specialists, they can be attracted under the outsourcing program. The quality of service in the case of an outsourcer is significantly increased, since a third-party company undertakes to control the quality of the work provided under the contract.

Of course, there are back side medals. Let's outline the main disadvantages that can prevent a company from achieving its desired goal through outsourcing.

Rising costs. This is possible if a company outsources too many processes. In addition, the implementation of an outsourcing system requires careful calculation of costs and comparing them with the expected economic effect. Transaction costs may also rise. The possibility of bankruptcy of the outsourcing company should not be ruled out.
Control over the execution of outsourced processes may be lost. Management may lose the link between management and business practice. Reduced managerial flexibility.
concentration danger technological processes In one place. This again deprives the company of flexibility in certain business processes.
Lack of a clear legal framework for outsourcing. In addition, many companies are afraid to delegate business processes to other persons for fear of information leakage or possible violation of contractual relations.

Determining the gross profit of an enterprise or both is applied to assess the operating results of a firm.

For more information about the use of outsourcing in the activities of online stores, see the link. From delivery and outsourcing of accounting services to the transfer of almost all functions of the online store under the control of external companies.

Outsourcing examples

Henry Ford is the father of manufacturing outsourcing. He was one of the first to understand that no firm can be self-sufficient.

The head of an automobile company sought to personally control all stages of production, but he soon encountered exorbitant costs that went into servicing all areas of the company's activities.

Then he turned for help to independent companies that took on some of the tasks. Now Ford produces only 30% of components on its own, the rest of the production is outsourced.

Another giant who knows firsthand the benefits of outsourcing is IKEA. IKEA has practically no own production, instead it cooperates with 2500 suppliers, proven over the years. Logistic functions of IKEA are also delegated to a third party organization.

It turns out that IKEA directs all its resources to organization retail business and other services and business infrastructure are outsourced.

Kodak decided in the early 1990s that leadership in high technology is not her strategic goal. She outsourced all IT-directions to IBM, which was just trying to gain leadership in this segment. An ideal example of mutually beneficial outsourcing.

Prospects for the development of the outsourcing market

In general, outsourcing seems to be a good deal for many companies that do not have enough resources to control all stages and processes of production. World statistics confirm this.

The American Management Association conducted a survey of 600 firms. It turned out that 20% of them had already outsourced some financial operations, and 80% - administrative functions.

Such statistics give the right to assume that an increasing number of companies will look at the possibility of using outsourcing.

Outsourcing(English outsourcing) - this is using an external source

Outsourcing or outsourcing services is the transfer of production or business functions to independent external contractors specializing in a given field. for the maintenance of an outsourcing organization, in contrast to the services of a service that is of a one-time nature, has a longer period (at least one year). Outsourcing firms engaged in the maintenance and support of the smooth operation of individual infrastructure systems.

The main advantage of outsourcing is its profitability and increasing the efficiency of the enterprise, it becomes possible to free up jobs and concentrate human resources in order to develop new directions requiring a lot of attention.

AT Russian Federation outsourcing services are usually provided in the areas of accounting, security, cleaning, translation services, IT outsourcing, advertising services, transportation, as well as software development and its further support.

Advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing

Benefits:

1. Reducing the cost of completing tasks

The involvement of specialized firms frees the businessman from the need to pay wages, calculate and pay insurance premiums, as well as other fees. Besides, company will take over expenses on the maintenance of the office and the occurrence of losses caused by the delay in the implementation of the assigned actions.

2. Minimum terms and professionalism of performers

Specialized organizations guarantee the execution of assigned tasks in the shortest possible time. terms. The fact is that among the employees of such organizations, as a rule, there are only experienced and highly qualified specialists. Through daily work in a given direction, employees gain tremendous experience and can solve even the most complex issues.

Perhaps the main advantage of outsourcing is the ability to focus on entrepreneur on problem solving commercial activities. Transferring indirect functions to specialists, businessman can be completely immersed in production area or take on other projects.

However, this type of service also has a significant number of disadvantages. Most of them are manifested due to the lack of clear legal regulation and many gaps in legislation.

Flaws:

1. Holding accountable for committed violations

Despite the inclusion in the text agreements provisions on the full responsibility of the contractor, it is far from always possible to recover the damages caused. The problem lies in the impossibility of defining the scope of obligations with constant cooperation. The contractor must provide the service clearly described in the terms of the agreement. The transferred functions, as a rule, include a wide range of very different actions. Some issues are resolved in several ways at once, and the client is offered to choose from them.

In addition, compensation for losses is carried out after they have been caused. The real collection of funds is possible only through the courts, which is very difficult and costly.

Most fans of outsourcing declare the complete release of the entrepreneur from solving the issues transferred to specialists. In fact, the implementation of strict control over the execution of tasks is necessary. Unfortunately, not only reliable firms, but also unscrupulous companies are engaged in the provision of services in the considered sector of the market. In practice, there are often cases when, receiving payment under the contract, the contractor does not perform any actions, or creates the appearance of work.

3.High cost

Despite loud claims about savings, price services of a specialized organization will always be higher than real costs to resolve issues. A competent approach will reduce costs to a minimum, therefore, cooperation with firms is recommended for businessmen who do not have the skills of a business process company.

History of outsourcing

The origins of practical outsourcing relate to period confrontation in the automotive industry between two great managers - Henry Ford and Alfred Sloan in the 30s of the XX century, when it became clear that no organization can be self-sufficient, therefore it is advisable to transfer a number of functions to specialized firms. This was especially true of auxiliary production: maintenance and repair of equipment, tool manufacturing, etc. The method of cooperation of highly specialized industries, both inside and outside the company, which underlay the production company headed by A. Sloan of the General Motors organization, ensured the conquest of the American market cars. Until now, General Motors remains one of the most powerful companies, whose production volume has long exceeded 100 billion dollars. in year. The innovation in Sloan's project was outsourcing, which he applied 70 years before the appearance of this term in scientific literature in 1990, at least in two areas of activity of the head: in the company of company management systems and in the production company.

Expediency of external organizations performing certain maintenance functions production process due to a number of factors:

technological complexity of production processes;

high cost restructuring of production lines;

increasing competition in the international market;

increasing requirements for the quality of goods;

processes globalization of the economy.

From the 70s of the XX century. outsourcing in the production of complex machinery (for example, in the automotive industry) becomes the basis of the firm's production process. According to analysts, Ford currently orders 2/3 of components and services from outside (with 100% self-produced components and cars at the time of its founding), and many computer organizations (in particular, Dell and Compaq) have moved to 100% outsourcing of manufacturing.

Many Western experts believe that outsourcing is methodology business has become widespread due to the development information systems and technology, and attribute the beginning of the era of outsourcing to the 60s of the XX century. It was by this time that the practice of creating on large enterprises specialized centers for electronic processing information, which subsequently began to provide relevant services to medium and small firms that do not have the necessary technical capabilities. As early as 1974, the turnover of Germany's specialized computer centers, which by that time numbered about 400, amounted to DM 1.4 billion.

Creation of new technical and software tools became the prerogative of specialized firms, reserving the right to use their products on an industrial scale. Outsourcing since the 80s information technologies is the field of activity large corporations, which have become recognized world leaders in the field of electronic processing data. An example of a mutually beneficial relationship between an outsourcer and a client is the well-known long-term relationship between EDS and General Motors or Systemhaus and Daimler Benz. The undisputed leader in the field of outsourcing today is IBM Global Services corporations IBM, which had already in 1997 a turnover of more than 25 billion dollars. and more than 110 thousand employees in 160 countries.

There is also an opinion that outsourcing arose among law firms operating in countries which are based on case law. The immensity of the subject, the popularity of the judicial method of resolving business disputes, the need for high qualifications and specialization, the desirability of attracting specialists who had previously won a similar case, created the basis for the emergence of independent law firms. Expanding the range of services, they became consulting, and then outsourcing.

Over the past decade, a powerful wave of outsourcing has swept almost all companies. In an effort to reduce the size of an organization to manageable levels, downsize headquarters, and focus on added value and core business activities in order to survive and thrive, public and private firms are applying “sourcing from outside” to many functions and activities. activities previously carried out by the firms themselves. Activities such as cleaning, cooking and security have been outsourced for many years.

Western analysts expect an increase in the value of contracts for logistics services in the near future, which will reach $50 billion. Other objects of outsourcing are mail forwarding departments, photocopying centers and travel agencies.

Certain activities can be completely or partially removed from the organization. For example, some elements of information technology may be strategic, others - defining for the company, and some are cheaper to transfer to a third party. Identifying a function as a potential outsourcer and then decomposing that function into its components allows decision makers to determine which activities are strategic or critical and should be kept in-house and which can be acquired from outside, like goods wide consumption.

Outsourcing in Russia

Even after the crisis, about twenty thousand jur. persons in Russian Federation declare their intention to work in the information technology market, but only two enterprises position themselves as outsourced. The rest haven't been picked out yet. this business in a separate direction. Nevertheless, the Russian outsourcing demand structure is similar to the world one.

The most noticeable are large clients: departments (the Central Bank and many ministries), oil and gas and metallurgical complexes. Some of the announced contract amounts run into the hundreds of millions of dollars. However, their implementation is constantly in question due to the general economic and political situation and the not always favorable world situation.

Representatives of domestic leasing companies claim that about 20% of all contracts worth more than 10 thousand rubles. dollars for the purchase of computer equipment are implemented under leasing schemes. However, the modest turnover they claim (several tens of millions dollars) make us assume that either in the schemes payment there are no independent leasing firms, or the main contracts go through foreign companies.

Among the leading manufacturers of computer equipment, a pioneer in the development of special offshore leasing schemes for Russian Federation is IBM.

The Russian business landscape is already hard to imagine without the world's leading corporations offering outsourcing services. All of them, working in our market, resort to the help of Russian partners.

outsourcing to some extent Russian organizations with experience in more traditional systems integration, such as IBS, Ankey and IT.

It is rather difficult to assess the real volume of the Russian IT outsourcing market, both due to traditional closeness and because many large contracts are concluded abroad. In any case, it can be noted that Russian computer companies are not yet ready to independently act as outsourcers for leading responsible customers.

But Russian programmers are widely popular as an outsourcing resource. Their services are systematically used by IBM, SAP, Parametrics, Firepond and others.

So small technical outsourcing is quite typical for our conditions. Small Russian businesses spend more than $300 million a year on network outsourcing alone (excluding equipment purchases).

Outsourcing is

Types of outsourcing

IT outsourcing

The development of corporate information systems has led to the possibility of their outsourcing. Until the 1990s, some types of outsourcing (such as offshore call center outsourcing) were technically extremely difficult to implement.

Often outsourced information processes refers to the outsourcing of IT processes to organizations that are not directly related to the IT industry. Western countries complex IT outsourcing is widespread, within the framework of which the entire IT infrastructure of the customer is transferred to the contractor. In the Russian Federation, this approach is used extremely rarely, organizations prefer to use its limited options, such as application hosting or corporate site support. At the moment, the main providers of outsourcing IT services in the Russian Federation are system integrators, however, over the past 2-3 years, a number of large Russian speculators have appeared, for which outsourcing is the main activity. At the same time, the world's largest speculators: IBM and HP. The SaaS model can also be considered as a variant of outsourcing in the field of software operation.

Outsourcing in the field of IT is the transfer to a third-party contractor of a number of internal services and (or) internal services of the customer company, including on the basis of the use (for example, rent) of its software products, applications, technical means and pieces of infrastructure. The simplest variant of this practice is the hosting of the company's website. Many modern organizations use outsourcing services, which indicates its popularity and profitability for the end user. Outsourcing can be considered as a service organized by a certain company, where several services are provided in an integrated manner to fully cover the needs of the client. In practice, usually the focus is on one of the specific services.

Maintenance of enterprise information systems

Subscriber maintenance of computers is the most common type of outsourcing in practice in the IT field. With this type of service, the customer is offered complex set services, allowing him to do without his own system administrator or significantly reduce his load. Subscriber maintenance of computers, as a rule, includes the following types of services:

setting up and updating the hardware of the equipment;

software configuration and updating;

creation of protection against hacking and penetration into the network;

antiviral prophylaxis;

prompt repair and replacement of equipment;

preventive measures to prevent breakdowns and depreciation of equipment;

backup information;

consulting and training of personnel.

In practice, the same companies often provide related services - support for the performance of office equipment, (upgrade) computer park, laying local networks, IP telephony and PBX setup, IT audit and . Therefore, maintenance of computers often takes the form of maintenance of the entire complex of information systems of the enterprise-client.

Data center outsourcing

In many industries, firms are faced with the need to use the services of data centers or DPC (Data Processing Center). The construction of its own data center requires the organization to attract financing, carry out general construction work, solve problems with energy supply, purchase server equipment, a company for the operation of the data center and ensure security. Data centers periodically require ongoing and major upgrades. Many firms prefer, instead of creating a corporate data center, to conclude treaty SLA with a commercial data center and get data center services as a service.

External hosting of information systems (SaaS)

IT system hosting outsourcing (Software as a Service, SaaS) is a type of information process outsourcing. Unlike conventional hosting, a SaaS outsourcer not only provides physical equipment for hosting information systems, but also ensures their installation, support and updates.

Within the framework of the SaaS model, customers pay not for owning the software as such, but for its rent (for example, for using it through a web interface). Thus, unlike the classic software licensing scheme, the customer incurs relatively small recurring costs, and he does not need to invest significant funds in the acquisition of the system. The scheme assumes that if the need for the software is temporarily not available, the customer can suspend payments.

The SaaS diagram clearly demonstrates the relationship between various types BPO. , which develops SaaS systems for personnel management or accounting, can simultaneously be a provider of BPO services in these areas.

Outsourcing of code development has become widespread. The traditional leader in the field of IT production is, and the leading developers of the program code are the countries of Eastern Europe, Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. During 2007-08, several leading IT corporations opened their own development centers in the Russian Federation.

Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, along with a number of other developing countries (primarily India), are in the second tier of popular destinations for software development outsourcing right after India and China. In the Russian Federation and Belarus, the software development leaders include EPAM Systems, IBA Group, Intetics, Luxoft, Accenture, Exigen Services, Reksoft, Auriga, DataArt, MERA Networks, LANIT. Among foreign companies you can note, for example, TopCoder.

Development of technical documentation

Outsourcing is on the rise as well. technical documentation(especially for software and construction). This trend has its reasons: with the increasing complexity of software products, software documentation becomes an integral procedure, and many people realize the need to develop technical documentation, so documentation is singled out as a separate area. And in most cases it becomes profitable to outsource the development and maintenance of documentation. documentation, unlike software, satisfies the "What You See Is What You Get" principle, so control development of technical documentation is not difficult.

Accounting support

Accounting outsourcing is one of the options for accounting support for accounting and reporting functions in an enterprise, for which it is responsible full responsibility, in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation, the head of the enterprise. In this variant, in order to ensure accounting at its enterprise and providing the necessary reporting to the Federal Tax Service and extra-budgetary funds, a specialized one is used. Forms of cooperation can be very diverse, ranging from the formation of "zero reporting" to regular cooperation on a daily basis.

Theoretically and practically, an accounting organization can fully perform all the functions of an enterprise's accounting department up to the execution of banking payments and exhibiting primary documents counterparties. However, this does not exclude the possibility of building sufficiently complex and flexible business processes using external companies and in-house employees to achieve maximum efficiency.

Do not confuse bookkeeping outsourcing with a freelance accountant. Outsourcing is characterized mainly by the transfer of regular functions. While the involvement of a freelance specialist should be regarded rather as the transfer of episodic volumes of work to a specific contractor.

One of the obvious disadvantages of outsourcing financial processes and accounting are the fears of customers for the safety of their financial information, for the correct maintenance and submission of financial and tax reporting to regulatory authorities. And although large outsourcing firms have the appropriate competence and are responsible to the customer for the correctness and timeliness of providing information, nevertheless, it is financial department and the accounting department of the customer are responsible to the state for the correctness and timeliness of reporting. As a result, large customers in the Russian Federation are reluctant to go for such outsourcing, preferring to do their own bookkeeping. As a result, the critical asset of any outsourcing organization is its presence in the market and the feedback from established clients.

Inventory

The transfer of the inventory process to outsourcing, as a rule, is associated with solving problems related to property accounting. A technology based on bar coding is used. The carrier of information about the object being taken into account is a special self-adhesive label with a bar code, which is destroyed when it is removed (similar to an inventory tag). Fixed assets, goods, and materials are marked with labels or tags. Data collection terminals with a built-in barcode scanner are used to collect information about property during inventory.

Ensuring mutual settlements with staff

Calculation outsourcing wages usually based on the SaaS business model. This implies the calculation wages, bonuses, travel allowances, allowances, compensations, etc., and not the implementation of payments.

Outsourcing in the field of personnel management

Any company is forced to solve problems related to personnel management - hiring employees, calculating compensation and tax reporting. At the same time, such activities are specialized only for recruitment agencies. That is why the practice of personnel management outsourcing (HRO, Human Resources Outsourcing) has gained considerable popularity. More often, processes related to the selection and search of employees (as well as staff leasing and outstaffing) are transferred, less often - the processes of personnel administration and payroll.

The practice of outsourcing personnel management processes is widespread in the Russian Federation. Examples of companies providing recruitment and recruitment services are various recruitment agencies. Suppliers complex services there is much less outsourcing in the field of personnel management and personnel administration in the Russian Federation.

Use of non-staff personnel

Removal of personnel for (outstaffing) - recruitment agency(or other structure) draws up the employees of the company in its own state, while the employee remains at his workplace and carry out previous duties. Depending on the specifics of taxation, this can significantly reduce the real cost of hiring or allow you to receive special benefits for companies with a small staff. The development of this situation is the direction of temporarily free personnel to work in different enterprises (personnel).

Outbound telemarketing and call handling

Another common example of business process outsourcing is the outsourcing of customer relationship management (CRM) processes and, in particular, the outsourcing of telephone call processing and outsourcing to call centers. Many Western organizations use this type of outsourcing, placing call centers in places with cheap labor, often in other countries.

Leading supplier call center outsourcing services is India, which is able to provide Western companies with acceptable quality at low prices (due to cheap labor). Quite often, call centers are located in the countries of Eastern Europe, as well as in some Arab states (for example, in Egypt).

Outsourcing of call centers in the Russian Federation is also quite common, but it has a slightly different form. Russian language proficiency requirements practically exclude the placement of call centers in foreign countries and even in some CIS countries. Therefore, many firms prefer to move customer service centers to Russian provincial cities with relatively cheap labor. To manage the call center, a separate office is often created. legal face, which allows us to consider this a sourcing model, but is not outsourcing (insourcing).

Outsourcing of office printing is the transfer of all office printing equipment to the management with further installation by the outsourcer of its own printing equipment. Transition to payment for one printed page.

Legal and information support

Organizations often prefer to use outsourcing instead of a full-time lawyer. As a rule, this is much cheaper than maintaining your own specialist. Legal services, as well as accounting, are needed by any enterprise, institution or public company, but in most cases the workload is simply not enough to make it profitable to use an in-house lawyer.

Publishing outsourcing

Typical examples of outsourcing are also the transfer to a third party of the functions of translation, printing and post-print processing of documents, the publication of corporate newspapers and magazines. The publishing house has state editors, proofreaders, layout department, freelance writers. For the translation of materials, printing of publications and distribution (the most resource-intensive and expensive areas), third-party companies can be involved. A separate area of publishing outsourcing is the provision of print media sales.

Logistics outsourcing

Purchase from a third party of services for inventory management, transportation of goods, its warehousing and all related business processes.

Outsourcing today

At the end of 2012, the growth of the IT outsourcing market in the Russian Federation amounted to 15%. It is expected that in 2013 it will continue to grow at the same high rate - from 15 to 17%. Key customers of services are primarily large geographically distributed organizations, including federal ones. These are retail (more than 30%), the financial sector (17.5%), telecom (12-15%), government agencies (11.3%), fuel and energy complex. Today 37% of large speculators Russian business in the corporate segment use IT outsourcing services. At the same time, two or three of them plan to increase funding for IT services in the future and give more authority to external contractors.

For domestic businessmen, outsourcing is a new concept, but despite this, many enterprises actively use this service. The transfer of non-core activities to third-party specialists is much more expensive, but the work is carried out at a high quality level. Such a business is able to bring a good and stable income. In a previous post, we told you. You will learn how to open an outsourcing company in this article.

What is outsourcing?

Many people ask the question: What is an outsourcing company in simple terms? Everyone knows that it is impossible to become a professional in all industries, so each organization has its own narrow area of activity. To pay more attention to the development of the enterprise, many entrepreneurs shift additional, important functions to other companies that specialize in a particular field of activity. This useful mutual assistance is called outsourcing.

Previously, this service was used to pay salaries to management at some enterprises. This made it possible to avoid publicity of information. Today, businessmen who are trying to optimize their costs are happy to use the services of providing staff for rent. Third-party experts handle tax reporting, visit banks, and even have access to some confidential information.

It should be noted that in Western countries personnel outsourcing is a rather demanded service. Some companies outsource almost 80% of non-essential functions to third-party specialists. In our country, the outsourcing business is at the stage of development, but despite this, 30-40% of entrepreneurs are already actively using this service.

Services

Before you draw up a business plan for an outsourcing company, you must first determine the type of its activity.

The most common services include the following:

Accountant services;
Tax reporting;
Advertising activity;
Employee management;
Office printing;
Cleaning;
Creation and promotion of sites.

Experts recommend choosing still unfilled niches, which include:

Development of corporate publications;
Sales department management;
Logistics services.

This list is not limited by law. If an entrepreneur has found a highly specialized type of activity in his region, for which there is a great demand, you can safely occupy this niche.

Activity registration

Before you open a recruitment agency, you should legalize your business. If several co-founders are involved in the business, an LLC should be opened. One owner can register an IP. This type of activity is not licensed, so you do not have to issue any additional permits.

To build a business on staff rental, you will need about 400 thousand rubles.

This amount includes the following expenses:

Office rent - 70 thousand rubles;
Purchase of furniture - 100 thousand rubles;
Business registration 10 thousand rubles;
Advertising - 20 thousand rubles;
Computer equipment - 100 thousand rubles;
Salary - 100 thousand rubles.

At the start, you will not receive a solid profit. You must first declare yourself in the market and earn regular customers. If you use the right recruitment methods and manage to prove yourself with better side, for 2-3 years of work, the profitability of the business will reach 40%.

Staff

The success of your business largely depends on the choice of employees. Use advanced modern methods recruitment to select the best specialists.

They are subject to the following requirements:

Competence;
Work experience;
sociability;
Ability to communicate with clients.

Over time, when your business begins to flourish, you can hire a professional who will deal with the selection of employees. Responsibilities of the recruiting manager include interviewing the applicant, checking professional qualities, registration for work.

At first, 5-10 people are enough for full-fledged work.

Basic recruitment methods

The main task that every novice entrepreneur faces is the search for employees. For this, various methods of selection and evaluation of personnel are used. Let's consider some of them:

Advertisements in business newspapers and magazines;
State employment centers. This is one of the most common recruitment methods. The center offers employers several interesting programs. For example, a company can accept an employee for an internship, and after he is enrolled in a permanent job, the employment center pays him a salary during the year.
Recruitment agencies. Services are very popular these days. recruiting agencies. They take 2-3 monthly salary of an employee for their work. Some organizations operate on a prepaid basis;
Announcements in printed publications. Analyzing data in the media, one can find not only semi-skilled workers, but also employees on leadership positions. It is not advisable to use such recruitment methods to search for highly qualified specialists, since they usually do not read such publications;
View resume. Professionals post their resumes on job sites. If you decide to go into staff leasing, you can use this information to help you find staff for your organization;
Internet ads. To find specialists to work in an outsourcing company, you can post vacancies on specialized sites on the Internet. To prevent competitors from learning about your plans, you can not disclose the name of the company. For feedback it is enough to specify the address Email. Such traditional methods of recruiting usually give a good result;
Newsletter commercial offers to different organizations
Own website.

An important source of advertising can be your first customers who hired workers in your company and were satisfied with the level of service provided. Positive customer reviews will help you create an impeccable reputation and, accordingly, increase the profitability of the enterprise.

The main task facing aspiring entrepreneurs is to tell their potential clients about the benefits they can get by using their services.

Features of personnel management

Many businessmen outsource all accounting calculations and personnel workflow. This is quite labor intensive work. Outsourcing organizations also offer motivational and evaluation projects, as well as small business personnel management. Here they use a different approach to work, so such an activity is considered separate view business.

conclusions

In any business, there is no one hundred percent guarantee that it will be profitable and cost-effective. If you correctly analyze your actions and treat your work responsibly, outsourcing of working personnel can bring good income. The competition in this area is low, so you can safely enter this business.

Modern business processes require special flexibility, efficiency and economy from the participants in business relations. These rules are dictated primarily by the difficult economic situation, which leaves no time for reflection. This is understood by both owners and managers of companies operating in various business areas.

Useful tool

One of the most effective and at the same time effective schemes for reducing costs and increasing work efficiency is the use of outsourcing. With its help, the company not only reduces its costs, but also ends up with a better product.

About what is the essence of outsourcing, what kind of tool it is and how it is applied in practice, read in this article.

General concept

So let's start with general characteristics this category. Surely you have heard this term when you were told about any business processes of one kind or another. Today, many service companies offer different types outsourcing, which is the main activity profile of such business entities.

At first glance, this term (translated from English means something like "search for resources from the outside") is something difficult to understand. common man away from business. Many probably do not even know what exactly this word means, even though they have heard it many times.

Believe me, there is nothing complicated in the “outsourcing” category. What it is? In simple terms, we can say that this term means the transfer of some function of the company to other companies specialized in this area. In more detail about what this process implies, you will learn from our example below.

illustrative example

So, what functions are we talking about and why transfer them to another company?

Imagine that you are the owner of a company that sells flowers. You are well versed in how to grow your products, decorate and sell them. You know all the subtleties of this market, so you are ready to engage in such a business and develop it.

At the same time, your firm cannot do without an accountant and a lawyer who will deal with financial reporting, drawing up contracts and other technical issues. Of course, you do not understand anything about this, since your profile is flowers. Since you need specialists in finance and law, you have an easy way to solve the problem: hire such specialists (a lawyer and an accountant). At this stage, two problems arise. First, you don't have an appropriate office. You work in a store, and there is simply nowhere to put these people.

The second is the cost. Paying salaries to two more people is a rather big expense. At the same time, you do not need so much from these specialists: one-time compilation of some kind of monthly reports and periodic consultations 1-2 times a month. How to be in such a situation? That's right: external outsourcing is your way out!

Scheme of work

Instead of hiring one lawyer and one accountant who cannot physically cover the entire range of your tasks (since they specialize in only one thing and cannot be universal specialists), you contact an audit company and conclude an agreement with it. On the one hand, its lawyers will process your contracts with the highest quality and fill out all the necessary paperwork; on the other hand, accountants will be engaged in reporting. Since such a company has a whole department of specialists you need, they will not only do the work you need faster, but also better. At the same time, the cost of the company's services will be less than two salaries; and the level of service is incomparably higher.

You can cooperate with such a company in the form of a subscription. By signing a contract for 6 or 12 months of service, you will benefit. That's how they work modern companies. And to be perfectly honest, such a scheme provides maximum benefit for you as a business owner.

Types of outsourcing

In fact, there are many techniques for how to separate variations of a given model. According to the specifics of activity, for example, three categories can be distinguished. The first is manufacturing outsourcing. An example of this is the use advertising agencies printing houses for the creation of printed products. Of course, it would not be so profitable for the agency to have such a production capacity of its own. With occasional contact with the printing house, you can get your orders at an affordable price.

The second type is business process outsourcing. It is characterized by the fact that one company completely transfers some function to the service of another. Remember our example with a lawyer and an accountant - these are examples of what types of outsourcing are.

Finally, the third category is IT outsourcing. Already by the name itself, one can guess that within it the functions of software development, website creation, writing some kind of software control systems for equipment, and others can be transferred.

However, this classification is certainly not exhaustive. There is, for example, such a thing as personnel outsourcing. It refers to the transfer by one company to another of specialized personnel performing certain functions. A prime example of this is the companies that serve supermarkets. They employ merchandisers who know how to arrange products and determine price tags for goods as soon as possible. Due to such companies, the supermarket gets rid of the need to maintain its staff and constantly look for new staff, fearing that one of the employees decides to suddenly quit. The same personnel outsourcing is used in the security and cleaning business, and not only. It allows you to do business more efficiently, reducing costs and improving the quality of the final product.

Other classification

In addition to those presented, there are other types of outsourcing. For example, it is external and internal. They differ from each other according to the principle of placement of those who perform the task. If, for example, in the case of supermarkets, merchandisers work on their premises, then we call this “internal outsourcing”. Quite logical. If, as in the case of accountants, specialists draw up all the papers at their workplaces and simply send them by e-mail, then this is external outsourcing.

Advantages

What can be positive about the outsourcing system? First of all, competence and specialization. The specialists of the company from which you order services are clearly much more competent than your employees (for whom this task is not a core task). Therefore, the results of the work can be appropriate.

The next point is the frequency of such work. If you require services on a regular basis, you may be better off considering a specialist staff member. If we are talking about episodic consultations, drafting documents and other actions, it is better to contact a company that is engaged in outsourcing.

Flaws

It should not be assumed that the model we have described is ideal. No, in fact, despite the high level of popularity, outsourcing (what it is, we have already explained in simple words) does not guarantee that the costs of specialist services will be lower than in the case of hiring staff member. It may happen that the head of the company incorrectly calculates his expenses and, on the contrary, will pay more. Therefore, when working with such a model, one should thoroughly prepare: calculate all costs, determine the labor efficiency of both hired employees and those who work by outsourcing.

Again, do not forget about the control over the process. It happens that a company outsources too many of its functions to service. Because of this, in some situations, when you urgently need to perform some minor function or perform a task that was not originally agreed, serious problems can arise.

Therefore, you need to be careful with outsourcing and remember that when ordering such services, you trust other people to do them, whose vision may differ from yours.

conclusions

So, in this note, we have described the main types of outsourcing, which, of course, may include other varieties. It all depends on what criterion to divide those models that are currently on the market.

In general, such a form of cooperation as outsourcing can be called an ideal work option for any company. You, as a customer, can outsource costly, time-consuming and complex functions for you and your specialists to those who can serve them at a much higher level. Those companies, in turn, can simultaneously work with several clients, which also allows us to talk about the wide possibilities of scaling their business, entering new markets and opening up new directions.

Training

As for the specialists directly working in such companies, this is also an excellent experience for them and an opportunity to try their hand at different niches. After working in one of these firms, they will be able to navigate more accurately in their area of knowledge, will be much more qualified and experienced than those workers whose job is to serve narrower areas.

Today, as practice shows, the efficiency of work with the help of outsourcing is only growing. Even the leaders of the global industry confirm this by turning to other enterprises for help. Take, for example, Apple - the largest company that could establish own production all components for their products. However, it also has many partners who are responsible for different directions outsourcing. Obviously, this is more profitable and convenient.

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