Offshoring Info

Help Desk

Where do you go if you have a problem with your satellite television or broadband service provider? Whom do you call if your have a problem with your computer’s installation system or if your printer just died on you before a major presentation? Who is the one person who can quickly help you stop that whining noise and smoke that your lap top is generating right in the middle of the conference call you are having with your boss? If you are like me, the auto dial function on your telephone will have the number of your friendly global help desk!

According to me, the help desk is the best invention of man in the twenty first century. The computer and all the electronic gadgets are over hyped. Technology changes much before it becomes affordable in the first place. And gadgets and gizmos are flooding the marketplace like never before. If there is anything at all that has remained consistent through all the tumult, it has been the ubiquitous help desk.

The concept of the help desk started off as a service offering, provided by makers of new IT products and services to clients, who were still unfamiliar with the new age technology. But as users have gotten more savvy, the products and services too have become even more complex. Which makes the role of the help desk even more important. Take Windows itself. This simple operating system started off as Windows 1.0. It grew over the years to become Windows 3.0, Windows 3.1, Windows 95, 97, 2000 and now XP. Obviously, each new version has seen the features increase. And each passing year has seen more users start taking up desktop computing as a real option.

This has only meant more work for the people at the Microsoft help desk. As the versions increased and the features expanded, the conventional help desk too expanded to become much more than a mere service offering. Software products and services almost being on par made the quality of the after sales service a critical component in the competitive marketplace. And the help desk, being at the forefront of this arena, has had to adapt and evolve.

So, the typical help desk of today is staffed not just with people who can familiarize you with products and their features, but also specialist engineers and technicians who can troubleshoot your problems and provide you with the correct solution, often within the duration of a simple telephone call. And since the business demands skilled professionals who come with an innate understanding of technology, better prospects have emerged for IT professionals.

In fact, in keeping with the global outsourcing trend, most help desk jobs have moved to countries like India and China where there is no shortage of skilled manpower, and the quality of the professionals is assured. The beneficial cost structures have also contributed to this trend. For like I mentioned earlier, the products may evolve and newer versions may come up. But unless the help desk remains an integral part of the service offering, there will be no exponential increase of market share.

Posted by Mark at 03:40 PM | Comments (0)

Answering the Phone

If you are a manager of any notable size of office or especially a doctor, you'll need someone answering the phone for you when you aren't there. I personally hire the services of a professional answering service, rather than having to contact my voicemail constantly to check for emergencies or worried calls from patients. Having a service answering the phone for me means that I can take trips or relax without worry and I don't have to reveal my personal information. If some emergency does come up, the answering service will put it through to tell me that I better call back immediately because, for example, Mrs. Jones is about to have her baby, or Mr. Smith has a recurrence of that stomach pain and may need to be hospitalized. It really takes the worry out of being a doctor to have someone answering the phone for you.

Of course, there are a variety of answering services to look for. If you work in a large hospital like I did until recently, there is an in house answering service of sorts. The desk will be answering the phone and telling me if there is anything that needs my attention. Unfortunately, they are pretty poor at judging the difference between an emergency and something routine that can wait for the next day while I'm out for dinner with my family. They would really call about just about everything, ringing my pager for routine medical questions that I could have easily answered in the office the next day, or pestering me about people wanting to reschedule at all hours of the night.

It's important that the people you have answering the phone don't ere the other way, both for legal reasons and for the long term safety and health of all of your patients. I had a colleague who just such a thing happened to. It seemed that his answering service couldn't be bothered to call him in the middle of the night, no matter what. After several nearly serious mishaps, including one with a patient who had a serious reaction to a medication prescribed by him, the doctor told them specifically, that if there is any doubt they should call him when answering the phone just in case there is really a very serious medical emergency. Unfortunately, they were tragically negligent. Someone, complaining of stabbing pains in his stomach should have been hospitalized immediately, but his doctor wasn't told by the answering service, so couldn't do anything about it. The man almost died from accute appendicitis, which just goes to show you how important it is to demand the highest of service.

Posted by Mark at 01:46 PM | Comments (0)

Business Process Outsourcing

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) refers to using the services of third party companies to perform functions that were previously were perfomrmed internally. A recent trend has been towards offshore business process outsourcing, often referred to as "offshoring". Offshore business process outsourcing can be very cost effective for companies, because some countries, such as India and China, have lower labor costs. Skilled technical resources often cost a fraction compared to the same resources in the United States.

For a great site with much information about business process outsourcing, visit this outsourcing site. They have numerous articles on the topic of business process outsourcing (BPO).

Posted by Mark at 07:25 AM | Comments (0)

Offshore Outsourcing Implementation

Companies will often spend months preparing to move some operations to a different country, but no matter how much planning is done, the offshore outsourcing implementation almost always causes some problems. Offshore outsourcing implementation the stage where all of the potential problems that cannot be foreseen arise. These problems will wreak havoc with your existing plans for offshore outsourcing implementation. No matter how detailed your planning stage may be there is bound to be some unexpected occurrence that will throw off your offshore outsourcing implementation. This can prove to be extremely frustrating for the team that is put in charge of offshore outsourcing implementation who will quickly come to feel like they are a swat team who only deals with emergencies.

The reason behind most of the difficulties with offshore outsourcing implementation is that the way business is done on the other side of globe is quite different than what you are used to. While you may have a specific timetable that you will try to abide by, there way of doing business is often much more relaxed and much less strict. This attitude will surely be a big obstacle in your offshore outsourcing implementation as most people are used to the tight deadlines that are present in the United States. The best way to plan for these problems in your offshore outsourcing implementation is to keep some flexibility in your plan in order to be able to better cope with these changes as they come up.

Posted by ben at 10:33 AM | Comments (0)

Offshore Outsourcing Risks

Offshore outsourcing risks are numerous and are often hard to minimize. The reason that offshore outsourcing risks are so hard to control is that people are often unaware of what they are when they start their operations. It is not until the offshore outsourcing risks become a big problem that most management teams are able to recognize that risk. Offshore outsourcing risks are so prevalent because it a very big investment and it is usually in a place where you do not have much expertise. Operating in a foreign country will always entail additional risks, and this is usually the main source of offshore outsourcing risks. As well, a lot of money must be invested into the upstart of these facilities even before most offshore outsourcing risks are encountered.

In addition to the huge offshore outsourcing risks associated with the operations, there are also many risks at home. Big offshore outsourcing risks are centered on the public reaction. Nike is a great example of a negative media reaction that has caused a drop in their sales. Being able to limit these offshore outsourcing risks is one of the most important aspects of planning your offshore venture. As well, since most offshore operations are built to exist an existing plant at home, there are a lot of offshore outsourcing risks surrounding the layoffs of current employees. This could lead to trouble with the union and potentially high costs to settle with the laid off workers. The offshore outsourcing risks at home, while just as real as the ones abroad are probably easier to predict, and therefore easier to plan for. It is the offshore outsourcing risks in a different country that you need to be flexible in order to deal with.

Posted by ben at 10:53 AM | Comments (0)

Offshore Development

For companies looking to outsource some of their operations to a place with lower costs, offshore development can be a great way of doing so. Offshore development can involve a lot of different things, all of which will have their own advantages and disadvantages. The most common offshore development is to set up manufacturing facilities. The reason this is the most common offshore development is that many manufacturing plants do not require a high level of skill among their workers, and other countries can provide employees at a much lower cost. Offshore development of this sort can save a company millions of dollars through the use of low cost labor. However, there have been many cases in the past where the working conditions in these plants has been extremely poor and brought on a lot of negative press resulting in a drop in sales.

While manufacturing is the most common form of offshore development, there have recently been several new methods. As many countries in Asia have become more developed, American companies have started doing offshore development in much more advanced areas. A lot of telephone call centers are being built in India which has a large number of highly trained people. As well, as the economic clout of these countries increase, offshore development has come to include selling to those markets as well. Any business that does not attempt to sell the enormous markets in India and China are missing out on millions of dollars in sales. Going forward, new markets like these are likely to emerge in other areas of the world, each of which will bring new meaning to offshore development. Businesses will have to be flexible in order to adapt to these changes and make the most of offshore development in the future.

Posted by ben at 11:52 AM | Comments (0)

Offshore Outsourcing Strategy

Many people will quickly assume that there is little detail to an offshore outsourcing strategy. They believe that any company that partakes in offshoring is using the same offshore outsourcing strategy. The assumed offshore outsourcing strategy is basically to cut production costs by setting up operations in a place of the world labor and/or resources are less expensive. While this is true of the basic offshore outsourcing strategy, there are far more details to it that many people often neglect. There is not nearly enough space here to go through a full offshore outsourcing strategy, but I will try to discuss some of the key features. This is certainly not a complete outline for an offshore outsourcing strategy, but I would consider a good starting point for anyone considering moving operations offshore.

In addition to the basic principle of an offshore outsourcing strategy that was discussed above, it is important to consider you shipping strategy, media strategy, and scaling strategy. Since your offshore operations are likely in a distant country, your offshore outsourcing strategy must include a cost effective means of shipping all your products to their final destination. There is no point in cheap manufacturing if it is negated by high shipping costs. Next, there is often a negative public reaction to offshoring. Therefore, your offshore outsourcing strategy should include a media plan to minimize the bad press. Finally, assuming the other areas of your offshore outsourcing strategy are sound, you will likely one day want to scale your offshore operations. When you first set up your offshore operations, you should consider that one day you may want to expand and plan accordingly. In addition to these areas, there are surely going to be many more things to include in your offshore outsourcing strategy.

Posted by ben at 10:08 PM | Comments (0)

Offshore Outsourcing Management

When companies set up their offshore operations, they often do not put enough effort into finding good offshore outsourcing management. Having a good offshore outsourcing management team is crucial to the success of the venture, whether you are in America, or Taiwan. However, the challenges faced by offshore outsourcing management are usually more difficult than one would encounter in the United States. Offshore outsourcing management will have to cope with all of the regular issues involved in operating the production plant, in addition to several other factors. Offshore outsourcing management will be forced to adapt to the new culture in which they are operating, which can often hinder the production techniques that they are accustomed to. The cultural barriers faced by offshore outsourcing management must be approached with a high level of expertise in order to be successful.

As well, offshore outsourcing management will have to learn the new laws and business practices in the country of the new operations. The regulations that exist in the more popular outsourcing destinations are often very different from America and can be difficult to adjust to effectively. Offshore outsourcing management will often have to interact with the local government when they are setting up operations to deal with these issues. Finally, a large obstacle facing offshore outsourcing management is that they must coordinate the shipping of the finished products to the appropriate destination. While all plant managers must do this, it is much more difficult for offshore outsourcing management since they must ship the products internationally. Despite all of these challenges, working in offshore outsourcing management can be very rewarding both personally and financially.

Posted by ben at 09:08 PM | Comments (0)

Offshore Outsourcing Performance

One of the most common problems faced by companies that outsource to other countries is to measure their offshore outsourcing performance. There are several different factors that lead to the problems in determining your offshore outsourcing performance. First, finding an appropriate benchmark for your offshore outsourcing performance can be a challenge. Many companies move their operations from the original country to somewhere offshore in order to decrease their total costs. However, the expectations of how much savings to expect are not clear. If your offshore outsourcing performance shows that you have cut costs by 30% is that good enough or should it be closer to 50%? Unless you already have offshore operations, finding an appropriate offshore outsourcing performance benchmark is very difficult.

The next problem, and something that impacts all companies with offshore operations, is the reliability of measuring your offshore outsourcing performance. In the North America or Europe, there are very strict laws that must be followed when reporting results. However, the same is not true of most offshore destinations. Many parts of the world are characterized by corrupt business operations, making the reliability of your offshore outsourcing performance hard to figure out. Even with a large contingent of workers from your headquarters, there will always exist the difficulty of getting a good measurement of your offshore outsourcing performance. Most companies that have this problem strive for continual improvement and try to make sure that costs are always decreasing.

Posted by ben at 01:10 PM | Comments (0)

Offshore Outsourcing Consulting

It is becoming increasingly popular to make a living working by pursuing a career in offshore outsourcing consulting. Working in offshore outsourcing consulting requires a very diverse set of skills. Like other areas of consulting, you will have to excellent analytical and problem solving skills to work in offshore outsourcing consulting. However, unlike other types of consulting, you have to have a certain level of expertise in international business and globalization. Most people who work in offshore outsourcing consulting will specialize in an area with which they have extensive experience. For example, after having spent a year running a manufacturing plant in China, they could work as an expert in offshore outsourcing consulting.

This level of expertise is the biggest factor in minimizing the number of people working in offshore outsourcing consulting. The expertise required to work in offshore outsourcing consulting is not something that you can learn in a classroom or a training session, but has to be experienced. However, with the increasing level of globalization in the world today, it is becoming more common for employees to spend a year working abroad. This will lead to more people with the required expertise to work in offshore outsourcing consulting. The trend of more offshore outsourcing consulting will likely lead to higher quality offshoring developments, further causing an increase in the level of globalization.

Posted by ben at 11:14 AM | Comments (2)