Undeniably, there are certain disadvantages to outsourcing. Let’s see what they are, what upside they might offer (if any), and how you can address them
Time zones
The team you outsource to might work in a different time zone. Within Europe this is not so noticeable, as there is only a two-hour time difference between Ireland in the West and Helsinki, Tallinn, Riga, and Vilnius in the East. Daylight savings time also operates the same way within the region. When outsourcing from Europe to a more distant location, such as the Philippines, the time difference can be relatively large, e.g. seven hours between London and Manila.
Of course this has some advantages as well. When one of our overseas clients, based in Canada, submits a request at their end of business to our Riga head office, we perform the task during their off hours, and when they return to their office the next morning in Toronto, the requested task will be done and waiting for them in their inbox.
Data access and security
Whenever new people get access to your data and systems, the question of trust is put in focus. Broadstone.io and our sister business, TrM Translations, have been working with sensitive client data for over two decades and have experience in this regard.
While your NDA requirements can usually be incorporated into our workflow, another foolproof way we provide is to allow you to start small and, as you see how we work, you can increase the sensitivity and depth of the data you provide access to as you feel comfortable.
Since we work from the EU, GDPR regulations also apply to us, and you won’t face complications arising from moving personal information to locations outside the EU.
Cultural differences
Whenever outsourcing to other countries, there might be cultural differences to be considered.
We work from within the EU (this includes all the professionals we involve in your projects, unless agreed otherwise), and everyone involved speaks English at a very high level. This ensures that most of these cultural differences are relatively small and can be addressed easily as our cooperation moves ahead.
The benefit of such a setup is that, while the cultural differences are small, the regional differences in prices can be leveraged, resulting in services that are priced at a more attractive level.
Tasks not suited for outsourcing
There are high-level tasks that are simply not suited for outsourcing. Management and decision-making are best kept closer to home – and the same might apply to trying out new approaches first.
However, we work with other companies as well, and our experience can serve as a basis for process improvement ideas that might be incorporated into the work we do for you – perhaps even solutions you might not have thought of.
Lock-in
Dependency on a single supplier might be risky. The way we help this concern is two-tiered:
- Detailed documentation of all the processes that we take over. This can then be included in your ISO9001 audit documentation, your training materials, and – should the case arise – serve as the basis of handing the tasks to a company other than Broadstone.io.
- Low commitment is required from our clients, and we enable easy scaling. This means that moving away from us is easy, even with all services, or just some of them. But we are confident that you will be happy with the service we provide.
Quality risks
There is always the risk of dissatisfaction. This of course is also true for hiring an employee, hence the concept of probation period. We solve this similarly to the problem of lock-in detailed above: documenting enables a pre-agreed process, while low commitment requirements allow you to switch providers if needed.
Employee morale
Outsourcing might make some of your employees believe that there is downsizing around the corner. This of course depends on the scale of the planned changes. Nevertheless, there is a positive side too, that your team can experience.
Overtime, boring, and low added value tasks can easily be eliminated, together with pressure that can result in burn-out, making the work aspect of the work-life balance more engaging. And a more resilient, flexible, quick to adapt company can be a better employer in the long term, attracting and retaining the best talent for the more important tasks.
Lower control
While outsourcing might appear to provide less control, the reality is that with proper documentation everything can move ahead the way it was intended. The process review performed while documenting also makes everything more transparent.
The flexibility of our services can increase the control you have over the actual hours worked, overtime, holidays, and sick leaves.
And, of course, there is already a huge difference in the level of control when working in the same room or in another room down the corridor.
