Outsourcing: What Is It?

Businesses often find themselves at the crossroads of insourcing and outsourcing, especially regarding technical or advanced services such as creative design. Choosing to outsource is a huge decision, not to be taken lightly. So, what is it, and why is it a good choice?

We’re glad you asked. Outsourcing essentially means you offload a service or department within your company to a partner company specializing in that field. Unlike subcontracting, outsourcing generally involves a long-term commitment. 

Subcontracting often involves short-lived services provided to your company by a contracted professional, such as a plumber, website developer, or architect. Once the job is complete, the contractor is released until their services are needed again in the future. This is most appropriate when the need for the services is finite. 

On the other hand, outsourcing generally consists of a continuous partnership that constantly provides specialized services, such as customer service or creative design. Your partner company essentially becomes an extension of your company. 

The Pros of Outsourcing Creative Design Services

When considering whether or not to outsource any of your creative design services, it’s essential to understand the benefits and know if they align with your most pressing business needs. Some of the most important benefits of outsourcing include:

• Cost Reduction
• Global Talent Access
• Increased Space For Innovation

Cost Reduction

Reducing costs is the number one reason businesses choose to outsource. As mentioned, creative design professionals undergo expensive and extensive training to become proficient at what they do. As a result, they expect to be rewarded with generous compensation packages.

Additionally, the specialized hardware and software needed to accomplish their tasks are expensive to acquire, install, and maintain. Instead of facing these unforeseen costs, outsourcing allows you to have controllable and predicted costs. 

Global Talent Access

The global remote work revolution has been stirring for years, but COVID government restrictions have dramatically increased its unfolding. As a result, more and more companies, including outsourcing partners, have expanded their acquisition of talent from around the world. 

This greatly benefits companies preparing to outsource advanced services to partner companies. Instead of being dependent on local talent, outsourcing opens the door to global talent. This means that you can benefit from the skills of someone in Japan, even if you are in the United States. 

Increased Space for Innovation

One of the best benefits of outsourcing comes from increased space for innovation. Let us explain. Typically you will outsource a function or service that you are weak at as a company. In other words, what you exist to create is your why and your greatest strength. However, with growth comes increased demand for supporting services such as customer service, order fulfillment, and graphic design. 

By eliminating the need to focus your personnel and capital resources on this weakness, you can focus these resources on your strengths. Doing so gives your company the space it needs to continue innovating your product or service. Innovation is key to sustained long-term success and growth. 

The Cons of Outsourcing Creative Design Services

Outsourcing has far more benefits than negatives, but before you offload a service or department of your company, you should know what consequences you will face. Some of these include:

• Reduced Control
• Workforce Disruptions
• Loss Of Managerial Oversight 

Reduced Control

This is the big one. The unavoidable one. Outsourcing inherently means your company will lose some control over the service you outsource. It is inevitable. This is the scariest reason why some companies refuse to outsource, and look; we get it. Losing control is a big deal no matter what the subject matter being discussed is. 

However, understanding this inevitable consequence gives you an advantage. Knowing that outsourcing will result in reduced control means that you must choose the right partner. A partner that mitigates this concern by limiting the amount of power you must sacrifice. 

Workforce Disruptions

In addition to reduced control, workforce disruptions are a straightforward consequence of outsourcing. When you outsource a service that already exists within your company, you will be faced with workforce disruptions. The choices available to you will either be reallocation or termination. Neither is pleasant for you or the affected employees.

This con requires you to make difficult choices in your company's and your employees' best interests. For instance, reallocating existing staff hired to perform tasks related to the service you outsource means they may be doing jobs they are not interested in. This will affect their work performance and their morale.

On the other hand, choosing to terminate those employees profoundly affects their well-being. Their entire lives will be disrupted. This is a difficult position to be in. It also illustrates why you should outsource before investing resources into insourcing. In other words, prepare as much as possible beforehand so that you are not faced with these difficult but necessary choices later.

Loss of Managerial Oversight

Management is an essential element of successful business operations. The right manager can turn a struggling group into a thriving one, and the wrong manager can cause high-performing employees to underperform. Outsourcing an entire department or service to another company means you will lose much of your oversight on who is assigned to manage it. 

Managerial oversight is relative to control and is another crucial reason for choosing the right outsourcing partner. Some companies will give you little to no access to these decisions, while others will do everything in their power to provide you with as much input as possible. 

Key Pros and Cons Takeaways

This Pros and Cons list is not all-inclusive. Many other benefits come with outsourcing, as well as some negatives. But we believe these are three of the biggest for each category. 

Advantages of Outsourcing Creative Design Services:

• It Can Save You Money
• Grants You Access to Global Talent 
• It provides You the Space To Innovate

Drawbacks of Outsourcing Creative Design Services:

• It Means Giving Up Some Control
• It Can Create Workforce Disruptions
• A Loss of Managerial Oversight 

Understanding the pros and cons of outsourcing is an essential step in planning and preparations. We encourage you to be honest about your weaknesses to know what to outsource. Don’t let go of your strengths. Amplify your strengths by letting go of your shortcomings. 

The Bottom Line: Should You Outsource Creative Design Services?

Should you outsource creative design services? We cannot answer that question alone, but we can aid you in deciding. 

If you do not have an existing creative design department and don’t know where to start, outsourcing is likely the best option for your company. As we mentioned earlier, establishing this service is extremely expensive in terms of infrastructure and talent investments. Choosing to avoid these costs upfront and outsourcing also mitigate future workforce disruptions. 

However, if you already have creative design services implemented within your company, you should be very intentional and strategic about deciding to outsource. Workforce disruptions in this situation are inevitable and unpleasant for you and the affected employees. 

With that said, if this service is struggling, not meeting expectations, and consistently exceeding its budget while underperforming, outsourcing is an option that shouldn’t be ignored. While reallocation or termination will be unpleasant for the affected employees, hemorrhaging resources and success will lead to costly impacts for all of your employees. As a leader, it is your responsibility to ensure continued growth and success, which often means making difficult decisions for the greater good. 

How We Can Help

We’re Awesome CX, and we’re pretty awesome at this outsourcing thing. Chessy? Maybe, but true. We have proven success and experience in partnering with companies and enhancing their customer's experience and engagement. 

We understand the process of outsourcing inside and out. We aren’t ignorant of the negative aspects of it, so much so that we prioritize doing everything within our power to mitigate them. What does that mean for your company? 

It means we take a dedicated team-focused approach to our partnership with you that serves as more than just an outsourcing partner but a virtual extension of your company. This allows us to ensure consistency and reduces your loss of control concerns. It also means that your company’s culture and mission will become our own. 

We mentioned earlier that choosing the right partner to outsource with is paramount, and we stand by that. We believe we are the right partner. We believe in minimizing the negative consequences of outsourcing as significantly as possible. We don’t believe in surprise costs or charges. That’s why you will find that we don’t have any hidden fees or charges. You know what our services will cost upfront and can choose to pay for those services month-to-month if you prefer.

Connect with us today, and we will make our team available to answer any of your questions, address any of your concerns, and show you why we’re the right partner to help you innovate your why and amplify your strengths.

Sources:

Outsourcing: Advantages and Disadvantages | Indeed.com 

The Pros And Cons Of Outsourcing | Forbes 

COVID-19 Pandemic Continues To Reshape Work in America | Pew Research Center.