By Plato 
Outsourcing is where companies hire a third party to handle operations, perform tasks, or provide services for a company.
The outside company is the third-party provider or service provider and it is going to make arrangements on their own computer systems or workers to do the task at hand. This can be done at external locations or on-site at the hiring company’s facility. If you are looking for the best of the best <a href=”https://topsourceworldwide.com/services/global-eor/consultancy/”>global consultancy services</a> then please see here.
There are many services and tasks a company can outsource today. They often outsource IT services, including application development and programming, and also technical support. It is also common for them to outsource call service functions and customer service. Other types of work that can be outsourced to a third-party include human resources, manufacturing process, and financial functions such as payroll processing and bookkeeping. There are some companies outsourcing their entire divisions, such as the entire IT department or just a part of it.
Outsourcing business functions can also be referred to as business process outsourcing or contracting out.
It can involve the use of a big third-party provider, like IBM when you need to manage your IT services or FedEx Supply Chain for logistics services. Outsourcing can also involve hiring individual independent contractors, freelancers, and temporary office workers.
<h2>How it works</h2>
If a company is interested in outsourcing responsibilities effectively, then they need to focus on business partnerships the same way they focus on logistics. Outsourcing is a lot about relationship management and less about service-level agreements. This should be seen as a partnership and not a purchasing project. It is important to maintain and secure a trusted relationship when it comes to outsourcing. It is more complex than just establishing service levels and relationships.
There are many experts who encourage more focus on the exit clause in the contract. Companies need to know about the agreement and when it is going to time out to make sure that all parties have fulfilled their obligations by the time the contract is up.
<h2>Reasons for outsourcing</h2>
Most companies outsource to improve efficiencies, lower costs, and gain speed. Those that choose to outsource usually rely on third-party providers’ expertise in a given area to gain such benefits. The thinking is because the third party focuses on a given task, they can do it faster, better, and cheaper than the company could.
Because of those benefits, companies choose to outsource supporting functions to the business so that they can put their resources on core competencies. This is a good way for them to gain a competitive advantage in the market.
There are other reasons why companies choose to outsource.
Some have to outsource because they cannot hire full-time employees with the skills and experience for a given task.
There are some who choose to outsource because they want to shift <a href=”https://www.smartsheet.com/content/regulatory-compliance-for-business-managers#:~:text=Smartsheet%20in%20action.-,What%20Is%20a%20Regulatory%20Requirement%3F,customers%2C%20among%20many%20other%20areas.”>regulatory requirements</a> to a third party.
There are companies that see outsourcing providers as great innovation centres. There are many companies that focus on measuring innovation value in their outsourcing partnership. This can be seen in a 2016 Deloitte’s outsourcing survey. 35% of respondents said they did this.
<h2>Types of outsourcing</h2>
There are many ways of outsourcing business processes, and depending on the process, one might be a better option than the other. There are different types of outsourcing based on the distance between the two companies. The types are:
Onshoring. This is where work or services are relocating to a lower-cost location in the same country.
<a href=”https://www.ttec.com/glossary/offshoring#:~:text=Offshoring%20is%20the%20transferring%20activities,receiving%20the%20services%20is%20located.”>Offshoring</a>. Works and services are relocated to providers overseas
Nearshoring. Work or services are relocated to people close, often bordering countries and regions
Agreements vary a lot in scope. For some like content creation or programming, hiring freelancers on a job-to-job basis. If a company wants to outsource its entire IT department is going to need a long-term partnership.