From Outsourcing To Multi-Sourcing – Here's How! Article

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From Outsourcing To Multi-Sourcing – Here's How!

Offshore Outsourcing has established itself as a extremely efficient business strategy that helps business owners to reduce the costs and receive professional services at the same time.

Author: Maneet Puri

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Over time, the scope of outsourcing has grown from routine peripheral tasks like data processing and management to specialized activities like market research, advertising and marketing etc.

A relatively new trend in the Outsourcing Industry in the recent times is that of Multi-Sourcing. Multi-sourcing refers to outsourcing to multiple service providers instead of one. Distributing the application development and maintenance work among more than one service providers is more profitable than having one single service provider carrying out all the work. Business functions can be treated as a portfolio of activities of which the the peripheral tasks can be outsourced to multiple service providers while the critical activities can be retained in-house. However, you can also choose to hire professional service providers for them as well.

Benefits of Multi-Sourcing

The concept of multi sourcing offers tremendous benefits for the business owners of which the most popular ones are:

Access to More Resources

By hiring multiple service providers, a company will have access to a wider range of resources as well as a deeper set of skills. This would not be possible in case of a single service provider as the company would have to use whatever resources the provider possesses.

Increased Competition produces Enhanced Results

When the work is divided among several services (and all of them are aware of this), there would be increased competition to deliver the best results. This in turn would boost the quality of deliverables and increase the bottom line of the client.

Honesty

Multisourcing also encourages the services providers to be honest because if they attempt to blur any lines you would get a clearer picture from the others. Also, this lets you compare the service delivered by each of them and you know whom to give preference to.

Ensuring Efficient Multi-sourcing

Multisourcing does provide a series of benefits for the business owners. However, it requires a very high level of governance and management. In place of coordinating with one single service provider, you would need to manage multiple service providers and ensure that all of them work in perfect harmony. Here are some tips to do it efficiently:

Decide the Number of Participants

While formulating your outsourcing strategy, decide how many service providers you would outsource to. Ideally, there should be one domestic multinational service provider company and a large offshore service provider along with a couple of other smaller offshore service providers.

Use the Core Competency of Each

Different service providers would have different strengths and weaknesses. For example, with a domestic service provider would not have to face any problem of language and work culture difference. However, they might not always have the specific resources and skill sets required for the project. That is when you bring in the offshore service providers. They would not only provide you with professional services but also help reduce the costs. The smaller firms would offer you individual focus and attention as well.

About Author

Maneet Puri is the managing director of LeXolution IT Services, a professional (http://www.lexolutionkpo.com/) KPO Services Provider based in India. His company provides a range of KPO services like (www.lexolutionkpo.com/services_details.php?services_id=6) internet research, virtual office services and data management to clients from across the globe.

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