Sustainable Business Transformation

Answer by Hemant Puthli:

There's no single right answer that works for all companies. Each company should conduct a preliminary assessment of the need to outsource, and if they find adequate basis, they should build a business case to justify it.

Typically, a business case would consider factors such as (indicative examples, not a comprehensive list):
1. Savings in operating expenses,
2. Access to skilled resources and/ or mature processes
3. Ability to scale on demand,
4. Impact on turnaround time and time-to-market,
5. Ability of leadership team to focus better on strategic and tactical issues,
6. Downside risks (typically – impact on customer perceptions of quality of product and/ or services)

Many companies have outsourced various parts of their operations relating to support process. Some have even outsourced parts of their "core" business functions. Over a period of time, the outsourcing model has stabilized and has delivered benefits to most companies (there are very few "permanent" failures, though many companies have learned by trial and error). Outsourcing continues to be a growing industry and has now proliferated in terms of scope and scale. So much so that many believe that the more relevant question these days is not "what to outsource" but "what to keep".

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