Three Advantages of Shared Services Outsourcing
Shared services outsourcing has many similarities to offshore outsourcing. One of which is the contractual hiring of employees from outside the organization. These employees are an important part of the organization. They’re privy to sensitive information, such as personnel files and financial reports.
While you may think shared services is a different animal from outsourcing, changes in the global business landscape have made shared services outsourcing a more attractive option for small to medium-sized companies like yours. But, what exactly does shared services outsourcing mean? And, how will it work to your advantage?
What is Shared Services Outsourcing?
Outsourcing broadly covers a variety of approaches to sourcing for world-class talent. A shared service delivery model in outsourcing is just one option out of many for your company.
A team of shared services employees may function as either external or internal service providers. While an in-house team means you have easy access to your people, hiring offshore staff means you’ll have benefits that only outsourcing can provide. One of those benefits is flexibility, which converts your fixed costs into variable expenses. Another benefit is innovation, which your in-house team may neglect or mishandle because of complacency and groupthink.
Advantages to Shared Services Outsourcing
Shared services make sense, especially when two or more companies from your parent organization needed the same type of work done, such as HR and accounting processes. You not only avoid redundancy of tasks and employees, but you’re also able to save money and time. In the context of outsourcing, shared services provide a lot of advantages to companies like yours.
#1 Shared services outsourcing gives you wider access to world-class talent from the same provider.
An excellent service provider is all you need to succeed in your outsourcing strategy. Once you found that provider, you’re hesitant to look for another outsourcing company. You may feel you won’t find another vendor of the same caliber, or maybe you’ll have difficulties starting over in building the kind of trust and comfort level you already enjoy with your current provider.
Shared services give you the opportunity to hire, for instance, a marketing team on top of your customer support staff from your current provider. You may even add an accountant, a paralegal, or a recruitment specialist if you wanted to. A great provider will always try to be helpful and find you the right people to work for you at a rate you can afford.
#2 Shared services give you a variety of process management outsourcing options.
The industry has three top segments, namely, business process outsourcing or BPO, information technology outsourcing or ITO, and knowledge process outsourcing or KPO. Many outsourcing companies in the Philippines already provide customer support services, which may fall under after-sales support for retail or eCommerce and tech support for software and hardware products.
A great outsourcing provider does not limit itself to providing the same kind of services. Partner with an outsourcing company that not only provides business support, but also professional services, such as recruitment and legal process outsourcing, and even creative writing and design work.
#3 In a shared services arrangement, all your company’s information will be handled by employees from the same organization.
Data security is a rising concern in outsourcing. With shared services as an outsourcing model, your company’s information remains within the provider’s organization. Your provider’s managerial team have the responsibility of keeping their technology updated. They have to protect it from unexpected events, ranging from a minor power loss to a major data loss.
Essentially, the shared services delivery model is the most ideal when your outsourcing provider is already established. And, the country you’re outsourcing to has public policies in place regarding data privacy among offshore businesses. Stability is an important factor in ensuring success in shared services outsourcing.
