Outsourcing IT, customer support, software development, and other business tools to offshore companies has become commonplace for many American corporations. The end goal is to hire fewer internal resources to support these infrastructure components. Typically, the reason is to preserve the company’s bottom line while allocating finances to other revenue-generating departments that develop products or services. However, the internal operational support for these businesses is often miscalculated, and many US-based corporations put these trusted tools in the hands of offshore contractors.
While the appeal to outsource to an offshore company is understandable, there are significant obstacles that can disrupt your business and most importantly, impact your customers’ satisfaction. Some of these obstacles include:
- Contextual barriers that lead to miscommunication and misunderstandings
- Geopolitical risks to data security
- Minimal overlapping of time zones during traditional work hours
- Working environment and cultural disparities that can cause team discord and impact the overall success of your business
As a result, more American companies are turning to a better alternative — onshore or domestic outsourcing. The Onshore Outsourcing business model takes a more straightforward and localized approach to providing the critical staff augmentation or managed IT services support that companies rely on to help them run their business and deliver their goods and services.
Domestic outsourcing enables companies to leverage US-based IT services companies that have the skillset, knowledge, and quality of their offshore counterparts, while still enjoying a total lower cost service vs. hiring internally.
Companies actively seeking outsourcing solutions for customer support, IT systems management, business analytics, quality assurance, enterprise applications, and business intelligence software and analysis, should closely examine domestic outsourcing options to manage these operations. Domestic or onshore outsourcing is reliable while providing higher levels of efficiency and greater productivity for your business.
The Benefits of Domestic Outsourcing
US-based companies turning to domestic companies for vital business support are finding they can enjoy the same level of quality services at a similar total cost of ownership, but without the obstacles and challenges that can result from an offshore outsourcing model.
In this article, we’ve outlined a few of the primary advantages to onshore outsourcing that can make your company more efficient and productive over the long-term.
Improved Standards for Communication
Consistent and clear communication across all aspects of your business is vital. Excellent communication between your company and your customers can be the difference between success and failure. Consider the ways in which your customer may feel frustrated attempting to communicate with your business. Your customer may be trying to inquire about your product or service, place an order, or reach out to resolve a problem only to find they are unable to communicate due to language barriers, time zone issues or other challenges. Your customer will most likely grow irritated with to the lack of clear communication and decide to take their business to your competitor.
Domestic outsourcing solves this problem. Working with a team of US-based contractors increases your capability for clear and direct communication by eliminating the language barriers. When your representatives are fluent in the language of the country in which you do business, customers find they have an easier time getting their questions answered and concerns addressed. This is true for many of the most important functions you depend on for operating your business, from sales to customer service to order fulfillment.
Communication barriers aren’t solely a matter of language fluency. They can also be a result of incompatible time zones. Your support structures need to be aligned carefully to ensure that time zone differences between where you do business and where your contractors are located do not impact your customer support. A challenge that can occur with offshore resources is that response times can be slower when you require immediate attention. With domestic outsourcing your support team can more easily support your organization within the time zone you operate.
Increased Control of Your Business
Domestic outsourcing allows for you to have greater quality control of your business operations. Training or consulting with contractors is often simplified through in-person meetings and demonstrations of services. Onshore outsourcing helps keep your business running smoothly with fewer barriers to understanding the various components of your infrastructure.
Additionally, receiving deliverables that could be crucial to the functional efficiency of your infrastructure could be delayed due to international shipping and customs processes. The geographical distances that exist between an American company and offshore contractors could pose more problems.
Domestic Outsourcing is More Affordable
For years, American companies turned to offshore outsourcing because the workforce was perceived to be more affordable due to the lower cost of living in certain parts of the world. But today, there are plenty of IT support solutions, analytics teams, and software development companies operating in cities throughout the United States where the cost of living and worker wages are equally cost-effective as offshore resources. The foreign outsourcing trend was born from an increase in costs that came from the industries centered around information technology residing in large metropolitan cities where the cost of living was much higher, and the competition for attracting talent meant paying higher wages. However, this is no longer the only option.
Now, there are many high-quality IT resources located in smaller cities where the costs of living are not as high. Consider where your company resides. Perhaps you are headquartered in New York City, San Francisco, or Houston. Hiring a team of designers or a customer support hub in one of these large American cities can be very expensive.
But when you outsource these services to domestic resources located in rural cities across America, your company can receive the same high-quality service at a lower price without the challenges that come with offshore resources. Contact us to learn more.
