The way that we do business has changed significantly throughout this year – the COVID-19 pandemic that is sweeping the planet has seen to that. No longer can we rely on the traditional ways of doing business – almost every aspect has had to change and adapt.
Businesses are needing to find ways of developing much greater resilience, agility and flexibility in order to survive the challenges that the outbreak has created. A report has suggested that as a result of the pandemic, 45 per cent of businesses will outsource more than they insource in the coming year. The main area of business to be outsourced is IT, with 57 per cent citing security fears as the biggest challenge of managing it in house.
Why Outsource?
Outsourcing certain tasks such as payroll, IT, Human Resources and accountancy helps organizations to achieve their goals, lower overhead costs, and make sure that they and their employees are spending their valuable time and energy on core tasks to grow the business.
By outsourcing these tasks, that are necessary but time-consuming, your business can focus on doing what it does best – growth and innovation.
It also allows you to maintain some modicum of financial flexibility. If you manage your IT in-house, you have to pay a regular salary and benefits to your employee or team, whether you need their help or not. If you want to scale up and down to meet your business needs, it is much more challenging – you either have to hire or fire. When you outsource your IT to a managed service provider, they are able to provide you with the on-demand resources to meet your changing needs. They are in a better position to react and adjust with little warning and do so at a reasonable cost.
One of the main attractions to outsourcing is the access that it gives you to expert skills and resources. Making sure, for example, that you have the latest software, the latest internet security and so on can be expensive, and if the worst should happen, the tools and expertise needed to fight it and sort it out can be incredibly expensive, and prohibitive to many small businesses.
By outsourcing, you have access to a whole team of experts and their resources, so your business is always in safe hands. The same goes for marketing, accounting and so on – they have the latest tools and up to date training to be able to do the job at a much more intense level than an in-house team could do for the same budget.
The coronavirus pandemic has changed how we look at business tasks. Revenue generation and the growth of a business to get through the next few months is key, and to do that, outsourcing non-core tasks has become normal and necessary. It is something that was already growing in popularity before the outbreak and will continue to do so long after it has ended, whenever that may be.
