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Outsourcing Jobs Overseas
outsourcing jobs overseas is often defined as the
delegation of non-core operations or jobs from
internal production to an external entity (such as a
subcontractor) that specializes in that
operation. outsourcing jobs overseas is a business
decision that is often made to focus on core
competences. A subset of the term (offshoring) also
implies transferring jobs to another country,
either by hiring local subcontractors or building a
facility in an area where labor is cheap. It
became a popular buzzword in business and management
in the 1990s. EDS was the first company to
establish the
outsourcing business.
Outsourcing jobs overseas is defined as the
management and/or day-to-day execution of an entire
business function by a third party service provider.
Outsourcing jobs overseas and out-tasking involve
transferring a significant amount of management
control to the supplier. Buying products from
another entity is not
outsourcing or out-tasking,
but merely a vendor relationship. Likewise, buying
services from a provider is not necessarily
outsourcing or out-tasking. Outsourcing always
involves a considerable degree of two-way
information exchange, co-ordination, and trust.
Organizations that deliver such services feel that
outsourcing jobs overseas requires the turning
over of management responsibility for running a
segment of business. In theory, this business
segment should not be mission-critical, but practice
often dictates otherwise. Many companies
look to employ expert organizations in the areas
targeted for outsourcing jobs oversea. Business
segments typically outsourced include Information
Technology, Human Resources, Facilities and
Real Estate Management and Accounting. Many
companies also
outsource customer support and call
center functions, manufacturing and engineering.
Outsourcing jobs overseas business is
characterized by expertise not inherent to the core
of the client organization.
The overhead costs of customer service are typically
less where outsourcing jobs overseas has
been used, leading to many companies, from utilities
to manufacturers, closing their in-house
customer relations departments and outsourcing their
customer service to third party call
centers. The logical extension of these decisions
was of outsourcing jobs overseas to countries
with lower labor costs, this trend is often referred
to as offshoring of customer service.
A related term is out-tasking: turning over a
narrowly-defined segment of business to another
business, typically on an annual contract, or
sometimes a shorter one. This usually involves
continued direct or indirect management and
decision-making by the client of the out-tasking
business.
The term "outsourcing jobs overseas" became more
well known largely because of a growth in the
number of high-tech companies in the early 1990s
that were often not large enough to be able to
easily maintain large customer service departments
of their own. In some cases these companies
hired technical writers to simplify the usage
instructions of their products, index the key
points of information and contracted with temporary
employment agencies to find, train and hire
generally low-skilled workers to answer their
telephone technical support
and customer service
calls. These agents generally worked in call centers
where the information needed to assist the
calling customer was indexed in a computer system.
The agents were often not able to tell the
customer they did not actually directly work for the
original manufacturer. In some cases, the
agents are not allowed to even give out their real
name.
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