The Pandemic Effect - The Increasing Role of Outsourcing
The last two years have been one of the most difficult time in the recent history. The economic problems coming with the global COVID-19 pandemic affected every business — almost every company suddenly woke up in a new reality and was desperately seeking new and effective solutions to adapt to new challenges. In the environment no one knew and with a completely unpredictable future. Soon it became obvious that in the difficult times the use of modern business models, like outsourcing and advanced IT solutions, significantly help to survive and continue the business.
Technology in the times of pandemic
In the time of COVID-19 pandemic, most companies have accelerated their digital transformation. It turned out that tools and solutions, which were planned to be implemented in years ahead, had to be applied almost overnight. While the pandemic has again proved that technology is an essential factor in the company's success, the crisis has resulted in a broader use of digital tools, online communication and outsourcing services - IT service in particular, but not only.
The real savings from outsourcing
During the pandemic massive layoffs and other ways of cost cuttings have become an everyday reality and when profitability was at stake, companies were looking for savings more than ever before. Hiring third party vendors significantly lowers the maintenance costs related to office space rent, while external teams with their own specialists and employees help lower expenses, that come with recruitment, staff training and management. So it is no wonder that trying to maintain financial stability during the hard time of pandemic, companies started to outsource non-core activities more then before the crisis.
Remote work — open door to large scale outsourcing
The most visible impact that the COVID-19 pandemic had on the labor market was a large scale implementation of the remote work model. The crisis situation pushed companies to overcome skepticism and concerns about remote work performed both by internal and external teams. During the lockdown many organizations had no other choice but to quickly shift to this remote work in order to limit contact with customers and employees while keep the business going.
Remote work opened the way to heavy outsourcing. When business owners realized they could have less employees on their payroll list — without compromising the work quality — they turned to external teams, whose services are specially designed to support business remotely (including advanced technology and appropriate security & compliance standards).
Better talents for better results
As office work has been transformed into a home office, new opportunities emerged — both for companies and for vendors. The primary advantage of outsourcing are cost savings. But outsourcing also helps a company to quickly acquire experts that would not be available, or better to say affordable, for a full time in-house contract. Having a large pool of on-demand outsourced talents not only helped to decrease overheads cost, but also to be more flexible, and last but not least — to improve quality of the work done.
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the business reality — outsourcing has become a widely used method and the HR market become even more global. In such an environment skills and quality of work became even more important. It often doesn't matter now if you work from India or Poland - as long as you do your work great.
The future of outsourcing after COVID-19
The coronavirus pandemic did not cause a collapse in the business process outsourcing (BPO) market. Quite the contrary — it raised BPO to a higher level and helped it to grow. The crisis has pushed many companies to look for other forms of cooperation and to develop internal procedures to work effectively with third party contractors. In fact, the transformation of the work model caused by the pandemic made outsourcing a permanent cooperation scheme in many organizations.
There is no doubt that the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on business models will be long-term, and such solutions as outsourcing, previously considered as not essential, will now become the first choice of many companies. Actually, many business owners are already declaring changes in the structure in their organizations. Departments such as accounting, HR, administration, creatives, IT will now often be replaced by outsourcing. Little is certain in today’s time, but it is obvious that the trend related to the business process outsourcing is not be expected to slow down. It will grow and accelerate instead
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