Knowledge Based Outsourcing - The Real Winner For Small Businesses
Outsourcing, the global phenomena usheringworkforce effectiveness, has evolved from a stage of merely handling deterministic tasks to delivering knowledge based business solutions, thereby generating cost and growth benefits for many businesses that don't just look at outsourcing as a process to get rid of all the non-core mundane activities, but something more valuable.
This transformation of human cognition into business intelligence for answering the quintessential question of "What about the skills and subject expertise these vendors need to handle our core business processes?" is fast becoming the new definition of outsourcing services.
Defining knowledge based outsourcing
To simply put, it is the difference between making a phone call for fixing an appointment vs. providing complete customer support over phone. The latter as you can see requires expertise and skills compared to the former, where a pre-defined text does the job. This is where knowledge based outsourcing becomes a vital source of business assistance, that can bring about a whole new dimension to the way business processes are outsourced.
Examples
Data entry tasks vs. research tasks; appointment scheduling vs. intelligent customer support; posting updates/articles/videos on your social media accounts vs. engaging your social media fan base; performing link building vs. drawing qualified traffic to your site, and a lot more.
Here you see a clear distinction between all the above compared tasks in terms of the knowledge needed to perform them. This calls for subject expertise, skills and a clear understanding of your business, its ethics, its customers and its objectives by the service provider.
Challenges with knowledge based outsourcing
Evidently the real challenge lies in the mind - the knowledge that the vendor possesses in handling the outsourced process the way you might have handled. Emulating you may not be completely possible; however there can be boundaries that can be crossed and objectives that can be met or even surprises that can be delivered, by bettering you on the job.
The challenge also lies with you in deciding what to outsource. You may at times get carried away and decide to outsource your key tasks which you should refrain from doing.
After zeroing in on the processes, the next obvious challenge is to find the right vendor. The common roadblock here is that you find lot of small vendors who offer regular services but lack quality when offering knowledge based services, this may force you to look for other vendors who may tag a bigger price for his knowledge based services. This situation has often forced many businesses to operate with multiple vendors to take care of all their outsourcing needs, of course while attracting all the challenges of managing multiple vendors.
Solution
This situation has paved way for vendors to come up with specific knowledge based outsourcing solutions that can take care of specific intellectual task while also offering other common services. This will also help them to give these services at competitive costs. These vendors are fast becoming the real winners for small and medium businesses, who consider knowledge based outsourcing as a strategic business decision for achieving excellence.
Small businesses might not need advanced knowledge workers for all the tasks, but some critical activities might require a certain level of expertise. Some vendors are offering a service mix which ensures a 360 degree outsourcing solution; through right-shoring, identifying global talent based on skills, geographic and cultural backgrounds, and pooling intellectual resources at optimum costs. The key benefit here, especially for small businesses is that they can simply rely on a single vendor or assistant for all their needs, at lower costs and headaches.
Clearly defined processes and expectations is the key to a successful association. But before that your task is to look for the right vendor. Choose vendors who deliver services in a niche. With appropriate knowledge workers you would be able to outsource the right tasks and get the work done in shorter timeframe and with better quality.
This transformation of human cognition into business intelligence for answering the quintessential question of "What about the skills and subject expertise these vendors need to handle our core business processes?" is fast becoming the new definition of outsourcing services.
Defining knowledge based outsourcing
To simply put, it is the difference between making a phone call for fixing an appointment vs. providing complete customer support over phone. The latter as you can see requires expertise and skills compared to the former, where a pre-defined text does the job. This is where knowledge based outsourcing becomes a vital source of business assistance, that can bring about a whole new dimension to the way business processes are outsourced.
Examples
Data entry tasks vs. research tasks; appointment scheduling vs. intelligent customer support; posting updates/articles/videos on your social media accounts vs. engaging your social media fan base; performing link building vs. drawing qualified traffic to your site, and a lot more.
Here you see a clear distinction between all the above compared tasks in terms of the knowledge needed to perform them. This calls for subject expertise, skills and a clear understanding of your business, its ethics, its customers and its objectives by the service provider.
Challenges with knowledge based outsourcing
Evidently the real challenge lies in the mind - the knowledge that the vendor possesses in handling the outsourced process the way you might have handled. Emulating you may not be completely possible; however there can be boundaries that can be crossed and objectives that can be met or even surprises that can be delivered, by bettering you on the job.
The challenge also lies with you in deciding what to outsource. You may at times get carried away and decide to outsource your key tasks which you should refrain from doing.
After zeroing in on the processes, the next obvious challenge is to find the right vendor. The common roadblock here is that you find lot of small vendors who offer regular services but lack quality when offering knowledge based services, this may force you to look for other vendors who may tag a bigger price for his knowledge based services. This situation has often forced many businesses to operate with multiple vendors to take care of all their outsourcing needs, of course while attracting all the challenges of managing multiple vendors.
Solution
This situation has paved way for vendors to come up with specific knowledge based outsourcing solutions that can take care of specific intellectual task while also offering other common services. This will also help them to give these services at competitive costs. These vendors are fast becoming the real winners for small and medium businesses, who consider knowledge based outsourcing as a strategic business decision for achieving excellence.
Small businesses might not need advanced knowledge workers for all the tasks, but some critical activities might require a certain level of expertise. Some vendors are offering a service mix which ensures a 360 degree outsourcing solution; through right-shoring, identifying global talent based on skills, geographic and cultural backgrounds, and pooling intellectual resources at optimum costs. The key benefit here, especially for small businesses is that they can simply rely on a single vendor or assistant for all their needs, at lower costs and headaches.
Clearly defined processes and expectations is the key to a successful association. But before that your task is to look for the right vendor. Choose vendors who deliver services in a niche. With appropriate knowledge workers you would be able to outsource the right tasks and get the work done in shorter timeframe and with better quality.
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