In today's dynamic, and competitive business environment, many businesses—from small start-ups to established corporations—choose to outsource certain activities.

Even in 2023, the tendency will continue, as businesses are adopting this strategy and making profits out of it. Outsourcing is a term created by fusing the words "outside" and "resourcing,” and that is the core of its meaning. This is a technique of hiring a third party outside the company, for a specific task. These tasks usually include providing a service or creating goods.

When done correctly, outsourcing can help businesses grow, without compromising product quality. It was first acknowledged as a corporate strategy in 1989. Later, in the 1990s, it developed into a crucial aspect of the company. Business process outsourcing was first used only by manufacturing companies, but today it is adopted in almost all businesses

Why is it convenient to outsource company activities?

It is beneficial to outsource company activities, as it makes it possible for a company to accomplish business goals, generate value, access a resource base, and reduce risk.

Enterprises can outsource any service, from recruitment and accounting to IT services (e-outsourcing). 

There are many reasons outsourcing is an increasing trend in the world of corporates. Some of its advantages include:

1 – Reduced Costs

There’s a chance to cut costs and improve efficiency at the same time, and this can be possible with outsourcing. 

Here are some ways the company reduces its costs when applying outsourcing services:

Firstly, the company doesn’t have to train the staff when they have no experience in a particular field. Also, there’s no need to invest in technologies, and space to support office activities. These issues will be handled by the contracted company and the enterprise will get to save time and money on recruitment, offering benefits, and other administrative expenses. 

The overall cost of performing a job function is simply lower.

2 – Flexibility in hiring

With outsourcing, you can hire a committed team for a project and then release them from their obligations once it is finished.  When demand is high, it may be more cost-effective for certain businesses to recruit temporary outside contractors rather than risk hiring additional employees they might not be able to pay. 

3 – Logistical ease

Sometimes it makes more sense logistically to outsource services like shipping and customer service. When local, full-time staff are not accessible, businesses can deliver critical services thanks to the availability of these intermediates outside of regular business hours.

4 – More focus on the core business activities

When you entrust processes to another company, much of your workload is gone and you have time to focus on the core segments of your business. Thus, the company will experience an increase in efficiency and productivity, while lowering resource consumption.

5 – Finding experts easily

While most employers value staff members who are skilled in multiple areas, there are instances when hiring a specialist rather than investing in employee training makes more sense. A contractor might be able to complete a given work swiftly and without interfering with ongoing business operations because they have the knowledge and experience that existing staff members lack.

By using outsourcing, you can widen your search, select from several businesses, and work with the best experts on the planet. Finding the ideal group of professionals who will satisfy all your needs and produce better results is feasible. The more professionals who work on your project, the quicker all duties will be completed.

6 – Less (working hours) for more

When you subcontract specialists, your entire operation will run more quickly, and you will save the time you would have otherwise spent on team management activities like meetings, training, and teamwork. 

7 – Present your company with new modern solutions

Given that you hand over responsibility to another company when subcontracting, the business may become more receptive to innovative ideas. Due to their knowledge of the subject, the professional company will present far more creative and efficient solutions.

8 - Risk Sharing and risk management

You share obligations while delegating some of your work to another organization. They also aid in risk assessment and analysis, which is another significant benefit. An outside group will forecast future dangers and assist in reducing them.

Major outsourcing trends in 2023

Following the epidemic, outsourcing has seen several progressive tendencies.

The changes the pandemic brought to the outsourcing market in the recent years are reflected in the outsourcing trends for 2023. By the end of 2022, businesses anticipate spending over $700 billion yearly on outsourcing. IT (Information Technology), healthcare, accountancy, and other areas all fall within this expanding outsourcing economy.

To create a strategic plan for successful outsourcing in the upcoming years, you might review the top outsourcing trends in 2023:

1–Quality over anything else

Nowadays, businesses place a strong emphasis on offering their clients high-quality services. They will require sophisticated technology and experienced employees for this, both of which can be costly in most nations. As a result, businesses are converting to procedures such as outsourcing software development, HR, business operations, legal processes, etc.

2 –Long-term deals and business continuity

Businesses now think that forming strategic alliances with fewer outsourcing providers may guarantee cost savings and business continuity. How?

Changes in service providers regularly can affect business continuity. And when a company works with the same team for a long time, it is more likely to develop a solid relationship with its outsourcing company. Reaching goals is easier when there is a solid link between the parties involved.

Because you'll be working with a reliable outsourcing partner, longer contracts can assure that services are provided even during uncertain times.

3 – Using modern technology

Companies that stay on top of new technology can utilize it to automate procedures, boost productivity, and improve operational efficiency.

However, modern technology, including IoT (Internet of Things), automation, and software development, is always evolving. Frequent technological updates can be difficult, so businesses are outsourcing to service providers.

A service provider is a specialist in their area of expertise. They are therefore more likely than an internal team to keep up with technological changes.

4 –Small businesses love outsourcing too

Outsourcing is very convenient for small enterprises and start-ups, as they can obtain the greatest personnel and equipment at reasonable prices through it.

To save time and money, some organizations outsource repetitive tasks. Due to their small payroll budgets, small businesses are also less likely to have experienced staff, therefore outsourcing gives them access to the greatest personnel. By 2023, many industries will be affected by the outsourcing trend.

5 –Nearshore vs offshore outsourcing: Who wins?

First, let’s clear up the terms. What’s the difference between nearshore and outshore outsourcing? Hiring a third party from a neighboring nation to accomplish a business task is known as nearshore outsourcing. Offshore outsourcing, on the other hand, involves outsourcing to a distant nation that is typically in a different time zone.

Companies are nearshoring more now than they were before the outbreak.

The Covid epidemic has made remote work the new standard. According to different surveys from all over the world, the majority of people prefer remote, and hybrid work over working in the office. This pattern is anticipated to last through 2023 and beyond. Customer experience will continue to give businesses a competitive edge in the upcoming year and will be the primary brand differentiator in 2023.

Businesses may need to make greater investments in customer service and social media coverage to deliver a better user experience.

However, managing the unpredictable nature of customer call volumes can be challenging. For proper operation, businesses may need to quickly scale up and down and manage the workforce. This makes it possible to outsource customer assistance in more ways.

The customer experience is greatly improved, and operating costs are significantly reduced when services like customer care are outsourced. The Global Call Center Outsourcing Market research predicts that the call center outsourcing industry will expand by $21.72 billion between 2022 and 2026.

In previous years, the majority of businesses had little knowledge of the choices made regarding the outsourced project because the outsourcing provider took care of everything. This caused a lot of miscommunication. 

Transparent communication with outsourcing companies is now, however, more in demand.

12 most important activities to outsource 

When it comes to the most outsourced tasks in 2023, the trend doesn’t change much from that of 2022. Below you’ll find 12 of the most outsourced jobs in 2022:

1 –Ticket management 

The finest practices for everything from use optimization to compliance and reporting are ensured by hiring an outside specialist in ticket management. Consider it as investment insurance that will enable you to outperform industry norms and boost the return on your ticket investment.

The decision to outsource ticket management comes with a lot of advantages: 

• • • • Great customer satisfaction: Your clients will get the assistance they require right away.
      • Increase in productivity: Streamline and automate the support operations
      • Operating cost reduction: Lower burdens in staff recruitment and training
        
        

2 – Help Desk 

Help Desk Outsourcing is a service that businesses offer to assist their clients in resolving issues or in finding answers to problems that have already been identified. With the aid of these services, the company can offer 24/7 assistance to its clients.

The top-chosen IT help desk outsourcing services will provide you with several advantages, including increased productivity and performance, rapid deployment of more effective operations and processes, constant accessibility, quick response times, lower costs, and improved efficiency. 

Ticket volumes will get reduced and hence the operation will get simplified.

In the meantime, the company will be able to focus more on innovation and business growth.

By 2023, Transparency Market Research projects that the market for help desk solutions would grow to $11 billion

3–Outbound marketing  

Your company and team will be able to take advantage of new prospects by hiring a dedicated team and collaborating with industry experts on outbound marketing if you outsource it.

Outsourcing marketing is crucial for businesses to grow revenue swiftly and efficiently in a time when scalability and speed define a market. By outsourcing outbound marketing, your team will have the opportunity to collaborate with other innovative teams to provide you with brand-new market insights.

They may also recommend additional cyber security measures for businesses, help you increase cost-effectiveness, and gain market share by employing predictive algorithms. 

4–Digital Customer Care

Digital Customer Care is a new approach to customer service management that emphasizes on emerging technology. Outsourcing is a fantastic option for businesses that lack the time or resources to manage digital client contact effectively. 

The organization gains cost savings, revenue growth, customer loyalty, and of course, a positive customer experience by outsourcing digital customer service.

The outsourcing of customer care usually consists of contact services like email, web, live chat, etc. This omnichannel customer service includes a wide choice of contact options, so the clients can choose how they want to contact the company.

Good customer service will build a loyal customer connection between the business and its customers and that is crucial for the business’ success.

5–Robotic Process Automation (RPA) 

Robotic Process Automation is a type of software development that makes it easier to create, use, and manage robots for performing easy tasks.

Companies are realizing that using robots to complete repetitive jobs is more cost-effective, which is driving up demand for robotic process automation.

Access to additional innovative technologies like AI, RPA, and machine learning requires cloud outsourcing. It gives a business the ability to utilize cloud services and store resources on the cloud.

6–Logistic Management

It takes a lot of time and money to hire logistics talent, acquire capacity, invest in physical assets, and develop the technology. Instead, companies will decide to outsource different parts (or sometimes even all) of their supply chain functions to third-party logistics providers (3PLs).

We might think of a lot of reasons why a business should outsource logistics management, but some of the most important ones include: 

• • • •  Possibility of reducing overall transportation and logistics costs by concentrating on core company strengths rather  than supply chain operations
      • Enhanced adaptability and effectiveness (due to more streamlined operations)
      • Lower risk because of reducing administrative responsibility
      • Higher service standards (leading to increased customer satisfaction)
        
        

In general, larger businesses tend to have more complex supply chains, increasing their likelihood of using outsourced logistics. According to a third-party study, businesses of all sizes are increasingly using 3PL services.

However, even smaller shippers continue to assign 27% of all supply chain jobs to outside contractors on average.

7–Quality Audit

The 21st Century has seen a clear trend toward outsourcing the auditing process of a business.The main advantage of outsourcing the internal auditing function is that bringing in an outside source feels like a fresh set of eyes that are objective and unbiased. Other advantages to outsourcing audits include professional and timely reports, more information, conclusions, remarks, suggestions for improvement, cost savings, etc.

8–Data Entry

Data entry can be a time-consuming procedure that consumes valuable staff resources and may prevent them from effectively carrying out their primary responsibilities. You may relieve your workers from manual and repetitive work while also ensuring that your data entry is more correct and consistent by outsourcing your data entry to a qualified team.

9–Chat Bot

Chatbots are used by businesses to increase both service and sales conversion. Chatbot outsourcing is always less expensive than developing your own live chat platforms. Scaling your business is made simpler for you when your customer service is running on "autopilot".

10–Booking Office

To be successful, an accommodation facility must always be present and not miss any opportunity to engage with potential customers. The Booking Office service allows you to manage quote requests in multiple languages both quickly and accurately.

We Are Fiber guarantees 24h assistance to meet every need!

11–Outbound Marketing

Outsourcing marketing is crucial for businesses to grow revenue swiftly and efficiently in a time when scalability and speed define a market. By outsourcing outbound marketing, your team will have the opportunity to collaborate with other innovative teams to provide you with brand-new market insights.

12–Smart Assistance

The Smart Assistance service has become indispensable for many companies due to its ability to optimize time and improve productivity.

We Are Fiber's technology can gather all the information, sort it, analyze it, and process it so that the company makes the best decisions and chooses the most appropriate strategies.

Overall, the virtual assistant reduces staff workloads and manages data flow for all businesses—large or small.

A few last words…

If you want to make your business successful in 2023, know that outsourcing is a requirement in your business model. If you’d like to learn more about how our outsourcing services could make your business run more smoothly, get in touch with us here.