When we started KEXINO, we made a conscious decision to outsource as much of our technical infrastructure as possible. Today such a decision is not seen as much of a big deal. But back in 2007 it was rather a novel – and even brave – idea to push as much business process towards third-parties as was possible at the time.
Today, outsourcing hasn’t just changed the way companies of all sizes operate and deliver their business value. Its presence can be felt in pretty much every level and department of the business.
There are few organizations that don’t outsource at least some of their infrastructural or organizational processes. Today’s market for outsourcing is estimated at more than $300Bn and projected to top $400Bn in 2010.
Business Process Outsourcing Is Everywhere
Today, outsourcing is everywhere. Not just in ‘traditional’ outsourcing tasks such as back-office operations, customer-service centers and IT, but in key business processes, back office tasks, marketing, or managing a company’s software investment.
If you think about it, all of these much-heralded cloud-based services from industry giants such as Google, Apple, Salesforce.com, and even Microsoft are really outsourcing models.
Outsourcing Isn’t Just For The Big Fish
Think your business is too small, or too specialist to take advantage of business process outsourcing providers? I’ll bet that your business already outsources a number of business services, even if you may not think of it in the classic term of outsourcing.
Maybe it’s by employing consultants, public relations firms, accounting auditors or design and print services. Maybe you have a company that looks after your website, your vehicle fleet, or your temporary personnel.
You probably don’t have your own email server, do you? Like most businesses, you probably use a service such as Gmail, Outlook, or even (yuck) iCloud.
Look at that vast majority of tech startups today. Whether they’re coming out of Silicon Valley, Europe, or emerging nations, most of them are based around offering a cloud-based service. The entire martech industry is based on outsourcing services to businesses large and small.
If It’s So Ubiquitous, Why Give It A Special Name?
So if outsourcing is everywhere, how much longer can it get away with having its own name which, by inference, segregates it from ‘mainstream’ business processes?
The concept of decentralizing business function where it makes sense for the business is no longer novel, and certainly no longer considered disruptive. The performance, scalability, flexibility and enhanced security of outsourced services means that farming this stuff out is invariably cheaper and less overhead-intensive that keeping it in house.
Perhaps the very word “Outsourcing” is now obsolete, simply because of its ubiquity.
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