The Extent of Outsourcing Today

 

The process dates back to 1981, when the term “outsourcing first started being used. It involves contracting out an inherent business operation to a third party to save time, cost and energy.

It has evolved into a multi-billion dollar empire today with some of the top global firms raking in revenues by offering outsourcing services. Some major global players include Accenture, ISS, HCL technologies, Capgemini and many more. With a current market size of over $ 80 billion, outsourcing is in fact the largest business in the world. All the major and minor business operations can be outsourced today.

It is always interesting to see the extent to which a particular kind of business has penetrated the global economic scene because it gives us and idea about the underlying opportunities and the future possibilities in that area. This article is specifically about that.

What are the key aspects of outsourcing that we can speculate

 

 

 

1. What is the overall world statistic?

As mentioned above, a market size of $83 Billion already makes it the most sought after business. This implies that most of the companies and organizations in the world have taken to outsourcing and incorporated it in all their business strategies and plans.

 

The largest share of the revenue comes from places like Europe, the Middle East and Africa with little chunks from the Asia Pacific region.

Business process outsourcing is the major contributor to these revenues as compared to others like IT outsourcing. BPOs contributed 62.6 Billion dollars to the total revenue of 83 billion in 2012.

 

More of these stats can be found here

 

These numbers alone say more than what I can write. Outsourcing is undoubtedly the major source of the GDP in most developed and developing countries and it is bound to keep growing as the internet revolution has opened up even more opportunities like digital marketing and social media marketing which are beginning to be exploited on larger scales.

 

2. What jobs is the world outsourcing?

This is another interesting attribute which is always discussed. What are the top services the world is outsourcing? According to smallbusiness.chron.com, a research website, there a few shining stars in the outsourcing world such as

• Human Resources

• Public Relations

• Virtual Assistants

• Manufacturing

Also , the internet has provided opportunities for increased outsourcing of the following jobs.

• Writing

• Graphic Design

• Web Development etc.

This shows that more and more organizations are outsourcing those jobs which are implicit functions to the core operations. This is done to save numerous costs like infrastructure, management and other variable costs.

This trend is too potent to decline because of its very profitable nature and the future can see even core operations being outsourced.

 

3. What is in store for outsourcing in 2015?

 

The future is bright for outsourcing with the new found possibilities and opportunities.

It is quite certain that it will segment itself into more niche and compartmentalized operations as the process has already begun with more and more firms outsourcing operations like online marketing and social media management which in themselves are very specific segments of any business.

It is possible for IT services to gain a bigger share and balance out BPOs in the time to come. Human Resources which is the most outsourced service will see further growth as the sector becomes more complex with the increasing specialization and compartmentalization.

LinkedIn shared a post by Nilesh Kindarle which shows that the market share is bound to grow by 31.68% next year.

 

This shows the immense importance of outsourcing on the economic globe.

The benefits of outsourcing are many. Increased profits, reduced costs, efficient operations, ready- to- read information and reduced infrastructural costs are the few major advantages. Outsourcing also leads to heightened and relevant networking as you and your business connects with another organization which increases your own brand value and credibility.

Hence, we can affirm that the future has a lot to offer and outsourcing will grow even more thanks to the increasing opportunities the internet and other online media is providing. More operations are found each day over which an outsourcing business can be developed. So, keep track of the opportunities and hang in tight, there is lot in store for all of us.