In the nineties, the idea that "white-collar" jobs were on the rise for the new century was all the rave. With the loss of manufacturing jobs, the thought that everyone would be working in offices was an amazing concept... Of course, I was younger and more gullible back then, but the idea was nice regardless...
Twenty years later, it appears that the white collar jobs did come...and did increase...but what was not noted was that those jobs would go to people in other countries.
Where does this leave our countrymen and women? Continually inflating the currency while restricting pay for the jobs that are here.... hmmm....
And you're actually comfortable implementing "gun control"?
You can't hide under the sheets for much longer...the boogeyman is about to jump on the bed...
Love it or hate it, outsourcing is here to stay as a standard business practice.
A new study from HfS Research and KPMG International finds little resistance to or plans to cut back on outsourcing any time soon. In the study, 1,355 stakeholders across enterprise buyers, service providers and consultant/influencer organizations finds many see outsourcing as a way to not only keep costs down, but also gain more traction with up-to-date business processes.
“Make no bones about it: 2012 was a pretty dire year for the industry known as ‘outsourcing,’” says Phil Ferscht, analyst with HfS, referring to the negative media attention and stigma applied to the practice. However, he continued, the data suggests that “the majority of enterprises are not only aggressively focused on increasing their outsourcing portfolios, but many are now taking a more mature and realistic approach.”
The survey primarily covered business process outsourcing, versus manufacturing outsourcing trends. Ferscht observes that among the 399 major buy-side enterprises in the survey, “barely a twentieth are looking to reduce their outsourcing scope across any IT or business function in 2013.” Moreover, he adds, “half of them are looking to increase their outsourcing of application services, four out-of-ten their finance and accounting, and a third their HR. In addition, there is a notable pick up in newer sourcing areas, such as analytics and legal.”
The primary motivations for outsourcing are not surprising: 87 percent seek to reduce operating costs, 81 percent seek greater flexibility and scale, and 74 percent seek to standardize processes. Ferscht says the drive to standardize is a significant development, as more companies drive to adopt what he calls the old “ADP payroll analogy” — “there is little discernible business reason to run your payrolls yourself these days, and this is ringing true for the rest of the operational functions. Being competitive with business operations is achieved by standardizing onto best-in-class processes.”
Percent of Organizations Ramping Up or Scaling Back on Outsourcing: |
|||
| Function | Starting or expanding |
Decreasing |
No plans |
| Application development/maintenance | 48% | 6% | 9% |
| Finance and accounting outsourcing | 40% | 5% | 29% |
| IT infrastructure outsourcing | 39% | 6% | 15% |
| Human resources outsourcing | 31% | 5% | 30% |
|
Procurement/sourcing outsourcing outsourcing |
29% | 3% | 21% |
| Industry-specific processes | 21% | 4% | 45% |
| Analytics | 24% | 2% | 48% |
| (Source: HfS Research 2013, n=399 Buy-Side Enterprises, 2013 State of Outsourcing Study, conducted with the support of KPMG.) |
(Thumbnail photo: US Census Bureau, US Department of Commerce.)
