Introduction
Outsourcing may be described as a deliberate act of a particular firm to enter into an agreement with another firm for purposes of providing services which may otherwise be executed by the employees of the contracting company. It goes without saying that the outsourced responsibilities could as well be carry out by the outsourcing firm itself. Nevertheless, the deliberate act of a given company to outsource is driven by financial as well as strategic advantages that accrue from such a process (Buchanan, 2006). Consequently, a number of companies have embarked on outsourcing various tasks often to overseas locations. These locations may be enticing to such companies due to the availability of relatively cheap labor force and the general cost of operations in such countries. The tasks that are often outsourced include among others: help desk services, e-mail services, payroll, as well as call center services. Many a times such tasks are outsourced to different firms which have specialized in such fields.
Even though there are various explanations as to where a particular company would make a decision to outsource different tasks, the need to save money could be argued to be the most outstanding rational. This could be explained by the fact that most of the outsourcing services companies particularly in locations overseas may be able to provide their services, while demanding fees that are relatively low. The companies that handles outsourced tasks do not have to worry about overhead expenses, as they are often few, and rarely do they give their workers hefty benefits. It is also much cheaper for one company to outsource to other companies in various countries depending on the location (Doh, 2005).
It has been suggested that the decision of outsourcing help desk services of a particular company gives it an opportunity to direct its attention on other business matters while the experts or specialist from outside the firm takes care of the details involved in the task. It therefore, follows that much attention and huge amount of resources that the management professionals have to sacrifice in an effort to accomplish such tasks may be directed towards other broader and significant matters within the firm. It is worth noting that more often than not, outsourced work is carried out by highly specialized companies (Mehta et al., 2006). These companies are well equipped with the latest and advanced technology which may not be affordable to the outsourcing company. In addition, the firms that undertake outsourced tasks are highly streamlined, and apart from the effective services such companies could provide to the outsourcing company, the prospects of expanding its business to overseas locations could prove to be cost effective.
As aforementioned, there are a number of advantages associated with outsourcing. Nonetheless, it would be illogical not to mention the various drawbacks associated with outsourcing, since advantages goes hand in hand with disadvantages. Outsourcing as well has a number of drawbacks which among others include: the act of outsourcing is likely to obstruct the effort of the outsourcing firm to put up a strong relationship with the clients of the firm. Consequently, both or one party may ends up not being satisfied. Another drawback of outsourcing is the fact that outsourcing company may lose control over certain aspects which are vital to the company. Thus, the outsourcing company may be faced with challenges such as implementation of projects and delayed communications since the outsourcing company has no direct control over that company that undertakes the outsourced tasks. In addition, there is a possibility of sensitive or confidential information leakage, which may leave the outsourcing company vulnerable and heavily dependent on the company handling outsourced jobs. In such an instance, if the company handling outsourced jobs decides to pull out of the contract, the outsourcing company may be left at a very dangerous position (Calantone & Stanko, 2007).
Discussion
Over the years, business enterprises have always searched for avenues through which they can improve their operations as well as maximize their profits. One of the most recent methods of cutting the cost of business operation is through outsourcing help desk services. According to Henley (2006), the deliberate act of outsourcing help desk services to overseas locations allows a company to streamline its operations particularly if it is experiencing streams of diminishing revenues. The company handling the outsourced tasks deals with the peripheral work of the contracting company while the contracting company is able to focus its attention on the most important aspects of the business (Henley, 2006). Companies in the united states that have undertaken outsourcing help desk services to overseas locations are able to reduce tremendously their expenses on the work force. It is not surprising that such company may save up to about 70% on their labor force expenditure, notwithstanding the fact that these companies continue to get the same revenue as before from the company handling the outsourced help desk services.
Most companies in the United States spend a considerable amount of money every month to maintain their help desk workstations. Henley (2006), observes that most of the companies are no longer willing to incur such expenses and they have instead turned to outsourcing help desk services to overseas locations. This saves them the cost of maintaining help desk workstations within the country. Outsourcing help desk services to overseas locations present a big advantage for the outsourcing company in the sense that the support efforts involved in maintaining a work station are eliminated. In addition, the performance level of the outsourcing company in terms of help desk services improves. Dossani & Kenney (2004), are of the view that since help desk service in any company forms the firm’s public face, the outsource work force must be in a position to know what is required of them at all times, and to prioritize the interests of customers. This is because help desk services entails direct interaction with customers. It therefore, follows that entering into a contract involving outsourcing help desk services requires precise and clear outline of what is expected from the company and workers handling the help desk services to avoid mistakes which may be very costly.
Outsourcing help desk services is aimed at serving as a main spot for requesting services as well as dealing with everyday occurrences that the overseas IT users may encounter. There are a number of functions, roles and processes that must be spelt out in order to proved the effective help desk services. The importance of defining such roles, processes, as well as functions is derived from the fact that help desk services are aimed at dealing with service requests emanating from IT users and addressing other incident. These are the basic aims of help desk services. It is worth noting that the function of a help desk center is to smooth the progress of delivering high quality and effective help desk services. This is achieved through the process of synchronizing various help desks situated in different locations across the world.
There are a number of challenges that are encountered by the first level IT help desk centers located overseas. These problems include: the inability of such centers to assign an IT expert in time, for purposes of handling the issue at hand, and as such, it becomes very difficult for the users to receive the desired support in good time thus, affecting his work. It is not surprising that business opportunities may be lost following such incidences and that means a decline in business profits. In some instances, even though an IT member may be available to address the outsourced issues, there is a possibility that every time a similar issue comes on the way of an end user, his work may be interrupted. Cultural and language barriers may also pose a big challenge while outsourcing first level IT help desk services to sites located overseas. This argument may be informed by the fact that communication of customers and the service providers of the help desk services may not be very effective owing to the difference in language (Bunyaratavej et al., 2007).
It has been argued by experts that outsourcing tasks to overseas locations assists in boosting globalization not to mention the fact that the living standards improve tremendously in the countries where the outsourced tasks are carried out. American consumers are also able to access services and products at a low price since the American companies are able to produce such services and products at a lower production cost and hence improving the economy of the country. Amiti & Wei (2005) suggest that outsourcing first level IT help desk services does not only reduce the cost of labor to the American companies which undertake to outsource some tasks to overseas locations, but also helps them in terms of offshore tax advantage that accrues with outsourcing. The competitiveness of a company is bound to improve tremendously through outsourcing jobs as the company will have an international outlook.
Even though many companies in the United States view outsourcing as a business venture that is extremely profitable, it poses a big threat to the United States workers who have to lose there well paying jobs to professionals in the same area of specialty from overseas locations. The main cause of job loss in the US is provoked by the fact that professionals from overseas locations are much cheaper to hire and maintain than their American counterparts (Maskell et al., 2007). It goes without saying that the decision of American companies to outsource first level IT help desk service to overseas locations leads to discharge of high level company workers in the united states most of whom are more educated than their counterparts working with the companies handling outsourced help desk services overseas.
Sometime, American companies may be at a very high risk of incurring losses as the outsourcing providers from overseas locations may not be able to handle and perform the outsourced tasks as per the standards and expectations of the American companies. The enormous layoffs that follow outsourcing by American companies may also result to serious financial losses following the payments that are involved in discharging workers. To make matters worse, the remaining workers may lose the motivation to work for the company following the layoff. Most companies in the united stated after outsourcing jobs do not hold on to their experienced and highly skilled workers. As such, these companies may be at a very high risk of losing their well trained personnel to their competitors.
In instances where the providers of the outsourced services experience high turnover, they are most likely to higher less qualified employees who are cheap and also use out outdated technology to optimize their resources. More often than not, the companies that are contracted to handle outsourced help desk services fail to make good of their undertaking which they had pledge to the outsourcing company. The result is delivery of services that are substandard. Research has shown that poor language skills within the overseas companies that handle outsourced help desk services present a huge obstacle in providing high quality services to customer(Dossani & Kenney, 2004). The situation makes it impossible for the proper communication between the customers and the service provider.
The ability of any company to take full advantage of its global potential for collaboration and integration can determine the financial performance of such a company in the global economy. For this reason, the company must do everything within its powers to alleviate its operations such as tapping the extra new value as well as new talents, all of which are geared towards making the company’s products and services much better than those provided by their competitors (Dossani & Kenney, 2004). It therefore, goes without saying that in the evolution of business change, outsourcing can play a critical role particularly in driving the advances required for such purposes. The continued prosperity of any successful business enterprise is determined by the ability of such an enterprise to take advantage and adapt to the changes that comes on its way. Such companies are able to respond to emerging markets with less effort compared to their competitors.
Through outsourcing, first level IT help desk of the united state are able to provide to their customers with high quality services , and also allows such firms to effect novel approaches that makes them distinct from other competitors in the local and global market. Calantone & Stanko (2007), suggest that cost repression and workload efficiency in any first level IT help desk services can be effectively achieved through outsourcing. In the argument advanced by Dossani & Kenney, (2004), outsourcing is a viable avenue through which first level IT help desk services of the US based firms are exposed to novel untapped capabilities, expertise, as well as ideas that are found in other locations. As it is argued by some authors, outsourcing present a viable avenue for insights and innovations which are capable of changing the way in which issues are dealt with (Calantone & Stanko, 2007). Cloud computing for instance can be cited as a perfect illustration of the latest manifestation of outsourcing. Through this cloud technology, developers are able to create and analyze new applications within the shortest time possible.
According to Maskell et al.(2007), outsourcing the first level IT help desk of the United States creates an enabling ground for globalization through creating employment opportunities throughout the overseas locations where such companies handles the outsourced work. Decisions of outsourcing first level IT help desk services should always be undertaken in consideration to other actions in the management for purposes driving a company towards an optimal financial performance. It goes without saying that outsourcing of the first level IT help desk services to overseas locations gives a company an opportunity to concentrate on other important aspects pertaining to the company while other issues are dealt with by the providers of outsourced tasks. This makes it easy for the companies based in the United States to provide services and products at a low price to consumers since they are able to produce such services and products at a lower production cost and hence improving the economy of the United States.
Conclusion
Outsourcing the first level IT help desk of U.S. based, companies to overseas locations is indeed a brilliant business decision that any company can undertake. Through outsourcing first level IT help desk of U.S. bases companies to firms overseas, a firm is able to optimize its revenue not to mention the fact that the costs of operations are reduced tremendously. Outsourcing help desk services to companies that handle such tasks overseas is associated with numerous benefits to the outsourcing company. Outsourcing help desk services of a particular company gives it an opportunity to direct its attention to other business matters while the experts or specialist from outside the firm, takes care of the details involved in the task. Outsourced first level IT held desk work is carried out by highly specialized companies. These companies are well equipped with the latest and advanced technology which may not be affordable to the outsourcing company.
In addition, the firms that undertake outsourced tasks are highly streamlined. Consequently, outsourcing create a viable avenue through which first level IT help desk of the United State based firms is exposed to novel and untapped capabilities, expertise, as well as ideas that are found in other locations. It is also a known fact that most companies in the United States spend a considerable amount of money every month to maintain their workstations of help desk. It therefore, follows that outsourcing help desk services to overseas locations present a big advantage to the outsourcing company in the sense that the support efforts involved in maintaining a work station are eliminated. Further, the performance level of the outsourcing company in terms of help desk services improves. Furthermore, in the evolution of business change, outsourcing can play a critical role particularly in driving the advances required for such purposes. In all, outsourcing help desk services does not only reduce the cost of labor to the American companies which undertake to outsource some tasks to overseas locations but also help them in terms of offshore tax advantage that accrues with outsourcing. Outsourcing of the first level help desk services to overseas countries is not without some disadvantages both to the outsourcing company and the country at large.
Since outsourcings involves one firm contracting another firm for purposes of providing services which may otherwise be carried out by the employees of the contracting company, it therefore, means that several workers from the contracting firm are likely to lose their jobs. Outsourcing help desk services to overseas locations works as a disadvantage to the United States workers who have to lose there well paying jobs to professionals in the same area of specialty from oversea locations. This is because professionals are much cheaper to hire and maintain than their American counterparts. As if that is not enough, most of the American companies after outsourcing first level help desk services to overseas locations do not see any need of holding on to their experienced and highly skilled workers. As such, these companies may be at risk of losing their well trained personnel to their competitors. The enormous layoffs that follow outsourcing help desk services by American companies may result to serious financial losses following the payments that ought to be paid to the laid off workers, not to mention the fact that the remaining workers may be demoralized by the layoff process.
Finally, American companies may be at a very high risk of counting loses as outsourcing providers from overseas locations may not be able to handle and perform the outsourced desk help services as per the standards and expectations of the American companies (Levy, 2005). The outsourcing company may be faced with challenges such as implementation of projects and delayed communications since the outsourcing company have no direct control over the provider company that undertakes the outsourced tasks. In addition, there is a possibility of sensitive or confidential information leakage, which may leave the outsourcing company vulnerable and heavily dependent on the company handling outsourced help desk services. It is therefore, important to note that while entering into a contract involving outsourcing help desk services there is a need for precise and clear outline of what is expected from the company and workers handling the help desk services to avoid mistakes which may affect the company.
References
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