Offshore-outsoursing-for-small-businessHave you noticed in the past few years that many large North American call centres and IT departments that were outsourced to offshore companies are closing those operations? Yes, many large firms are still using offshore companies to fulfill certain roles and tasks, but deciding to use or not use offshore outsourcing does not always come down to saving money.

The debate rages on about whether or not having call centres or help centres offshore is beneficial or potentially detrimental for business. Some industry leaders are choosing sides. Some large companies are returning the jobs to Canada and the USA for patriotic and PR purposes. These companies have have eliminated outsourcing operations because, for them, the costs to their business have outweighed the benefits.

Many boutique offshore companies have started to turn their attention to the needs that some small businesses commonly have. Back-end web development, internal IT support, graphic design and even lead generation and database management are just some of the outsourcing that small business is sending offshore.

There are many other tasks that small business owners are outsourcing, but not to offshore companies. Because of the need to know local laws and practices, most small businesses are not likely to outsource things like accounting, legal or payroll to these offshore companies.

Finding the right outsource provider for the right task is very important. You have to choose if you want an outsourcing provider that is focused primarily on speed, quality, low cost, any combination thereof, or hopefully all three. Unfortunately, many small businesses don’t realize that there are significant differences among outsourcing providers (both domestic an offshore). They sometimes select the wrong ones for what appear to be the right reasons.

One important consideration that a small business has to consider when thinking of outsourcing elements of its business to an offshore company is that they may have very limited legal recourse or financial clout if the provider becomes a detriment to their business. Many small businesses cannot afford the potential risks of using offshore service providers for their business, reputation, finances, or all three.