Advantages of Outsourcing
One of the biggest advantages can be lower personnel costs. By outsourcing job duties to non-employees, a business does not have to pay consistent wages or offer additional employee benefits. The company may pay lower taxes because independent contractors, the people who complete the outsourced projects, pay their own withholding, social security, and other taxes. This can add up to substantial savings.

Some businesses choose to take their outsourcing one step further by choosing a vendor, located in another part of the world. Doing so typically saves them more money because they end up paying a much lower wage than would be necessary in their home country. The disadvantage is that these vendors may not understand English and communication is more difficult.

Many times, outsourcing speeds up production time. Since the third-party vendor will only be concentrating on one specific task, instead of numerous office duties, actual production time can be greatly increased.

Outsourcing gives a business the flexibility to change third-party vendors whenever necessary. This process is not as time-consuming as the normal employee hiring process, because they are not screening individuals, they are considering established companies with proven track records.

An excellent example of this is customer service. When a business outsources its customer service department, it does not have to hire and oversee thirty individual operators. Instead, it can hire one call center, which will perform all needed tasks.

Recent studies show that information technology-related tasks are outsourced more than anything else. Other common department functions that are outsourced include: human relations, training, accounting and supply management.

Whether a business chooses to outsource on a temporary basis or permanently, the advantages are well worth the decision to do so. Most businesses, which set out to outsource temporarily end up making an ongoing commitment.

Disadvantages of Outsourcing

One of the biggest disadvantages of outsourcing is undesirable results. This is especially true when a company hires a third-party vendor to mass produce a product. In the event that the finished products do not meet quality standards, the manufacturing process must be repeated by a different vendor.

Not only is this a waste of time and materials, it can also be very costly for the company who outsourced the project. They are essentially paying twice for the same job. In addition there is always the possibility that the company may lose sales, during this same period because of the lack of available product.

Another disadvantage of outsourcing is a loss of jobs. Many times work is outsourced simply as a means to save money. Outsourcing to a foreign country typically saves a company a great deal in wages. So, the choice is made to reduce their local workforce, at the expense of the laid-off employees.

In turn, it can cause community uproar and even a decrease in business and profits. This happens when local consumers make the decision to shop elsewhere, as a way to voice their disdain.

Outsourcing customer service jobs, to foreign countries, is on the rise. Many large corporations including credit card companies, shopping networks and computer manufacturers are making this change.

The problem with this is a lack of communication. It can be very frustrating for a consumer who is calling in with a customer service issue. When this individual cannot understand the customer service representative they are speaking with, it just causes more frustration and does little to solve the problem.

Awards Criteria: Best use of outsourcing to achieve the buyer’s objectives for ITO while also achieving mutually beneficial outcomes.

Lessons from the Outsourcing Journal:

* Buyers have to work closely with service providers when designing new systems. If they don’t get involved, the systems may not work.
* A good service provider will go the extra mile to fix a problem, even if it means buying another company!
* Buyers appreciate open, honest communication, especially when a service provider cannot do what the buyer asks.

Even the most talented and experienced Internet marketer or businessman needs help every once in a while. Graphic or web design that meets your business goals takes commitment and the right amount of skills. Not everyone has what it takes to create banners, promo ads, and websites, which is why graphic design outsourcing has become a popular option for many. There are several factors to be considered in outsourcing graphic design work to ensure that you gain the best quality, competitive pricing, total confidentiality, and unparalleled customer service.

Graphic Design Experience

In the outsourcing business, it would of course be in your best interest to look for an individual or a service that has significant experience in the line of work or aspect of your business you are outsourcing. You will be surprised at the number of companies offering graphic website outsourcing at competitive prices. In choosing a firm, have a look at how many websites the outsourcing company has worked on and whether they fit your standards. See also if the websites they made are search engine-friendly. If outsourcing to an individual, ask for a work portfolio.

Web Design Infrastructure

When we talk about web design infrastructure, we are referring to the tools a graphic design outsourcing company uses. A web design company must have experience working with the latest software and network infrastructure. Its team members must be knowledgeable in different platforms such as Windows, Linux, PHP, ASP, .NET, MySQL, MSSQL, C++, VB, and so on. Choose a service that distinguishes between its art department and customer assistance to allow for better communication.

Graphic Design Team

It is an excellent idea to hire the services of an entire company when graphic design outsourcing because they usually employ a number of skilled professionals to work on your projects. Graphic design is an art but more than that, it is also a form of science. The team you are outsourcing to needs to harbor unique and innovative ideas in software programs like Photoshop, Dreamweaver, animation programs, CSS, and HTML. They must also be able to execute these ideas well and foster a deep understanding in the importance of striking a balance between aesthetics and functionality.

Professionalism

In graphic design outsourcing, the two transacting parties must establish good communication lines from the very start. If a company does not seem to foster a harmonious relationship with its clients through proper coordination, language proficiency, and constant communication, your projects are bound to fail. Professionalism should be exercised in all aspects such as pricing, communication, and timing. You must be able to express your ideas without having to worry about time constraints, connection problems, and hidden costs.

Maintenance

Maintenance is an essential aspect in graphic design outsourcing, especially in web design. You must choose an outsourcing service that allows you to incorporate changes, make additions, apply corrections, and do other modifications any time it is needed. Come up with a set budget and style sheet once you have chosen a graphic design outsourcing provider. This avoids unnecessary mistakes and some basic problems as you go along.

Personal Outsourcing To An Assistant

In this list we are going to look at 100 different ways you can use an assistant to save you time. Some will work with a virtual as well as an on site assistant, some will only work with on site help. Obviously you need to match the job with the skills of your assistant, but this can provide a valuable starting point of ideas if you are interested in outsourcing some tasks and saving time.
One word of warning. Don’t expect an assistant to save you time on every task at first. Unless your needs are very mundane, you will probably want to invest some time in letting them learn your preferences and the style in which you like things done. As they learn what you need, they can start to make decisions based on how you are likely to make them and this can be one of the greatest time savings of all.

1. Grocery store trip – It may or may not be efficient to send someone to do your detailed shopping, trips to pickup milk, bread and other staples can be handled by someone else.

2. Meal planning – This can be nicely coupled with grocery shopping. You could even set certain targets you want to hit regarding nutrition.

3. Meal preparation – If your assistant can cook, this might be a good time saver for you. Obviously this doesn’t work very well with a virtual assistant.

4. Deposits – With a rubber stamp, you can give someone else the ability to make bank deposits for you. Obviously it needs to be someone you trust.

5. Scanning – If you are trying to implement a paperless office, having someone else do your scanning can save you a lot of time.

6. Filing – If you haven’t gone paperless.

7. Proof reading – A second pair of eyes can often spot issues much faster than you can yourself.

8. Contacts cleanup – If you have a setup that syncs contacts from your computer, phone and other devices, it is likely that you have a bunch of duplicates or incomplete contacts. Let someone else clean them up and make sure your information is up to date and accurate.

9. Send handwritten letters – Using a font like vLetter, you can give someone else the ability to print and send handwritten letters for you.

10. Pay bills – You may or may not want to give someone else access to your online bill payment service. If you still use checks, someone can save you time by getting everything ready so you just have to sign the checks.

11. Get your oil changed – The 30 to 60 minutes it takes to get your oil changed can easily be handed off to someone else.

12. Transcribe voicemail – Depending on your workflow, it might be much more efficient to have your voicemails transcribed and sent as email.
13. Shred sensitive documents – This can be particularly important if you are scanning in a lot of documents that can’t be thrown away due to the information they contain.
14. Buy airline tickets – This can be tricky because there is a lot that usually goes into picking out tickets that requires your personal attention. However, if your needs are simple, this can be a small task that you can delegate.
15. Wait on hold – It is easy to waste a lot of time just waiting for someone else to answer the phone. While you can’t hand off every phone call to an assistant, the ones that you can will save you time.
16. Tech support – If you deal with a lot of electronics you probably spend at least some time fixing problems, working with tech support and getting parts replaced. In some cases these are activities that could be delegated.
17. Mailing letters and packages – It isn’t hard to mail a package, but it can be time consuming and that makes it a great canidate to delegate.
18. Send birthday cards – Sending birthday cards is a great networking tool. An assistant can help by getting the cards ready, addressed, stamped and even signing them using a signature font.
19. Birthday shopping – With a little organization an assistant can help you keep up with your birthday gift giving. If you give them a list of people, birthdays and a list of possible gifts they can make sure you never miss a gift giving opportunity.
20. Finding deals – An assistant can help find the best deal (including shipping and tax charges) on a particular item you need to purchase. American Express’ concierge generally does a good job of this.
21. Answer phone calls – Using something like Google Voice or Ring Central you can forward your phone calls to an assistant so callers get a real person during the times you would normally send them to voice mail.
22. Library run – It is easy to order books off Amazon simply to avoid the inconvenience of going to the library. Sending an assistant to the library is particularly useful if you have a small library where a lot of specific books will need to come through library loan.
23. Proof reading – A second set of eyes to look over things before you send them out can drastically reduce little errors. This can be a bit challenging if you are trying to use someone in India where they speak a slightly different version of English.
24. Phone calls – Sometimes you need to get a message to someone and simply leaving a message won’t do. An assistant can keep calling until the person answers and give the message.
25. Bill collection – If someone owes you money, having an assistant call and inquire about when to expect payment can help keep you out of the bill collector role but still get the payment in the mail.
26. Researching lists – For example, if I want a list of the top 100 peer blogs to Productivity501 along with various stats about them, an assistant can gather that information easily into an document where it can be sorted and analyzed.
27. Interviews – Virtual assistants are great for querying a large number of people and compiling their answers.
28. Organizing personal library – Have you ever wanted to have your home library organized according to the Dewey Decimal system?
29. Book index – If the Dewey Decimal system is to much, you still might like a master index of your library.
30. Listing books on Amazon – If you have a bunch of books you want to get rid of, an assistant can get them listed for you on Amazon.
31. Update phone – If you can’t sync your phone with your computer, consider having an assistant update the contacts.
32. Locate photos and illustrations – A virtual assistant can save you a lot of time by locating pictures to illustrate blog posts and presentations.
33. Transcription – Sometimes you want to have a text copy of an audio file. It could be the recording of a conference call, meeting or even radio broadcast. This time consuming process is a great candidate for outsourcing to an assistant. If you have a tremendous amount of audio to transcribe, you may want to look into using services that specialize in audio transcription.
34. Categorize pictures – An assistant can help you categorize, rate and organize your pictures by adding tags or putting them in different folders.
35. Mail merge – A good assistant should be able to take a spreadsheet and a letter and do a mailing with minimal intervention on your part. This could be anything from sending out your Christmas letter to 50 family members or a huge newsletter mailing for your company.
36. Watering plants – This may seem trivial, but it is one other place that an assistant can save you a few minutes.
37. Setting up appointments – If you need to meet with a large number of people an assistant can setup your meetings and update your schedule.
38. Watching for news – An assistant can monitor various news sources and notify you when something comes up that you need to know about.
39. Garage sale shopping – Garage sales are one of those things that you don’t know what you are looking for until you find it. However if you do know what you are looking for, an assistant can scour the garage sales looking for used books or whatever it is you need.
40. Fill the car with gas – It isn’t a hard task, but it takes up your time. If you can send someone to fill the car up for you it will probably save you 15 to 30 minutes of time.
41. Driving – Letting someone else drive you can free up your time to work on the computer, read, make phone calls safely, etc.
42. Qualify leads – If your business generates leads that then need to be qualified, a virtual assistant can follow up by phone, ask a few questions and schedule a meeting with you. This helps you keep your time focused on the qualified customers.
43. Twitter – Most of our famous quotes on Twitter were researched and scheduled by my assistant.
44. Printing – It doesn’t always make sense, but sometimes it makes more sense to send your assistant a file and let them handle the printing, getting the right paper, printer options, etc.
45. Summarizing data – This can be a great way to use a virtual assistant. Let them send you summaries of news or financial information that you would wade through otherwise.
46. Article clipping – Instead of going through magazines and newspapers yourself, an assistant can clip the parts that are relevant to you.
47. Setting up appointments – If you need to meet with a large number of people an assistant can setup your meetings and update your schedule.
48. Watching for news – An assistant can monitor various news sources and notify you when something comes up that you need to know about.
49. Office supply stocking – An assistant can help make sure that you don’t run out of paper, pens or toner.
50. Reconcile accounts – Trying to find the missing transaction that is keeping your accounts from balancing is a great thing to delegate.
51. Preparing expense reports – You give them your receipts with a note on the back and they handle filling out whatever forms you need.
52. Sending out “good to meet you letters” – A great networking tool is to follow up with a physical letter. An assistant can handle doing this for you.
53. Letter sequence – Similar to the above, but you may want to send people out a sequence of letters. Once again, a great thing to delegate.
54. Wait for cable repair – Most cable companies give you a window of when they will come that is huge and keeps you sitting at home all day wondering when they will show up. Let someone else do the waiting.
55. Wait for important packages – If you have a package coming that needs a signature, you don’t have to be stuck waiting for it.
56. Locate and schedule carpet cleaners – You an give criteria such as: locate 3 carpet cleaners, get and follow up with references, choose the one that sounds like they will do the best job at a reasonable price.
57. Answer emails – I’m not crazy about giving someone else direct access to my email, but there are some situations where it may make sense. In particular it may be good if you are away from email for an extended period of time.
58. Transcribe written notes – Turn your written notes into searchable text.
59. Negotiate – Sometimes having a third party negotiate for you can give you an upper hand. Give them the parameters you are willing to accept and let them try to negotiate for you.
60. Accountability – Asking a virtual assistant to make sure you exercise, or make sure you leave work on time can help give you some accountability to do the things you know are important.
61. Worry – I’ve heard of people delegating their worrying to someone else. The virtual assistant promised to worry about a big contract so he wouldn’t have to. Sounds silly but this person said it was very effective.
62. Walk the dog – Of course this doesn’t help you get any exercise.
63. Pickup medicine from the vet – Simple time saving errand.
64. Mow the yard – Another timesaver.
65. Write letters to politicians – If you want to let your voice be heard on a topic, let your assistant track down everyone who has any political pull in that area and mail them your opinion.
66. Send out resumes – They can handle the printing and mailing part of things.
67. Writing cover letters – Let them help customize your cover letters for each specific company.
68. Customize resume – They can research each company where you want to apply and help tweak and reorder your resume to best appeal to that company.
69. Mail newspaper clippings – A great way to network with people in your town is to clip out anything about them from the local paper and send it to them with a handwritten note of congratulations. An assistant can help identify and clip these for you. (It is best to only do this with positive news. You don’t need to send someone a note saying that you read about their DUI.)
70. Confirm reservations – Let your assistant confirm you car rental, hotel reservation, etc.
71. Send holiday cards – You can get cards for pretty much any time of year. Let your assistant help keep your name in front of clients by sending St. Patrick’s day, Easter, and Groundhogs day cards for you.
72. Sell stuff on eBay – You will probably make a lot more selling old items on eBay than with a garage sale. Your assistant can handle the listing and shipping for you so it doesn’t eat up all of your time.
73. Search craigslist.org – If you need something, have your assistant look for any new listings for that item on craigslist each day.
74. Gather menus – Want to have better information in choosing a restaurant. Ask your assistant to get a copy of the menu from several different places ahead of time for you.
75. Parking and getting the car – This is particularly useful if you live in a place where you can’t park near your house or office.
76. Wait in line for tickets – If you want to get tickets to an event that will require a wait, send your assistant.
77. Wait in other lines – Your assistant probably can’t get a drivers license for you or register your car, but they can wait in line and call you to come when your turn is approaching.
78. Get quotes – Lets say you need to put a new roof on your house. Your assistant can locate a number of roofer and get quotes for you to look over.
79. Transfer your phone – If you need to switch cell phones it can be a time consuming process. Pass it off your your assistant, they can deal with the cellular company and make the changes.
80. Meeting minutes – This may be useful for things other than formal meetings. It might be beneficial to have written minutes of a conference call or other informal meeting.
81. Wakeup call – I’ve heard of some people having a virtual assistant give them a wake up call along with the weather report and reminders of any important things coming up for that day.
82. Keeping home items in stock – This could be your batteries, printer supplies, envelopes, trash bags, flour, light bulbs etc. Delegating responsibility to make sure you don’t run out of these things means you don’t have to think about it anymore.
83. Place Ads to Sell Stuff on Craigslist – They can also filter through the large amount of spam you are likely to get and help qualify people whoa re likely to actually buy.
84. Look for stuff to buy on Craigslist – Lets say you need a lawn mower. Once you determine the model, age and price you are looking for, an assistant can check for one that meets your criteria daily and do the initial contact to make sure that the ad isn’t a scam. (Hint: If they are trying to ship you a riding lawn mower from another country, it is a scam.)
85. Play devils advocate – An assistant can offer valuable feedback by letting you test ideas and taking a contrary point of view. This will help prepare you for likely objections to your ideas and proposals.
86. Get you off of mailing lists – Giving your assistant a stack of mail that you don’t want to get anymore, can save you a lot of time and reduce the amount of paper being used in the world.
87. Creating a Powerpoint presentation – If you can provide the general outline, an assistant can look up relevant statistics and add graphics.
88. Track loyalty program points – They can help you keep track of where you have existing points and how to make best use of them.
89. Identify potential jobs – People without a job probably aren’t the most likely to hire an assistant, but if you are looking for a job and wanting to play the numbers in your favor, getting some help might be useful.
90. Sending out resumes – An assistant can help you tweak your cover letter, mail out resumes and help you track where you’ve sent your information.
91. House sitting – If you are going to be gone for a few days, it may make sense to have someone stay in your house just to keep it occupied.
92. Online presence – Some people have an assistant do their updates to Facebook and Twitter. This might be useful for someone wanting to maintain a particular online image.
93. Personal metrics – An assistant can help you compile and graph personal metrics. This could be anything to how many miles you’ve walked each week, to your weight over time or the number of calories you’ve consumed.
94. Business metrics – Similar to above, they can keep track of how many sales calls you’ve made, how many deals you’ve closed, how many contacts you’ve followed up with, etc.
95. Plan your vacation – It might seem silly to have an assistant plan your vacation, but if they know you and your family well, they may be able to come up with a better schedule and locate more interesting things to do than you could for yourself.
96. Blog posts – If you need to maintain a certain style of online presence, an assistant can help you do that by writing about what you are doing in your voice. Not for everyone, but there are some people who might use this.
97. Conversions – I had an assistant move a bunch of my sites from Drupal to Wordpress. It wasn’t particularly difficult, but it was very time consuming and I had been putting it off.
98. Suggest cultural events – An assistant can keep track of the events in your city and suggest things you might want to attend. If you say, yes, he/she can make the necessary arrangements for you.
99. Comment filtering – An assistant can help you manage comments on your blog and make sure you keep spam out while letting legitimate comments through quickly.
100. Fact checking – If you plan to use a piece of data for a publication or in a presentation and need to verify it, an assistant can do this for you.

Source: Productivity 501

“Outsourcing was in danger of becoming over hyped, with an exaggeration of its benefits and neglect of its problems and shortcomings. Michael Mol has served the literature and business practice well by developing a more balanced view that takes into account both opportunities and benefits, as well as limitations and adverse effects. For example, he includes the social cost of outsourcing that has previously been ignored. His main contribution is the following. Reasonably, and convincingly, using both theoretical and empirical argument, he shows that firm performance is an inverse U-shaped function of the extent of outsourcing. There can both too little and too much outsourcing. The book is very helpful in showing how the trade-off between advantages and disadvantages works. – Bart Nooteboom, Professor of Innovation Policy, Tilburg University and member of the Dutch Scientific Council for Government Policy

Product Description
Outsourcing has become one of the key restructuring tools for companies seeking to boost their growth and business performance. As the outsourcing phenomenon has mushroomed, so a range of academic studies have sought to define and describe a unifying theoretical model. Outsourcing: Design, Process and Performance draws upon managerial, economic, sociological, historical and psychological perspectives to bring about a new understanding of how outsourcing design and the outsourcing process feed into the performance of firms. Blending empirical insights from a range of international cases and large-scale statistical tests with existing theoretical perspectives, the author argues that a negative curvilinear relationship exists between outsourcing and firm performance. A critical analysis of current outsourcing strategies, together with a discussion of future trends, offers a new agenda for academic researchers and business managers alike.

Available at Amazon

Although outsourcing has been around as long as work specialization has existed, in recent history, companies began employing the outsourcing model to carry out narrow functions, such as payroll, billing and data entry. Those processes could be done more efficiently, and therefore more cost-effectively, by other companies with specialized tools and facilities and specially trained personnel.

Currently, outsourcing takes many forms. Organizations still hire service providers to handle distinct business processes, such as benefits management. But some organizations outsource whole operations. The most common forms are information technology outsourcing (ITO) and business process outsourcing (BPO).

Business process outsourcing encompasses call center outsourcing, human resources outsourcing (HRO), finance and accounting outsourcing, and claims processing outsourcing. These outsourcing deals involve multi-year contracts that can run into hundreds of millions of dollars. Frequently, the people performing the work internally for the client firm are transferred and become employees for the service provider. Dominant outsourcing service providers in the information technology outsourcing and business process outsourcing fields include IBM, EDS, CSC, HP, ACS, Accenture and Capgemini.

Some nimble companies that are short on time and money, such as start-up software publishers, apply multisourcing — using both internal and service provider staff — in order to speed up the time to launch. They hire a multitude of outsourcing service providers to handle almost all aspects of a new project, from product design, to software coding, to testing, to localization, and even to marketing and sales.

The process of outsourcing generally encompasses four stages: 1) strategic thinking, to develop the organization’s philosophy about the role of outsourcing in its activities; 2) evaluation and selection, to decide on the appropriate outsourcing projects and potential locations for the work to be done and service providers to do it; 3) contract development, to work out the legal, pricing and service level agreement (SLA) terms; and 4) outsourcing management or governance, to refine the ongoing working relationship between the client and outsourcing service providers.

In all cases, outsourcing success depends on three factors: executive-level support in the client organization for the outsourcing mission; ample communication to affected employees; and the client’s ability to manage its service providers. The outsourcing professionals in charge of the work on both the client and provider sides need a combination of skills in such areas as negotiation, communication, project management, the ability to understand the terms and conditions of the contracts and service level agreements (SLAs), and, above all, the willingness to be flexible as business needs change.

The challenges of outsourcing become especially acute when the work is being done in a different country (offshored), since that involves language, cultural and time zone differences.

Forum Responses
(Business and Management Forum)
From contributor J:
Okay, so you’re doing a little market research. My gut reaction to the sort of services you offer is powerfully bad on several levels. That may not mean much, because I’m primarily a custom furniture maker who does very little with the sort of kitchen and bath work you’re positioning yourself to deal with. The little work I have done in that area has gone from quick sketches directly into my shop, no renderings required. I realize this isn’t the world you’re aiming to work for, but hey – I feel like engaging you.

The first thing that strikes me from looking at your site is that I don’t know what you mean by “design.” The specification sheets you use ask your customers to do a lot of what I think of as design work – specifying things like cabinet manufacturer, door style, counter and backsplash materials, etc. These choices are design work, and you’re asking your customers to have already done it before you start working.

Perhaps you mean that you’ll decide which cabinets go where, designing the workflow of a space… except your forms don’t gather any input whatsoever about the clients’ unique needs. I can’t believe many clients would want to turn such decisions over to some remote, anonymous service provider. This is not the engineering of a water treatment plant; my customers care deeply about their homes, and these sorts of decisions grow out conversations. I don’t see how that can be farmed out.

So then, maybe you’re really offering to provide renderings that your customers can use to facilitate these design conversations with their clients. My experience is that customers go through many potential designs before settling on one. It seems like this could quickly rack up one heck of a bill from you. Worse, many cabinet dealers/makers don’t collect any money from their clients until the design is largely settled. Will they really be willing to rack up a bill from you on behalf of a customer they don’t even have yet?

Like I said, the market you’re aiming for is fairly alien to me, but the business model you’re working with strikes me as terribly awkward. I just don’t see where the value you can provide at a distance can possibly make up for the handicaps your process imposes on the relationships between your customers and their clients.

From contributor P:
I don’t really outsource such things, but I do work under a designer quite often. About half of our work is done fulfilling a designer or architect’s drawings or specs. I actually prefer it this way; less stuff for me to have to mess with.

From contributor N:
Contributor P has the right idea. You find your clients, do some design work for them, and then bring the cabinet job to the cabinetmaker. Then with his experience, he will demonstrate how this will work better or that might not work, etc. Often a nice drawing isn’t a real workable design. I had a customer that hired a designer to design a wet bar and an island. She came up with an island that wasn’t feasible, as all the drawers on all sides needed the same space to open and close. The island almost looked good on paper, then I redesigned it so it would work right and make sense. Get the work from your clients and then bring the work to the cabinetmaker, not the other way around. That is unless you have 10 or 20 years of working with or in a cabinet shop building cabinets that will all fit together and work correctly, and still retain the design aspect of the job. I’m not saying you don’t have the experience, but most of us have dealt with designers, and you know the experts that work at Lowe’s or Home Depot.

From contributor A:
First off, the website is generally quite good. Far better than most I’ve seen in your niche. We have outsourced CAD work in the past, with less than desirable results. The main reason? Overloaded with work, and a new, untested sub. In the future, I would pursue the path of developing a relationship with a reliable sub, and let them grow into the ability to handle larger, more time critical jobs. This has a much greater probability of success, in my opinion.

Why would I outsource? Because it can make me more profitable. Plain and simple. But it only makes me money if you can produce the same results for less than it costs me to do it myself. It is beyond me why so many folks on this forum will not think twice about subbing out their cabinet doors, or drawer boxes, but not give the same consideration to shop drawings. If outsourcing shop drawings can save you money and make you more profitable, why on earth would you say no?

Why wouldn’t I outsource? Control. No matter how you market it, I give up some measure of control when I sub out drawings… or drawers. That loss of control can be minimized, with good and constant communication, but not completely eliminated. (There is a marketing strategy for ya!)

This is just another opinion, but what you should be marketing is drafting, or better yet, “engineered shop drawings.” I agree with what the others have said, somewhat. It seems to me that if everything is spec’d (appliances, profiles, basic layout, etc.), then the design work is done. Now comes the engineering. That’s where you come in.

Of course, this depends on your definition of what design and engineering is. I’d submit that (in this industry) design is generally thought of as the form, style, and arrangement of the millwork. Typically also things like appliances, wood species and color, and all the other fluff.

Engineering, on the other hand, is simply taking those designs, and making them work in the real world. So in contributor N’s example above, I’d say he took a flawed design, and (re)engineered it to work in the real world. It’s not rocket science, but it is engineering nonetheless.

From the original questioner:
Contributor A, I think you hit the nail on the head with all of your points. It has become clear to me, especially after viewing contributor J’s comments, that my biggest challenge appears to be crafting my home page text to clearly illustrate and stress the drafting/engineering component of the process.

The tricky part is that I have five primary target customers:
Kitchen and bath showroom owners
Interior designers
Custom cabinet manufacturers
Remodeling contractors
Independent kitchen designers

So it is critical my homepage and services offered speak clearly to all. I also need to make clear that, while it is not my primary function, I do have the experience and background to make design suggestions to issues that always pop up once a project is taken from sketches and concept and put on the computer for engineering in scale.

Thus far my best customers in this current venture have been remodeling contractors who have the ability to purchase wholesale direct from cabinet manufacturers but can’t justify an in-house, full time position. They are comfortable with the process I assume because subcontracting is such a big part of their business.

Perhaps the message on my website needs some tighter focus. My services are of most value as an extension of the on-site designer by handling the drafting portion of the workload, using my 20+ years of experience to troubleshoot and offer solutions to issues as they occur. Good stuff… thanks. Changes will be implemented!

From contributor M:
I agree that contributor A hit the nail on the head. The engineering is critical, and even well engineered plans will have flaws. I would use your service, as I am a one man shop and already have more to do than I should, as long as it’s cost effective. I would like someone that could not only draw a full kitchen, but could draw a piece of furniture like a dining table in 3D for a customer to look at, and again it would have to be cost effective.

From contributor Y:
As a two man shop, I’m a firm believer in outsourcing. While I do all of the cad work myself, there are times I’ve considered outsourcing. However, you need to be aware that if I am like many other cabinet shops, I’m not always … er … ah … “time efficient.” How many times have I waited until the last minute to order drawers? I’m not sure how much time would be saved in the design area because of all of the interaction that would be needed with a designer to get all of the details correct and in the construction manner that I use. It would take quite some time to build up a library of my design criteria with a given designer.

From contributor T:
I normally like to suggest to our small business clients that they strongly consider buying out doors, drawers and other materials to help save them time and money. However, this is one area that I would not suggest that they outsource.

Here is why. The design establishes the price of the job. The engineering establishes much of what the job will cost. If you control this part of the process, you control much of the cost of the job. Job costing is such an important part of the business that I would not suggest putting this in someone else’s hands.

Source: Woodweb

Studies show that nearly 70% of readers here at Graphic Design Blender either own their own freelance design business or hope to start freelancing in the near future. Something that many freelancers fail to do, however, is work effectively with others to reduce workload and increase income.
If you’re anything like me, you started your freelance career with hopes of getting paid to do what you love most while maintaining a fairly flexible schedule. Unfortunately, you only have so many hours in the day. In addition you have some clients who simply want something outside your area of expertise.

Sound Familiar?

When this happens, there are a few options you can take. You can simply turn down work you are not qualified for or don’t have time for. You can refer them to friends you might have that do know how to best meet the clients needs. Or lastly, you can network with others and create outsourcing opportunities.
What is outsourcing?

Outsourcing in freelance design is simply the act of transferring the workload from yourself to another person. If you lack time or skill to complete a particular project for a client, for example, you might hire another freelance designer to do the work for you while you manage the client relationships.
When is it a good idea to start outsourcing?

Outsourcing in design can be a controversial topic. Many designers would argue that, if you are not qualified for the job or don’t have time to complete it, you should refer the client to another designer and get over the fact that you just lost a job or a client.

But what if a long-time client of yours comes to you and asks for something that you may not have time to complete or lack the necessary skills. Are you simply going to reject your client, send them on their way, and burn the relationship bridge you have worked so hard to build with them?

Of course not!

This would be an opportune time to work with other designers or freelancers in order to fulfill the needs of your client. Everyone wins: the other freelancer you work with gets paid, you maintain a client, and the client gets what they need.
How to effectively outsource design work

1PHASE ONE: START YOUR FREELANCE COMPANY
If you haven’t started a freelance design company yet, this is obviously the first step. You need to create a branding platform, begin to find clients, register your business with all the appropriate government entities, and do all the behind-the-scenes work to get your freelance business off the ground.

2 PHASE TWO: FIND SOME GOOD CLIENTS
After you have everything up and running, you should work hard to find some good clients that will be able to support your freelance business. These clients can include large businesses that need a lot of work done, clients that need material (particularly web material) frequently updated, etc. Before you can think about working with other freelancers, you should have a steady flow of work coming in to your business.

3PHASE THREE: MAKE SOME GOOD CONNECTIONS
After you have learned the basics of running a successful freelance design business, it’s important to network with other people-especially others who possess skills you lack. This will open doors and present outsourcing opportunities later on.

There are a million places you can make good connections with people. Stay active on twitter (follow me), facebook, stumbleupon, digg, and other sharing and social media sites. Another tactic you can use is to send messages to your followers inviting them to send their information to you through an online form (I use google docs). These forms can help you organize your contacts and information from other freelancers who might be interested in working with you. Make sure they tell you who they are, where you can see their work, how you can get in contact, what they specialize in, etc.

4PHASE FOUR: MAKE A BID REQUEST OR DELEGATE
After you have begun making good connections with other freelancers, begin delegating the surplus work you have to the freelancers who most qualify for the job. If you are unsure who might offer the best experience and best price, you can also send out a bid request. Essentially, you would send out a message to the potential freelancers informing them of the opportunity and ask them to bid on the project. Have them include time schedule and price. This will help you choose a candidate better.

5PHASE FIVE: WORK AS A LIAISON BETWEEN YOUR CLIENT AND FREELANCER
At this moment, your role changes. Whether you like it or not, you have now become a manager. You work as a account manager-facilitating communication between freelancer and client and assuring everything is completed on time and as expected.

While I love design, I have truly come to love working with other freelance professionals who are more skilled than I am. Managing the relationship between client and freelancer can really make you feel like you are running a legitimate freelance business.

6PHASE SIX: FINISH THE PROJECT, COLLECT, AND PAY
Now the good part. The last step is to work out all the payment between client and freelancer. Make sure that all deliverables are given to the client and that the freelancer also gets paid as promised. Some freelance designers feel guilty about collecting money for themselves on a project like this, but if you have done your job properly, you managed the project well-which is what you will be getting paid for. It’s legitimate.
Last, a word of caution

I would offer a word or two of advice for any freelancer who is interested in adding the art of ourtsourcing to their freelance business. First, remember why you are freelancing in the first place. Don’t get so wrapped up in managing and making money that you have no time to design. You love to design-so be sure to keep the best projects for yourself and really enjoy them. Second, remember how you feel when clients hire you and then treat you poorly. When you hire a freelancer, treat them with the utmost respect, trust their opinion, and work well with them to create a professional product.
Will you be outsourcing soon? Add your opinion

Now it’s your turn. What do you think? Is it a good idea to start outsourcing some of the work that you dont have time for or lack the necessary skills to complete? For those of you who have started outsourcing, what tips can you offer the rest of us that might help in our endeavor to take this step in our freelance careers?

Source: Graphic Design Blender

The highly competitive medical industry requires firms to utilize every possible resource, both
internal and external, to stay ahead of the curve. While many medical device companies have
been capitalizing on the benefits of outsourced labor and manufacturing for years, only recently
have upstream functions such as product design and development become a major part of the
outsourcing trend. Medical device manufacturers are realizing that they can capitalize on external
engineering expertise to gain several advantages, such as market leading products and reduced
time-to-market, without jeopardizing trade secrets or intellectual property.

There are many factors that must be considered to determine if outsourcing product design
and development is a strategic fit for your company. Outlined below are 10 key benefits that
medical device manufacturers can realize by contracting these functions.

1. Leverage Multidisciplinary Expertise
Two heads are better than one, as the adage goes. This is particularly true for product design
and development, where truly innovative products rely on a multitude of concepts and theories for
differentiation and market leadership. A design team with industry-spanning expertise can apply
the best technology to the product concept. A team of engineers confined to one industry does
not have this pool of knowledge from which to draw, and this can impede finding the best
solutions to complex problems.

There are many cases of breakthrough products that were a result of fresh ideas and cuttingedge
technologies from unrelated disciplines. For example, when doctors were finding it
increasingly difficult to obtain high-resolution internal imaging of their patients due to the growing
obesity epidemic, a defense industry technology provided the solution. To meet the doctors’ need,
a technology based on military sonar mine detection was developed. This enabled imaging devices
to resolve objects at twice the distance of current systems. In addition, the same sonar technology
used by the navy to detect enemy submarines was applied to fetal heart monitoring. Many leading
medical devices were results of technological innovations from an unrelated industry.

2. Quickly and Easily Expand Internal Engineering Capabilities
Some projects require rapid scale-up of manpower for short-term assignments. Hiring fulltime
employees is not economical and adding temporary help is time-consuming and presents
confidentiality risks. Outsourcing, on the other hand, allows you to assign your partner’s full-time
staff to device development projects quickly and cost effectively. The proper amount of the
targeted expertise can be applied at the right time. Companies can therefore avoid paying for
excess labor and engineering costs. The various staff scale-up options are presented in Table 1.

3. Capitalize on Technology Forecasting
Experienced partners have foresight as to what future technologies can play a role in
developing products and how these advancements will impact your business. These firms have the
time and resources to survey the field and look at what is coming down the pike. They also have
networks to rely upon for up-to-date information. Larger engineering firms have the ability to test
emerging technologies in their laboratories, providing an additional benefit to the outsourcing
relationship.

Due to a growing aging population and rising healthcare costs, the need to monitor patients
from their homes has become more urgent. The advancement of wireless technology made
possible the development of cost-effective devices for convenient and efficient patient home care.
Now, patients with low mobility can be diagnosed and treated inexpensively in the comfort of
their own homes.

4. Manage Project Timeline
Many medical device design projects fall victim to mismanaged or unmanaged timelines. With
internal engineering and management resources stretched thin, it is often hard to fully commit
resources to product development projects. Outsourcing partnerships offer an advantage because
the engineering firm not only assumes project time management responsibilities but also assigns
and manages resources. The partners will agree on a program timeline at the start of the
agreement and schedule periodic meetings for status updates. A contract with established
deadlines and deliverables for each party helps to keep projects on track.

G.D. Searle realized this advantage when working with an outsourced partner to develop its
trandsdermal nitroglycerine patch to treat patients with angina. The company’s engineering
partner designed the product and manufacturing process and completed the production facility in
53 weeks. A project timeline was established by the product development firm, detailing project
stages from first sketch through product release along with corresponding timeframes. Scheduled
meetings and deadlines rapidly advanced the project, enabling G.D. Searle to beat competitors to
market.

5. Control Project Costs
Similar to providing project timeline management, external engineering partners can help
medical device companies keep product development costs within budgeted goals. At contract
signing, the project budget is set and resources allocated, with written approval required for any
changes. Reports are developed and delivered on an agreed-upon periodic basis to keep all
parties abreast of current expenditures versus budgeted amounts. As opposed to internal product
development, during which it can be difficult to account for time and resources, outsourcing
relationships provide clear dollar values for each project stage. This will prevent costs from
unknowingly spiraling out of control. An example of a project cost sheet is illustrated in Table 2.

6. Reduce Time-to-Market
End-to-end solutions are another benefit of working with external design teams. Qualified
partners can provide complete guidance from concept development to product development
through equipment design, build and installation. Having one point of contact for all aspects will
lend efficiency to the project. Additionally, experienced firms can apply knowledge of similar
projects and technologies to enhance productivity and overcome technical obstacles that can delay
product introductions.

The design challenges posed by C.R. Bard’s one-hand biopsy tool called for knowledge of
several disciplines. Since a timely release was critical to the product’s success, the firm turned to
an outside engineering team. This third-party applied expertise in medical product design,
materials, and mechanism development to create a proprietary process for a more ergonomic
biopsy tool. This device, operated with one-hand, satisfied C.R. Bard’s objectives, including a
speedy market introduction.

7. Maintain Confidentiality
One of the major misconceptions about outsourcing product design and development is that it
will compromise corporate trade secrets. However, working with a third-party engineering firm
can actually provide stronger protection for a company’s proprietary position than would internal
development. First, outsourcing engineering functions can reduce the threat of an employee
takeover by competitors because engineering partnerships provide anonymity. Competitors will
not be able to track down the engineers responsible for the development of your market leading
medical device if the design was outsourced. In addition, reputable and well-established design
firms sign confidentiality agreements and provide competitive exclusivity to their clients.

Velcro® Group of Companies experienced first-hand the power of confidentiality in its
outsourced engineering relationship. The company worked with a partner who designed the
innovative and proprietary production process for its molded hook and loop fasteners, and
consequently assigned patent rights and competitive exclusivity to Velcro®. When Velcro’s
design firm was approached by a major U.S. diaper manufacturer with a project that conflicted
with its Velcro® partnership, the project was declined by the design firm because it posed a
possible client conflict. However, the engineering firm was able to establish a connection between
Velcro® and this company, leading to a prosperous and profitable business relationship. This
result of this relationship was the development of a truly market-dominating product – a diaper
with Velcro® resealable closures.

8. Create a Proprietary Market Position with Innovative Products
To gain market ownership, companies must develop medical devices that provide an
innovative solution to some unsatisfied need. An experienced partner will be fluent in industry
trends and up-to-date on current happenings and can therefore gauge which niche your company
can effectively fill.

Innovative products are also difficult to replicate, leading to complete and lengthy market
ownership. Medical device manufacturers can get caught up in the modification maze, making
small alterations to existing products and re-launching them. However, these types of projects do
not command price premiums. Relying on external sources for product design and development
brings novel ideas and wide-ranging expertise to the table, leading to innovative products.
Becton Dickinson leveraged the multidisciplinary expertise of an engineering partner to
develop a superior and convenient insulin delivery device that earned a market leading position.

This partner applied insight on ergonomic design, injection molding and materials to the project.
The result was an innovative insulin injector pen, superior due to its ease of use, audible dosage
delivery indication for visually impaired users and low cost.

9. Protect Intellectual Property Rights
Medical device manufacturers can outsource upstream product development functions
without compromising intellectual property by working with partners that agree to assign IP
rights after the program’s completion. This means that the engineering company will either
cooperate in preparing patent applications or will maintain the development process as a trade
secret.

Nova Biomedical lacked a high-volume production capability for its innovative and
proprietary disposable strips. Part of the sub-micro liter glucose monitoring system selfadministered
by diabetics to check blood sugar levels, these unique strips contain a miniaturized
biosensor to convey blood to an electronic reader. Nova Biomedical recognized that an
experienced equipment-engineering firm was needed to design and build customized
manufacturing equipment to fit their unique product requirements. But, involving a third-party
could jeopardize trade secrets. To solve the problem, Nova Biomedical chose an outside design
firm that guaranteed the security of its intellectual property and agreed to assign intellectual
property rights once complete.

Within nine months, two units were designed, built, and installed in the manufacturing facility,
with ownership assumed by Nova Biomedical. Nova Biomedical now possesses the necessary
capacity to meet market demand and maintain its competitive edge.

10. Because the Competition is Outsourcing R&D

Medical device manufacturers are increasingly allocating funds to outsourcing product design
and development functions. This is supported by the growing budget percentages allocated to
R&D. For example, in 2002, the medical industry spent 11.4 percent of its sales on R&D, higher
than any industry except that for drugs and medicine.1 And in 2003, medical companies increased
the R&D portion of their budgets by an average of eight percent.2 Whether their strategy is to
maintain or gain market leadership, an increasing number of medical device companies are
recognizing that outsourcing product design and development is a critical strategic tool.

Answer true or false to the following statements to find out if your product design and
development process can benefit from outsourced engineering.
1. Internal resources are stretched thin.
2. Medical device development projects often run over budget.
3. Product launches are often delayed, costing the company a significant dollar amount due
to lost sales and extended expenses.
4. My company has not released a market-dominating product in several years.
5. My engineering staff’s expertise is concentrated in a few core industries.
6. Our R&D department has several new ideas, but we cannot develop efficient
manufacturing processes.
7. It is difficult to keep up with the competition in terms of new product development.
If any of the above statements hold true for your company, outsourcing product design and
development may be the solution.

About the Author
Robert R. Andrews is medical division manager for the commercial group at Foster-Miller,
Inc., a QinetiQ company. He has more than 25 years of medical device experience managing
product development and operations. He has 11 issued U.S. medical device patents. He received
an MBA from Bryant College and Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in plastics engineering from
The University of Lowell. He can be contacted at (781) 684-4639 or randrews@fostermiller.com.

chris_heiler @ldesigngurl I hear ya. I’ve been outsourcing my bookkeeping to a virtual bk in Canada for about the last 10 months. I’ll never go back…

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ttdotcom Join Matt Makowicz for ‘Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Outsourcing” webinar on Dec16th, 09 at 10am PST. http://ow.ly/M4wv

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