Among the many management concepts and methods that have arrived in Poland since 1990 (e.g., Business Process Reengineering, Benchmarking, Lean Management, Total Quality Management, JIT, and many others), outsourcing is a management concept that is finding an increasingly wide circle of supporters among the management staff of Polish enterprises.
In practice, the essence of outsourcing is the transfer of part or all of one’s own tasks, functions, or processes to be carried out by an external contractor (outsourcer). The premise for taking actions aimed at analyzing the potential use of outsourcing in an enterprise’s operations is to ask the following questions:
The answers to these questions form the basis for taking actions aimed at an in-depth analysis of the arguments for outsourcing or retaining the functions or processes analyzed for outsourcing within the enterprise.
The decision to outsource is a strategic decision for the entire enterprise and should align with the strategy, goals, and individual tasks carried out by the enterprise. Such a decision requires a systemic approach to analyzing the arguments for and against outsourcing, which involves considering the impact of outsourcing on the entire enterprise as an integrated system. Therefore, the decision to transfer functions or processes externally should be made at the management board level, taking into account potential benefits and losses for all areas of the enterprise’s operations.
Making an outsourcing decision at a lower level may be rational at a tactical or operational level, but it may be irrational from the point of view of the enterprise as a complex system.
The decision to outsource part or all of one’s own functions or processes is usually preceded by an analysis of a complex of issues related to, among others:
The most common concerns from the management boards of enterprises considering outsourcing are related to the following issues:
Despite these concerns, outsourcing has found its permanent place among the management concepts and methods used in Polish enterprises.
The advantages of outsourcing are related to the possibility of improving the quality of the enterprise’s operations, reducing costs, and the ability to react faster and more flexibly to changes occurring in the market. One of the basic conditions for achieving maximum benefits from outsourcing is treating the external contractor on a partnership basis, where both parties treat each other as partners striving to maximize mutual benefits. This requires building lasting relationships based on trust and long-term mutual benefits.
A strategic alliance between the enterprise using outsourcing and the external contractor is a manifestation of the highest degree of integration between enterprises. For an enterprise to have a full picture of the current benefits resulting from outsourcing, a continuous and regular analysis of the realized benefits as well as monitoring and evaluation of the external contractor is necessary. This results, among other things, from the fact that the decision to outsource, made in the past, was based on information that may currently be outdated. In the event that it is determined that the service provided by the contractor does not meet expectations, the enterprise should immediately take corrective and remedial actions.
The article comes from the magazine “Logistyka” No. 3/2006.