Outsourcing is equivalent to subcontracting.
Outsourcing is an English term widely used in the Spanish language, but it is not part of the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) . Its equivalent word is subcontracting , the contract that one company makes to another so that it can carry out certain tasks that were originally in the hands of the first.
Outsourcing, in other words, consists of mobilizing resources to an external company through a contract . In this way, the subcontracted company carries out activities on behalf of the first one. For example: a firm that offers Internet access services can subcontract another to perform the installations. The main company has the necessary network infrastructure and the staff to sell the service; The second, on the other hand, is limited to reaching the user's home to carry out the relevant installation. It should be noted that for the end client there is no difference between the contracting company and the subcontracted one.
Offshore outsourcing
We speak of offshore outsourcing when the transfer of resources is carried out to other countries, either with the participation of foreign companies or with the installation of a headquarters in the foreign nation.
Examples of this type of outsourcing usually occur in the field of computing , when American or European companies outsource certain services (such as web design or programming) to Latin American or Asian companies. The exchange rate makes outsourcing companies cheap for the hiring company, allowing it to save costs (sourcing abroad is a more profitable option than hiring in your own country).
Outsourcing is common in the software industry.
Criticisms and disadvantages
Criticism of outsourcing refers to the job insecurity of subcontractors and the destruction of quality jobs in the national economy of the contracting company. Although it is never correct to generalize, these and other negative phenomena usually take place when one company decides to delegate part of its responsibilities to another.
One of the possible disadvantages of this business practice is that the quality of the final product is put at risk, due to the lack of communication between the different headquarters ; In addition, there are potential misunderstandings that often occur between people of different nationalities. On the other hand, the various work methodologies can impact the results, whether they generate delays or directly impact the product .
Outsourcing problems
These problems are evident, for example, when a software development company hires another, abroad, to review and correct its programs. First of all, it is important to point out that there are infinite ways to structure a source code, just as each person uses the languages they speak according to their needs and tastes, using or not using fillers, altering the pronunciation of certain sounds, etc.
Already within the same country , the same city, a group of fifty people put to work on a computer development project generates a product with great cultural richness, although at first glance the code seems indivisible; the presence or absence of annotations (called "comments"), the nomenclature of the variables (which should follow the company's rules, but this is not always the case) and the efficiency of each part of the program are some of the points that vary from time to time. employee to employee.
When this code travels thousands of kilometers and falls into the hands of other people, with another culture , who speak another language and, perhaps, do not understand the original comments, it is to be expected that the result of their work will not be exactly what the company expected. primary, unless constant monitoring is carried out and support is offered at all times .