Shared Service centres… To do or to have it done? Final part.

1st part here, 2nd there and 3rd there.

Additional thoughts from Steven Swift – IDeAs

In my experience, having built and run a document/production outsourcing business, some of the key factors for and against outsourcing are as follows.

Pro

Outsourcing gives access to larger scale facilities, with back-up, which can handle peaks in demand, or unexpected requirements at short notice. If a company wishes to do this internally, they have to invest in excess capacity, to cope with the peak demand, which means that for most of the time, a lot of the capacity (assets + staff) is not used – which is inefficient and expensive.  This can be addressed partially with a shared internal service centre, at least in very large enterprises, although even those sometimes need external back-up.  I have seen this, even in very large global enterprises, where short term requirements may exceed capacity which is available locally.

Con

For some organisations, especially those handling sensitive information (e.g. Financial Services, Law Firms, Government), security and compliance can be big concerns with outsourcing. How can they ensure that confidentiality of information is maintained when it is handled by people outside the organisation, and even if it is, how can they demonstrate that they comply with security/data protection protocols? However, the most professional outsourcing firms are very familiar with this issue, and have developed procedures and protocols to provide guarantees and assurances with regard to security.