Partner Article

Co-sourcing – think outsourcing with added benefits

The economic downturn led many businesses to cut their workforce, with business process outsourcing proving an attractive solution to getting work done, whilst keeping costs down. As optimism grows over a sustainable economic recovery in the UK, is outsourcing still the best option or is the more structured approach offered by co-sourcing a better choice?

Maxine Park, solicitor and co-founder of leading digital dictation and transcription service provider DictateNow, explains why co-sourcing, with its greater control and guaranteed service levels is a good alternative to outsourcing.

“Lack of control and transparency in business process outsourcing are often cited as the reasons many businesses are reluctant to seek external support, leaving many struggling to adapt their business quickly to fluctuating work levels and the constantly changing business environment.

“Co-sourcing services for example, ensures businesses have the necessary resources to cope with peaks in demand, without recruiting additional overheads to the payroll. This delivers a guaranteed minimum service level, whilst avoiding the need to pay underused resources, when the business experiences a drop in demand.

“Co-sourcing relies on service providers creating dedicated teams within their own organisation to undertake the work for each client, as an extension of the client’s remaining office function, with typically one co-sourced secretary delivering the work of three or four full time employees.

“This results in significant cost savings, with the business paying only for the working time of the team members, not holidays, sick days, office chats and coffee breaks. Also, a co-sourced approach to services could help businesses reduce their headcount further and thereby cut the costs associated with renting office space, particularly in high-rent city centre locations.

“Developing a co-sourcing solution, involves external typists spending time on-site at the client’s offices to ensure each team is familiar with their systems and is trained in the unique working methods and culture of the business. This level of understanding builds a strong relationship that ensures work is undertaken quickly and efficiently, complementing the in-house resources, as if they were all located in the same office.

“A huge range of services are available, including transcription, copy typing, data input and document production along with work in Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Visio and others.

“Many service providers will have built their offering based almost entirely on the outsourcing model, but most businesses require a level of confidentiality, work tracking and control that has helped shape the new co-sourcing solution. Experienced UK-based secretaries working from home, undertake remote typing on the client’s system with restricted access to sensitive information and databases.

“Finally, for those businesses considering the co-sourcing approach, I would recommend they seek support from service providers based in the UK that are ISO 27001:2013 certified and registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). This demonstrates the importance the service provider places on security and confidentiality of the data they are given access to and will ensure there are no compliance issues.”

ENDS

About the author: Maxine Park specialised in commercial litigation and was made partner at her firm in 1992. She launched DictateNow with husband Garry, to offer an enhanced and efficient transcription resource to businesses in a wide range of sectors. Maxine’s experience as a solicitor and home-working parent directly led to the formation of DictateNow which utilises a large pool of home-based typists in the UK, to provide fast, reliable and confidential digital dictation and transcription services.

A well-respected and published author, Maxine has a talent for delivering insightful, detailed and engaging articles covering topics of interest to owners, managers and individuals of businesses and organisations of all sizes across all sectors. She is able to shape articles to ensure they remain relevant to each audience and meet the needs of editors with regard to the originality and length of her articles.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Maxine Park .