Outsourcing: The Criticisms against It and Its Fight Back
Outsourcing has been a very helpful tool in many businesses as well as to the economy and to a lot of people. But not all appreciate the role this industry is playing. There have been criticisms being in thrown to it. Some of these are its quality of service, its effects on other works, labor and economy and the question of security.
Some critics say that since “outsourced” workers are not paid employees of the company, there is lesser incentive for them to show loyalty and work ethics. Also, it has been argued that quality levels of customer service and technical support of outsourced jobs are lower than where they have remained ‘in-house’.
In terms of security, there are also security issues concerning companies giving outside access to sensitive customer information. There has been a case reported in April of 2005 involving the theft of $350,000 from four Citibank customers that occurred when Indian call center workers in Pune, India, acquired the passwords to customer accounts and moved the money to their own accounts opened under assumed names. Citibank did not find out about the problem until the American customers noticed discrepancies with their accounts and notified the bank.
But basically, there are answers to these criticisms. Here’s what others have to say contrary to the criticisms being tossed to outsourcing.
Talking about quality of service, some believe that the decision to outsource is like any other business investment decision in that there is risk. It is like the decision to expand a business overseas, to encompass computer technology, or to hire new workers. If the company does it correctly, it benefits from higher profits. It is just a matter failing and succeeding. The important thing is you give your best to obtain what you want to get.
When it comes to security, advocates of outsourcing also claim that outsourcing-related fraud is insignificant, asserting that such malpractices can take place in any country. For example, 40 million credit card numbers were stolen in June 2005 at CardSystems Solutions in Tucson