Gert Says
a rather irreverent discusssion
Out Sourcing
- Hidden Benefits.
Typically you out source work when you can't do it yourself, either because you don't have the skill or the staff time. Often you are trying out something new or it may be a one time task, thus you use consultants to augment your existing staff. If, however, your consultant is returning on a regular basis then perhaps you should reevaluate the situation. You may still need to out source, but perhaps the relationship should change to provide you with more than just ad hoc staffing.
There are two questions I have my clients ask themselves when establishing a consulting relationship.
Is this a skill I or my staff will need on a regular basis?And is it a new method to perform our standard service for which my existing staff merely requires training or a new service for which I require additional staff?
Some efforts only embellish but do not improve a work effort. While embellishments generate excitement which can carry over to other parts of the effort, they would lose that benefit of being special, if it were a available on regular basis. But if the task truly enriches your communications rather than merely adding bells and whistles, perhaps you should add it to your staff's repertoire.
Sometimes you can use a consultant to evaluate a skill, not only its benefits to your work process but also the cost of incorporating it in time and materials. Even if your contract is based on product and not time & materials, try to learn what their effort entailed to produce the result so that you can evaluate it. Learn the time and equipment required by the consultant. If you view this as a transition time, you should try to learn not only the skills, but the problems and pitfalls which your consultant is experiencing or hopefully avoiding in your work flow. An experienced good consultant not only knows the tools, but also the best way to implement them. What information is needed when and in what format.
Also If it is a valuable tool, do you have to become an expert to use it? One of the marvelous aspects of technology is the ability to rework and reuse a template or prototype in several situations. Perhaps the skill you need is how to edit and tweak, not how to create. For example: I created for a client a PowerPoint slide show with several master slides with image library . The contract also including training in how to edit, add slides , etc. They now maintain the show learning as they go.
In the above situation they have changed the method of delivery from a combination of boards, slides and overhead transparencies to an electronic projected show. The situation which I find more prevalent is that the new skill set is actually a new task for which there is no staff.
For example: Two clients of mine were analyzing the leasing of a RIP printing device. The one felt that they would have much greater quality control and not be bound by the printing bureaus schedule if they could do it in house. The other saw this very same result as a detriment because it would encourage more last minutes changes and schedule slippage. The first group did spend the night at Kinkos when their leased machine jammed up one weekend, thus finding they could still do it at the last moment without leasing the machines, but they eventually became very adept and were able to produce higher quality material more easily and at a cost savings, though not a time savings. Who was right? Neither.
The first client responded to an interest in their staff in developing a skill which became valuable to them, but did not enlarge the staff to perform this new service. As a result the entire staff has turned over and they have had to retrain new staff. The second client dismissed an opportunity to expand their skill set without consideration, but they did acknowledged that not only did their staff not have any interest in this skill set, they also did not have the staff available for the extra work.
How else might it have happened? Both could have done a lease program in house with an operator [consultant] . The clients could have evaluated and learned while at the same time the consultant's effort would have helped to create a demand and prove a need for such a staff position or not.
New skills ( technology and software) are evolving all the time. Use out sourcing contracts to explore, evaluate benefits and learn the cutting edge.
