What Is Rightsourcing in IT?

The Origins of Rightsourcing 

Rightsourcing began as outsourcing, a way for companies to meet client demands. This allowed companies to fulfill work contracts without expanding their internal staff. A corporation could contract quality work for its clients and expand its reach.

Rightsourcing relies on sound decision-making for the right source for each task, considering both on-staff and outsourced assets for the best results.

Comparing Rightsourcing, Insourcing, and Outsourcing 

Handling a task in-house or hiring a contractor? Rightsourcing is the act of both insourcing and outsourcing in your business. Here, we’ll examine what each means and explore the pros and cons of each.

Insourcing 

Insourcing is when a business uses its own staff and internal resources to do a job it once outsourced. Doing so can ensure a higher quality product and cost-effectiveness. But, you might need to expand your staff and resources and devote more time to project management.

Outsourcing 

Outsourcing is when a business leverages goods or services from a third party rather than using its own internal sources. It can reduce labor costs, provide a broader talent pool, and boost efficiency. But, you surrender some control and are subject to unexpected expenses and security risks. 

Rightsourcing  

What is the most efficient way to provide a good or service — with your staff or through a contractor? You can decrease operational and recruitment costs and access experts outside your organization by rightsourcing. But no single provider is fit for every task, and if you choose the wrong one, you risk damage to your enterprise’s reputation.

The Benefits of Rightsourcing

Rightsourcing gives you excellent options for cost, expedience, manageability, quality, and more. Companies can expand their search for top-notch talent. Doing so can revolutionize a business in ways it couldn’t if using only in-house resources.

Efficiency in Operations   

Moving complementary work to external specialists frees up staff for other tasks. With the right contractors, this delegation of duties should raise productivity. Some of the world’s most successful corporations have grown in part because of rightsourcing.

Cost Reduction and Risk Management 

You can control costs with a blend of insourcing and outsourcing. Quality standards and operational risk assessments are yours for all projects, and the benefit hinges on making sound choices for those you depend on to deliver on your behalf.

Fostering Innovation and Diversity  

No need to hire experts in all fields, especially when budgets are tight. Calling professionals outside your organization can sustain creativity within. It can produce a variety of ideas from sources you don’t have on staff.

Flexibility and Scalability

Since rightsourcing is all about effectively aligning resources to meet an organization’s needs, it’s inherently a flexible and scalable option. You’re able to quickly adapt if needs change or if customer demand skyrockets.

Access to Specialized Skills

Rightsourcing offers easy access to professionals with specialized sets of skills that your business may need. If you’re running a smaller business, you likely don’t have the funds to have a specialist on staff 24/7 – but you can rightsource one when they’re needed.

Enhanced Focus on Core Competencies

When you source out non-core functions to others, in-house employees will have more time to focus on their core competencies. Meanwhile, the skilled rightsource professionals you’ve hired are efficiently completing the other tasks so that productivity remains on track.

The Rightsourcing Process

Dedicating your company to rightsourcing is only the first step. Putting it into action the right way is the difference between success and failure. Here are steps to consider, and ways Techmate can help as it relates to IT rightsourcing.

   1. Evaluate Business Functions and Processes

What are your core competencies? Rightsourcing must be strategic, and consider several factors, including:

• Benefits
• Cost
• Risk

Having a trusted source for outsourcing, like Techmate if you need IT support, helps reduce the worry of hiring the wrong personnel for critical jobs.

   2. Determine the Best Staffing Strategy 

Choosing whether or not to outsource is a critical step that requires a tactical approach. How do you manage tasks and collaboration among staff and contractors? For companies looking to augment their IT staff specifically, Techmate employs a team of experts with a variety of specialties to support where you need it most.

   3. Implement Rightsourcing Solutions 

When you execute as a rightsourcing enterprise, you can prevent burnout on your team. Assigning tasks to those best aligned for them helps with staff retention and reduces the cost of attrition. 

Factors to Consider When Rightsourcing

Before jumping into rightsourcing, make sure your organization considers all the factors. You want to ensure this will be the best method for you and your employees, as well as align with the organization’s goals.

Cost Analysis

Rightsourcing will be an added cost. You’ll be paying contracted employees an agreed-upon hourly rate, so perform a cost analysis to see whether your business can afford this option. 

Quality of Service

How will you measure the quality of service provided by rightsourced employees? Your business reputation rides on the quality of your service or product delivery and you need to ensure external partners can meet the quality standards your organization sets. If the project may impact customer satisfaction, implement a system to monitor customer feedback to keep an eye on overall brand sentiment.

Security Implications

Remember, these workers will have some or full access to your network. You’ll need to train them on your security protocols, as with any internal employee. A trusted third party can source and vet rightsourced employees.

Legal and Compliance Issues

Rightsourcing can come with some legal and compliance issues that you’ll need to prepare for. For example, labor laws are different around the world and you’ll need to comply with those. You’ll also need network security in place to keep your customer data secure for compliance with data regulations. 

Cultural and Time Zone Differences

Labor laws aren’t the only difference around the world. You may hire an employee in India, and their work day may result in communications being sent at 2:00 AM your time. That’s something you’ll need to prepare for and communicate standards on. Also be aware of cultural or regional differences that may impact working schedules; for example, some religions don’t allow people to work on certain days.

Rightsourcing Strategies 

Rightsourcing is easier in manufacturing and general services. Work often requires skill sets that are easily trained and scaled out. It’s a big challenge in IT, which relies on highly skilled workers.

Rightsourcing in the IT Industry 

IT is the most complex department within a firm. Agility matters, and not having the right personnel on a project can have deep implications. From information governance to system management, outsourced IT experts are essential to companies. 

Rightsourcing and outsourcing allow agile IT departments to fill critical roles and responsibilities. They can do this regardless of location and team size. And, it gives them the ability to scale as needed.

Through outsourcing, companies can complete projects five times faster. It can be less expensive in the long run vs. fees accrued from missing compliance deadlines.

Challenges in Rightsourcing 

With benefits come risks in rightsourcing. A standard of procedure and expectations are critical, as are agreement provisions. Transparency among your ranks, when possible, also helps.

Rightsourcing requires continual reassessment. Circumstances can shift, and market conditions could necessitate other changes, too.

If an outsource entity fails to produce, you’ll need a plan to bring those tasks back in-house. If tasks prove too challenging for staff, can you turn to other resources?

Misalignment of Objectives

Rightsourced employees aren’t with your company and your employees all the time – they may not clearly understand the goals and objectives of a project unless it’s communicated to them clearly. If their objectives don’t align with yours, they may submit work below the standard or off the course of ongoing internal standards.

Communication Barriers

If English is not everyone’s first language or if time zone differences impact communication, team cohesion can face difficulties at times with rightsourced employees. Plan for this so you and your full-time employees know what teamwork barriers may be in place and what to expect from working with rightsourced employees. An app like Slack, which allows you to mute chat notifications on a schedule, can be an effective – and considerate – ongoing communication channel.

Managing Multiple Vendors

Working with multiple vendors can get overwhelming when you’re trying to juggle a project, your employees and rightsourced workers. Finding just one vendor that can provide all multiple needs can help simplify the process on your end. 

Ensuring Data Security

You’ll need to establish protocols for keeping your company data safe and secure. Train your rightsourced employees and consider only giving them access to certain folders if they’re working for you on a limited basis. Talk with your full-time IT staff about the best protocols to set up for your rightsourced team members.

The Future of Rightsourcing 

A hybrid and more widespread workforce has affected business agility for years. For every industry and company, rightsourcing is a promising tool for growth. Entities in all sectors search for creative ways to expand their reach.

Non-employee workers can add to services rendered and handle essential tasks with expertise.

When implemented with data-driven analytics, rightsourcing can make a huge impact. This is especially true in intricate and developing industries like professional services and related sectors. For instance, Techmate can provide a variety of support, with experts at the top of their professions.

Get Help with Your Company’s Rightsourcing

Techmate works with mid-market and enterprise regional, national and international firms to augment on-site IT teams with rightsourced technicians. Unleash your growth potential with support from technicians trained with best-in-class expertise. 

Schedule a call with our team to see how Techmate can boost your business and support your rightsourcing efforts today.