SMB Outsourcing Trends For 2013

One of the most important SMB trends of recent years has to do with the way IT and other services are outsourced. Outsourcing itself has become a given in most industries, as companies seek to streamline their budgets and get the best possible value from every service provider.

For small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs), it makes much more sense to outsource tasks such as IT, often to other countries. For technical services in particular, language isn’t a major issue, so all that matters is finding someone who can get the job done properly at the lowest possible cost. Recent SMB trends, however, have seen a shift from relying on single source solutions to a more multi-faceted approach.

On the surface, it might seem simpler and more efficient for a company to get all its IT needs supplied by one outsourcer. There are, however, good reasons why SMB trends are moving in another direction. A company can often save even more money and get better results by laser targeting the ideal outsourcer for each task.

So, rather than hire one firm for all its IT needs, it might hire three or four for different specialized tasks. In many cases, the all-in-one approach is not as ideal as it seems. Most companies are better at some tasks than others. Prices also vary from one type of job to another. That’s why savvy SMBs are learning to identify the best candidate for each particular job.

The way it looks right now, outsourcing will become ever more specialized. While there are still ‘one stop’ outsourcing solutions that can be effective, there is definitely a movement towards multilevel outsourcing where each part of the job is handled separately. SMB trends, of course, are always changing, so we will have to wait and see what happens for the rest of 2013 and beyond.