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By Maria Solomon

No matter who you ask, the chance is that you are going to get a really strong opinion about the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing. A lot of pundits are against outsourcing because it takes jobs away and moves them overseas, but many business leaders believe that the advantages of outsourcing far outweigh the drawbacks. In reality, however, the situation is a lot more complex than either side proposes. The advantages and risks of outsourcing are both pretty substantial, so before you make a decision, you should weigh each side.

The main drawbacks for a business are that lines of communication and production stretch all across the world. Even in this ultra-wired modern age, this can still be somewhat of a problem. After all, if you can not meet face to face and actually observe the goings on in an office, you really do lose a lot of supervisory power. That means that you need to have good people to start up any new offices. It also means that outsourcing only makes sense for large businesses. The inconveniences and added difficulties don't make sense if you are only opening a small office overseas.

Of course, the advantages of outsourcing are quite substantial. The main advantage is lower cost. Many emerging markets like India, Pakistan, and Russia can offer highly skilled high-tech workers who are willing to work for a fairly low salary by the standards of America or Britain. Other even poorer economies – such as those in Southeast Asia and parts of Africa and South America – can afford ample opportunities for manufacture at a fraction of the prices hiring American workers would cost. All in all, it is a great climate for business.

The Outsourcing market is estimated to grow tremendously in the coming few with an increasing number of companies planning to outsource both low end and high end jobs to offshore destinations. Also the number of companies providing outsourcing services is on the rise, thus resulting in larger variety. Due to the fact that more and more companies are outsourcing, the risks are getting smaller as businesses have more experience and clearer objectives.

In a recent Accenture survey of more than 800 health, manufacturing, retail and travel executives in the US and Europe, 86% said outsourcing gives them more control over business results in a variety of critical areas, the most important being the ability to plan. While cost-cutting is among these key areas, the executives also reported equal levels of control in reliability, cost variability improvements and effective implementation of ideas.

One of the less well known advantages is that it provides a really robust production base for your company. As the world economic situations changes, having assets in place in several different regions can be absolutely invaluable. It means that you can shift your capital where you need it when you need to – something particularly important for large, multinational business ventures.

Finally, one of the biggest advantages of outsourcing is the work ethic present in many parts of the world. There are a lot of places out there where people would love to have jobs that, for Americans, are considered a lousy form of employment. These workers will give you better results than American workers in many cases.

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