5 things to remember when producing your outsourcing strategy

Your outsourcing strategy is a crucial component of the outsourcing process. If you don’t create a strategy before working with an outsourcing business, you could face problems down the line. In this blog, we’ll tell you how to create an effective outsourcing strategy for your business.

What is outsourcing?

Outsourcing is when a business hires a third-party company to handle their business processes, functions or services for them. This is usually to reduce costs, increase efficiency or because the business doesn’t have the resources to handle it in-house.

For example, here at Hudson Outsourcing, we help businesses grow through different means, such as tendering for work. We’ll help you find relevant opportunities through our Hudson Discover portals. We’ll also craft tender responses on your behalf through our bid writing consultancy, Hudson Succeed.

Why do you need an outsourcing strategy?

You might be thinking, why is it important for your business to develop an outsourcing strategy?

Outsourcing work without developing a strategy could lead to problems for your business. If you jump in without a plan, you might struggle to overcome any issues or setbacks. This could include delays, missed deadlines or communication problems.

On the other hand, an outsourcing strategy will ensure you’re prepared to face and overcome any problems that might arise.

Here are 5 things to remember when producing an outsourcing strategy

1. Develop your objectives

The first part of your outsourcing strategy should be to develop your objectives. What do you want to achieve by outsourcing this particular process, service or function?

It’s important that you do this first, otherwise you’ll be unable to communicate your objectives to the outsourcing company.

2. Assess the risks

Once you’ve developed your objectives, you need to assess the risks involved, for your own business and the third party. Assessing any potential risks at an early stage will enable you to mitigate them early. So, you’ll have a better working relationship and a smoother experience.

3. Plan for internal change

As part of your outsourcing strategy, you should plan for any internal change that might occur. For example, if your in-house team is used to producing content for your website, outsourcing will give them more time. What will they do with that time? How can that time be spent on other aspects of improving and growing your business? You should plan for this change and decide how you can use this time to your advantage.

4. Find an outsourcing business

It goes without saying, but as part of your outsourcing strategy, you need to actually find an outsourcing business. Before you start searching for potential companies, you should decide on the qualities that you’re looking for. This will help you to filter through potential outsourcing businesses to find the right fit for you.

Once you’ve outlined your requirements, you can start to look for a business to work with. To find the right one, you should look through client testimonials and customer reviews. What do their previous clients have to say about them? Doing this will help you to determine the quality of their work before you make a decision.

Many companies will have a success rate and you should consider this in your decision-making process. For example, our success rate at Hudson Outsourcing is 87%.

5. Monitor the progress

Your outsourcing strategy should encompass every stage of the outsourcing process, even when the work has actually started. So, once the work has started, you should continue to monitor the outsourcing company’s progress.

This is particularly important at the beginning. If you work to overcome any issues at the beginning of the partnership, you have time to fix them. This will lead to a smoother experience while the rest of the work is being completed.

In summary

When you outsource work to a third party, it’s important to develop an outsourcing strategy. This will help you to outline your objectives and manage your expectations throughout the outsourcing process.

For the first part of your strategy, you need to determine your objectives. What do you want to achieve and what work needs to be outsourced? This is an important first step, as it will help you produce the rest of your outsourcing strategy.

You also need to assess the risks involved in outsourcing and think of ways that these could be mitigated. As part of this process, you should plan for any internal changes that might occur as a result of outsourcing.

One of the most important aspects of your outsourcing strategy should be to actually find an outsourcing business. To do this, look through client testimonials, customer reviews and their success rates.

Finally, you need to monitor the outsourcing company’s outputs as the work progresses. If they’re not meeting your expectations, this gives you the opportunity to make changes.

How can Hudson Outsourcing help?

So, you know how to create an outsourcing strategy for your business, but what’s next?

At Hudson Outsourcing, we’re dedicated to helping your business grow. If you’re looking to outsource a business function, process or service, we can help!

Need help searching for bids?

You may be wondering where you can find new contracts for your business. There’s no shortage of websites offering multi-sector tendering opportunities and leads. Ideally, you should be searching for a sector-specific site that posts all unique, public and private sector opportunities.

At Hudson Discover, we house 11 sector-specific RFP-tracking portals.  One centralised and easy-to-navigate portal can help you save time, streamlining the process.

These consist of:

• Creative RFPs & Bids
• Healthcare RFPs & Bids
• Facilities RFPs & Bids
• Construction RFPs & Bids
• Technology RFPs & Bids
• Logistics RFPs & Bids
• Research RFPs & Bids
• Consultancy RFPs & Bids
• HR RFPs & Bids
• Finance RFPs & Bids
• Hospitality RFPs & Bids

Once signed up, you’ll have access to your own dedicated Account Manager. They’ll be able to answer any questions you may have about public sector contracts. You’ll also get an email alert when new and relevant tenders are uploaded to your sector.

A subscription to one of our industry-specific portals will include:

• Unlimited portal access. You can browse your industry’s portal to your heart’s content. See the hundreds of opportunities that are available, intuitively categorized and easily accessible.
• A daily email bulletin. When you sign up to a portal, you can choose the specific areas in which you’d like to tender. Then, a daily bulletin is created for you. It includes all the relevant opportunities that have been posted to the portal that day, straight to your inbox.
• A dedicated Account Manager. They’ll handle any questions or queries you may have about the portal.
• A free 20-minutes phone consultation with a Bid Writer. Our expert bid consultants will chat with you for 20-minutes about anything RFP related.

What opportunities can I expect from a bid search on one of the above portals?

We host all kinds of tenders in both the public and private sectors. These are inclusive of, but aren’t limited to:

• Open RFPs
• Restricted procedures
• Competitive dialogs
• Negotiated bidding procedures
• Innovation partnerships
• Single supplier contracts
• Framework agreements
• Dynamic Purchasing Systems

Hudson Succeed

Now you know how to accurately perform a tender search, you may be wondering how to write a bid. Well, luckily for you, our sister company, Hudson Succeed, are experts in bid writing.

They have over 60 years of bid writing experience and an 87% success rate. Whether you’re completely new to bidding or aren’t seeing results – they can help. There are four bid writing packages available:

• RFP Writing

Once you’ve found a tender you’d like to go for, send it over to us. One of our Bid Writers will write the tender response for you. They’ll provide a full Tender Writing breakdown and even submit it on your behalf.

• RFP Mentor

RFP Mentor can give your bid response a once over before you submit. The Bid Writing Team will analyse your response, notifying you of any errors prior to submission.

• RFP Ready

A 4-week program for those who have never tendered before. The program will develop your branded corporate literature and case studies. Our team will advise you on what bidding opportunities you should go for and guide you through your bidding response.

• RFP Improvement

The RFP Improvement package can help those who have bid before but aren’t seeing results. Our Bid Writers will assess your previous responses and work with you to develop improved content.

Get in touch to find out how we can help your business grow.

Vocal

Our support doesn’t end there! Our creative content agency, Vocal, are on hand to help.

The Vocal Team are not afraid to stand up and be heard. And we make sure our clients aren’t either! From small, micro businesses to large organizations, we are vocal about the things that make your business unique.

Our creative service is dedicated to growing your business through striking and thought-provoking content. Our team specialize in six areas, including:

• Copywriting
• Marketing
• Branding
• Websites
• Design
• Illustration.

If you’d like to know more about what we can do for your business, introduce yourself to the team!

Contact us today to find out more.

Find more helpful tips and advice in our blogs. We cover topics including:

• The outsourcing process
• Advantages to outsourcing work
• How to find the best tender websites
• Bidding on government contacts in the UK
• United Kingdom tenders
• Blue light tenders
• Public procurement in the UK
• Government tenders
• Public contracts in England
• e-Tender websites
• And many more.