Architecture has and will always be a critical aspect of society. Technology has gone past the point where work can be done from offshore locations as more complex processes and tasks can be done remotely. This can include design, planning, and project management. Outsourcing architectural services has become increasingly popular, with it becoming a norm with bigger companies as it helps them streamline their processes and reduce costs.
With the growing number of business process outsourcing (BPO) companies, small to mid-sized companies are now able to avail of the same resources as the giant companies that dominate their respective industries. It is important to note that while large companies use the service to solve numerous issues or challenges they have, there are also drawbacks to outsourcing architectural services, and it’s up to you to decide whether the pros outweigh the cons.
Benefits Of Outsourcing Architectural Services
- Cost savings: As stated before with bigger companies, cost-savings is a major factor in choosing to outsource tasks, as it eliminates the need to hire and train in-house. It also means lower overhead costs, as the expenses of outsourcing in other countries is lower than hiring locally, especially for backend tasks.
- Wider access to skilled professionals: Outsourcing architectural services means having instant access to a wider pool of talent. This pool of candidates will include people who have experience in a wide range of tasks and would have worked for clients in other parts of the world, meaning they have country-specific insights. This may bring higher-quality work and improved efficiency when trained to your specific processes.
- Increased efficiency: Your in-house team will have more time to focus on more critical tasks when you outsource your backend work. With the ability to hire people who are familiar with the tools you use or the ability to be trained easily, you can have a whole team dedicated to finishing processes that don’t directly impact your bottom line.
- Retention: In many cases, holding onto drafters for more than a year may be an issue with how competitive the salaries are, outsourcing drafting work overseas helps remove this problem. Hiring in locations such as the Philippines means hiring long-term employees who you can see grow with your company.
- Flexibility: You’re able to quickly adjust staffing needs based on your demands. This makes project management easier due to the quick and customizable nature of outsourcing. Hiring staff with a business process outsourcing (BPO) company gives the added benefit of relieving you of the legal liabilities of hiring staff as they take on that responsibility.
- Quality control: While it may seem that outsourcing your processes to a different country may lessen your control over work processes, you actually gain more quality control. BPOshave dedicated account managers look after your staff and give you regular updates. In addition, with all the competition in the BPO industry, the service level is generally high in order for BPOs to keep their clients.
Drawbacks Of Outsourcing Architecture Services
- Lack of immediate control: It is true that you give up some control over your outsourced projects. Depending on the shift you have your staff working, it may be relayed to them later when compared to in-house staff. Any challenges in communicating project requirements may impact the final product. Especially when time is critical to complete a task.
- Communication issues: Communication may be an issue in some cases. Being in a different timezone or country has the potential to cause confusion, specifically with due dates. This is usually remedied by sticking to the timezone of the host country.
- Cultural differences: Understanding the differences in working styles, communication, and project management of the country you outsource to may be a challenge depending on how different it is from your own culture. Many if not all BPOs have training specific for this as it’s one of the keys to successfully outsourcing to other countries.
- Intellectual property issues: Outsourcing architectural services such as drafting or design brings up the question of IP issues and ownership. It is important to address this as early on as the negotiation stage when outsourcing. In a BPO setting, this is less of an issue as the staff act as a part of your company and generally want to grow with your company, meaning there is little to no issues with IP when going that route.
The Wrap Up
Outsourcing architecture services brings both pros and cons with it. Weighing the good and the bad in relation to your company and its needs is important. Factors such as the size of your business, size and number of projects, current skill level of in-house staff, and future business goals will all affect your decision. In many cases, a majority of drawbacks related to outsourcing can be solved with proper communication, but it will be up to you to determine if this is the best option for you and the future of your business.