Outsourcing can offer greater budget flexibility and control. Outsourcing allows organisations to pay for the services and business functions they need, when they need them. It also reduces the need to hire and train specialised staff, brings in fresh engineering expertise, and can reduce capital and operating expenses and risk. “Do what you do best and outsource the rest” has become an internationally recognised business tagline first “coined and developed”. Companies primarily outsource to reduce certain costs — such as peripheral or “non-core” business expenses, high taxes, high energy costs, excessive government regulation/mandates, production and/or labour costs. Before outsourcing, an organisation is responsible for the actions of their entire staff, sometimes a substantial liability. When these same people are transferred to an outsource service provider, they may not even change desks; their legal status changes. They are no longer directly employed by (and responsible to) the organisation. This creates legal, security and compliance issues that are often addressed through the contract between the client and the suppliers. This is one of the most complex areas of outsourcing and sometimes involves a specialist third-party adviser.
