Acclaim for Outsourcing as a Worldwide Trend

The corporate world has always needed translations to communicate with international markets, but the great diversity of languages and technical areas means it is unfeasible to create an efficient in-house department for the purpose of translating into different languages. It was out of this need that the translation market - now known as the Multilingual Services Industry in Europe and the United States - emerged.

The way this industry emerged suggests that the translation market could be considered a pioneer and an influence in the practice of outsourcing services, even before this concept was defined and the business model consolidated as a worldwide trend.

Studies by the Gartner Institute demonstrate that the idea of verticalization that dictated: "The less we depend on outsourced services the better" is now outdated, and has given way to another premise: sharing responsibility for the different phases of an operation among various suppliers. Outsourcing is a way of making a company more efficient, lean and flexible.

The American consultancy firm forecast that spending on outsourcing in Latin America would total 6% in 2009. Globally, this estimate was 4.3%. In Brazil, the area of Information Technology was expected to achieve rates of expansion of between 10% and 12%, to name just one of the activities now being outsourced. In 2010, of course, these figures will be even higher.

With globalization emphasizing the need for modernization, large organizations have begun to feel the benefits of outsourcing, freeing them to focus instead on their core businesses, thereby changing their business model. Initially aimed only at reducing costs, outsourcing has gained status and is now regarded as strategically vital for improving competitiveness and productivity.

In this new reality, transferring activities to external collaborators has brought innumerable benefits, encouraging different areas of companies to start using outsourcing. Operation of the technology infrastructure and the area of technical support are examples of this practice. Considering the ongoing technological advances, having a service provider that understands and has experience of the changes in this industry like no one else will certainly lead to competitive advantages.

Service providers, having to meet quality requirements and price parameters, have realized that the functions outside their core businesses can be delegated to other suppliers. It was this view that led to outsourcing of outsourcing, known as quarteirização (fourth party services) in Brazil.

In practice, outsourcing should replace bureaucratic and repetitive tasks, providing organizations with more availability to deal with business strategies.