The Inovis Blog

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When the topic of outsourcing comes up, a long list of Pros and Cons jump to mind and often overwhelm the discussion.  Although I like to quickly get through these rudimentary level checklists and get to the meat of the who, when, where and why of  outsourcing, I have found that in recent conversations with customers, they are starting to add new things to this worn out Pros and Cons list.

Being the Director of Product Management for the Inovis Outsourcing Product (and an overall positive guy), I think I will stick with the Pros today and hopefully add a fresh look to an old list.

So let’s get the basics out of the way—yes, the well worn faded pros:

-          Lower  TCO

-          An expert workforce that scales as demands change

-          The ability to focus your core resources on new strategic initiatives

And the newest addition to the list:

As I have visited with several new and existing customers over the last few months I have seen an interesting trend.  When I ask the question of why they chose outsourcing, there has been an additional response that I believe says a lot about our customers and how they view B2B and how that differs from where we were just two years ago.

That response is “Competitive Advantage.”  I have found that in a wide range of industries, customers are looking for B2B Outsourcing not just to cut cost and replace retiring EDI resources, but also to give them an advantage in how they are doing business.

B2B Outsourcing is no longer just about “What Maps, Which Maps, and How Many Transactions.”  Although these are important data elements, there is much value to be gained by truly understanding the customer’s business and not just their EDI.

By approaching our customers in a very flexible and consultative way, we are able to identify areas of their business where we can add significant competitive advantage.  This includes streamlining their purchase order process, expediting their invoice process, reducing time to respond to emergency requests, and providing  them with supply chain visibility that enables them to put strong SLA’s on both document and goods delivery, and that is only the beginning.

If we look a little deeper into what they are doing and why they are doing it, we can find much more value to add to their business.  Recent examples include:

-          Automating traditionally manual work flows that are embedded deep within the business

-          Exposing bottle necks in day-to-day operations

-          Reducing the number of support calls and e-mails through visibility tools that provide business critical information to customer and supplier

-           Provide executives with dashboards that reduce the amount of IT Ad/ Hoc Reporting

All of these points and other benefits have contributed to that one shining piece of feedback I am starting to hear more and more.  There is no greater feeling than when customers remark that they are gaining a Competitive Advantage in their industry.

In the end, understanding your customers’ business problems, mapping those to a business solution, and offering the technologies and services to accelerate their business and lower their operational costs can give your customer direct competitive advantage and earn you a customer for life!