ACCA P3 考试知识点：Common outsourcing applications

　　ACCA P3 考试：Common outsourcing applications

　　外包是指企业动态地配置自身和其他企业的功能和服务，并利用企业外部的资源为企业内部的生产和经营服务。 外包是一个战略管理模型，所谓外包（Outsourcing），在讲究专业分工的二十世纪末，企业为维持组织竞争核心能力，且因组织人力不足的困境，可将组织的非核心业务委托给外部的专业公司，以降低营运成本，提高品质，集中人力资源，提高顾客满意度。外包业是新近兴起的一个行业，它给企业带来了新的活力。

　　Common outsourcing applications

　　1. It allows the organisation to focus on its core, value-adding activities without the distraction of having to run support services. Support services can soak up both management time and financial resources and these would usually be better spent concentrating on where the business can use its resources and competences to gain competitive advantages.

　　2. Cost savings. Usually the organisations to which activities are outsourced specialise in those activities and, therefore, are likely to enjoy economies of scale, whether from the use of machinery or the employment of expertise. There can be additional cost savings if a process is outsourced to a foreign company operating in a cheaper labour area （off-shoring）。

　　3. Cost certainty. An outsourcing contract at a fixed, or closely defined price, shifts much of the financial risk on to the provider. Costs become more predictable.

　　4. Cost restructuring. For some types of outsourcing such as component manufacturing, there will be lower fixed costs and higher variable costs. If all components are bought in, then these costs are all variable. Had the components been made in-house, there would inevitably have been associated substantial fixed overheads.

　　5. Access to cutting edge expertise and talent. In technically advanced, fast moving industries, it can be difficult for small companies to develop or make use of new processes. Outsourcing to a specialist company can give access to the latest technologies.

　　6. Better quality. There can be an immediate improvement in quality if a process is outsourced to a world-class company where the quality is carefully defined in a service level agreement.

　　7. Risk transference. If a company perceives that one of its processes has high risks, then this can be transferred by outsourcing to another company.

　　8. Capacity management. For example, it can be difficult for businesses to deal with variable demand： either they run out of capacity （unhappy customers）, or have （expensive） unused capacity. Outsourcing to a large company can mitigate this problem.