Already 72 percent of all small and medium-sized entities (SME) have outsourced part of their business units to external service providers. Another 33 percent are planning to engange in outsourcing with 57 percent of them considering cost cuts as the biggest advantage, 52 percent the focussing on the core business and 45 percent see the downsizing of their overall organizational structures as the main advantage. The biggest potential for economizing is to be found in the field of IT services. This is the conclusion drawn by the management consultancy Kienbaum from a survey called “Outsourcing im Mittelstand”.
Interesting, however, are also two other findings of the survey. Firstly, when choosing a service provider personal contacts are of maximum importance (28 percent), followed by personal recommendations (26 Prozent). Less personal approaches such as the search via internet or associations are chosen by less than half as many companies. Secondly, it is therefore not surprising that the decisive criterion for the choice of a service provider is confidence (76 percent). Prices and scope of services for 70 percent of the companies surveyed determine who will be awarded the contract.
Conclusion to be drawn by service providers: personal networking and reliability are indeed more important than dumping prices and the need of being present in the internet and data bases. 