Hidden Benefits of Outsourcing

When most organizations consider outsourcing, Mike Smith of SourceCorp says the most obvious benefits come to mind:

... Cost containment through labor savings
... Increased accountability
... Leveraging the provider's extensive investment in technology, methodologies and people
... Reassignment and better management of in-house labor

Smith says more savvy organizations recognize that there are a myriad of less obvious, but just as vital, benefits, including:

... Reduction of overall management burden
... Access to specialized skills and industry best practices
... Improved credibility and images by associating with superior providers
... Increased flexibility to meet changing business requirements
... Improved internal management
... Increased security

"Given the capabilities present in today's marketplace, major outsourcing firms offer extremely high levels of security that oftentimes outperform those of the organizations seeking to engage their services," Smith says, adding that usually security is a perceived risk to outsourcing, but is not in actuality.

What do you think? Post your comments below.

Data Capture Drives Marketing

By Mark Brousseau

Desperate to build stronger, longer lasting relationships with their customers, companies are turning to one-to-one marketing, a customer relationship management (CRM) strategy that emphasizes personalized interactions with customers over mass marketing. And automated data capture can play a key role in ensuring the success of one-to-one marketing initiatives, says Bill Welling, an account director for CDS Global (bwelling@cds-global.com).

While the term itself is fairly new, Welling said one-to-one marketing is really a throwback to the days of the neighborhood store, where the owner made it a point to know your name, your likes and dislikes, your shopping habits and a few other things that made the relationship special, lasting and, yes, profitable. Welling said that as people’s lives become increasingly busy, the cookie cutter, ‘one size fits all’ sales model has quickly become outdated and ineffective.”

“What we are talking about here is Relationships 101,” Welling said. “And data capture helps organizations get at valuable customer information faster and cheaper. Using data capture, a company can know the return address on a customer’s check, who signs the checks – meaning, who likely makes the buying decisions – and the customer’s buying habits.” This type of information can then be used to tailor product offers to customers, he said.

“Data capture is a fact-finding tool that helps ensure that companies are providing the best customer service, in terms of the products they offer,” Welling said. “By capturing key data from customer remittances, companies can position themselves in the best possible light.” And with the move to one-to-one marketing, Welling said this is critical, as companies will increasingly focus on the quality of customer data, rather than the quantity of it.

How is data capture driving your marketing?

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