Recently "Call Centers" have mushroomed in countries like India, China, and Philippines due to the outsourcing by many Western countries

What are the benefits and disadvantages to this method to the company that is outsourcing? What factors should be taken into account when deciding to outsource?

Outsourcing refers to shifting production jobs or work assignments to another company in order to cut costs. When the outsourced work moves to another country it becomes "global outsourcing" or "offshoring." Due to intense competition in the marketplace, more and more companies are under pressure to lower costs. One way to do this is to locate manufacturing or consumer relation activities in China, India, Philippines, or other low-wage countries. In theory, this situation bestows great flexibility on companies and in reality, the consumer is unaware of the country where a product is manufactured or service is delivered. However, in the case of call centers, consumers get in direct contact with the service provider or its representative. Call centers also perform outbound services such as telemarketing. A variety of tasks such as airline reservation, completing tax returns, reading medical charts, and drawing up manufacturing blueprints are done by persons who do the job at a fraction of the cost compared to what it will cost in the home country. The decision to use outsourcing requires careful analysis since saving cost may not be the only factor for success of many products or services. This requires careful consideration of management's vision, costs and conditions, customer needs, logistics, country infrastructure, political factors, and foreign exchange rates. In formulating a sourcing strategy, company managers and executives should also recognize the declining importance of direct manufacturing labor as a percentage of total product cost. For example, Compaq found that the human labor portion in manufacturing a PC is only about 15 minutes. Thus, the cost involved in saving human labor is not as high as one would imagine and outsourcing may not be the best choice for all products or services. Also, the company image and customer loyalty can be adversely affected if outsourced services are not quality conscious.