Other Aspects to Consider Scalability is a factor to think about before outsourcing. Ask the company how well they handle an increase in volume. Some businesses only do so much work. Increases can cause delays or worse-outright delays. Ask them how they handle this level of scalability before they mess up your operations. Quality is imperative to production. Make sure the company can maintain the quality when the volume of production increases. Even checking takes up time that is valuable to your overall cost. Sometimes it is better to just handle it yourself. Decide what is most valuable to you and go with that. Support is one of the biggest problems in most outsourcing today. Your business relies on making the customer happy. Far too many young businesses fail today simply because their support company that handles shipping or some other aspect of production fails the test for reliability. Make sure they can get things done on time and in an efficient manner. Your customers should be able to get their questions answered to their satisfaction every time. Everything that they need can be handled effectively with your support staff. Make sure they handle your questions and issues as well. They should be available when you need them to be. Make sure they have the flexibility to be able to adapt to the change that happens with any EDI shop. That way they can be ready when the customer makes a back-end ERP change that the outsource company is capable of handling. That way they can get ready to continue with business as usual in spite of the change. You need to verify that the service level agreement is capable of spotting change that naturally happens during production. These things can cause the entire process to be delayed so badly that an issue actually halts productivity. There is only one way to avoid that. Rules must be in place to handle every step of this process in order to catch those details that can harm production. That is the only way that the change can be easily adapted without any loss to the profit margin. That way everyone wins. The non-core processes can be easily outsourced to save time and money. In some cases it can even improve the department that uses it! Other aspects of production or functionality require a significant higher level of attention to detail. In the end, the entire system must be evaluated if it is going to work well to save time and money. The outsourced company gains work for their economy and the business that uses them saves as they become more efficient. Because the work is simplified and repetitive there is far less chance of any kind of loss. The first time that it does not work you will understand the value of this level of evaluation. No matter how much you evaluate the process there are always points to consider. Some situations require more attention to detail than others and can cause harm to the company reputation if they are not handled correctly. You dont want to find out when it is too late. Do your homework before the issues come up in order to catch the things that can become a huge problem later on. While it can significantly save both time and money, outsourcing can be a risk that some companies simply can not take. Your decision to outsource should be based on the risk factors that are strategically safe for the overall gain of your business. That is the only way that it works. Think about the important factors and the risks that help you make the best decision for your business. While you can save both money and time outsourcing, sometimes the level of customer care is far too important to take any risk. Regular evaluation of this productivity is a key strategic point to remember as you go forward with your business for the future.