The evaluation of an Outsourcing application model cannot disregard the degree of familiarity and use of Information Technologies, let alone the ownership of Tools on their bases and proposals to you, on the part of the Outsourcing Provider
Time Management
In high-income countries, there is an increasing need to relate to the precious factor of time. It is already a widespread opinion that an optimal definition and respect for working hours is no longer sufficient; that which assumes fundamental importance insofar as it is what is concretely accomplished in such a period of time, the result of activities, remote premises and human and technological resources, whether internal or external. To be able to carry out effective Control and Management activities, management instruments and always new acts based on innovative technologies are necessary. The availability of such instruments plays a determining role in the definition of new organizational models aimed at reducing costs, consolidating the business's position in the market and greater competitiveness and efficiencies. In an attempt to resolve the “time problem”, within Materials Supply Management and Management, companies will increasingly find themselves in the position of demanding from their suppliers the ability to assume an active Partner role in the definition and development of business strategies and in the achievement of their always better economic objectives; In this way, we will achieve an increasingly complete and fruitful integration with those organizational centers that such a service are in a position to offer.
Communications and Procedures
The number of procedures in a supply process is increasing over time in proportion to the number of orders that become necessary, particularly within reciprocations for systems. This increase in the number of orders originates from the effective reduction in the value fixed in warehouses towards which large companies are being oriented.
The documentation and size of information generated for each procedure in the supply process and its relative management in the various phases of the process, make time spent the main protagonist of such activities. Time reveals itself as a factor whose degree of incidence appears imponderable and, apparently, not measurable; the possibility cannot but be considered of reducing the amount of time used thanks to the support of targeted IT solutions, capable of carrying out communication, verification, control and monitoring activities; the costs of such activities in fact often far exceed the value of the object to be supplied (the supply procedures are between fifty and sixty, agencies involved about ten, the people involved between ten and twenty).
Integrated Outsourcing Platform Software
New technologies and forms of communication allow the creation and use of more effective solutions at reduced costs. Its validity must be found in the high speed of response rather than in the power of the hardware used. The implementation of installation, diagnosis, maintenance and modernization costs for applications is extremely low when related to the possibility of operating from anywhere in the world.
The introduction of the dedicated software platform, and carried out from a Work Flow perspective, allows Online Feedback, automatically available at each procedure execution by the external structure and the possibility of operating interactively between your own structure and that of the Outsourcing Provider. it is possible, for example, to consult a personalized database made available by the Outsourcing Provider: in other words, each resource/entity (Outsourcer) involved in the supply process can control the progress status of a supply order at any point in the flow, in addition to being able to control lists, orders sent, their progress status and their relative delivery times, invoices and documents, “control of the Outsourcing activity” (GI – Degree of Integration).
The possibility of addressing such topics is ensured by the simple use of an Information-Oriented information management system.
As previously stated, the factor that primarily generates the increase in the number of orders is the need to reduce warehouse supplies; Proportional to such an increase, control and support activities for the suppliers involved must be multiplied. A huge help in managing this type of situation comes from creating synergies with other material management agencies within the Group itself (in national and foreign territory), if not with other entities with common guidelines.
The use of the Integrated Outsourcing Platform Software is placed, within the strategic design of the innovation, between the Outsourcer and the activities of the Outsourcing Provider, without generating negative impacts on existing structures and prescriptions. All of this can furthermore be seen as creating the basis for a gradual evolution towards International Outsourcing. (see Virtual Warehouse that allows you to keep the value of supplies reduced, but to have a quantity available that is actually greater than the minimum quantity only in the warehouse).