In-house Vs. outsourcing websites
Posted on December 18, 2010 | Last updated: February 1, 2012 at 04:28 GMT
The necessity of having a website is evident for any organization or company, but what is the best option: in-house or outsourcing? There is no plain answer to this question. It depends on many aspects and for some companies one option is more convenient than the other. A particular study should be made to determine the wisest solution.
In-house: take full control
Hiring employees to work part or full time for a company to create and maintain a website has a lot of benefits and provides complete control and customization.
In-house web development does not have as many restrictions to make changes as outsourcing, which is a synonym of full control. Outsourcing usually involves specific statements in the contract about what is and what is not included in the price. Any additional change, update, improvement or deletion can be made for an extra charge and even some paperwork, which does not help in expediting development. When companies have their own employees, they can easily request any modifications for the website and it will be done without an extra monetary cost. Everything is done internally in the company and this can save time.
In terms of security, in-house development can also help a lot because an organization can create its own security policies, whereas in outsourcing confidentiality has to be entrusted to a third party company: the web agency.
Among the challenges of in-house development, two of the biggest are to locate and train employees. That can significantly slow processes down, especially when something is "due yesterday."
Outsourcing: do what you do best and outsource the rest
One of the key benefits of outsourcing is that web agencies focus on creating websites, and they do it for a living. That means experience and getting the services of people who are specialists in web design and development.
When Dell Inc. sold El Salvador contact center operations to Stream Global Services, Inc., which is a business process outsourcing company, the reason was to increase the efficiency of its business and provide better value for costumers.[1] It is obvious that monetary aspects were taken into consideration too. This is just one of millions of examples, since outsourcing is everywhere. The web industry is not the exception and it is very common especially for small and middle-sized business to outsource the creation, development and maintenance of their websites.
By using outsourcing, companies can focus on their primary activities and avoid consuming human and financial resources at the expense of the core or main fields of the organization.
Conclusion
Is basketball better than tennis? Is blue better than red? Is in-house better than outsourcing? The answer to any of the last three questions is not absolute, but relative. In other words: it depends.
For a particular scenario, in-house could be more convenient than outsourcing or viceversa, but circumstances can easily change in the future and make the other option to become the best for the current state of a company. In any case, it is important to be aware of the benefits and limitations of each option to take the smartest decision when determining what to outsource and when to do it, if necessary at all.
References
- Dell - The Official Site. Dell Inc. Sells El Salvador Contact Center Operations to Stream Global Services, Inc. Retrieved on December 25, 2010, from http://www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/corp/pressoffice/en/2008/2008_10_15_rr_001
