The post-pandemic Australian business landscape has shifted more rapidly than we ever could have imagined. The needs and desires of our clients have changed. In particular, businesses within the country, and abroad, have been reducing their overheads and tightening their belts in anticipation of fluctuating revenue and uncertainty regarding government restrictions.
At the same time, I’ve seen the global marketplace getting smaller, with an increasing need to seek role-players and skill providers on an international scale in order to compete and maximise your business’ efficiency.
A matter of margins
One of the fundamental benefits we continue to provide our clients is the ability to save labour costs. This has been made so much more critical during the recent pandemic. So many Australian businesses have had to scale back full-time staff and this can clearly present some significant operational challenges. Not only do the appropriate tasks need to be completed; they need to be completed to the right standard. Cost saving is often necessary, but shouldn’t come at the expense of quality.
I’ve also seen my industry adapt to offer as much contractual flexibility to clients as is possible considering the changing nature of things and the constant cost-pressures that many businesses face. Change is a constant, and we’ve all seen things change quickly recently. This, again, requires clear and consistent lines of communication between my team and our clients.
You have to compete to win
The world is smaller than ever before, and in many ways I believe the growth of the outsourcing industry reflects that. Australian companies now know that maximizing external suppliers is a necessity, not an option, if they want to be able to compete with the market leaders. The increase in businesses using outsourcing service providers, such as our team at hammerjack, demonstrates a confidence that the industry has the tools to execute in a way that many companies simply can’t achieve in-house.
A more global labour and skill market also presents it’s own unique challenges that we have helped address. Using a variety of different international suppliers requires watertight and rigid on-board structures in order to effectively integrate any outsourced resource into your company and workflow, so that you don’t miss a beat. Without such security lines of communication can often break down in-house, and businesses fail to make the most of their outsourced capital.
The time of tech
The outsourcing industry’s rapid evolution within Australia has come in lockstep with changing technology, as our partnership with Microsoft might demonstrate. There is a whole suite of areas to which this applies. Not only are our clients dealing with increasingly automated processes, resulting in the need for flexibility within their contracts and capital, but also we are constantly evolving the integration of tech into our offerings to simplify issues such as security, compliance and identity concerns.
I’ve seen the industry become transformed by new cyber-security technology, designed to protect confidential information and offer peace of mind to all of our clients. This has amplified the value-add that engaging with an outsourcing service provider can have, as it’s adding additional layers of protection for all of the respective parties.
It’s an exciting time to be involved in assisting companies maximise their capital, getting the most out of all of the available resources from around the world. Throughout a global pandemic, with ever changing technology and shifting regulations, I’ve seen businesses continue to thrive with a combination of creativity and savvy.
