Saturday, January 3, 2009

Disadvantages of Outsourcing

Outsourcing is becoming increasingly popular. Many different types of companies use outsourcing services as a means to improve their overall business model. While there are many advantages to this practice there are disadvantages of outsourcing, as well.

One of the biggest disadvantages of outsourcing is undesirable results. This is especially true when a company hires a third-party vendor to mass produce a product. In the event that the finished products do not meet quality standards, the manufacturing process must be repeated by a different vendor.

Not only is this a waste of time and materials, it can also be very costly for the company who outsourced the project. They are essentially paying twice for the same job. In addition there is always the possibility that the company may lose sales, during this same period because of the lack of available product.

Another disadvantage of outsourcing is a loss of jobs. Many times work is outsourced simply as a means to save money. Outsourcing to a foreign country typically saves a company a great deal in wages. So, the choice is made to reduce their local workforce, at the expense of the laid-off employees.

In turn, it can cause community uproar and even a decrease in business and profits. This happens when local consumers make the decision to shop elsewhere, as a way to voice their disdain.

Outsourcing customer service jobs, to foreign countries, is on the rise. Many large corporations including credit card companies, shopping networks and computer manufacturers are making this change.

The problem with this is a lack of communication. It can be very frustrating for a consumer who is calling in with a customer service issue. When this individual cannot understand the customer service representative they are speaking with, it just causes more frustration and does little to solve the problem.

Advantages of Telecommuting:

  • Save Time – When you work from home, you won't have to spend time traveling back and forth to work every day. If your position doesn't require you to meet face to face with coworkers or clients, you can also save the time that it takes to get dressed for the office every day. Many telecommuting workers get their jobs done in t-shirts and jeans, or even their pajamas, rather than having to dress in traditional business attire.
  • Save Money – When you don't have to commute to an office on a regular basis, you can save a significant amount of money in fuel expenses. Many people who begin working from home also find that they save money on clothing purchases, dry cleaning bills, morning coffee, restaurant and fast food lunches, and more.
  • Schedule Flexibility – Many telecommuting jobs provide workers with the opportunity to work flexible hours, planning job-related activities around family and other responsibilities. Often, telecommuting workers are able to work any time of the day or night, from home or other locations. Even those positions that require set schedules still allow workers to choose the work times that work best for them.
  • Earning Potential – Many telecommuting positions offer performance based compensation rather than traditional hourly pay system. Workers who have jobs that pay in this manner often receive piece rates or productivity based pay. This means that skilled workers who are efficient can often earn better wages than in positions where they are paid by the hour.
  • Tax Advantages – Telecommuting workers can enjoy the tax write-off advantages that go along with having a home-based office, assuming that they do not have an employer provided workspace.

Online Home Based businesses

Online Home Based businesses are becoming more and more attractive, particularly to working women as they continue to face rising Fuel & Day Care costs, not to mention the time wasted in commuting. More people are looking for ways to create extra income streams than ever before. Val Howard has found the answer ...

Val Howard has been a successful business woman and Entrepreneur for close to 20 years and involved in her own Home Based Business since 2001.

Having run a successful home business in the Direct Selling industry for over 7 years, and being an avid reader and student of Personal Development for even longer, it was a natural transition for Val to expand her business into the area of Personal Development.

Why all the commotion about Personal Development?

"Australians invest more money into Personal Development per capita, than any other country in the world. When I did my own research, and understood the size of the industry ($11Billion last year and continuing to grow), I realized I had the perfect platform to teach a lot of people how to capitalize on this booming industry" said Val.

"The Personal Development marketplace is growing faster than ever, with record growth of more than 50% since the year 2001" Val shared. "Not since the days of the rocketing Internet has there been an opportunity to create wealth so quickly. In a time when people are tired of struggling and 'settling for average', this is a business that empowers people and is Recession Proof".

Val believes an essential ingredient to success is to assist people from all walks of life to get what they truly want and deserve. "I love assisting people to realize their dreams, to re-design and live life on their terms. Those dreams are often related to achieving more time freedom, financial freedom, better health or creating extra income streams from the comfort of their own home".

How Chefs Create Winning Recipes:

"Gourmet cooking" and "fine cuisine" are not just fancy phrases describing food. They are in fact reserved for the best of the best, the food that deserves the highest praise for being the absolute cream of the crop.

Not every chef has the ability to create fine cuisine, but many executive chefs aspire to this by creating interesting and wonderful chef recipes. Chef recipes are created from a fusion of flavors and tastes that a head chef decides to try together in a meal. Gourmet cooking is all about mixing together unique ingredients in an interesting way and also presenting it in an interesting way that catches the eye.

Chef recipes are not always successful and sometimes even the best executive chef will make a mistake or two, but these mistakes allow the outstanding chefs to be born as they learn from the errors and perfect each and every chef recipe that they start working on. Gourmet cooking is an art form and is constantly worked at and perfected. A head chef with a special skill will be able to turn simple ingredients into award winning dishes fit for royalty. Getting any chef jobs you can under a great master chef will help you become a great chef, as you can learn all the tips from the master. Their secret could be a specially made ingredient or a secret sauce that they use, or they might just have a knack for adding the perfect amount and blends of spices and herbs to their dishes.

Every great chef has their own special flair that leads them from simple assistant chef jobs to becoming a super first class executive chef in the finest hotels or restaurant in the world. To become a success in your chef jobs you must always follow your instincts and stick to the perfected recipes of others to learn more. You must experiment in your own time to find your special talent and make your own unique chef recipes that you work on for years to perfect, just as Leonardo da Vinci took 4 years to complete the Mona Lisa. If cooking is your art, then you should not worry about becoming a head chef or executive chef of a top hotel or restaurant right away. Learning as much as you can from the professional head chefs you work under, will go a long way to helping you achieve greatness further along down the line. The added pressure of becoming a head chef can also hinder some people, so creating your stunning dishes while you are still a commis chef, chef de partie or sous chef is a much better idea.

The chef recipes that you create should be filled with flavor and texture as well as balance of color, ingenious use of ingredients and be cooked to perfection. You can choose to specialize in a number of areas such as meats and main dishes, vegetable dishes, soups and starters, puddings, and fish among others. The mark of a great chef, however, is the ability to create expert chef recipes for any kind of meal, with any ingredients. When you start out in the gourmet cooking industry and start working with fine cuisine, you must get as much experience as you can with any dishes are not normally comfortable with. If you usually create wonderful meat dishes and don't really turn out amazing puddings, then now is the time to work on your puddings to perfect them.

Some chef jobs you apply for will not be specific in the types of food you will be making, and some food establishments that serve gourmet cuisine do not have sectioned kitchens, which means that to get the best chef jobs, you need to know how to cook and create chef recipes for everything. Practice makes perfect, so keep working on new recipes all the time.

MARKETING IN CHENNAI:

There is a significant shift today. 15-20 years ago, it was a Seller's market. Customers had to buy what was available. There was absolutely no choice. But today, it is entirely different. It is a Buyer's market. There is plenty of choice, both in terms of brands and the items. It has helped in widening the product base of consumer durables. Also, technological changes have helped the boom in the industry.

Chennai is known as the Retail King of India. In 1977, Viveks started a novel scheme in the country. They launched the first New Year sale. By this Viveks wanted to show its gratitude to the customer. This concept was unique. Now this has spread to other parts of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

The retail market is heavily concentrated in Chennai. As far as the retail market for consumer durables is concerned all changes take off from Chennai. It has emerged as the main hub for entire South India. The Chennai market is not at all conservative as is often perceived. Customers here take informed decisions. They do a lot of survey and analysis before buying a product.

What is the over-riding criteria for selection? Is it time saving, money saving, convenience or power saving?

As far as the customer in Chennai is the concerned, it is only the purchasing price that matters. Awareness exists as far as time saving and energy saving devices are concerned. The money the customer pays is the determining factor in the consumer durable market. Over a period of time the priorities might change.

How good is after sales service and customer service in Chennai?

Yes! This is an area which calls for improvement. The Consumer durable market in Chennai is nowhere near the standards of the one-stop shops for groceries and garments in Chennai. The margins offered in the consumer durable market is less. Customer service exists, but it will be better in the years to come.

How current is the consumer durable market in Chennai?

All the major international brands are launched in Chennai in less than six months.

SALES AND Account Management:

* Accounts List ViewTrack all accounts and related contacts, opportunities, cases, and other details from a common repository

* Specify parent-child relationships between accounts and their subsidiaries or other divisions

* Generate quotes, sales orders, and invoices for the accounts

* Track purchase history of the customers and analyze opportunities for up-selling and cross-selling in future

* Identify referrals from accounts and contacts for promoting new products and services

* Store account and contact-related notes and documents in the account history

* Export accounts to spreadsheet software to analyze the buying patterns of a customers and set up loyalty programs

* Mass Email ContactsTrack all contacts and related opportunities, cases, activities, and other details from a common repository

* Manage hierarchy of contacts within your customer company to have a better coordination while dealing with customers

* Import contacts from external sources CRM and other business applications

* Set up contact assignment rules to automatically assign contacts to the sales force in your organization

* Export contacts to spreadsheet software for further data analysis

* Synchronize contacts between Zoho CRM and Microsoft® Outlook® using the Zoho CRM Outlook Plug-in

Accountancy jobs

We aim to be the number one specialist for accountancy recruitment in your local market and currently operate from a number of locations covering the North West, Yorkshire and the Midlands.

We recruit for permanent and temporary positions, from clerical staff to newly qualified accountants.

Established in 1996, we have built up close links with many companies in your area, ranging from independent businesses to multi-national blue chips, giving you the widest and best possible choice of roles.

Our specialist consultants each focus on a specific level and location, so you can be sure that you are talking to a real expert in your particular market.

We are proud that most of our work comes from repeat business and referrals from satisfied clients and happy candidates. In fact, over 70% of our clients and 98% of our candidates say that they will use RK Accountancy as their first choice in the future.

So, whether you are looking to develop your career or need to recruit first-class talent, make use of our extensive experience and specialised knowledge. we look forward to working with you!