Friday, May 11, 2012
Rural sourcing is becoming a viable alternative for many companies when developing their business process outsourcing strategies. Rural sourcing involves outsourcing work to service providers in rural U.S. communities where costs are lower and community development is needed.
Everest Research Group has taken a deeper dive into the alternative of rural outsourcing, focusing on the benefits of achieving cost savings and retaining work onshore in its April 2012 - Rural Sourcing - An Emerging Alternative for Traditional Outsourcing?
Increased awareness and focus on rural sourcing has been further highlighted in the current economic environment, as the Obama Administration has promoted keeping jobs onshore.
In January 2012, the Obama Administration held an "Insourcing American Jobs" forum at the White House. Discussions focused around ways U.S. companies could source jobs onshore to help rebuild the U.S. economy. Rural sourcing these jobs to local technical college or university resources is one way to gain cost savings and develop rural communities through job creation.
The January forum included statistics on the U.S.'s insourcing trend. Statistics included real business fixed investment growth of 18 percent in the U.S. since the end of 2009, a gain of 334,000 manufacturing jobs in the past two years, and an annualized increase of 5.7 percent in manufacturing production since June 2009, all attributed to a focus on insourcing U.S. jobs.
The President's campaign has continued to build in this area, as new tax proposals have been developed to reward companies who source to U.S. service providers or bring jobs back to the United States from offshore locations and eliminating tax advantages for companies moving jobs overseas. With the Administration's focus on providing resources for growth of this sourcing trend, it is likely to become a more widely used outsourcing solution for U.S. companies.
