Offshoring & the Future of US Engineering: An Overview

The amount of offshoring done these days by companies in the United States has increased exponentially. When your organization chooses to outsource any task or project, it has the liberty to choose any agency or contractor for the job within your country or elsewhere. Offshoring is the term used when you choose to outsource your work to a different country other than where your business is based.

Outsourcing is usually done to agencies and contractors with better skill set or just to fasten the completion of the project. While on the other hand, offshoring is done to reduce the task of the process or task. Many large companies usually offshore their projects or certain tasks to other countries which helps them to reduce the project costs to a large extent.

Offshore Engineering

When offshoring is combined with outsourcing, the work is not only contracted out to a third party service provider but it is also agreed that the task will be carried out in another country. The main aim to undertake this is to benefit from the advantages of both outsourcing and offshoring. Offshore engineering has gained tremendous popularity in all parts of the world and in the United States in particular.

Benefits of Offshore Outsourcing

Offshoring engineering services helps in combining the benefits of outsourcing which include easily scaling up or down the number of resources, accessibility to better skilled resources, etc. and the benefits of offshoring such as higher productivity and cost-effective services. Due to these benefits, the offshoring segment has grown exponentially in the past couple of decades.

The tremendous growth in this segment is clearly visible in countries like China which leads in the manufacturing sector and India which holds the top position in the field of information technology services. Business process outsourcing is another field of offshoring that has grown in a massive manner around the world.

Risks in Offshore Outsourcing

Apart from the benefits, offshore outsourcing also has some threats and risks associated with offshoring and outsourcing. The complex processes can prove to multiply the risks related to offshoring of tasks and processes. It is challenging for any third party service provider to provide the services based on your requirements, but the same task may complicate even further when the third-party service provider is located in a different country. The communication gap and the lack of requirements understanding can produce results which are way different from the actual client requirements. Others risks in offshoring include incorrect setting of expectations, poor communication, and disoriented control structures.

The Future of US Engineering

Engineering as a profession in the United States may soon be facing a crisis. With rapid advancements being made on a daily basis in the field of telecommunications and digitization of engineering work has enabled companies to carry out tasks without being physically present at that location. In principle, the work can be done from anywhere in the world which has adequate telecommunications network and skilled and trained resources.

The curriculum followed by undergraduate engineering in developing countries is progressing at a rapid rate and is now comparable to that in the U.S. The pool of well-trained graduates is increasing in developing countries like India and China and are available at very reasonable wages which is almost 40-80% lesser than offered to US engineers. This factor will play a major role in increasing the number of offshoring projects from the United States.

For the highly educated and brilliant engineers in the United States, offshoring may not have a great impact as there will be positions for them which continue to value them and reward them for their exceptional work. Most of the engineers will be pushed towards into a competitive field and will have to prove their excellence at par with the rest of the world.

Choose O2I for Intelligent Engineering Solutions

Outsource2india has been providing exceptional engineering services to clients around the world for over 25 years now. Our cost-effective services are ideal for clients looking at offshoring as means to reduce operational costs without hampering productivity and efficiency. Located in India and with many other delivery centers across the globe we have access to some of the most skilled resources and are able to deliver results within a quick turnaround time.

Outsource engineering services to Outsource2india and be assured to get the best results. Write to us or talk to one of our representatives and we will be more than happy to help you.