Outsourcing your work to another country can be extremely cost-effective when the choice is carefully made. On the other hand, it can be easy to make a mistake by not examining all factors that should go into an outsourcing decision.
The first thing you should do when choosing an outsourcing country is to match your general need to the strengths and weaknesses of each country’s labor pool. With this in mind, let’s look at outsourcing to Canada.
Canada’s labor pool is highly literate and well educated. The IT skills of their workforce are superb, and this workforce is stable within a stable political climate. Canada rates among the top nations in reading, mathematics and science. Canada leads the world in access to the internet. All of this means that high-tech work assignments will prove no problem for outsourcing to Canada.
Solid Infrastructure
Reliability comes with access to stable resources. Canada is rightly proud of its road and railway systems, its ample and reliable power grids, its broadband and telecommunications infrastructure, and its banking system.
If you are especially concerned about English fluency, Canada has about 85% native English speakers. Where your need is for quality voice-based assignments such as call centers, choose Canadian outsourcing centers in Toronto, Calgary, Winnipeg or Vancouver. Where French is needed, the Montreal labor pool of native French speakers is ideal. For both these labor pools, the language and culture of the Canadians matches very well with that of the United States and Western Europe. This should minimize your concerns about the quality of your communications with your Canadian outsource supplier.
Canada’s Mature Legal System
Canada has a highly mature legal system. You should have no concern about contracts and compliance with local and international law when dealing with Canadian outsourcing companies. The same can be said for the protection of your privacy and your intellectual property rights. With businesses increasingly concerned about the culture of corruption in some candidate countries, Canada ranks among the least likely to be involved in such activities that might impact the cost of the work you expect from them.
It’s not all one-sided, though. There is something to be concerned about when outsourcing to Canada, and that is the direct cost of the service. Canada’s work force is paid well relative to the wages in other outsourcing countries. In addition, there is the usual uncertainty concerning the exchange rate between the U.S. and Canadian dollars, which has seen periods of strength and weakness flipping back and forth. On the positive side, periods of general exchange rate stability typically have lasted for several years.
Cost of Outsourcing to Canada
Most importantly is the concept of total cost. Many companies looking to outsource fail to look at the total picture. They often look only at the monthly cost or unit cost. They may overlook the fact that the cost of misunderstandings with their outsourcing company can be very high. The cost of returns and reworking can wipe out profit margins. Outsourcing to Canada may seem costly at the front end. But when factoring in the quality of their work product, government tax breaks on IT exports, as well as the tax benefits for IT services accruing under NAFTA, Canadian outsourcing companies really are much more competitive than you would think at first.
