In 2013, Gartner predicted a 5.4 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in the global outsourcing market through 2017. The IT services market in North America should see a bit more activity, growing by a 6 percent CAGR through 2017. Even though the IT outsourcing boom is slowing down, the competition remains strong and IT outsourcing companies reshaped their objectives from entering the market to extending their businesses.
Growing a business requires a good strategy to develop new sales channels and to align customers’ perception of the business with its current levels of maturity and service quality. Pentalog, OSF Global Services, Wipro are just a few examples of outsourcing businesses that extended their operations’ areas and went global. But let’s discuss some practical steps for growing an outsourcing business:
- Objectives & strategy. The company needs to reevaluate its position and validate a new and sustainable market direction and approach. Plus, it has to develop a clear action plan achieving its new objective. A clear definition of KPIs and metrics will help effectively measure the goals the companies need to achieve.
- Coaching. All business leaders and key stakeholders have to assume the new direction and to support the new plan, including sales development.
- Clearly define the company’s position and increase awareness. The new positioning has to be clearly defined both for inside the company and outside. This means you have to take into consideration marketing and sales collateral able to reflect the company’s new position. Plus, increasing awareness means that you have to invest in educating the market, acquire expert reputation and develop networks of business contact.
- Identify the right channels. Business is not the same in every part of the world. First, research where the business leaders are more active, where they have interactions with other people, what kind of social presence do they have and then decide which channels to approach.
Growing an IT outsourcing company is never easy, simply because there are a lot of other companies providing similar services. It might seem a little hectic in the beginning, but in fact, it is about strategy, defining clear business directions and making the business popular. Here you can find an example of a successful growing strategy. What are your thoughts about a right approach when growing an IT outsourcing company?
