Outsourcing is utilized in order to cut costs and increase efficiency in
the department in which the outsourcing is taking place. However,
there are certain detriments to this as well. Depending on the country
in which this outsourced center would reside, the time zone
differences could cause issues between the on-site personnel and
anyone at the offshore location if there are issues to be addressed.
This could cause issues with confidentiality, as if information is
transmitted form one location to another and there is not someone at
the other location to collect the information, it could sit for an
undetermined amount of time for anyone to collect. There is also a
concern with a lack of control and thus a loss of security to the
information that is stored or transmitted from this location. If the
offshore location were to be focused on customer relations, the
customers information could be more at risk at an offshore location
as the information would need to be transmitted overseas to the new
locations and back to the home office location. Since a company has a
duty to protect a customer’s personal information that they are
entrusted with, that could cause an issue if this information was
discovered and disseminated.
Additionally, many customers when they are dealing with a company,
they expect that company to be the only one to have access to their
information. If that company outsources information systems, the
other companies involved in this outsourcing would also have access
to that information. If these companies are less reputable and ethical,
there is a possibility of customer’s information getting sold, form
something simple as email addresses and phone numbers to credit
card and financial information.
