Learn more about offshoring and outsourcing

One similarity shared by both outsourcing and offshoring companies is the employment of staff to fill roles within a separate business or for another client, and it is a service that can be performed anywhere in the world. However, these two models have significant differences in terms of operational structure and set-up:

• Outsourcing does not mean work is transferred overseas, as it is with offshoring where the work is done in another country.

• In relation to staffing, the offshoring model will give you an opportunity to select your own suitably qualified staff based on your job description. This workforce will be dedicated solely to your operations and will work to and follow your processes and procedures. You will also have direct control over the people you select in terms of how their performance will be measured and your client service requirements. Because the resource is only leased to you, an outsourcing company will not provide you with the same control when it comes to staff selection. You will not have direct operational control over their performance because the criteria for measuring productivity is based on how many issues are resolved and how long it takes. This is not perhaps the best method for providing your desired customer service as an SME business. 

• An outsourcing company will use their own systems and tools to manage your processes while a professional offshoring partner will adopt whatever system you have in operation, thus making for a pain-free and seamless transition.  

• The variations between outsourcing and offshoring are shown in this link:  Difference of offshoring and outsourcing

Offshoring occurs offshore or overseas, not locally. When offshoring, you hire staff through an offshore provider to undertake specific roles, usually on a full-time basis. A key difference is that these staff work for you and only you; they work as directed by you and follow your processes and procedures. Essentially, they are your staff, but they come without the added headaches of employment contracts, payroll, and all things HR.

Virtual assistants are typically recruited through an intermediary and the staff are usually contractors who you hire and pay directly to perform low-value tasks which do not require elevated skill levels. Staff perform the work you want done, and you set and monitor goals and KPIs. It is possible that virtual assistants will work exclusively for you, but that is not typically the case.

There are things to consider carefully when hiring VAs directly:

• You have no control over background, criminal, or medical checks.

• Management of employment law, contracting and paying the VAs, and HR is your responsibility.

• VAs generally provide their own IT hardware and security, which could mean gaps in your cyber safety.

• You are responsible for professional indemnity and other insurance.

• The liability for the security and safety of VAs in the workplace rests with you.

Intogreat establishes strong connections between people, processes, administration, communications, and the client. This holistic approach ensures easy, rewarding and seamless offshoring for our clients. Offshoring requires more than just recruiting resources and setting up a team overseas. Our offshoring service provides end-to-end project management to seamlessly migrate your processes offshore, and dedicated leaders who are experts in their fields to oversee your offshore operations, ensuring that your offshore team performs to, or even above, your expectations. Successful offshoring is about creating strong and collaborative connections between the head office (onshore) and your offshore teams.

• Low start-up cost

• Control over your business operations

• Speed in setting up offshore team

• High process efficiency

• High flexibility

• Focus on customer experience

• Big cost savings

• High capability uplift

• Genuine experience and expertise

The highly skilled and seasoned team at Intogreat work in partnership with SME clients to create and deliver optimum business solutions. We work closely with our customers to gauge their business needs and provide the best offshoring resources in a timely fashion.

Data security is one of Intogreat’s top priorities. We provide strict security protocols in our network infrastructure and operations:

• IT tools + data privacy security management by an ISO-accredited IT provider

• No mobile phones/gadgets policy within workstations

• Paperless daily operations and remote desktop access. (E.g., with Citrix, Practice Protect, Ready Secure, etc.)

• Implementation of website blocking policies

• Secured data endpoints guarded by an anti-malware solutions provider

Intogreat’s business preparation service ensures that a client’s offshore staff have access to all the necessary IT tools to perform their daily tasks efficiently. Intogreat’s management team also guarantee our clients’ data privacy by implementing data security procedures and data security risk mitigation within offshore business operations.

From primary school in the Philippines, students are taught English as their second language after Filipino. They are trained to understand and speak English extensively, so graduates are fluent in English. At Intogreat, most of our offshore staff are university graduates which means they are proficient in English literacy and possess cognitive and communication skills. We also measure this through our rigorous recruitment process, which involves:

• A series of interviews to establish the applicant's excellence in English communication skills.

• An aptitude test to assess the logical reasoning and English proficiency of applicants

• Client interviews of the candidates to gauge their skills and proficiency

The team at Intogreat will help you ensure and establish:

• Your processes, procedures, tools and systems

• SMART KPIs for your offshore staff members

• A dedicated team manager with technical expertise to ensure productivity, constant performance reporting, and technical support for your staff

• Implementation of measures to increase productivity

We follow the office hours of our clients and can also adapt during DST, if needed. Our staff can work flexible shifts based on the clients' time zone.

At Intogreat, we ensure that all our clients and staff undergo cultural training for the other country. This helps our client understand both the similarities and the differences between the two cultures prior to the staff onboarding. We also conduct a strategic training process for our staff that includes:

• Staff induction upon onboarding

• Foreign and Philippine cultural awareness training for the foreign and PH teams

In our experience, most SMEs are concerned about limited resources holding back the growth of their business. Intogreat is not only focused on delivering cost savings but will ensure your major concerns are fully addressed through our complimentary Return on Investment (ROI) analysis. This analysis is a transparent review of your processes and key areas of concern, with which we provide a bespoke service to demonstrate how offshoring will work for your business, and assistance in addressing challenging areas. 

To find out more about our services: https://www.intogreat.com.au/the-i2g-difference

At Intogreat, we ensure all staff follow our standard security protocols regardless of working onsite or working from home. All computers have up-to-date antivirus definitions, mobile device management to track asset location, web filtering based on the client's allowed website and categories, and wipe downloaded files once the machine is turned off. ​

As a general guidance, we identify tasks that are non-client facing that can be done anywhere these roles can be offshored. Roles can require lots of specialised capabilities or simple admin tasks. We provide consultation to assist on identifying roles for your organization so you can easily scale. Please refer to our services page for industry we specialises in. 

Did not see your industry? Schedule a meeting and learn more about the roles we can offer.

Our onboarding process is managed by a dedicated project manager who will do all the heavy lifting in ensuring a simple and seamless transition of your operations to offshoring while you focus on your day-to-day tasks. We will manage recruitment, IT set-up assistance, office organisation, payroll and admin. We will also establish training plans and KPIs, together with training on new ways of working and cultural awareness. These activities are all done in parallel while we recruit your staff, thus enabling our project managers to onboard the first of your staff within an average of 60 days from agreement of the proposal.

We think that Philippine culture is not too different from most cultures, therefore relationships are easy to build, and as Filipinos are goal-oriented that can help drive your business objectives forward. Also, the Philippines is a country with a highly skilled workforce which is proficient in English, and every year an estimated 700,000 Filipinos graduate from universities. Our office is located within the Manila Central Business District where most of the top universities and colleges are situated and it is also easily accessed by our experienced workforce.

All Intogreat staff receive competitive compensation and rewards such as health insurance and government mandated benefits which are attractive to job-seeking Filipinos. As soon as people join your offshore team, we make sure they are involved through our monthly engagement activities, learning and development opportunities, coaching and transparent performance evaluation, employee engagement surveys, and an open-door policy.

To discover more about our staff engagement results: https://www.intogreat.com.au/staff-engagement-survey

Our staff have 20 Paid Time Off (PTO) credits per year which are accrued on a monthly basis. An additional PTO credit is awarded per year of service, to a maximum of four additional PTOs. Our company follows PH holidays by law, but our clients have the option to ask their staff to report to work on PH holidays as needed, with an equivalent holiday premium of either 30% or 100% of their daily rate, depending on the type of holiday.

We believe in delivering the highest quality service to each customer. We conduct semi-annual Net Promoter Score surveys of all our customers and collaborate with our clients to perform business reviews.

Further details of our client engagement results can be found here: https://www.intogreat.com.au/business-improvement-client-satisfaction-survey

We are so confident that we will provide you with a GREAT service that we guarantee you a refund of your recruitment fee if you decide to not proceed with offshoring within 60-day period or find you a replacement staff member at no extra cost. 

Book an appointment to find out more. https://www.intogreat.com.au/book-a-meeting

We provide flexible services based on client needs. You can book an appointment with us at 

https://www.intogreat.com.au/book-a-meeting

Once we have established your needs, we will provide you with a quotation.

Go to https://www.intogreat.com.au/book-a-meeting to schedule your appointment with our offshoring expert.