Outsourcing is a great way to expand your startup company and reach out to more customers. But to make that effort successful, you need to arm yourself with the right tools for it. So, what exactly will you need? Let’s take a peek at what your toolbox should contain.
Outsourcing Tool no. 1: Project Management Tools
We start the list with the tool most often associated with outsourcing. Project management software makes it easier for you to coordinate your external teams, even if they work halfway across the globe. At their most basic, these tools let you see at what stage various project components are in.
Beyond these, many project management tools have other features that make them all-around useful for startups and their outsourcing partners. Some of them even incorporate functions found in other tools. Meanwhile, there are management tools that work for specific project types.
Nevertheless, some of the essential features you want to have in a PMS include:
- Project templates: These let you quickly launch a new project without having to write down the plan from scratch. You have the option of pre-built and customizable templates.
- Time tracking: This feature is great for monitoring the work activity of both your internal and outsourced teams.
- Planning and scheduling tools: Look for a tool that offers different planning views like calendars and Gantt charts that suit how your team handles its projects.
- Collaboration tools: Most project management software has a central dashboard where the team can communicate directly, plus other means like private chat and video calls.
- Reporting: This feature master report writing for you and your outsourced team. You can choose to use pre-built reports or customizable ones.
- Budgeting: Some more specialized project management software comes with budgeting features that let you do resource allocations for the project.
Depending on your arrangement with your outsourcing partner, you can either provide the project management software or let them choose their own. Whichever you go with, make sure that it integrates well with your internal system.
Outsourcing Tool no. 2: Document Sharing Tools
While many project management software already come with document sharing features, these still have some limitations. Due to the number of features already present in a PMS, accessing document-sharing can be cumbersome. Additionally, there might be some limits on how you can handle these documents.
Standalone document sharing tools offer more functionalities in managing your files. The biggest pro of using this tool is you get more storage space. Even the free ones like Google Drive typically have storage spaces in the gigabyte range. This is very handy for companies that create plenty of documents or more complex ones like videos and other media.
Another great thing about these standalone tools is that you have more flexibility in using them. In particular, these tools readily integrate with different document creation software. With that, you can quickly upload your files from within the latter to your document sharing tool.
Additionally, such tools readily integrate with most project management software. That is handy if your outsourced team uses a different PMS from yours. With that, they can quickly access documents without going through a lengthy setup.
Aside from the standard ones, some standalone document-sharing tools also have various extra features. Dropbox, for instance, lets you recover deleted files within 30 days. Good for dealing with accidental deletions or simply reversing file versions.
Many file-sharing software also now utilize cloud storage. That means your team can access all your files from different devices. This gives your startup business and outsourcing partner greater flexibility, as you can work on these documents on any platform you have.
Lastly, these file-sharing apps can offer stronger document protection. For instance, Box lets you create permission rules based on the roles of the users accessing it. This will help your outsourcing efforts, as you can better organize which documents are for your outsourced teams and which ones are for the internal staff.
Outsource Tool no. 3: Contract Management Tools
Your startup business outsourcing contracts also require special attention to ensure that you properly implement them. This is especially the case if you have multiple partners for a single project. For that, contract management tools will be a lot of help.
The biggest draw of these tools is that you get a secure contract repository system. These systems provide you with several advantages over manually managing contracts. With them, you can easily organize and categorize each contract. Parties needing to access these can then do that wherever they are without sifting through tons of paperwork.
On the other hand, these tools also improve accountability. With the ease of access, management can quickly review contracts and reference them for different situations. They can also make changes faster to these contracts through such tools.
Lastly, these tools can help you streamline your contract workflow through automation. Here, you can set up notifications and alerts regarding the fulfillment of contract provisions. When integrated into your project management software, this can help your outsourced team keep track of their compliance better. You can even streamline contract assembly for new projects or providers you bring in.
Outsourcing Tool No. 4: Human Resources Management Tools
When outsourcing, tasks are not the only things that you need to oversee. Sometimes, you also need to keep track of the activities of your external team. For this, you will find HR management tools very handy.
These tools bring various HR functions into a single platform. First up, you get different activity tracking options. Aside from the standard time tracking capabilities, some HR management software like BambooHR can also provide automated screenshots of your team’s work on an hourly basis. You can use these to quickly see where they are at their tasks at a given moment.
Additionally, many HRM tools provide some form of position management functions. These let you see the composition of the outsourced teams and their roles in the project. Your outsourced team can also quickly edit the personnel information to reflect any change in the team structure.
Lastly, these tools are useful for payroll management. While the outsourcing provider is the one that directly handles their teams’ payroll, you might still want to have these for your own payment calculations. These features also often come with absence management for handling the leaves of personnel directly reporting to you.
Get The Most Out Of Outsourced Partners With These Tools
These tools will serve as the backbone of your startup business outsourcing infrastructure. From there, you can add project-specific tools that you will need. And when you work with us at Virtua Solutions, you get a team that is adept at using these tools as well. Get MORE using these tools with our help and give your business a boost.