Outsourcing from a single supplier or from multiple suppliers: which option to choose?

Outsourcing services represent the future and bring many proven business advantages, particularly in technical services such as access control. As a result, many providers have expanded their offerings to create more opportunities to become sole suppliers for their clients.

There have never been so many companies and services for contracting and outsourcing services. However, businesses that want to outsource any task or technical service typically face two choices:

• Find asingle supplierand delegate all aspects of project implementation to the partner.

• Findmultiple supplierswith niche expertise in one or more areas of the project and work with all of them separately.

The decision to collaborate with a single supplier or with multiple suppliers will have far-reaching business consequences for any company. Therefore, there are important considerations to make in both options, which may involve a series of pros and cons.

Cost

• Outsourcing from a single suppliergenerally offers more competitive prices, possibly with packages or discounts. It is also easier to scale according to the increasing or decreasing needs of a company in any operational area.

• Since lower levels of order or collaboration will decrease bargaining power,outsourcing to multiple supplierswill likely cost more and have less flexibility in scaling.

Time and convenience

• Outsourcing from a single supplieris simpler to manage and easily optimized, thus saving time and limiting problems. A supplier may already work for similar companies under a master service agreement for “sister” companies or have the capacity to offer additional services beyond your current offering.

• Outsourcing to multiple suppliersbrings a greater volume of administrative and managerial duties.

Staff deployment and training

• Withoutsourcing from a single supplierof tasks and services, the need for staff training will be minimal.

• Outsourcing to multiple supplierswill likely require a more complex process of staff training and deployment.

Compatibility

• By working with asingle supplier, a company is much less likely to encounter compatibility issues. Furthermore, any updates or upgrades will be more comprehensive.

• Outsourcing to multiple supplierswill result in the use of smaller packages from each supplier and potential compatibility issues. Updates or upgrades may be fragmented and disorganized.

Long-term partnership

• The business stakes are higher for asingle supplier: they are better positioned to thoroughly understand and address a client’s needs, improving the overall customer experience.

• A long-term partnership withmultiple supplierscould be more complicated, as they will have less contact with the company and therefore less input on the business.

Conclusions

Having a single supplier can be an opportunity to address many challenges in your business by improving efficiency, saving time and resources. However, it also presents the risk of putting all your eggs in one basket. So, when making such a crucial decision, we encourage business managers to conduct thorough research on the single supplier they may collaborate with, obtain references, and ask all necessary questions.

Outsourcing services represent the future and bring many proven business advantages, particularly in technical services such as access control. As a result, many providers have expanded their offerings to create more opportunities to become sole suppliers for their clients.