In the current time of economic volatility and uncertainty, it’s no surprise that financial considerations remain a critical measure of success for most content producers. Right now, it’s more important than ever that spending on content production not only delivers value for money, but also produces measurable results.
Against that background, the figures in TKM’s latest Benchmark Report on Offshore Production, sponsored by We Are Amnet, show that companies and agencies in pretty much every sector are turning to offshoring: 60% of respondents currently offshore some elements of their creative production or post-production.
The offshoring trend that began with big corporations in the 1960s and ‘70s, and saw a new wave during the IT revolution of the ‘90s, has disrupted every sector. Some have adopted the model more readily than others: in the pharma sector, for example, there is still some room for companies to catch up. In our recent online forum Outperform Your Competition With Content at Scale, Puneet Srivastava, Head of Digital Content & Services Lab at Roche, said “Pharma is still on a learning curve at the moment compared to other industries, when it comes to how to operate to be most effective in the digital space.”
Offshoring adds value beyond just cost—but the numbers are unarguable
One of the principal barriers to offshoring content production remains concern about the quality of the work. It’s clear that the critical importance of this metric hasn’t changed: it’s one of the top three assessment criteria when considering offshoring as part of a content production model, cited by 45% of respondents. Furthermore, quality of work remains an important measure of success for 91%.
Having said that, in the current economic climate, money talks: 81% of respondents rated access to lower-cost skills and resources in their top three drivers for offshoring. Given all these figures, the levels of satisfaction from organizations that do offshore creative production are illuminating; 69% of respondents are either satisfied or very satisfied with their offshore partner.
In the pharma sector, the approach to content production has changed considerably in the last few years. According to Puneet Srivastava, “A few years ago, everything was driven by one agency. But pharma has really learned a lesson, and actually created roles in production that challenge what can be done.” So it’s clear there has been an evolution in content production models in the search for quick turnaround at high quality, and cost savings—41% of companies expect typical savings of 40–60% across all services lines. Put bluntly, these days, if you’re not leveraging the opportunities to make the savings that new content production models offer, you’re overpaying.
73% of participants agree or strongly agree with the Smartshoring® approach to offshore creative production.
Save money without compromising other metrics
The models continue to evolve; even for organizations that are already offshoring or are committed to doing so, there is a more cost-effective and scalable solution available—Smartshoring®. Born out of a need to invest in smarter content production solutions, and a hybrid model of in-country teams and offshore expertise, Smartshoring® makes use of the best talent, wherever it may be. Particularly strong for Tier 3 and Tier 4 content production, it’s proving such a successful model that we’re increasingly seeing Tier 2 work being tasked to Smartshoring®.
It’s a model that goes beyond just cost saving. As Puneet Srivastava pointed out, retaining talent is another problem companies and agencies are facing, and Smartshoring® is the scalable, flexible solution to that problem. Combining offshore expertise with local quality control and management, Smartshoring® is tomorrow’s model for producing global content at scale.
In creative content production nowadays, those who aren’t offshoring are running the risk of not only paying a premium for their creative production but being left behind technologically and operationally, especially in the sectors like healthcare where it’s still an emerging model. Talk to us to see what Smartshoring® can do for your organization.
