Outsourcing: The big excuse

Two events in the past few weeks have struck into my very soul a pathological terror of a buzzword that is unfortunately bandied about with much glib enthusiasm. "Outsourcing" promises to deliver efficiency and intelligence to functions that have been mishandled internally by corporations.

The concept has gained such popularity that now, even functions that were running fairly well are being outsourced because freeing companies up to focus on their core business, while only paying for secondary services as and when they are needed, is a pretty good idea.

So, let the people who know what they`re doing do what they`re good at, and let companies get on with the business of being companies. Marvellous. Except, somewhere in the process, something has gone horribly wrong. As a client, instead of dealing with an outsourced genius carefully selected by any company with which I have a contract, I now find myself dealing with morons for whom the companies will take no responsibility. The job is done worse, only now there is no accountability.

Take, for instance, my recent dealings with the municipality. We moved into our new house six months ago, and have been paying our utilities bill monthly ever since. Everything looked fairly normal until suddenly, last month, our bill arrived, brazenly claiming that we owed the council R12 000 for water. Even if we had left the tap running constantly since we moved in, we would not have accrued a R12 000 bill. A plumber confirmed that there could be no underground leak because if one justified R12 000, our garden would be knee-deep in pond scum and our house would be submerged.

Of course, the next step is a visit to the council, since it hasn`t invested any of the money that it is obviously extorting from the nation into an outsourced call centre where perky operators deal efficiently with your every request. Instead, the phone just rings. I know of people who have just paid up their exorbitant bills because they can`t afford to take the time off work to spend numerous mornings sorting things out at the council. No one reimburses us the cost of five hours wasted in long queues to resolve the monumental stuff-ups.

The job is done worse, only now there is no accountability.

Georgina Guedes, journalist, ITWeb

The helpful young gentleman at the council agreed that R12 000 did seem a little steep, considering that we were running a house, and not a theme park. He put it down to an error on the part of the people who were reading the meters, and scheduled us for a rereading. As hopeful as this all sounded initially, it was at this point that all hope was actually lost.

"Wait a couple of months, and see if the amount disappears," he suggested. "The meter readers are outsourced, so we can`t really tell them what to do. I`ve put forward your request, but we`ll have to see if they comply, or schedule it again if they haven`t in a couple of months."

And there you have it. The function is outsourced, therefore they can no longer take responsibility for it. The service, which wasn`t up to much to start with, is now even worse, and the council refuses to be held accountable. Fantastic.

Fortunately, this doesn`t seem to be a Proudly South African problem. On a recent press trip to London, I encountered a similar lack of initiative on the part of the ground staff at Virgin Atlantic. Having been flown first class, we had the added perk of a complimentary chauffeur service to and from the airport. Arrivals went off without a hitch, but as we were heading back to the airport in a Virgin Atlantic car, having been collected at the time allotted by Virgin Atlantic, there was a massive accident just outside of Central London, and the Hammersmith Flyover had to be closed, resulting in a traffic snarl up, the likes of which I have never seen.

Our driver, in constant contact with Virgin Atlantic, called ahead to alert the airline to our delay, which was delaying hundreds of passengers throughout London and to ask if it was worth trying a longer back route. We were told to come on through, and that the plane would be held for us. Breathless and red-faced, we arrived at Heathrow, only to be told by the smarmy ground staff that we were five minutes late and that boarding was closed. Our protestations and tearful appeals fell on deaf ears. Finally, having realised that these people were intractable, we asked them what we should do next.

"Madam," a snooty blonde informed us, "you missed the flight, it`s your problem."

I pointed out to her that we were in a Virgin Atlantic car and had been in contact with the airline the whole way, and were, in fact encouraged to make our way through to Heathrow.

"Madam, we can`t take responsibility for what happens on the way to the airport since the car service is outsourced, and the driver is not in the employ of Virgin Atlantic."

Oh, well done Richard Branson. That`s a clever loophole.

Surely any company concerned with projecting a professional corporate image would do its best to ensure a seamless transition between actual staff and outsourced workers. Surely it would be as concerned with the appearances, attitudes and work ethic of the people it has at the front line of representing the company when dealing with clients. Or perhaps the strategic marketing department was the first to be outsourced.