Outsourcing vs. Crowdsourcing – What Should You Choose for Custom Designs

The following post was written by Rahul Aggarwal, the founder of Desighill.

The quality, cost and effectiveness of graphic designs can spell the difference between the success and failure for your start-up or small business. That’s why it’s important that you carefully mull over whether to crowdsource or to outsource your graphic design projects since there is a very fine line that distinguishes crowdsourcing from outsourcing especially if you’re not very familiar with these terms. If that’s a problem for you, then taking a few moments to understand how crowdsourcing differs from outsourcing will point you in the right direction.

Operating Costs

Source: your-solar-energy-home.com

Perhaps one of the biggest areas where crowdsourcing differs from outsourcing is operating costs. There are costs related to bench and facilities associated with outsourcing, however, there are no overhead expenses associated with crowdsourcing. This is because there are no fixed costs or facilities that one needs to pay for.

Flexible Workforce           

According to a blog published on Topcoder, outsourcing does not really provide a very flexible workforce option. Its traditionally a rigid framework that requires fixed, local workforce. However, crowdsourcing provides a much more flexible option in terms of workforce as it offers a fairly reasonable, on-demand access worldwide.

Abilities & Skill Set

Another point where crowdsourcing and outsourcing widely differ is the range of abilities and skills readily associated with each model. Crowdsourcing relies on open innovation where custom design crowdsourcing marketplaces such as Designhill offer clients a rare chance to simultaneously work with a number of designers with different skill sets and backgrounds.

Source: sharpbrains.com]

On the contrary, according to an article published on Lion Bridge, outsourcing relies on a more defined and limited, local team that mostly specializes in one particular stream and often succumbs to pressure of efficiently undertaking different types of tasks and assignments, simultaneously.

Errors & Choices

Many entrepreneurs and business owners believe that businesses that underestimate the value of good graphic designs miss vital opportunities and succumb to competitions. When you outsource your graphic design project, you may neither get the desired quality nor the desired number of choices. And the most difficult task remains getting revisions and changes done for the end product.

Source: thinksales.co.za

On the other hand, the competitive nature of crowdsourcing marketplaces ensures that designers come up with creatively inspiring designs, each time. In addition, crowdsourcing opens the window of choices for you and instead of getting just a few submissions; you end up receiving dozens of submissions making it easy for you to take your pick. In addition, it is easy to get revisions and changes in your design when you crowdsource your design projects as designers listed are willing to do so.

Production and Output

Many American firms depend on outsourcing due to the time clock management that this model allows. Instead of bearing the bulging cost of full-time salaried employees, outsourcing allows companies to access cheap labor for hourly rates. However, the quality of the work done during those hours has nothing to do with the pay. No matter if they create brilliant designs or absolute garbage during the set period; they will still get paid the same rate for their time. On the other hand, when crowdsourcing designs such as logo designs from Designhill, designers consistently focus on production and output. Instead of paying per hour, you are paying for the end product that you eventually buy.

Schedule of Availability

Source: webjunction.org

With outsourcing, productivity is confined to a relatively small portion of each day. Add to that the downtime of breaks and lunches. On the other hand, crowdsourcing allows a more flexible schedule of availability as crowdsourced designers are not tied to a particular time period. With a crowdsourcing model, you can have professional designers working for you round the clock. The overall productivity will drastically increase when you crowdsource your design project as there are no confined schedules.

These are just some of the many point of differences between crowdsourcing and outsourcing. It makes sense to keep these things in perspective and carefully mull over the pros and cons of each model when deciding over whether to crowdsource or outsource your design project.

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