Publishers and Outsourcing: Will Outsourcing Increase?
The publishing industry has changed dramatically over the past two years. The global economic slowdown hit industry revenues hard. Moreover, rapid technological advancements led publishers to a rude awakening – the business model they were operating by for decades isn’t working anymore. While publishers have made attempts to raise decreasing revenues, consumers as well as corporate clients have reduced spending. Rise in costs of print and production has led to a “two pronged” dilemma for publishers - increase revenues or decrease costs.
This report seeks to understand how publishers meet these challenges. The interest with which publishers are looking at the digital market has been established - the digital market addresses the ”two pronged” dilemma quite effectively. While opening up new channels to monetize content, it is significantly cheaper to distribute a unit of content. However, transitioning to ‘digital only’ form amounts to re-inventing the business model and brings in additional challenges (copyright protection, internet economics, etc).
Most publishers have joined the ebooks bandwagon – digitizing titles and packaging existing content for online consumption. But the there are a few questions that need to be addressed:
Research Methodology
We broke down the 237 responses as per segments to generate this report. We further cross tabbed the education segment responses on the following:
This report seeks to understand how publishers meet these challenges. The interest with which publishers are looking at the digital market has been established - the digital market addresses the ”two pronged” dilemma quite effectively. While opening up new channels to monetize content, it is significantly cheaper to distribute a unit of content. However, transitioning to ‘digital only’ form amounts to re-inventing the business model and brings in additional challenges (copyright protection, internet economics, etc).
Most publishers have joined the ebooks bandwagon – digitizing titles and packaging existing content for online consumption. But the there are a few questions that need to be addressed:
- Will the digital market alleviate revenue pressures sufficiently?
- Is the industry going to outsource more or less or stop altogether?
- Can some of the challenges be addressed by outsourcing?
- What is being outsourced?
- What are the cost savings that have been achieved?
Research Methodology
We broke down the 237 responses as per segments to generate this report. We further cross tabbed the education segment responses on the following:
- Profile of the respondent
- Size of company and
- Geography
1 FOREWORD
2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
2.1 Who took the survey?
2.2 Respondent break-down by company’s employee strength
2.3 Respondent break-down by company revenues
2.4 Respondent break-down by geography
3 UNDERSTANDING CHALLENGES
3.1 What are the challenges faced by publishers?
3.1.1 Does geography impact the perception of “key challenge?”
3.1.2 Does size impact the perception of “key challenge?”
3.1.3 Challenge perception by profile
3.2 Key challenges across segments
3.3 Can outsourcing mitigate challenges – which ones?
3.4 Understanding outsourcing sentiment
3.5 Outsourcing sentiment - by segment
4 COST SAVINGS BY OUTSOURCING
4.1.1 Cost savings – by geography
4.1.2 Perceptions by profile
4.1.3 Cost savings by segment
4.1.4 Vendor perception on cost savings
5 SATISFACTION LEVELS AND EXPECTATIONS
5.1 Are buyers satisfied?
5.1.1 Satisfaction levels by geography
5.2 Satisfaction levels – by segment
5.3 What are the improvement areas?
5.3.1 Areas requiring improvement – by company size
5.3.2 Areas requiring improvement – by geography
6 WILL OUTSOURCING GROW?
6.1 Proclivity to outsource
6.2 Where will the growth come from?
6.2.1 Which publishers (by size) will drive offshore growth?
6.2.2 Which geography will increase outsourcing, which will retard?
6.2.3 Where will increased sourcing come from?
6.3 In which segments will the growth come from?
6.3.1 Current levels of outsourcing – by segment
6.3.2 Future outsourcing – by segment
6.4 Preferred sourcing destinations
6.5 Preferred destinations – by segment
6.6 Which services will be in demand?
7 SUMMARY – KEY TAKEAWAYS
7.1 Challenges
7.2 Cost Savings
7.3 Satisfaction levels
7.4 Improvement Areas
7.5 Future growth
8 ANNEXURE
8.1 Sourcing Prism
9 ABOUT VALUENOTES
9.1 Research Publications
9.2 Recent Custom Projects
2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
2.1 Who took the survey?
2.2 Respondent break-down by company’s employee strength
2.3 Respondent break-down by company revenues
2.4 Respondent break-down by geography
3 UNDERSTANDING CHALLENGES
3.1 What are the challenges faced by publishers?
3.1.1 Does geography impact the perception of “key challenge?”
3.1.2 Does size impact the perception of “key challenge?”
3.1.3 Challenge perception by profile
3.2 Key challenges across segments
3.3 Can outsourcing mitigate challenges – which ones?
3.4 Understanding outsourcing sentiment
3.5 Outsourcing sentiment - by segment
4 COST SAVINGS BY OUTSOURCING
4.1.1 Cost savings – by geography
4.1.2 Perceptions by profile
4.1.3 Cost savings by segment
4.1.4 Vendor perception on cost savings
5 SATISFACTION LEVELS AND EXPECTATIONS
5.1 Are buyers satisfied?
5.1.1 Satisfaction levels by geography
5.2 Satisfaction levels – by segment
5.3 What are the improvement areas?
5.3.1 Areas requiring improvement – by company size
5.3.2 Areas requiring improvement – by geography
6 WILL OUTSOURCING GROW?
6.1 Proclivity to outsource
6.2 Where will the growth come from?
6.2.1 Which publishers (by size) will drive offshore growth?
6.2.2 Which geography will increase outsourcing, which will retard?
6.2.3 Where will increased sourcing come from?
6.3 In which segments will the growth come from?
6.3.1 Current levels of outsourcing – by segment
6.3.2 Future outsourcing – by segment
6.4 Preferred sourcing destinations
6.5 Preferred destinations – by segment
6.6 Which services will be in demand?
7 SUMMARY – KEY TAKEAWAYS
7.1 Challenges
7.2 Cost Savings
7.3 Satisfaction levels
7.4 Improvement Areas
7.5 Future growth
8 ANNEXURE
8.1 Sourcing Prism
9 ABOUT VALUENOTES
9.1 Research Publications
9.2 Recent Custom Projects
