If you run or manage a company in the AEC Industry, are feeling a pinch in your project budgets, and your company is in need of drafting services, then using a provider of outsourced AutoCAD drafting services instead of keeping a full time CAD employee may be a way to cut costs. Here’s a thought on this alternative.
The Costs of an Employee
In addition to the base salary of full time CAD employee, there may also be the costs of: social security, disability, health care, time off, 401k and bonuses. Now these same costs may or may not be incorporated into the rate of a CAD drafting service, but even if they are, they would only be paid on an as-needed basis, and not 40 hours a week for each of the 52 weeks in a year. Being able to use a CAD drafting service only when needed is where the savings could come in. Making this determination would of course have to be done on a case by case basis, but generally speaking, if by sending CAD out-of-house an AEC Industry company can get its CAD work completed, on schedule, in accordance with its CAD standards, and at a cost less than maintaining an in-house year round CAD employee, then doing so may be prudent.
Mutually Beneficial Arrangements
There is also an arrangement that can be made with a CAD provider, that gives a middle ground feeling between that of an employee and an external service. That arrangement would be to put a CAD drafting service on retainer for “x” number of days per week (or months, etc.). CAD drafting service companies often work as many companies do, by queuing up projects when they come in. Through a retainer arrangement, an AEC Industry company which is in need of drafting services could make sure that they are regularly listed the queue of one, even during the times when the CAD drafting service is busy. In running my CAD drafting service I’ve done this with a client of mine during a time when they wanted to make certain I would be available to them no matter what. The way it worked was that they prepaid for two days per week of my time, and I booked those days in my schedule for them. There were no refunds on the booked time, so I knew that I was getting paid for the time whether they submitted CAD drafting tasks or not, and they knew that my services would be available to them for two days per week.
Conclusion
If a company can save money during tight economic times through outsourcing CAD drafting work to a provider that can get the work done when and how the company wants it, then doing so may be prudent.