There are several key reasons why architects in the United States often choose to outsource CAD (computer-aided design) projects rather than complete them in-house:
Cost Savings
The top driver for outsourcing CAD services is cost savings. Hiring additional in-house CAD technicians or buying multiple CAD software licenses is expensive, especially for smaller firms. Outsourcing to offshore CAD services firms located in countries like India and the Philippines can cut costs by 50-80% without sacrificing quality. These overseas firms have lower labor and operational costs, enabling them to offer services at much cheaper hourly rates. Outsourcing CAD allows US firms to convert fixed labor costs into flexible variable costs, giving them more budget flexibility.
Access to Specialized Talent
Outsourced CAD providers maintain large pools of expert talent specialized in services like 2D drafting, 3D modeling, BIM, MEP, structural detailing, animation, rendering, and more. For US firms, finding, hiring, and retaining this range of hyper-specialized capabilities in-house is challenging. Outsourcing gives instant access to qualified professionals like CAD managers, BIM modelers, MEP experts, etc. This talent bench strength enhances productivity and the technical sophistication of deliverables.
Focus on Core Competencies
By offloading time and resource-intensive CAD/BIM functions, US architects can better focus internal teams on higher-value tasks like concept designs, client interactions, and managing projects. Outsourcing CAD documentation frees up bandwidth allowing principals, partners, and senior architects to play to their strengths and concentrate on expanding the firm’s core design business. This boosts both quality and productivity.
Speed & Scalability
Outsourced vendors have the systems and round-the-clock capacity to deliver large volumes of CAD drawings within extremely tight deadlines. They can also readily scale up or down to match fluctuating demand across projects. For US firms, creating this kind of flexible in-house capacity for speed and scalability would require making huge investments and disruptive organizational changes, which may still fall short of demand fluctuations.
Latest Technology & Tools
Outsourcing partners often invest heavily in having the latest CAD/BIM applications, hardware/OS platforms, special plugins/add-ons, and libraries of content, templates, objects, materials, etc. which significantly improves designer productivity. With outsourced support, US firms can leverage these technology assets without having to buy expensive software licenses or build equivalent libraries in-house.
Reduced Risks
Outsourcing is usually based on fixed-bid pricing for clearly defined deliverables, which reduces cost variances and opportunities for billable hours inflation to increase provider profits. Having an external party handle the CAD work also reduces potential data security and confidentiality risks for the architectural firm. Outsourced services also shift liability for things like timely completions, quality issues, and IP violations to the provider rather than burdening the US company.
In summary, outsourcing CAD services allows American architectural practices to deliver better quality outputs, in less time, at lower costs while also freeing up internal resources. The scalability, specialized talent access, latest tools, and contained risk offered by overseas vendors make outsourcing an attractive option. As US firms aim for higher agility, tighter costs, and deeper focus on design rather than drafting outsourced CAD support provides the means to achieving these goals.
If you’re looking for professional CAD outsourcing service then McLine Studios is the right place for you!
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