How Do You Ensure Success in Business Process Outsourcing?

With over 20 years of experience optimizing operations by leveraging business process outsourcing partners, I have learned there are several key considerations to maximize the opportunity and limit organizational risk.  As businesses continue to try to rethink their business strategy amidst planning for #recession readiness, outsourcing provides an opportunity to augment operations to both ‘batten down the hatches’ during the likely challenging period ahead, but also is a tool to help an organization properly scale their organization responsibly from both a cost to produce perspective as well as efficiency and effectiveness.

If your intention in outsourcing is just to leverage labor arbitrage, you are missing the point, and more importantly, if you are not equipped with the appropriate plan and strategy, the outcomes could significantly set your organization back. Here are some key things to consider,

  • Outsourcing is not the answer to all your cost-cutting needs. Domain expertise is critical to the lifeblood and sustainability of your business. You cannot outsource everything. A proper assessment of your process and partners that can augment your operations is critical. Think augmentation instead of replacement and find partners that have demonstrated success in your areas of need.
  • Treat them like a partner, not just another vendor. BPO firms are partners and should be treated as such. Success is optimized when you treat them as another location for your organization, with the same training and change management support you would provide to stand up and providing ongoing support to a new location. While the partner will handle the staffing, location, technology, etc., it is imperative that you work with them in partnership to ensure success. I have seen several failures, when the organization/function that partners with a BPO assumes we are paying them, and they should figure it out. A lack of partnership and planning will likely lead to sub optimal outcomes.
  • Know your client base. Client facing functions are important to be properly assessed. You do not want to sacrifice your brand and client experience just to save money. This is not a sustainable strategy. If you choose to utilize partners for client facing activities, properly assess the who, what, when and where.
  • The best partners have extensive capabilities. The idea of augmenting your operations is to take advantage of a partner or partners, that can not only create the potential for labor arbitrage savings, but more importantly enable you to scale without having to add staff at the same rate. The best partners will bring their experience and best practices with industry peers, in addition to their process reengineering talents, and technology to optimize your processes, allowing you to scale more effectively going forward.
  • An oversight model is a necessity. Depending on your industry, it may be a requirement, but it will also be critical to maximize the effectiveness of the partnership and to identify potential risks and mitigate them.

Boardroom Bullpen is here to help you take your business to the next level.

Visit us at https://boardroombullpen.com/ If you need a partner to help assess your organization’s operational health, coach you in an operational area where you lack domain expertise or are considering a Fractional C-Suit Role set up at appointment at https://boardroombullpen.com/contact-us.php