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More organisations of all sizes are choosing to outsource their business services than ever before. Experienced outsourcers that have been doing so for years are upping the ante, and there is a marked increase in first-time outsourcers who are looking to achieve greater efficiencies and improve customer experience across their operations. The drivers behind the big increase in offshoring are diverse, and they bring many complexities in the journey to finding the best-fit BPO partner.
“While the consequences of the pandemic may have been a catalyst that fast-tracked a shift to outsourcing, I don’t believe they are temporary or fleeting. There is a significant shift of organisations outsourcing more of their non-core processes and skills requirements in the long term to obtain the operational and labour efficiencies they need in a massively competitive environment. Skills shortages in countries like the US are a significant driver, while many businesses want to avoid the capex on inhouse functions, processes and infrastructure to manage their growth while still facing a volatile market and economy,” explains Clinton Cohen, CEO of iContact BPO, a South African-based BPO provider servicing predominantly international markets. iContact BPO is part of the Alefbet Holdings group which owns numerous collections and customer service BPO providers.
“The multichannel and ‘always-on’ client service platforms that became mainstream in the last two to three years as businesses now serve customers from across the globe are also here to stay – from in-person to whatsapp and e-mail, chatbots, online to service agent. Businesses are under massive pressure to manage such a diverse service eco-system not only in terms of the tech, but also the financial and human capital that underpins it. There are very few businesses that can handle all these diverse functions and processes inhouse, and the move to outsourcing is a complex process with many moving parts. There are critical objectives to be set in the ‘how and why’ of outsourcing your non-core processes, and then finding the best BPO partner to deliver on your objectives and performance metrics,” adds Cohen.
Some of the objectives behind outsourcing include achieving greater operational efficiencies, cost reductions, labour arbitrage, accessing value added-services and better technology, improving customer service and experience, enhanced data and analytics capabilities and managing business continuity risks. Once these objectives are clearly defined and measurable, the most challenging part of the strategy is finding the right BPO partner to fulfil on your objectives and targets – both in terms of its operational and technical capabilities, as well as having the right culture-fit for your business and customers. One of the ways of managing the complexity in this process is to work with a specialist third-party facilitator who would be responsible for setting up the outsourced offshore office and operations and recruiting the right BPO partner to meet the defined objectives.
iContact BPO has worked closely with BrainCX – a customer experience (CX) and digital transformation consultancy – and believes that having an experienced partner that can align the objectives and CX needs of the client, with the right BPO partner in terms of capabilities and culture, is invaluable, notably for businesses entering into outsourcing for the first time, and for those that have complex, multinational outsourcing strategies.
“A trusted outsourcing facilitator will have extensive experience in different markets and geographies with many BPO providers and can provide referrals and partner selection options that integrate with your technology outsourcing and digital transformation strategies. When embraced strategically, such a facilitator puts in the hard yards both in terms of expertise, market reach and time to help your business expand sooner with a proven outsourcing strategy and process, avoiding the hurdles and pitfalls along the way,” adds Cohen.
Research conducted by Knowledge Executive on behalf of GBS World surveyed over 360 global business buyers from Australia, Canada, the UK and the US, and revealed that finding the right BPO provider is anything but straightforward. It often takes buyers between three (48%) and six months (7%) before they find a right-fit supplier. Just over 56% of respondents in the GBS World research indicated that they struggled to shortlist just five best-fit service providers.
Tariq Alinur, CEO of BrainCX, a US-based CX strategist and digital transformation expert that provides such outsourcing facilitation to some of the largest brands around the globe, explains that when a client is building their outsourcing model, there needs to be a strategy and roadmap that underpins how this process unfolds, and how the stated objectives translate into operational excellence. Outsourcing can be an intimidating process and the shift is not cut and dried or simple.
Recently, BrainCX (BCX) and iContact BPO worked together in landing a large North American telecommunications company in an outsourcing bid to South Africa – a significant win for Cape Town’s burgeoning BPO industry.
With many years of experience on both sides of being a client and a provider, Tariq Alinur shares some of the most important considerations that he looks for when finding the best BPO partner for his clients:
“The success of every client-BPO partnership is underpinned by delivering strong offshoring fundamentals, bringing together the best of customer experience, economics, quality BPO services, rapid scale when needed, high service levels and an absolute commitment to the operational performance metrics that matter most to your shared business model. Partnering with the right BPO partner will reduce costs, improve CX, grow the bottom line, and most critically, provide the scale and support needed to act rapidly wherever, and whenever market opportunities arise,” concludes Alinur.
For more information visit www.icontactbpo.com and www.braincx.com.