In today’s market, there are many outsourcing organizations to choose from, from the massive, the small, the great, the terrible, and the ugly.
For those unfamiliar with the industry, choosing from amongst the thousands of prospects available to them can be a daunting duty.
In this guide, you’ll hear the real deal from an experienced industry veteran whose “opinions” are based on decades of good outsourcing practice and business cases.
The Real Criteria to Look for When You Want to Outsource a Project or Business Process to a Multilingual Outsourcing Company
Developed over 25 years in the industry, we’ve put together the nine criteria you should look for in an offshoring company and 18 rules to always follow.
1 – The Languages Involved
When you outsource work, whether it be multilingual data entry, annotation, or CX services, you should always consider the “long term.”
We hear you say, ” But my project is only in English.” That’s great, but will that always be the case? How do you know for sure? Do you want to limit yourself from the start?
Many businesses experience terrific growth. Almost half of all our clients began small before expanding across multiple countries.
Suppose you don’t choose a multilingual offshoring supplier from the beginning. In that case, you must retrain other teams or change your supplier, inevitably leading to extra management costs and lower security.
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RULE #1: Choose a multilingual outsourcing provider from the start.
2 – The Location of Your Office Compared to the Outsourcing Company
This is mainly important about the languages of your project, but you should also consider the locations of delivery centers for your partner.
Usually, the closer you are to the “Western world” (Western Europe or the USA, often referred to as nearshore with offshore representing a non-western client), the more accessible transport becomes. That being said, it’s also more costly.
To be frank, clients rarely wish to visit our centers, meaning that distance in kilometers is far less important than availability. That’s why you must consider your partner’s time zone. That way, you can contact your supply managers during working hours and not at night.
RULE #2: Select a partner with project managers who’ll be reachable during YOUR working hours, speak YOUR language, and have 24/7 availability.
With OWorkers, you can be sure that our project managers will always be:
- Available in your time zone
- Fluent in your language
- Development of best practices for years with 100 + clients
3 – The Attrition rate
The attrition rate of the country you’re looking to outsource to and that of the company itself is crucial to a BPO (business process outsourcing) project’s operational success, whether it be multilingual data entry, annotation, or FAO services.
In short, the attrition rate refers to an organisation’s employee turnover. A 0% attrition rate would mean that no employees ever leave. Of course, no company can manage that, but a 10% attrition rate is considered a healthy norm. When it reaches 20%, problems start.
In the BPO industry, these rates often exceed 30% (especially in call centers).
This can be a real problem because outsourced staff still require training, often taking months to reach full efficiency. This is why staff need to stay long term. If not, you’ll have to find new candidates and retrain them every three months, which is both risky for the process and bad for the overall quality of the work.
Some countries have particularly low attrition rates due to high competition within the outsourcing/ offshoring industry. The Philippines, for example, has an average attrition rate of between 25% and 30%. To put that another way, one in four Filipino staff changes employers every year.
In terms of attrition rate, the best countries tend to be places like Egypt, Madagascar, and Bulgaria, where the industry is less mature and there are fewer competitors.
RULE #3: Choose a country with a meager attrition rate on the labor market (particularly for multilingual data entry, annotation, or other outsourcing projects), as well as a provider who can consistently show a low attrition rate in different projects.
In addition, you’ll want to do everything you can to maintain a good work atmosphere, offering more to employees in terms of salary range and benefits than the market average for other multilingual outsourcing companies.
Globally, our average attrition rate in 2022 was just 2.7%!
4—The Risks: The Risks Are Always There, so you should be Smart and Do Your Due Diligence when Investigating Outsourcing Companies.
There are six types of risk when it comes to outsourcing a project or a business process, including the regulation risk.
It’s pivotal that your potential outsourcing partner complies with all relevant laws/regulations. Standard regulations include the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). Compliance with these laws is vitally nonnegligible. Here at OWorkers, we’re a GDPR-compliant company.
RULE #4: Ensure your partner complies with GDPR and regulations.
Understanding cybersecurity is hugely important. In practice, that means having a centralized security dashboard, up-to-date antivirus and antimalware, dedicated IT staff for cybersecurity, and a strict data security policy.
RULE #5: Ask your multilingual outsourcing company for its data security policy.
This can include:
- Building risks: is the entrance secure? Is the building new or old? Does it have 24/7 guards?
- Office entry risks: does the office have biometry at the entrance? How about video surveillance?
- Electric power risk: electricity shortages can be a real problem in offshore locations. As such, you’ll have to ensure that your offshoring partner has the electric generator capability to handle very long electrical shortages without issues.
- The internet risk: consider what type of internet you’re using (fibre or satellite?) and the potential for redundancy should it go down.
RULE #6: Ask for videos of delivery centers demonstrating the critical security features/risk mitigation listed above.
Find videos of all OWorkers delivery centres here.
RULE #7: Even if it’s a simple BPO project (like multilingual data entry), it’s always better to look at the contract (master service agreement) with an attorney before signing.
At the heart of any good outsourcing partner should be a focus on using the correct type of quality control (% of sampling, double entry, etc.), knowing when to do it (pre or post), knowing how many staff members to test, and putting the means in place for quality control issues to be reported quickly and efficiently.
RULE #8: Ask for the specifications and details of the quality control methods/techniques that will be implemented.
Some countries are less stable than others, and should issues occur, your partner must rely on multi-site capabilities in different countries to handle any given project.
RULE #9: Always choose a multi-site outsourcing company.
5 – The Certifications and Awards
Your best bet is almost always to choose a partner who has been audited and received international certifications from the industry.
ISO 27001 is one of the vital certifications an outsourcing organization can receive, demonstrating solid procedures.
You should also sign with a partner recognized within the industry as a leader in some fields and has received awards.
RULE #10: Choose an ISO 27001-certified provider and inquire about which rewards they have received.
OWorkers is ISO 27001, and our award can be found here.
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6 – The Cost: Outsource To a Bad Provider Can Seriously Cost
The cost of outsourcing from a multilingual company is relatively simple to calculate. The formula is as follows:
Labour cost in the country you outsource to has two components: the staff’s net salaries and the combined social security and taxes of both the staff and the organisation you’re outsourcing to.
On top of this, you’ll want to factor in the outsourcing supplier’s markups. These usually include:
- Their infrastructure cost and quality (see the point on certifications).
- The “position” cost (workstation, desk and chair, internet cables, etc.)
- The direct management cost and the ratio they use for direct management.
- Quality control costs and the ratio used for quality control.
Generally, a good direct management ratio (project managers and their assistants) is usually around 1/50. A quality control ratio is usually 1/12, depending on the project (volume, headcounts, number of projects, level of dedication, multilingual) and the type of services (data entry, annotation, CX, etc.).
Finally, you’ll want to factor in the cost of top management and holding expenses (such as advertising costs) and their net profits ratio.
It’s worth noting that bad providers tend not to pay social security taxes.
Instead, they hire freelancers, most of whom don’t declare anything, and let them do the work. Ultimately, this leads to high attrition rates, poor infrastructure, and inadequate security for the project overall.
RULE #11: Cost is only a part of the equation and NEVER has to be the main criterion in your decisions. Remember to compare oranges with oranges, not apples, when choosing an outsourcing company.
One last note on cost is the sad fact that the final price of your outsourcing tends to vary, more than anything else, based on the greed of the outsourcing provider.
Bad outsourcers tend to take a higher markup for lower security and infrastructure.
The price for English should be between 5 and 8 USD per hour for offshore locations and 11 to 12 USD per hour for nearshore locations, depending on the volume and their specific process.
Anything less than this is risky. Any more than this is greedy.
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7 – The Expertise, Proofs, and References Are Fundamental
Companies can talk the big talk about their expertise and may attempt to inflate (or even fabricate) their references, but they can’t stop you from calling them to check.
RULE #12: Always ask to speak directly with some previous clients before signing a contract.
Much like a lousy carpet seller, some multilingual companies will tell you that they can manage any BPO data entry or annotation project.
Unfortunately, it’s just not true. In reality, they can try to manage your project with little to no experience while claiming that the cost is “super cheap.” But, in the end, overpromising is always a bad sign.
Avoid these kinds of multilingual companies if you want your outsourcing taken seriously.
RULE #13: Sign with experts in their specific field or generalists who can demonstrate expertise in related fields.
On that subject, OWorkers began with data and content expertise and, after years of practice, extended it to customer services.
RULE #14: Avoid companies with less than ten years of experience in the industry.
Experience matters, and if you want to guarantee excellent results, you’ll want to choose companies that’ve been around for a while.
We’ve found that most outsourcing companies take at least five years across multiple clients to gain the expertise they need. Check their website carefully with due diligence in mind.
8 – The Flexibility and Scalability of Your Awesome Outsourcing Company is Super Important.
RULE #15: A master service agreement (contract) is not a wedding contract.
Most BPO industry contracts are for one year, although they can be extended automatically.
They have a short notice period for ceasing operations. Before three months, you can usually end a contract within days. After that point, notice periods of 60-90 days are generally acceptable.
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RULE #16: A good outsourcing company should adapt to your needs rather than vice versa.
You need a company that can quickly adapt to fit your flow. A top multilingual outsourcing company has to scale up and down in capability at very short notice.
They can manage this because they have thousands of suitable candidates in stock with their HR departments.
9 – Your Responsibility: YOU Are Responsible for YOUR Process.
A successful outsourcing project, whether multilingual data entry, annotation, or CX, is always a collaboration between two good players – the outsourcing company and its client.
Many clients come without preparation, not knowing what they want, who will supervise and train the offshore team, or who will decide on quality control.
A worthwhile outsourcing organization can do a lot but can’t substitute for your involvement. It’s all about your management and your communication with the outsourced partnership.
We’ve encountered clients willing to criticise their outsourcing provider without ever providing them with the tools, time, and management necessary to make the project a success.
RULE #17: You have to be prepared at all levels. Your internal staff must be prepared, your process must be written out, and your goals must be determined.
Outsourcing is no different from internal teamwork, only with new employees.
Conclusion: Where Should You Go to Find the Best Multilingual Outsourcing Companies?
Suppose you’re looking for a good outsourcing company that is not too big, exclusive to their clients, and big enough to have the actual infrastructure, experienced management, and the time to take care of all their clients, big or small. In that case, OWorkers is the company for you.
Oworkers is an experienced outsourcing supplier of multilingual BPO services with a focus on:
With us, you’ll get :
- Unmatched experience, including over a decade of operations with senior management who’ve been working in hands-on roles within the industry for twenty-five years
- Robust processes developed with over a hundred recurring clients
- Multilingual capabilities
- Four global centres
- Over 500 employees, no freelancers, no cloud workers
Our prestigious clients (mainly from within the US, Western Europe, and Asia) have reported savings of up to 70% over their pre-outsourcing costs, with exceptional delivery.
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Final rule #18: Your pursuit of a multilingual outsourced services company that produces outstanding quality in well-defined turnaround times and at competitive prices should start and end with us.
Are you ready to take your project to the next phase and get results with a phenomenal outsourcing services company in Bulgaria, Egypt, and Madagascar? Our multidisciplinary team is ready to impart high-quality, cost-effective solutions that will aid your business in reaching its full ambition. We offer many services, including multilingual data entry, annotation, and customer support. We are dedicated to delivering brilliance in every outsourcing thing we do. Contact us today, and let’s commence a productive partnership!
“When you outsource with us, you are getting much more than just an external service supplier. You are getting a reliable partner who is committed to helping your business grow and succeed.”
The best-outsourced services company is the one that can provide you with the top services at a minimal price and with astounding quality.
The provider should be able to comprehend your needs and contribute solutions tailored to your precise requirements.
The selected one should have a team of experienced specialists who are zealous in giving you distinguished results.
The company should have a confirmed success record and should be able to give references from satisfied clients.
The company should be able to offer updates and reports faithfully on the progress of your project.
The selected partner should be able to extend high security and confidentiality within the outsourcing contract.
The chosen partner has to understand design, digital, consulting, virtual, mobile, and knowledge process outsourcing.
Good outsourced services companies should be able to provide you with a wide range of multilingual services powered by technology and with humans in the loop.
A competitive and affordable pricing model to get behind.
Whether onshore/offshore/nearshore/coastal, we are grateful to assist you in one of our delivery centers.
We can assist you if you are searching for a reliable and trusted partner for your outsourced requirements. Contact us today, and let us illustrate our methods for your business to flourish and succeed.
In conclusion, when searching for an excellent multilingual outsourcing company to comply with your specific requirements, it is paramount to consider factors such as the company’s experience, track record, security measures, and the scope of services they offer. By choosing an organization that enacts a brilliant outsourcing formula and has an established focus on quality and security, you can be optimistic that your project will be in good hands.