What are the benefits of business process outsourcing

One does not get to become an industry estimated to be in the hundreds of billions of dollars unless one is able to create value and provide benefits. And since industry size is estimated in terms of the revenue generated by the industry, which is the same as the amount of money spent on it by clients, the benefits perhaps mostly accrue to the clients, or buyers. That might even be a truism. In a free market, where one has choices, businesses exist, survive and thrive because they are able to create value for their customers and generate revenue as a result. Thus, being able to create value for their buyers is of the greatest relevance. There could, of course, be other beneficiaries. People in marginalized and neglected communities welcome the industry as it generates jobs for them. The business process outsourcing (BPO) industry is a known employment generator, not at the highly educated, skilled, highly paid vocations, but at the lower end of the scale, where educational and other qualifications are limited. The industry has made a name for itself in being able to pick up ‘raw’ but trainable resources from these backgrounds, who otherwise suffer from low employment rates, put them through a rigorous process of training, and make them fit for one or more of the projects they are working on for their clients. In many cases, these skills may just be the ability to communicate properly and type quickly and accurately. With these skills, they get an entry into the global virtual economy. With a diverse pool of employees, based on a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic ethos, oWorkers is also able to offer multilingual support to its clients. Governments around the world are known to have a soft corner for the industry, for similar reasons. They understand that one of the benefits of business process outsourcing is the ability to promote employment in underserved communities. Governments typically have a vested interest in the upliftment of such communities, some for genuine humanitarian work, and some for the purpose of gathering votes in the next election. Whatever be the reason, most governments welcome and encourage BPOs to set up shop in the areas they govern. With a focus on data related services, oWorkers is the ideal company for governments to work with as most people can be trained to deliver its offerings. This also has the effect of regulating economic disparities between different geographies, by taking away expensive jobs from expensive locations to inexpensive locations where they can be done more economically. This is likely to result in lowering demand in the expensive locations, cooling down wages, while increasing demand in inexpensive locations which might result in pushing up wages. The net result being a reduction in disparities. With a management team that has over 20 years of experience in the industry, oWorkers is at the vanguard of the BPO industry that is making the world a more fair and equal place for all. While all the above factors are in play and work in favor of the industry, we will examine in detail the benefits of business process outsourcing to its primary constituent, the client.

Focus on core business

We live in a competitive world. Every company desires success but not all achieve it. There are companies being born every day. Several survive, a few thrive, while many others fade away or die, unable to compete and make a mark. Each company has a certain area of operation. It is often defined in their mission and vision statements. The world is too big for any single business to handle everything. That might only happen in a dictatorship where the success or failure of endeavors might not be questioned. In a free market, it is a non-starter. The biggest corporations on the planet operate in their defined area of expertise. Google runs a search engine and a few other digital technology platforms like YouTube. It does not manufacture ice cream. Facebook handles the largest social media website in the world, plus a few others. It does not run a hospital or any medical service. Kia Motors makes automobiles. It does not produce soft drinks. Walmart runs a large retail franchise business. It does not undertake software coding projects. They do what they are best at. That is already a difficult task for many, considering the number of companies that fail to make the grade. Taking on tasks they are not even good at or have no interest in, will only tilt the scales further against them. One of the main benefits of business process outsourcing for outsourcers is that it enables them to focus on their core business activities. Clients from around the world, including IT companies and unicorn marketplaces, rely on oWorkers to help them stay focused on their core work by taking care of all support services. oWorkers employs quality specialists who drive process enhancements and act as the eyes and ears of the management team on the shopfloor.

Access to specialists

Since we live in a civilized world, there are rules that we need to comply with. This is true for companies as well. Running a business requires a number of tasks to be performed, with some having a regulatory angle as well. Whether you run a restaurant, or bake bread, or manufacture travel luggage, your business will probably need to: Hire the right people for the job, and maybe train them. You also need to ensure compliance with policies pertaining to minimum wages, retirement funding, working hours, etc. Keep an account of the business transactions that are being done. You may also need to pay and file taxation related returns. There could be other financial information your business may need to submit to the authorities from time to time. Hire a premises from where the business will operate. This will need to be kept clean and safe for people to work in, with a provision for facilities like toilets, water, food, etc. There may also be health and safety regulations that the business will need to comply with. While your business could, arguably, hire resources with the right skills who will take responsibility for all the various tasks. And this may well be the case in large companies who have the requisite scale to justify such positions. Companies that do not have the same scale, could engage specialist partners and avail the benefits of business process outsourcing. The deep connects oWorkers has developed in host communities results in a continuous flow of walk-in jobseekers. This allows oWorkers the freedom to assess and select the best, based on job requirements. It also becomes possible to cater to short-term unforeseen volume peaks. oWorkers can hire an additional headcount of almost a hundred people within 48 hours. This is a huge cost saving for clients who would otherwise have to maintain an idle workforce or forego those volumes.

Right staffing

Each business has its own requirements in terms of the educational qualifications and work experience it expects its staff members to possess. People possessing such qualifications are not only more suitable, but have also expressed their intention of contributing to the industry by acquiring such qualifications. One of the strategies that many companies rely on to propagate their business and increase profits is volume. If a company has perfected the process of making mobile phones that people desire and can charge a price that enables them to make a profit, the more they increase volumes the more their gross profit will increase. It is a no-brainer for most companies. While core knowledge and skills are required for innovation and development, when it comes to replication into greater volumes, what mostly takes place is repetitive tasks. In any case companies, while promoting cutting edge research and innovation, also try to break tasks down to a level that can be repeated without possessing any significant knowledge. Hiring and training and retention of such resources, who are able to do repetitive tasks, and might be a workforce very different from their core, requires completely different HR skills. Outsourcing these activities, and the attendant requirement of hiring and training a different workforce, enables companies to realize another of the benefits of business process outsourcing. With its policy of working with employees, and not contractors or freelancers, which some other providers do, oWorkers is able to provide growth and development to its staff. This is one of the reasons oWorkers boasts of a competent layer of supervisors who have been groomed internally, and who can take a lot of workload off the senior management of the company. oWorkers is regularly rated as 4.6 or more, on a scale of 5, by its existing as well as past employees. These ratings are on external platforms such as Glassdoor.

Process and technology improvement

Revenue generation in its line of business is generally the reason for the existence of a company. Costs need to be incurred in order that the target revenue can be realized. The investments and enhancements that the company engages in, are likely to be business oriented; in other words, that enable them to stand out in the marketplace and generate greater revenue. Such considerations may not apply to processing areas of its business, since they are generally not the focus for top management. It is also possible that the company may not have the volumes to justify investment in improvement in those areas. The scenario changes completely when such activities are outsourced. What was a cost for one company becomes the revenue of another, the outsourced vendor partner. The vendor, like all companies, now has an interest in improving how it does business. This could translate into process improvements as well as technology investments which are better justified as the vendor might be handling similar work for other clients too. Everyone involved gets these benefits of business process outsourcing. The vendor gets more business. Its clients benefit from the vendor’s enhanced efficiencies in handling their work. With its facilities ISO (27001 :2013 & 9001:2015) certified, oWorkers offers your business a secure environment to operate from. It is also GDPR compliant. The strong relationships oWorkers has forged with leading technology providers gives it access to updated technologies. Its ability to use them for client work also delivers benefits to clients. Even its client base comprises 85% technology companies as clients.

Turnaround time flexibility

BPO vendors are flexible creatures, ever ready to adapt to the requirements of their clients. Engaging a BPO partner in business process activities imparts that flexibility to the client’s business as well. With the help of the flexible operating hours of a BPO partner, you may be able to operate on a 24×7 basis, thereby either completing tasks faster or doing more within the same calendar time of 24 hours or 7 days. Since BPO vendors today, riding on the backbone of communications technology, can operate from anywhere in the world, your business may often benefit from the time difference between the vendor and your business. Imagine closing shop at the end of the business day with a pile of unfinished work, and coming to work the next morning and finding that everything has been done, as if by magic. It was actually a BPO vendor on the other side of the world who was opening for the day as you were closing, who picked up the unfinished work, and completed it while you were sleeping. That is magic, isn’t it? All delivery centers of oWorkers, in three different locations around the world, are equipped to operate on a 24x basis, should clients have a need for it.

Cost saving

Eventually there is cost saving that results from an outsourcing engagement and is still considered to be one of the main benefits of business process outsourcing. Not only does the partner work with staff that are more suited for the type of work, they are also more reasonably priced. In addition, the vendor, as it does not need to attract customers to its premises, has no need of locating its workplace in the expensive downtown areas. They can work pretty much from any place that has the internet connectivity and a suitable talent pool. On top of this they are able to create efficiencies as they keep trying to do the same thing better and better as it is their business and brings in revenue. While clients may be trying to save cost, the providers are trying to generate revenue. The result? Better processes and technologies which yield further efficiency to the client. oWorker’s unique pricing model is well known. They give the client a choice between a dollars per input unit model and dollars per output unit model. Clients can choose what they prefer. Many clients talk about saving up to 80% of their pre-outsourcing costs when they partner with oWorkers.