outsourcing partner
What to look for in your outsourcing partner
There might have been some hesitation in the early days, but today, outsourcing to a good partner as a business strategy has become an integral part of the armory of global corporations, constantly looking for an advantage in the cut-throat world of business.
In its current shape and form, outsourcing is understood to have begun around the middle of the twentieth century, as business started to expand, buoyed by an unusually conflict-free period in the aftermath of the second world war.
Taking tentative steps in the early days, with outsourcing being done to units within the same company, and within reasonable physical proximity of the principal operations, it gradually spread its wings to locations further and further afield, till the arrival of the internet and the telecommunications revolution towards the end of the century made it a global, anywhere to anywhere phenomena that we see today.
oWorkers is grateful to its predecessor for having created pathways walking down which it has been able to carve out a niche for itself in just over 8 years of existence, in its chosen area of work, that of data-based BPO services.
Clients from around the world have shown tremendous support during this phase of its growth.
It is not a one-way street
However, blessings are rarely unmixed, as they say. There is always a downside. Setbacks in outsourcing are not uncommon.
Some of the largest, best-managed corporations have had to retrace their steps after setbacks in outsourcing ventures. Like any business strategy, the outsourcing strategy can also fail if not conceptualized and executed well.
It is just that we hear and talk more often about the ones that are successful, creating an impression that it is a sure-win strategy.
So, what does that mean? Should a company not consider outsourcing if there are potential challenges?
Certainly not.
There are challenges in every activity.
If a company were to stop doing something because it could be harmful, it would probably never do anything.
What does that mean for a company?
What it means is that a company needs to operate with full awareness of the situation and have strategies in place that would reduce the possibility of an adverse result or, if it were to happen, mitigate the downside impact of the event.
The good thing is that companies considering the strategy do seem to understand this.
From a time when it was considered to be low-hanging fruit for reducing costs, outsourcing has now evolved into a business strategy that needs to be conceptualized and executed well for the best results.
And it helps to work with a partner like oWorkers. Its leadership team comes with hands-on experience of several decades and often acts as consultants to its clients as they learn to navigate their way through outsourcing.
Importance of the outsourcing partner
How to choose BPO companies ? The search for a suitable, and qualified, outsourcing partner, is considered by experts to be a good place to start in the quest for a successful, sustainable, outsourcing initiative.
And, with the help of telecommunications and technology, that partner could be anywhere in the world.
The right outsourcing provider can enable companies to make the most of their processes, create scale and efficiencies of cost, and take them to places that may not even have been conceptualized in early blueprints.
oWorkers has consistently followed a policy of working with a multicultural and multinational team.
What they have got as one of the beneficial outcomes of this policy is a multilingual team. They can offer services to clients in over 20 languages.
Clients also get the option of an operational cycle that can be any part of the 24×7 weekly cycle, right through the year.
How does one get the right partner?
While there cannot be one single right answer, as each company and each industry, and each process is unique, one can certainly be guided by the experience that other companies have undergone in this journey.
Makes the effort to understand your business
Each business is unique. Just because you also manufacture automobile components, like your competitors who also outsourced some of their business processes, does not mean that you will have the same requirements.
You could be using a different application. Your process flows might be different. Anything.
A good partner will not take a client for granted. While familiarity with the industry and what makes it work is a good starting point, they will make the effort to understand the uniqueness of the work done by the client, a potential client at this stage.
How does this trait manifest itself?
The initial round of discussions, which are generally a precursor to a B2B relationship being consummated, is a good place to start. It is right at the beginning.
The potential partner will display their commitment by coming to the party well prepared; with an understanding of the company as well as with relevant questions, to get answers that might not be available in the public domain.
It could even be as simple as the desire to understand the key objectives in considering outsourcing.
The fact that IT companies, unicorn marketplaces, and companies from a variety of other industries choose oWorkers as their outsourcing partner is a strong indicator of the effort at oWorkers that goes into making each client successful. also read 8 considerations when choosing a BPO partner
Adds their competence to yours
A company usually knows directly about its own processes and systems. It may have some understanding of how others in the industry do it, but its direct, first-hand knowledge is usually limited to its own work.
Contrast this with a BPO partner. BPOs that have established their credentials in a certain workspace tend to get business from multiple clients.
They, therefore, have first-hand knowledge of similar processes of different clients.
This helps them develop their own knowledge about that line of work, which is what they specialize in any way, and become experts at it.
This puts them in a position where they are able to consult and guide their clients on the best approach for their respective processes.
Of course, they need to be aware of the proprietary information of different clients so that their interests do not get compromised.
Of course, another strategy could be to merely take client processes as transitioned and then continue to do them efficiently, day in and day out.
But this strategy could be risky. At some stage, someone else could come and offer to do it better.
An outsourcer’s ability to help you do your work better can be a huge competitive advantage.
It could also demonstrate itself in other ways.
Such as technology. Some partners, on account of larger volumes aggregated across clients, may be better placed at investing in technology that enhances the speed and quality of processing.
They should be willing to share such benefits with clients.
oWorkers places its Super secure facilities and networks that are ISO certifications (27001:2013 & 9001:2015) at the disposal of clients so that their data and information can stay secure. oWorkers is also GDPR compliant.
Access to suitable manpower is key
It is recognized that manpower is the driving force of the BPO industry, along with technology. It is known that what could be automated has been automated.
While efforts are on for more automation, with technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) gaining prominence, right now organizations are busy seeking creative, efficient, cost-effective solutions for processing activities that need to be performed manually.
What becomes the key requirement?
Access to a rich vein of talent from which the provider can draw to meet the requirements of its various clients.
Along with access to the talent pool, the partner should also possess a demonstrated ability to train this manpower and hone their skills to the point they can start producing on client projects.
As a preferred employer in each of its operating locations around the world, oWorkers attracts talent like few others.
Thanks to the long queues outside its offices of people interested in a job with them, it saves significantly on advertising costs for attracting candidates.
This, eventually, finds its way to clients through the pricing mechanism.
oWorkers pays social and local taxes for its employees and is routinely rated 4.6 and above, on a scale of 5, on external platforms like Glassdoor, by both past and present employees.
Open channels of communication
While honesty and sincerity are desirable goals, the ascertainment of the other party’s intentions remains a challenge. Nobody will say we are being dishonest with you, will they?
The ability to say ‘no’ should be recognized as a positive, and not a negative as clients sometimes tend to.
When they outsource, it appears that some clients expect that the partner will enhance efficiency four times and reduce costs to a tenth of the pre-outsourcing costs.
They need to get real.
The partner is not in the business of ‘magic.’ If they push back at times, it should not be taken as a sign of non-cooperation. Rather, it is the sign of an open and communicative partner who is not afraid to speak up.
The other indication of an open and honest environment is the willingness of the partner to let clients interact directly with different people in their organization, rather than forcing all communication through the narrow capacity of one relationship manager (RM) because that way they believe the narrative can be controlled.
oWorkers promotes open communications internally as well as with clients. Clients are free to engage with people involved in running their outsourced processes.
Even the leadership team of oWorkers relies on its group of quality analysts (QAs) to keep them informed about developments on the shop floor, so they can intervene when required.
Does that mean you do nothing except look for the right partner?
Far from it.
While a partner is responsible for the contract and engagement they sign up for, making the outsourcing engagement successful for your company is not their objective.
The best they can do is to strengthen your hands by keeping their part of the bargain. The success of the outsourcing initiative remains the responsibility of the outsourcer.
Like any strategic initiative, it needs to be handled with care. There should be agreement within the company on proceeding with it, as well as on the key goals they seek to achieve.
It needs to be made someone’ responsibility like any other role in the company.
The business processes to be outsourced should be identified, with a rationale for each.
There should also be clarity on the credentials and profile of the partner sought, as well as target geographies.
In addition to your own internal planning, the greater the clarity you can provide to potential partners, the more you will set them up for success, which, as we have already discussed, will eventually contribute to your company attaining success in its goals.
In short, there should be adequate thinking behind the decision and a plan for execution without which, it could be a suicide mission. also look at offshoring versus nearshoring partners
And then, hope for the best results, like in pricing. Many clients, mainly from the US and Western Europe, of oWorkers say that they were able to shave off almost 80% of their costs after engaging them as partners. don”t forget also to look at future BPO trends
What can you expect?
What can, or should, you expect once you have contracted with the right outsourcing partner, in addition to a visible, certain movement towards the defined goals?
It creates options for your company and creates a business contingency plan.
While you may already have devised your operations in a way that business contingency is taken care of, with an outsourcing partner, you get an additional option, probably much safer than the others.
You might be able to explore additional revenue lines and businesses, now that you have a partner who multiplies your processing power, sometimes at short notice.
Your staff, who were processing the transactions now outsourced, can look forward to redeployment or retraining.
Moving out of repetitive processing jobs could be attractive to many employees. look at pros and cons of BPO
The bottom line is that, like any other successful strategic initiative, a successful outsourcing engagement should enable your company to become stronger and more competitive, resulting in better outcomes for everyone involved, the owners, the employees, and the customers.
oWorkers has been able to provide an entry into the global digital economy to many people from disadvantaged backgrounds. Your work will enable them to do the same for a few more.
