Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) providers can help a struggling business with multiple processes such as live chat outsourcing, data entry, marketing, human resource management, and many others. When businesses invest in a BPO service provider, an outsourced firm takes responsibility for the specific business function it has been hired for, so the business can easily focus on its core competencies to grow its business. By assigning monotonous, time-consuming, and redundant tasks to an outsourced firm that specializes in these jobs, companies can take the burden off their shoulders.
What Is BPO?
BPO is establishing partnerships with third-party companies to manage some specific business processes. It is a common practice to engage with a BPO services provider as it allows businesses to outsource their business processes that are becoming hard for them to handle on their own. In ideal situations, outsourcing important business functions saves time, energy, and money that can be otherwise used to achieve crucial business goals.
In other words, business process outsourcing is the handing over of one or more IT-related business operations to a third party. This outsourced firm then controls and manages the allotted business processes according to the preset and calculable performance objectives.
Functions of BPO Services
Business process outsourcing can be broadly categorized into two main categories; front-office and back-office services.
Front-Office Services
Front-office services refer to the direct dealing of BPO service providers with the customers. Businesses for whom handling a large customer base becomes challenging need the assistance of third-party front-office services to manage their customers. These services usually include:
Forecasting & Scheduling
A business can only offer a good customer experience if it has skilled staff that can mold itself to deal with any challenges thrown at them. Efficient handling of resources entails responsibility and leadership traits. If a company lacks employees who can handle these jobs in-house, it is best to outsource these processes to specialized firms.
Marketing Research:
Usually, companies don’t have time to perform market research and surveys themselves as they prioritize focusing on other important business processes. Because market research is critical for a business’s success, businesses can outsource these processes to an experienced third party so it can gather all the necessary information, and present it effectively to aid in important business decisions.
Customer Support:
By outsourcing front-desk services to a third party, businesses can focus on other aspects of the business. Experienced and trained professionals handling customer issues can lead to increased customer satisfaction, enhanced customer support, and improved customer management.
Back-Office Services
Back-Office services comprise the internal company functions. These processes are highly crucial for the accomplishment of front-office services. A few back-office services are as follows:
Quality Management:
Consistent and standardized business processes contribute toward improved business performance, enhanced scalability, and ensure better flexibility. To maintain business processes, third-party firms can be hired that are well-trained and experienced for the purpose.
Human Resource Management Services:
Large companies that want to concentrate on other important issues can hand over their HRM functions to professional third-party firms. These outsourced companies can develop a complete HRM solution for the client firm that can efficiently handle onboarding, payroll, attendance, benefits, tax processing, and other important resource-related related processes for better functioning of the company.
Finance & Accounting Processes:
When a company hires experienced accounting firms to handle their finance-related issues, it can save them a lot of time and energy. A specialized firm can easily handle and maintain company accounts when a company does not want to do it internally.
Data Handling:
Data gathering and data analytics are not everyone’s cup of tea. Even though these processes are considered considerably important for businesses in this era of digitization, it requires the appropriate PPT framework to capitalize on them.
Advantages of Business Process Outsourcing
BPO has been in the limelight for quite some time due to the many benefits it offers. Let’s have a look at a few of them.
- Lower costs: It costs much less to hire a third party to handle business processes as compared to hiring an internal team and then spending additionally on its training.
- Time-saving: By hiring an external firm to handle some processes, companies can focus on other important tasks and reduce the workload on current employees. This leads to a more satisfied workforce and improved productivity.
- Short-term partnerships: Recruiting full-time employees can be costly as well as time-consuming for the company. Companies can take advantage of third-party firms to manage their business processes for as long as they require.
- Expertise: Complex processes and functions can be allocated to third-party firms that are experienced and well-equipped to perform all the difficult procedures effectively and efficiently.
- Pocket friendly: It costs a lot to hire employees from scratch and is also very time-consuming. If a business is on a budget, choosing BPO services can be a great idea to forgo the huge expense of hiring a new team altogether.