Business process outsourcing involves contracting of the responsibilities and operations of particular business processes (or functions) to a third party service provider. BPO – Business Process Outsourcing is a subset of outsourcing. It is a valuable technique for organizations and companies searching for better ways to accomplish high performance by minimizing risk, controlling costs, increasing transparency, and fostering collaboration. BPO can be contracted outside the country of the company involved; this is known as offshore outsourcing. On the other hand, if BPO is contracted to an organization’s nearby country, it is known as near-shore outsourcing.
One of the outstanding benefits of BPO is its manner of assisting an organization to increase its flexibility. Company’s flexibility enhancement through business process outsourcing is achieved in different ways.
Two Distinct Categories of Business Process Outsourcing
Basically, two categories of BPO are identifiable;
Back Office Outsourcing: the functions included in back office outsourcing are internal business functions such as finance and accounting or human resources.
Front Office Outsourcing: customer-related services are included in front office outsourcing. Example of front office outsourcing is contact center services.
Benefits of Business Process Outsourcing
Large part of business process outsourcing services is offered on the basis of fee-for-service. This enhances the company’s flexibility greatly by transforming fixed costs into variable costs. What is the import? A variable cost structure is very helpful to an organization responding to changes in particular capacity, and a company would not need to invest in assets thus enhancing the company’s flexibility.
Outsourcing has the capacity to provide a company with increased flexibility in the aspect of resource management. It may also lower the time required to respond to major environmental changes.
Also, when BPO is involved, a firm is able to concentrate on its core competencies with much ease, and is not affected by the demands of bureaucratic restraints. Consequently, key employees are thereby relieved from carrying out non-core processes which tend to take their attention off the major issues of the organization. The secret lies in determining the areas that require more attention – product leadership, customer intimacy or operational excellence.
Thus, when a company’s key employees focus on one of these major areas (since the non-core aspects have been outsourced), the company is more likely to enhance its competitive edge. Also, business process outsourcing enhances organizational flexibility by speeding up business processes.
The importance of organizational flexibility cannot be overemphasized, and one of the best ways to enhance organizational flexibility is to embark on business process outsourcing. When flexibility is highly in place in an organization, a company would maintain its growth goals, while keeping away from standard business bottlenecks. Also, Business Process Outsourcing is a great strategy for a company to retain its entrepreneurial agility and speed.
Daven Michaels is an award-winning outsourcer and author of the book, ‘Outsource This!’ Daven has been honored more than any other individual or outsourcing organization. You can get more information on outsourcing by visiting www.123Employee.com
In the world of internet marketing, online marketing outsourcing has become the trending topic. Apart from developing niche websites and other common tools for internet marketing, outsourcing is not entirely a new concept and in the past few years, online entrepreneurs have been taking advantage third party service providers to complete work on their behalf. Today, marketing outsourcing is mainly used to help boost the company’s marketing, particularly for those who cannot afford to setup their own marketing department. With the advent of new technologies and the development of various internet services, outsourcing has become widely popular among internet marketers especially in the aspect of web development, content writing, search engine optimization, link building, traffic generation, and list building among others.
With the popularity of online marketing outsourcing, a lot of companies are offering the same services to interested parties who have lots of marketing tasks to outsource. Because of this, there are certain factors to consider before a company should decide whether to outsource part of their marketing or not. Online marketing is a practical option, especially for those who are just beginning to set up their online businesses. The reason for this is that advertising on the internet is relatively cheap compared to other advertising options. If you know how to start your internet marketing, chances are you will be able to gain an edge in the online marketing world. However, you need to have a good marketing arm in order for you to be able to realize your business goals.
And since most beginning internet marketers do not have the full resources needed for implementing their internet marketing strategies, they need to employ the services of professional marketing companies that specialize in online marketing and promotion using a myriad of internet marketing tools. For any business to grow, having a well planned marketing strategy is highly important. Internet marketing can help you grow your business and reach your target market without having to spend too much on advertising costs and you can make this possible by outsourcing most of your non-core marketing requirements that can help improve your online presence.
One of the common mistakes of internet marketers when they are outsourcing their online marketing needs is the price. Sometimes, instead of being able to find a cost effective marketing solution, internet marketers end up spending more than they should due to poor quality results or improper implementation of a particular online marketing strategy. Although not all third party service providers that offer the cheapest price are inefficient, there are companies that offer their services at the cheapest price simply because they do not have the right level of expertise to compete fairly in the market. Their only option to attract customers is to offer outsourcing services at the cheapest rate possible in order to gain clients.
In order to avoid this common blunder when it comes to outsourcing your online marketing requirements, you need to make sure you have more than one outsourcing company to choose from. Do not limit yourself in selecting candidates based on the cheapest price they can offer. Always consider the quality of the service they can provide and their level of expertise on various internet marketing tools and services. It will not be cost efficient on your part when you have to outsource your article marketing to one company and search engine optimization to another. Apart from complicating your management system since you have more than one outsourcing company to oversee, it can also double your overall marketing cost.
Daven Michaels is an award-winning outsourcer and author of the book, ‘Outsource This!’ Daven has honored more than any other individual or outsourcing organization. You can get more information on outsourcing by visiting www.123Employee.com
Thriving in today’s business environment has become more competitive and demanding than ever. If you run a small business, it is most likely that you do not have all the skill set as well as facilities required to grow your business and gain a larger share of your market niche.
Even big businesses also lack certain skill sets in certain areas of their business. One of the ways to overcome your skill limitations and grow your business is to take advantage of outsourcing. When you outsource some of your company’s operations, you are managing uncertainty and helping your business to gain ground in any environment.
What is Outsourcing?
This is a good place to kick off. It is not surprising that some people have not heard about outsourcing or do not really have a good grasp of what the term is all about… Simply put, outsourcing refers to a strategic use of external resources to carry out certain business functions that were traditionally managed in-house, or functions that are beyond the core competencies of the outsourced company. The benefits accruing from business outsourcing are numerous; to mention but a few – cost reduction, access to talent that may not be available in-house, liability sharing and enhanced expertise. Outsourcing can be off-shore or in-country.
What Do You Outsource?
Here are the commonly outsourced business functions;
Information Technology
Popularly known as IT, Information Technology is one of the most outsourced functions on any business or organization. This involves programming, networking, system security, internet and other computer-based business functions. In the 21st century, virtually every business function and operation is built on IT platform. You can decide to outsource all or part of your organization’s IT functions depending on your IT needs. It is also wise to choose an outsourcing contractor that specializes on IT and has proven history to deliver high quality result.
Web design/Development/Maintenance
Web design/development/maintenance is also a commonly outsourced function, especially in online marketing. You want to make sure that your business website is designed, developed and maintained by an expert in the field.
Human Resources/Payroll Benefits
Some companies may choose to outsource their human resource management for better result. There is need to keep the communication line open at all times in order to get feedbacks and send responses related to your organization’s human resource issues.
Other outsource-able business functions include order fulfillment, accounting/billing, sales/business development, marketing/advertising, customer service/relationship management and others. When you choose the right outsourcing company for any business function, numerous benefits would flow towards your company. More importantly, you are better-positioned to compete in the fierce business environment.
Outsourcing has increasingly become an important part of business operation, consider outsourcing some of your organization’s activities today.
Business process outsourcing involves contracting of the responsibilities and operations of particular business processes (or functions) to a third party service provider. BPO – 
Thus, when a company’s key employees focus on one of these major areas (since the non-core aspects have been outsourced), the company is more likely to enhance its competitive edge. Also, business process outsourcing enhances organizational flexibility by speeding up business processes.
With the popularity of online marketing outsourcing, a lot of companies are offering the same services to interested parties who have lots of marketing tasks to outsource. Because of this, there are certain factors to consider before a company should decide whether to outsource part of their marketing or not. Online marketing is a practical option, especially for those who are just beginning to set up their online businesses. The reason for this is that advertising on the internet is relatively cheap compared to other advertising options. If you know how to start your internet marketing, chances are you will be able to gain an edge in the online marketing world. However, you need to have a good marketing arm in order for you to be able to realize your business goals.
