Business process outsourcing

Short description: Form of outsourcing

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is a subset of outsourcing that involves the contracting of the operations and responsibilities of a specific business process to a third-party service provider. Originally, this was associated with manufacturing firms, such as Coca-Cola that outsourced large segments of its supply chain.

BPO is typically categorized into back office outsourcing, which includes internal business functions such as human resources or finance and accounting, and front office outsourcing, which includes customer-related services such as contact centre (customer care) services.

BPO that is contracted outside a company's country is called offshore outsourcing. BPO that is contracted to a company's neighbouring (or nearby) country is called nearshore outsourcing.

Often the business processes are information technology-based, and are referred to as ITES-BPO, where ITES stands for Information Technology Enabled Service. Knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) and legal process outsourcing (LPO) are some of the sub-segments of business process outsourcing industry.

Benefits

The main advantage of any BPO is the way in which it helps increase a company's flexibility. In early 2000s BPO was all about cost efficiency, which allowed a certain level of flexibility at the time. Due to technological advances and changes in the industry (specifically the move to more service-based rather than product-based contracts), companies who choose to outsource their back-office increasingly look for time flexibility and direct quality control. Business process outsourcing enhances the flexibility of an organization in different ways:

• Most services provided by BPO vendors are offered on a fee-for-service basis, using business models such as Remote In-Sourcing or similar software development and outsourcing models. This can help a company to become more flexible by transforming fixed into variable costs. A variable cost structure helps a company responding to changes in required capacity and does not require a company to invest in assets, thereby making the company more flexible.
• Another way in which BPO contributes to a company’s flexibility is that a company is able to focus on its core competencies, without being burdened by the demands of bureaucratic restraints. Key employees are herewith released from performing non-core or administrative processes and can invest more time and energy in building the firm’s core businesses. The key lies in knowing which of the main value drivers to focus on – customer intimacy, product leadership, or operational excellence. Focusing more on one of these drivers may help a company create a competitive edge.
• A third way in which BPO increases organizational flexibility is by increasing the speed of business processes. Supply chain management with the effective use of supply chain partners and business process outsourcing increases the speed of several business processes, such as the throughout in the case of a manufacturing company.
• Finally, flexibility is seen as a stage in the organizational life cycle: A company can maintain growth goals while avoiding standard business bottlenecks. BPO therefore allows firms to retain their entrepreneurial speed and agility, which they would otherwise sacrifice in order to become efficient as they expanded. It avoids a premature internal transition from its informal entrepreneurial phase to a more bureaucratic mode of operation.
• A company may be able to grow at a faster pace as it will be less constrained by large capital expenditures for people or equipment that may take years to amortize, may become outdated or turn out to be a poor match for the company over time.

Although the above-mentioned arguments favour the view that BPO increases the flexibility of organizations, management needs to be careful with the implementation of it as there are issues, which work against these advantages. Among problems, which arise in practice are: A failure to meet service levels, unclear contractual issues, changing requirements and unforeseen charges, and a dependence on the BPO which reduces flexibility. Consequently, these challenges need to be considered before a company decides to engage in business process outsourcing.

A further issue is that in many cases there is little that differentiates the BPO providers other than size. They often provide similar services, have similar geographic footprints, leverage similar technology stacks, and have similar Quality Improvement approaches.

Threats

Risk is the major drawback with business process outsourcing. Outsourcing of an information system, for example, can cause security risks both from a communication and from a privacy perspective. For example, security of North American or European company data is more difficult to maintain when accessed or controlled in other countries. From a knowledge perspective, a changing attitude in employees, underestimation of running costs and the major risk of losing independence, outsourcing leads to a different relationship between an organization and its contractor.

Risks and threats of outsourcing must therefore be managed, to achieve any benefits. In order to manage outsourcing in a structured way, maximising positive outcome, minimising risks and avoiding any threats, a business continuity management model is set up. This model consists of a set of steps, to successfully identify, manage and control the business processes that are, or can be outsourced.

Analytic hierarchy process is a framework of BPO focused on identifying potential outsourceable information systems. L. Willcocks, M. Lacity and G. Fitzgerald identify several contracting problems companies face, ranging from unclear contract formatting, to a lack of understanding of technical IT processes.

Technological pressures

Industry analysts have identified robotic process automation software as a potential threat to the industry and speculate as to the likely long term impact. In the short term, however, there is likely to be little impact as existing contracts run their course: it is only reasonable to expect demand for cost efficiency and innovation to result in transformative changes at the point of contract renewals. With the average length of a BPO contract being 5 years or more - and many contracts being longer - this hypothesis will take some time to play out.

On the other hand, an academic study by the London School of Economics was at pains to counter the so-called "myth" that robotic process automation will bring back many jobs from offshore. One possible argument behind such an assertion is that new technology provides new opportunities for increased quality, reliability, scalability and cost control, thus enabling BPO providers to increasingly compete on an outcomes-based model rather than competing on cost alone. With the core offering potentially changing from a "lift and shift" approach based on fixed costs to a more qualitative, service-based and outcomes-based model, there is perhaps a new opportunity to grow the BPO industry with a new offering.

Financial risks

One of the primary reasons businesses choose to outsource is to reduce costs. However, this can also come with significant financial risks. If the cost of outsourcing increases due to changes in the global market or if the outsourced company increases its fees, the financial benefits can be eroded. In addition, hidden costs, such as transition and management costs, can also emerge. This can make outsourcing less financially viable than originally anticipated.

Loss of control

Outsourcing also potentially leads to a loss of control over certain business operations. This can create challenges in terms of managing and coordinating these operations. Moreover, the outsourced company might not fully understand or align with the hiring company's business culture, values, and objectives, leading to potential conflicts and inefficiencies.

Quality control

Quality control can become more challenging when business operations are outsourced. While third-party companies might be experts in their fields, they may not maintain the same standards as the hiring company. This can result in a decline in the quality of goods or services, potentially damaging the company's brand and customer relationships.

Industry Size

Convergys call center in Baguio, the Philippines (example of a third party outsourcing firm)

One estimate of the worldwide BPO market from the BPO Services Global Industry Almanac 2017, puts the size of the industry in 2016 at about US$140 billion.

India, China and the Philippines are major powerhouses in the industry. In 2017, in India the BPO industry generated US$30 billion in revenue according to the national industry association. The BPO industry is a small segment of the total outsourcing industry in India. The BPO industry workforce in India is expected to shrink by 14% in 2021.

The BPO industry and IT services industry in combination are worth a total of US$154 billion in revenue in 2017. The BPO industry in the Philippines generated $22.9 billion in revenues in 2016, while around 700 thousand medium and high skill jobs would be created by 2022.

In 2015, official statistics put the size of the total outsourcing industry in China, including not only the BPO industry but also IT outsourcing services, at $130.9 billion.

See also

• Professional Employer Organization
• Outsourcing
• Offshoring
• Nearshoring
• Homeshoring
• Globalization
• Contact centre (business)
• List of call centre companies
• Call center industry in Bangladesh
• Call center industry in the Philippines
• Banking BPO services
• Recruitment
• Recruitment process outsourcing
• Software testing outsourcing
• BPO security
• Business process outsourcing in India
• Business process outsourcing in China
• Business process outsourcing in the Philippines
• Captive service
• Offshoring Research Network
• Legal outsourcing
• Outsourced document processing
• Virtual assistance
• Benefits of Outsourcing Customer Service to a BPO Provider