What Is Business Process Outsourcing?
Business process outsourcing (BPO) is the practice of contracting a work process or processes to an external service provider. BPO fills supplementary business functions like payroll, accounting, telemarketing, data recording, social media, customer support, and more.
From fledgling startups to massive Fortune 500 companies, businesses of all sizes outsource processes, and the demand continues to grow, as new and innovative services are introduced and businesses seek advantages to get ahead of the competition. BPO can be an alternative to labor migration, allowing the labor force to remain in their home country while contributing their skills abroad.
BPO is often divided into two main types of services: back office and front office. Back-office services include internal business processes, such as billing or purchasing. Front-office services pertain to the contracting company’s customers, such as marketing and tech support. BPOs can combine these services so that they work together, not independently.
The BPO industry is divided into three categories, based on the location of the vendor. A business can achieve total process optimization by combining the three categories:
-
Offshore vendors are located outside of the company’s own country. For example, a U.S. company may use an offshore BPO vendor in the Philippines.
-
Nearshore vendors are located in countries that neighbor the contracting company’s country. For example, in the United States, a BPO in Mexico is considered a nearshore vendor.
-
Onshore vendors operate within the same country as the contractor, although they may be located in a different city or state. For example, a company in Seattle, Washington, could use an onshore outsourcing vendor located in Seattle, Washington, or in Huntsville, Alabama.
Why Do Businesses Outsource Processes?
Outsourcing is a part of many successful business models, especially for companies who do not have the resources and services they need available internally. Businesses often outsource to decrease costs, expand their presence, or increase flexibility.
Some people believe that businesses are only after the tax break associated with outsourcing jobs, or “shipping jobs overseas” as some political ads claim. According to PolitiFact, this is a flawed notion. PolitiFact concedes that there are tax breaks for a company when it relocates, whether out of country or to a different state, but there is no specific tax break or loophole in the U.S. tax code related to outsourcing.
What is relevant to this argument, however, is that the U.S. corporate income tax is one of the highest in the developed world (39.1 percent). Therefore, U.S. companies benefit from outsourcing operations to countries with a lower income tax because businesses pay the rate of their host country. In addition, businesses cite many other reasons to engage in outsourcing:
-
To decrease costs: Outsourcing cuts down on costs for in-house labor, particularly for staffing and training, and for the work space to accommodate local employees. An outsourcing company physically located in a developing country leverages lower-cost labor markets. Finally, outsourcing enables businesses to use variable-cost models, like fee-for-service plans, instead of fixed-cost models that are required when retaining local employees.
-
To concentrate on key functions: Outsourcing allows businesses to hone in on their main offerings instead of company functions that aren’t directly tied to their core processes. For example, when outsourcing, the company won’t have to monitor the payroll accountant’s performance. Rather, it can focus its energies on highlighting its business differentiators and maximizing overall growth. In turn, these actions can boost a company’s competitive advantage and enhance its interactions with the value chain. Ultimately, the company can enjoy improved customer satisfaction and increased profits.
-
To achieve better results in noncore functions: Outsourcing companies specialize in what are considered noncore functions of other businesses, delivering world-class capabilities for its clients. In fact, an outsourcing company that invests in specialized processes and technologies can deliver cutting-edge breakthroughs to its clients. For example, a gaming design company may not want to pay for the latest payroll program on the market, but an outsourcing business that offers payroll services would likely make that investment to benefit its own performance, as well as that of its clients.
-
To expand their global presence: Some outsourcing companies can serve customers in multiple languages, around the clock, thus relieving the local company of the responsibility. Outsourcing companies can leverage their presence in multiple countries and keep the local company’s redundant divisions to a minimum. For example, WNS Global has 37 “delivery centers” across the world and specializes in business process management.
-
To enable flexibility: Companies that outsource their noncritical functions can act more quickly and more efficiently when managing the risks associated with introducing new products or services. They can also reassign their internal resources to more critical functions to help ensure better coverage and allocate responsibility.
-
To improve speed and efficiency: Companies that outsource processes are opting to let specialists handle those tasks, thus saving time, improving accuracy, and increasing their capacity. For example, a BPO that specializes in records management can automatically index documents, making them available for retrieval and keeping a company in compliance with legal requirements. This replaces manual data entry and storage.
Ryan Fitzgerald, owner of and realtor at Raleigh Realty, has extensive experience with BPOs. He says, “There are both pros and cons to creating an outsourcing process for your business. The obvious pros are that it saves you time and effort, which likely saves you money. There are only so many hours in a day, so you will want to focus the limited time you have on the work that makes you the greatest ROI (return on investment) on your best work.
“Another pro is that there is a good chance the person you're outsourcing your projects to is armed with a better skill set for the specific goal you're trying to accomplish. By outsourcing your work, you allow yourself the opportunity to be more productive and grow your business faster.
“One of the biggest cons is that you leave yourself exposed if you don't do the work yourself. What happens if the person you're outsourcing to moves away? What if they take your ideas and give them to other businesses you're competing against? We had an instance where we bought a lot of video marketing equipment and decided to outsource our projects to a video professional. That video professional is now reaching out to our competitors to ask if they would like the same work done. That means one of our competitive advantages is potentially lost if other real estate companies see the value.
“There are a lot of benefits to business process outsourcing, but make sure you keep an eye on how it could come back to hurt you as well.”
What Types of Services Do Outsourcing Companies Support?
BPO providers support a number of services to help fill gaps within companies. Some of the participating industries include healthcare, pharmaceuticals, energy, business services, retail and e-commerce, telecom, automotive, utility companies, banking, supply chain, capacity solutions, and asset management.
In fact, the growth in BPOs has resulted in the emergence of subspecialties, including everything from information technology-enabled services (ITES) to travel:
-
Information technology-enabled services (ITES) BPO: This form of BPO leverages information technology (IT) over the internet or data network to deliver services. Some examples of ITES BPO jobs are service desk analyst, production support analyst, and IT analyst.
-
Knowledge process outsourcing (KPO): KPO has changed BPO a bit. Some KPO vendors support functions that are considered core in business, although they may not be core functions in the particular business that hires them. KPO firms offer more than process expertise; they may also provide business and domain-based expertise. Some examples of KPO services include research, analysis, or Microsoft Word and Excel work. KPOs may be capable of making low-level business decisions if they do not conflict with higher-level business policies, but those decisions may be undone easily. KPO vendors are usually linked to the business’s value chain, and they hire people who are competent in a specific field.
-
Legal process outsourcing (LPO): LPO is a subset of KPO and encompasses a huge range of higher-level legal work, not merely lower-level legal transcription. LPO firms can draft patent applications and legal agreements, as well as perform legal research. Some LPO firms even advise clients. In-house legal departments usually retain LPOs. Experienced paralegals using industry-standard databases do the work.
-
Research process outsourcing (RPO): A subset of KPO, RPO specializes in research and analysis functions. RPO companies perform research and analysis work that supports business, investment, biotech, and marketing firms.
-
Travel: This pertains to all the operations a business needs to support its travel logistics, from reservations to hotel and vehicle bookings. Travel BPO saves money for the company because it cuts costs while increasing customer satisfaction. Airline and travel companies also engage in BPO for either front- or back-office process streamlining. For example, an airline could outsource its ticketing process.
Each BPO company will specialize in specific services. They may be grouped as follows:
Customer interaction services: The BPO company would cover a business’s voicemail services, appointment schedules, email services, marketing program, telemarketing, surveys, payment processing, order processing, quality assurance, customer support, warranty administration, and other customer feedback.
Back-office transactions: This includes check, credit, and debit card processing; collection; receivables; direct and indirect procurement; transportation administration; logistics and dispatch; and warehouse management.
IT and software operations: These technical support functions include application development and testing, implementation services, and IT helpdesk. For example, manual data entry can be replaced with automated data capture, increasing data intake and reducing cycle time.
Finance and accounting services: These functions include billing services, accounts payable, receivables, general accounting, auditing, and regulatory compliance.
Human resource services: BPOs can help address workforce challenges. They can also cover payroll services, healthcare administration, hiring and recruitment, workforce training, insurance processing, and retirement benefits.
Knowledge services: These higher-level processes may include data analytics, data mining, data and knowledge management, and internet and web research, as well as developing an information governance program and providing the voice of customer feedback.
The Risks of Business Process Outsourcing
The global market size of services outsourced from the United States was $88.9 billion in 2017 and is expected to hit $140.3 billion by 2022, as reported by Statista and The BPO Services Global Industry Almanac 2017 Company Report. This was after steady growth of 4.4 percent compounded annually from $45.6 billion in 2000. For U.S. companies, India and the Philippines perform a large portion of the outsourcing services. India in particular is a leader in BPO for the United States because its labor force is highly skilled, educated, English-speaking, and economical.
Not only are these countries geographically disparate, they are different cultural entities as well, which may constitute a risk for the contracting company. In fact, hiring any outside vendor to perform business processes for your company comes with inherent question of efficiency and quality. This is especially concerning because the industry has seen reported shortages in skilled workers, increased trade protectionism, and gridlocks due to political issues. Other risks include the following:
Security: In outsourcing, especially when information systems (IS) are involved, companies face communication and privacy risks. Security is more difficult to maintain when the business taking care of your IS is not in the same country, especially one with different security requirements. Potential data privacy breaches and vulnerability disclosures are a real threat, particularly with the current prevalence of hacking. The internet, which makes BPO for IT feasible, also may offer a portal through which hackers enter.
Underestimating the costs of services: Companies that employ BPO vendors often underestimate the running costs, especially in upgrades and contract renegotiation. Other hidden costs include vendor selection, currency fluctuations, hardware and software upgrades, internal transitions, layoffs, and the potential decrease in individual worker productivity.
Overdependence on service providers: Once a company designates a vendor for specific processes, the vendor becomes a part of the workflow. The company can incur extraneous costs and decreased productivity when the vendor encounters problems or lapses in its work — for example, when the cost of hiring workers increases. Vendors often replace veteran employees with less experienced workers to keep costs down, and quality suffers as a result.
Communication issues: Language barriers can limit activities when your company hires individual service providers spread across the globe. This can result in delays in new processes and curbs on feedback from different departments, and it can potentially magnify current problems in your business operations. Further, customer-facing services may present language barriers to third-party vendors.
When outsourcing your processes and parts of your business, you face significant risks, depending on the type and structure of your company. For example, in very large segmented companies, outsourcing only the back data entry can carry a low risk. But for a small business that is reliant on BPO as part of its manufacturing, the risk increases. Other possible risks associated with outsourcing include:
-
Data breaches
-
Quality control
-
Operation restoration
-
Nonlocal employees
-
Maintenance of strategic alignment
-
Political instability
-
Changes in technology and exposure to hacking
-
Specialization to the point that the niche demand is no longer necessary
On the other side of the equation, BPO companies face risks as well. These include:
Robotic process automation (RPA): RPA uses bots or artificial intelligence (AI), a form of cognitive computing. These robots operate on a user interface in the same way a human worker would. Due to the demand for increased cost efficiency and innovation, robots are becoming more widespread. According to the Institute for Robotic Process Automation, RPA creates 25-50 percent cost savings. Robots cost between one-fifth to one-ninth of a full-time equivalent (FTE) worker in the United States, and about one-half of an FTE in a developing country. Some experts postulate that BPOs may adopt RPA in limited use or that BPOs will still have contracts, but their role will change to become more of a consultant.
The Business Process Outsourcing Industry
Globally, the BPO sector is worth over $300 billion. BPO vendors employ more than 3 million people in India, and more than 1 million people in the Philippines. Millions more are employed by BPO companies in Europe and the United States. BPO vendors are located all over the world, especially in developing nations with low income tax. South Africa has shown recent dominance in the BPO market, notably in call centers.
In the past five years, the BPO industry has exploded due to shifts in social media use and the concurrent demand for multichannel communication. Consumer behavior has changed too. Browsing social media is now the third most popular online activity, and 81 percent of the U.S. population has at least one social media account.
Before 2000, companies provided customer service through websites and by transferring calls via interactive voice response, and the BPO industry was primarily composed of call centers. But with the growth of social media and, according to Rightscale, the majority (95 percent) of small to medium-sized businesses’ dependence on cloud technologies, BPOs now provide more professional and technical services such as web design, human resources, and accounting services. This has led to increased investment in BPO, with $462 million poured in by startups in 2014.
Another iteration of the BPO industry is business transformation outsourcing (BTO). BTO offers strategy consulting services, not only in-the-box, traditional supportive business functions. BTO consultants help businesses revamp their processes through outsourcing. In other words, BTO consultants review your business as part of their services and find the opportunities to implement BPO where it makes sense and is most beneficial for the company.
The Future of Business Process Outsourcing
The future of BPO is similar to that of many industries in that automation will be key. Many experts point to RPA as the main avenue through which BPO will change. For example, data entry work and image recognition can be automated easily. However, experts report that certain functions, like handwritten data and telemarketing, will resist automation.
All industries, including BPO, will likely leverage emerging technologies, such as cloud services, social media, and machine learning, to reduce costs and accelerate growth. One business model, the productized service, combines software and an outsourced staff member. An example of productized services is a package that bundles cutting-edge accounting software and accounting services, with both services billed to the contracting company monthly. Startups in particular are becoming more dependent on this type of service, so there is mutual dependence with BPOs.
The trend of providing and supporting improvements in social media management tools is expected to continue. Investments in cloud computing will also persist, as it becomes a more mature platform. In addition, BPOs will invest in diversifying their workforce. As BPOs get more competitive and are forced to lower their prices, they will move to lower-cost alternatives such as software automation and AI. With the threat of losing workers to AI and automation, governments and business leaders are educating them so they can meet the newer demand for highly skilled positions.
With businesses expecting BPOs to fill their gaps or even becoming dependent on them, BPOs are required to be more transparent so that they may build and maintain trust. In the 2016 U.S. presidential election, BPO providers were concerned that they would lose their ability to work for U.S. companies if the new administration changed policies on trade, tax laws, and visas. However, experts do not believe that changing political tides will negatively affect BPO or KPO. Because KPO in particular requires higher-level skill sets or higher education, experts believe that individual country politics will be less apt to disrupt the businesses.
Our experts weigh in and provide their opinions of the future of BPO, and some have recommendations for hiring BPO vendors:
According to SEO expert and business advisor Alex Genadinik, Founder and CEO of Problemio.com, “Moving forward, I fear that there will be a decline of quality as the market saturates with more and more companies and freelancers that do essentially the same relatively low-quality work. The challenge is that if you hire high-quality companies, they typically do great work, but are costly. As a business owner, this means that you must either get to the point where you can hire costly companies on a long-term basis or allocate resources to SEO in-house. If done intelligently, it doesn't have to require many resources, but at least you will have control and transparency of what the SEO work is being done. This ensures that your employees are not cutting corners or doing something that will get your website penalized by Google.
“I have experience outsourcing to a BPO for my business Problemio.com, and I have been hired by SEO marketing agencies to train their staff. What I can say is that if you are hiring on a budget, you will get very low-quality work. Only the top tier of the BPO companies actually do good work that I as an SEO expert would deem acceptable. So for the long term: Hire high quality or don't hire at all.”
Thomas Wooldridge, who specializes in web design, social media, and PR at Relamark Web Design & Marketing, advises, “BPO is something that will never go away. It's like saying you want to bring back encyclopedia books or Blockbuster videos. Our world has never gone backward from technology. The internet has made it much easier to bring the whole world together.
“There will always be a need for low-skill and low-wage workers who would be difficult to hire in the West, although many countries such as India, the Philippines, or China will gladly do it on your behalf. On the other hand, the same country you used to hire the low-wage workers will eventually get smarter. The local economies and workers’ skills will improve to where they are demanding higher pay. So then you have to look into another third-world-type country to attract.
“For example in the 1990s, India was the prime location for BPO services. Because of this, education and middle-class incomes rose to the point that they have nearly surpassed that of workers in the United States. Now U.S. companies have to nearly import those same workers to take the jobs that Americans couldn't fill. That is why there is a tremendous growth in Indian medical doctors and IT people in the United States.”
Pete Abilla, Lean Six Sigma expert turned entrepreneur and owner of FindATutorNearMe, a tutoring marketplace with over 100,000 private tutors, says, “During my career, I've spent a lot of time improving the processes of clients. One trend I'm seeing is that organizations are more interested in training their own employees in the techniques of Lean manufacturing and Six Sigma. However, for some processes, such as call centers and primarily back-office operations, it might be more cost effective to outsource those to a BPO entity. Another trend I'm seeing is that BPO organizations are best to use for departments that are primarily cost centers and not revenue generators for the company.”
Ben Walker, the CEO of Transcription Outsourcing, LLC, says, “We work with all kinds of companies, small, medium, large, public, private, and many different government agencies, on a daily basis. They use my company because they don’t have the internal personnel to do what we do for them. Transcription is not something a lot of people do any more, so by utilizing us and our teams of transcriptionists we can help them get what they need much faster and cheaper than they could do it themselves. I don’t think companies like mine will be going anywhere any time soon because we do highly specialized work that you can’t replace at the drop of a hat and start filling cubicles next week.”
Derric Haynie, CEO of Vulpine Interactive, says, “By the end of 2017 or early 2018, I'm planning on opening up my own counterpart agency in Asia (Bali or the Philippines are front-runners right now). The reason I'm doing this is because my business relies heavily on systems and processes, things that technology can't quite do, but doesn't require significant strategy or high-level employees either. By opening up our own business, we can ensure quality and continuity while simultaneously keeping costs very low.
“While I don't think all companies will move toward this model, I do see it as highly viable and would expect more ‘outsourcing’ to actually be done in-house as even small companies like mine can open up their own in-sourced shop in another country.
“In the short term, I see BPO being easier to access and utilize by all companies, but I also see AI and technology eliminating many BPO jobs in the short- and long-term future. It's the same venture, not a new venture. We will just be opening an office in Asia to handle all of our low-level processes. I imagine there will be many problems starting a business in another country. I have yet to assess all of them properly. I’m not looking forward to that.”
FInally, the new BPO destinations expected to emerge in 2018 include Bulgaria, Romania, Egypt, Mexico, and Columbia. Due to fierce BPO competition, oversaturation, and reduced business growth, these five countries may become alternate low-cost locations.
Business Process Outsourcing Commercial Providers
Below you’ll find links to lists of BPO companies throughout India, Asia, the U.S., the U.K., Australia, and Europe. A BPO company usually specializes in one service or group of services, such as back-office support or, in the case of RPOs, biotech research. These lists are not comprehensive, as new companies crop up weekly, and companies frequently merge.
You can also try service companies that can help you find the right BPO vendor for your needs. Through the contracting process, these service companies can help ensure that all of your needs are covered. Many also use e-procurement services (supplier exchange) to keep the costs constant. E-procurement is a system that allows business-to-business management of services. Here are some useful resources:
-
eBook directory through the IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines
-
A commercial company lists of BPO contact information
-
BPO service providers listed by region and functional area through 123outsource
How to Choose a Business Process Outsourcing Vendor
It’s no easy task choosing a vendor to support your outsourcing needs, but you’ll need to review many details prior to settling on one company and getting an appropriate agreement in place. Experts recommend a formal, extensive process to choose a vendor that has the best outsourcing experience and can meet your company’s goals. The following is a list of tasks to perform in sequential order for companies considering hiring a BPO vendor:
-
Define your requirements and review potential vendors: Start by defining your key stakeholders, and engage them in the process from the beginning. Set all key stakeholder expectations early and engage them often. During this step, your company must also figure out the key objectives, risks, and scope for BPO. This is your business case scenario, so this step should take the longest and include a full review of your company processes, not only those initially considered for outsourcing. During this step, you should start to source potential vendors and develop a scorecard to determine the most important criteria. You can find a template for developing a scorecard here.
Open Vendor Selection Scorecard Template - Google Sheet
-
Put together a request for proposal (RFP), and source vendors: In concert with your company stakeholders, determine the most crucial elements of a BPO provider. Develop and send out an RFP from your market research. At this stage, define what service management model your company will use.
-
Choose the right vendor for your company: Evaluate the proposals. Start analyzing the change that will result from contracting with a third-party vendor. What are the risks and benefits determined from the shortlist of potential vendors?
-
Negotiate the contract: This is the most important step in the process of acquiring a third-party service provider. Both parties must reach an agreement not only on the service parameters, but also on the contract schedule. It’s critical to ensure buy-in and agreement by all stakeholders.
-
Transition the work and processes to your chosen vendor: This is the actual “go” step. Develop and put in place a plan for transitioning to the new model. Ensure that your business has open communication internally and with the service provider.
-
Manage your relationship: Verify proper governance during the life of the contract with your service provider. Performance monitoring is key for ensuring that your company reaps the expected benefits of outsourcing. Expect a collaborative relationship and plan to renegotiate your contract and its scope at the end of its term.
Additional tips that can help you choose the right BPO:
-
A good outsourcing company should help you decide which parts of your business you need to keep in-house. Beware of a company that tries squeezing core processes out of you.
-
A good outsourcing company values the work of every employee. This enables a better connection between their company and your organization and can help increase productivity.
-
A good BPO company’s objective is to help your organization boost sales without consuming too much money.
-
Choose your BPO company carefully. Look for evidence that it can deliver the task well and on time.
-
Ask two questions when looking for a BPO service provider: (1) How can I find the right candidate? and (2) How do I manage the outsourcer after I settle their contract?
-
The key to a successful BPO experience is to do your research beforehand, lay out clear expectations and deliverables with your selected vendor, and stick to what both parties agreed upon.
Overall, the company should choose a BPO vendor carefully and conscientiously. The relationship should be defined formally, and managed and considered regularly.
Manage Your BPO with Powerful, Automated Workflows in Smartsheet
Empower your people to go above and beyond with a flexible platform designed to match the needs of your team — and adapt as those needs change.
The Smartsheet platform makes it easy to plan, capture, manage, and report on work from anywhere, helping your team be more effective and get more done. Report on key metrics and get real-time visibility into work as it happens with roll-up reports, dashboards, and automated workflows built to keep your team connected and informed.
When teams have clarity into the work getting done, there’s no telling how much more they can accomplish in the same amount of time. Try Smartsheet for free, today.