How to Choose a Business Process Outsourcing Company

Business owners can’t simply choose a business process outsourcing company from a random of potential outsource providers without considering salient concerns such as the BPO’s professional track record as an outsource service provider. Entrepreneurs need to do some researches, verify facts and take a closer look at portfolios of targeted service providers before they eventually hire required services. These entrepreneurs need to determine if the BPO company can really provide them the kind of services they require and if such BPO’s goals and overall company culture complements with the business owner’s own corporate culture. Doing these things will help business owners get the best from a business process outsourcing company.

Selecting the right outsourcing provider really depends primarily on the needs of the organization and scope of the project’s initiative.

Unfortunately, many business owners are not yet fully aware of the standards when selecting an outsource provider. In fact, many even believe isn’t any standards for that matter; hence many fail to get the best out of their investment. But then, this is not supposed to be because it is actually possible to find a suitable BPO offshore outsourcing provider. Here are some rules to follow when choosing an IT outsourcing companies:

• Stick to your business goals and objectives. Put these into writing and make sure you have these on hand when you start selecting an outsource provider. A well written set of goals and objectives serves excellent benchmark criteria in deciding whether a BPO offshore outsourcing company meets your own set of standards. It will also help you identify technologies, skill sets, and other requirements that you need to ensure that your outsourcing project is up and running.

• Find the right match. Limit your choice of potential vendors to those that can provide you the services you actually need. Sometimes, you will discover that your ‘short’ list is still long because a lot of potential BPO providers actually offer the same services, albeit at varying selling points. In this case, select an outsource provider that matches the standards and the methodology of your own organization.

• Do a background check on the expertise and experience of your selected business process outsourcing provider. See to it that your would-be partner in business has already handled projects similar to those initiatives you plan to outsource. Make sure that your organization and your handpicked BPO have the same technologies, framework and processes to ultimately eradicate barriers between you and the BPO provider.

• Check the BPO’s track record. Remember that it is not enough that you find an offshore outsourcing provider that has already offered the service you require. Dig deeper to know more about your prospective provider and to keep you informed about the company’s background and history. Take note that an ideal marketing vendor like Philippine BPO providers is able to deliver high quality projects within a specific time frame and are able to satisfy their clients. In this case, see to it that you settle with a provider that is result-oriented.

Outsourcing: the challenges that counters it

Outsourcing is a radical choice. This may not sound really adventurous, but at a closer look, outsourcing is, in fact, taking a major decision. While it may be known to all that outsourcing is relatively beneficial to the company, it also poses threats and challenges that needs to be addressed. There are several concerns that have to be faced and resolved if necessary.

Outsourcing can create an enormous impact to the company. It promises bigger chunks of savings on expenditures, and proposes greater investment returns. These are the primary features any outsource service provider brags about. However, it is still noteworthy to make the best choice and to opt for the best outsourcing team in order to get the most benefit out of such trend and leverage your advantage in the competitive market.

An appropriate response to this is taking several considerations before finally deciding which company to outsource to. Selection of appropriate offshore location demands that political and economic fidelity of the country be considered, just like language and manpower pool, and the condition of the country’s existing telecommunications infrastructure. These aspects of the government –e.g., politics, economics, language, manpower reserves, and infrastructure/ technology- play an important tool in the advancement of any business endeavor.

Selecting an ideal outsourcing partner entails yet another set of considerations: price, expertise in particular industry, integration capabilities, trainings and qualifications, overall customer-service strategy, company information privacy, and knowledge in the latest technology. All these are core values an outsourcing service provider must come up to in order to fit in to your needs. Price remains a prime concern as outsourcing is basically a cost-cutting technique. This is not as cheesy as it may sound though, because in the long run, you may be realizing you outsourced to the wrong service provider and end up losing a considerable amount of money without getting your target revenues.

The gist here is to tie up with an IT service provider that can hurdle different challenges the company might be facing in the future. The right outsource service provider should be able to beat cultural and communication risks. It should be able to meet security risks and legal concerns and issues that may otherwise come up. It must be able to meet time zone challenges and knowledge transfer challenges as well. It is therefore but proper to choose an outsource service provider that can meet your demands and help your company move to greater heights.

Virtual Assistants: The Equalizer

      There is a dramatic increase of professionals signing themselves up for virtual assistance. These professionals coming from various countries like the Philippines serve not only local counterparts but clients from all over the world who outsource for their services, stretching their span through the World Wide Web.

 

The influx of virtual assistants creates a homeostasis. For busy entrepreneur whose time often constraints because of endless tasks and seemingly unending to-do list, their availability is almost heaven-sent. These virtual assistants come equipped with the technical know-how, intellectually stimulated, and are armed with their own tools and technologies.

 

 As if that were not enough to convince anyone that opting for virtual assistants is more economical and favorable to the business man, these professionals for hire, better known as virtual assistants, are ready to render services at a rate much lower than what it normally takes when employing an individual. Virtual assistants make it possible for the full time entrepreneur to take some time off from work so he could focus on his core responsibilities. It paves way do he can attend to his toddler’s PTA meetings, or be at rare family functions such as weddings and anniversaries.

 

But more than anything else, it makes everything in business easier without spending more. With VA’s, there is no need for office supplies, tools and appliances since these VA’s come with their own supplies. Virtual assistants hardly sit and barely wait for another assignment from you. VA’s would work on something for another client while she waits for another job from you.

 

Opting for Virtual Assistant is an advantage for everyone involved. For the employee-challenged business, VA’s dramatically increases your labor pool. And for the cash-strapped entrepreneur, turning to virtual assistants is a big saving. As for the professional for hire, it simply means business and revenue where he/she himself/herself is the boss, when he can choose when to do the job and how to do it. As an added feature, resorting to virtual assistants is doing a favor for the environment.

 

 So how’s that? Isn’t it that Virtual Assistants deserve two thumbs? ☺

 

Outsourcing to the Philippines: Why Consider It?

Offshore outsourcing is among the most popular management practices today. Common knowledge as it is that outsourcing is spurred by cost reduction factor, the Philippines not only offer cost effective solutions and it also guarantee improved productivity and quality of services. Outsourcing is the sign of time and the current trend. It is now understood and in fact, advocated and used by nearly the whole world through. But what really is outsourcing? Is it simply delegating works to others so you could be free of some tasks? Or is it as ordinary as hiring somebody else to work for you?

Outsourcing, defined in wikipidea as subcontracting a process, such as a product design or manufacturing, to a third party became part of the business lexicon during the 1980’s. It has since become synonymous to shifting locations or simply relocating – western jobs heading to the Philippines and other countries where labor and production cost are lower.

But why consider the Philippines? As stated earlier, the Philippines offer cost effective solutions. It is one of the world’s largest pools of intellectuals, highly educated, professionally skilled, English-speaking workers. Statistics reveal 93.9% in literacy rate, putting the country among the highest in rank in the United Nation’s Program Report in 2005.

Outsourcing to the Philippines is not all about benefiting low cost of doing business, minimal labor costs and very affordable production costs. It is more than getting things off the chest of business men, non-core activities they would rather dump to a professionally skilled individual so they could have the freedom to focus on their core activities. Outsourcing to the Philippines is about quality and value addition at a reduced cost.

The gist behind outsource mushrooming is that it provides an option for getting highly productive manpower at a cheaper rate. It is a cost-efficient operation where businessmen are freed from additional responsibilities and given option to focus on the core of their business.

Outsourcing and getting the best out of it

Outsourcing is a trend of the times nowadays. It has mushroomed throughout the world and has made a mark in various industries. But what is that which has driven these countless companies to outsourcing?Among the benefits organizations derive from outsourcing are the cost-savings, quality improvement of products and services, reduced time to market, staffing issues and the issue on time zones.

These companies that outsource tend to spend less than what they normally would and their scope of responsibilities is narrowed. They get access to operational best practice that would be too difficult or time consuming to develop in-house. They have access to a larger talent pool and a sustainable source of skills. Plus the issue on different time zones is addressed. A sequential task can be done during normal day shift in different time zones – to make it seamlessly available 24/7.

Outsourcing allows the HR team to focus more strategically, rather than transactionally. You’re using your internal executives to build on strategy, leaving your outsourcing partner to concentrate on the transactional work. That leaves more space for a more valuable output.This is another benefit of outsourcing: by leaving the business function to a company that specializes in it, the business runs smoothly.

Cost cutting is the main reason why companies are lured into outsourcing. However Gartner, an analyst, said too much emphasis on cost reduction may lead to dissatisfaction because the economy of scale and cash injection benefits from outsourcing often disappear after the first year of the contract.

There are other more realistic goals for outsourcing: to control cost over time and to enhance the ability to budget; to provide access to specialized skills and resources, to improve service-delivery and to give access to scalability.