Most businesses, whether domestic or international have started using the outsourcing leverage extensively. It is natural and obvious as well. With businesses expanding like never before and technology and methods of communication being constantly innovated, the need for external teams to handle your non- core processes is increasing.
Further BPO service providers have also evolved into KPOs which means that if you source out your operations, you actually can use multiple skills and focus on your core business. The real question however is to know about how to select the right service provider suited to your business needs. Let us look at 3 ways in which an ideal BPO solutions provider can be differentiated from the others.
Business Continuity Plan
Find out if your potential partner has a strong and robust business continuity plan in place. Evaluate their plans on the basis of your needs. Are you in a business which serves customers globally? Are you running an e- portal? Or is it the inbound sales you’re outsourcing? If you’re a big food brand that needs to outsource its inbound sales, then you need someone who’s capable of hiring extra support staff on bench.
If you’re a business into energy and utilities or have an actively running e – portal, then you might want the online customer support BCP to be more robust than the telephonic. However, if you’re a bank or the credit card division of a bank, you might in fact want someone who operates from multiple physical and / or geographical locations.
Cost Arbitrage
Reduced overhead cost is one of the major factors that need to be kept in mind in order to find the right service providing match. So, before you finalize on your potential Business Process Outsourcing solutions provider, make sure that you compare costs.
Also you will need to ensure if the cost arbitrage still covers all the business needs you have. What this means is that you do not wish to suffer on the quality or the levels and standards of service provided to you, just because you’ve found a relatively low – cost solution provider.
Homework
Before you finalize the name, another thing you need to keep in mind is whether or not your prospect for sourced out solutions has done sufficient homework. Do they understand your industry well? Do they understand your brand? Do they believe in similar business values as you do?
These questions certainly are tough to judge, but they are as important as any other question. In most cases, it is very difficult to ascertain past references, given the fact that most companies prefer keeping their external teams undeclared. There are NDAs and other relevant information involved.