Filed under: Advantages/Disadvantages of Outsourcing/BPO, Outsourcing in the News
This week, InformationWeek published a 30-page report on the results of a reader poll focused on business process outsourcing. Author Ivan Schneider, writes:
“Saving money is still the No. 1 goal of business process outsourcing, though a notable minority sees it as a tool for strategic change.”
At TPL, we tell prospective clients that cost savings are an important advantage of BPO, however, it’s not the only reason. Companies should also look to BPO in order to increase efficiencies and reduce resource/management burden.
Companies who view BPO as a “tool for strategic change” are the companies we like to target. Any new BPO partnership requires a sizable initial investment of time and resources, for the client and the provider. So to be sustainable, it’s got to be a long-term win-win for both parties.
Aside from cutting costs (cited by 83%), other reasons companies consider BPO are:
- Improving efficiency (73%)
- Shifting internal focus to innovation and new projects (55%)
- Improving time-to-market (42%)
- Tapping lower-cost offshore labor (53%)
- Concentrating on core capabilities (54%)
- Expanding into new business (20%)
More key drivers for BPO are available in the report. You can download and read the rest of it here. Happy reading!
Filed under: Advantages/Disadvantages of Outsourcing/BPO, Clients, Conferences & Exhibitions
We’re back in Vietnam after a great trip to Chicago for the IRCE trade show (see previous entry below). We spent a day exploring the city, a day setting up, and 3 days on the floor talking to IRCE attendees about our BPO solutions.
On the floor, we met representatives from all types of internet retailers: start-up to established, B2B to B2C, family-run to public corporations – selling a vast array of products, from nail salon supplies, sports equipment, glass tiles, shoes, military uniforms, and so much more!
The IRCE 2008 Exhibit Hall Floor
This being our first trade show, it was really interesting to see the diversity of businesses represented and their range in openness to BPO. Many of the attendees we talked to seemed thoroughly interested in what we offer: BPO solutions that save their businesses time and money and unload repetitive processes and management burden. Others were already outsourcing: mostly to India and a couple to Eastern Europe and South America.
Others weren’t so convinced: common objections included: “We’re too small” or “We prefer to do it all in-house.” Of course, we know that outsourcing can be a foreign concept to many (no pun intended!) and we’ve got firm rebuttals for all these objections which we’ll get into in another entry.
Overall, the show was a great success for us, bringing in over 100 new leads. Since last Thursday, we’ve been following up on our strongest leads and have already been given sample projects to work on for review by prospective clients. It’s exciting, indeed. More to come on these developments in the future.
