Great Benefits to Outsourcing Support Services
Outsourcing to meet your company’s IT, applications and customer service support needs could enhance your company’s operations, improve its ROI and ensure its success. Or, it could be an unreliable process that causes damage to your profit margins and reputation. Business process outsourcing is a serious decision and should not be taken lightly. However, it is important to note that if approached correctly, the benefits to outsourcing could be used in your company’s favour.
What is Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)?
Business Process Outsourcing is the practice of finding and contracting third-party service providers to perform specific business functions. There is a rising demand for BPO globally, as the numerous benefits to outsourcing are becoming increasingly apparent. Outsourcing is ideal for businesses seeking specialised talent, improved scalability, and more time and resources to focus on their core operations.
The benefits to outsourcing include that businesses have the opportunity to hand-pick companies of their desired specialisations from anywhere in the world rather than attempting to recruit individuals locally. By contracting their chosen company, businesses can maintain their competitive edge while saving money and improving their operations.
The Benefits to Outsourcing Services
The benefits to outsourcing are numerous. Outsourcing has proven beneficial for companies looking to streamline their processes, conserve resources and improve their ROI. However, there are various different kinds of outsourcing to consider for your company.
BPO can encompass various business functions such as customer service, human resources, accounting and finance, procurement, and supply chain management. Outsourcing can be divided into two categories: back-office outsourcing and front-office outsourcing. Back-office outsourcing involves functions such as data processing, financial and accounting services, and human resources management. Front-office outsourcing involves customer-facing functions such as telemarketing, customer service, and sales.
Learn more about the benefits to outsourcing with solverASSIST’s top reasons for outsourcing in 2023, where the advantages of BPO are covered in-depth.
Variations of Outsourcing Models
When investigating the benefits to outsourcing, there are several variations of outsourcing models for a business to consider. Whether or not each variant will benefit the business in question depends on its unique needs. There are so many ways that outsourcing can be approached. However, a few approaches are more popular than others:
- Onshore Outsourcing involves outsourcing from the same country as your company is located. This option is very convenient as you won’t experience any issues with time zones, language, or cultural differences.
- Offshore Outsourcing involves sourcing services from a team based in a distant location. While this can be challenging, it also presents the opportunity to receive services at a lower cost due to a favourable exchange rate.
- Partial Outsourcing: This model involves outsourcing only specific functions or processes rather than the entire business operations. For example, companies may outsource their HR functions, IT support, or marketing services.
One of the benefits to outsourcing is that it can be adapted to your company’s needs – there is no one correct formula. Other kinds of outsourcing available to your company include knowledge process outsourcing, onsite outsourcing, co-sourcing, BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) outsourcing and staff augmentation.
Outsourcing Options
Businesses can outsource their operations based on a total outsourcing model, which involves relying on third-party service providers for all facilities, equipment, and data. Therefore, all control over all processes and their administration would be by single or multiple third-party service providers.
While entrusting a third party with the entirety of your business processes can be intimidating, it can also pay off. As mentioned in our case study on outsourcing for success, WhatsApp outsourced its entire app development, relying on a third party to handle the core of its product. Needless to say, this was a resounding success.
Alternatively, selective or partial outsourcing allows companies to outsource services for specific projects or business operations as and when needed while still allowing core processes to be worked on in-house. This gives companies significantly more control over their vital operations while allowing them to improve their flexibility and streamline their operations.
Processes many companies choose to selectively or partially outsource include IT, application and customer support services.
Benefits to Outsourcing IT and Technical Services
The benefits to technical outsourcing include streamlined, optimised, efficient and reliable business processes due to well-maintained processes, software, middleware and hardware. Technical outsourcing can come in various forms, such as cybersecurity outsourcing for the fortified protection of company data. Cloud outsourcing involves outsourcing services from a cloud computing provider, gaining access to servers, storage, resources and databases over the internet. While there are numerous places for a company to start outsourcing for their IT needs, here are a few for your company to consider in 2023:
Infrastructure Outsourcing
This includes employing 3rd party companies for service desk capabilities, data centre outsourcing, network services, managed security operations, or overall infrastructure management. In essence, infrastructure outsourcing involves outsourcing the management and maintenance of a company’s IT infrastructure, such as its servers and storage systems.
Application Outsourcing
This includes services such as legacy system maintenance, the development of new applications, beta testing and quality assurance, and packaged software implementation and management. In essence, application outsourcing involves seeking out the services of a third party for the development, maintenance, and management of software applications, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems or customer relationship management (CRM) systems.
Maintenance Outsourcing
IT maintenance outsourcing involves the transfer of some or all of a company’s IT maintenance activities to an external provider. This can include day-to-day maintenance operations, such as patching, monitoring, and troubleshooting, as well as more specialised tasks, such as hardware, middleware and software upgrades, network security, and data backup and recovery. The third-party provider may also offer managed services to ensure the company’s IT systems remain up-to-date and optimally functioning.
Benefits to Outsourcing Help-Desk Support
The benefits to outsourcing technical services can be immense; however, help-desk outsourcing is perhaps the most important kind of outsourcing for businesses to consider. When an end-user has problems or questions about a product or service, a help desk can troubleshoot and resolve the issue. By outsourcing support services, companies can ensure that their operations continue running smoothly at their employees’ hands, even in the event of a technical hitch. Access to support services can make employees feel the following:
- Empowered with information
- Supported by a reliable team
- Capable of dealing with challenges
- Motivated to work
Aside from a company’s employees, the benefits to outsourcing help desk services can extend to clients too. Help desks can assist customers with various issues, leaving them feeling equally supported and impressed. If your customers continually have positive experiences with your help desk services, this can have the following profound results:
- Increased customer satisfaction across the board
- Positive company reviews
- An improved reputation
- A subsequent influx of business
While all business process outsourcing has the distinct advantage of allowing companies to streamline their operations and make optimal use of their resources, help desk service outsourcing is perhaps the most crucial. Help desk services work behind the scenes to ensure company operations’ stability and consistency. The benefits to outsourcing help desk services cannot be understated. If managed correctly, the benefits to outsourcing help-desk services can positively impact your clients’ and employees’ experiences. Simultaneously, this can improve your profit margins and your reputation.
Without stability and consistency, confident employees, and customer support, a company can have the latest and greatest applications and technology and still fail. This makes outsourcing help-desk support for your company one of the best places for your company to start. Determine when to outsource support services for your business, take advantage of the benefits to outsourcing and ensure your success.
Outsource Services for Your Business
solverASSIST offers IT, applications and customer support services tailored to your needs. Our reliable services are designed to help you optimise your company operations and increase revenue growth.
We offer free consultations and technical support for your middleware, monitoring, and management requirements, and other niche products. Our application services include linear, BI, financial application, and Salesforce support to get your company’s operations running smoothly. With specialised help-service desk and escalation management teams, solverASSIST caters to all your customer service requirements timeously and professionally.
Contact solverASSIST for a free consultation today, or read this article to learn more about how BPO can elevate your productivity and increase revenue.