What Are the Business Process Outsourcing Benefits

There are many (BPO) business process outsourcing benefits. One BPO benefit is obviously the savings in labour costs. You can access offshore staff at a fraction of the normal cost with only a small reduction in the standard of quality. Sometimes the offshore staff you can access through business process outsourcing are even more talented then the people we have access to in Australia.

One of the BPO benefits is the filling of positions where there are actually labour hire shortages. Currently in Australia there are significant labour shortages in the areas of trades and IT. The Australian government is encouraging skilled migrants to Australia. All these jobs can not be done using offshore staff but there are aspects of every business which can benefit from business process outsourcing. For example you can use virtual assistants to complete the everyday tasks which do not require a high skills set allowing senior staff to focus on the key competencies of their business.

Another business process outsourcing benefit is the potential to begin new revenue branches or income streams. Perhaps this is not initially possible because of the cash flow burden. By using offshore labour it makes these opportunities a very real possibility as you are able to access talented staff at reduced wage costs. Once the new branch is up and running you may be able to expand and begin employing local staff. By using BPO the benefits may enable more businesses to stay above ground.

Have you heard the statistics like 80% of small businesses fail in the first year and then 80% of the surviving ones fail in the next five years. Unfortunately, they are very real statistics in Australia. A major business process outsourcing benefit is the ability for small business owners to access skills and talents that ordinarily they are unable to afford. Building a successful business is about using your own skill strengths and employing the people who possess the skills you do not have. This formula is used by some of the most wealthy and successful business owners like Sir Richard Branson. By using the business process outsourcing benefits you have at your disposal, you are able to access the skills and talents your organisation does not have without the cash flow burden.

Another major business process outsourcing benefit is to the offshore staff and their country. By employing offshore staff you are providing incomes to people in countries that are less fortunate then us. They are not normally working (can't say always) in the stereotypical "sweat shop". The incomes they earn are very respectable in their country and enables the offshore staff to have job security. In addition the cost of living is significantly different to developed countries such as Australia and America. In fact, in places like the Philippines they prefer to work with business process outsourcing companies as they see it as prestigious and a very good career move.

The BPO benefits are very significant, real and accessible for the majority of businesses. Don't let globalisation become a threat but embrace it and turn it into your competitive advantage.

Business Process Automation

Process automation has been a staple of many industries for some time. Power plants, factories and IT departments have been using business process automation tenets for years. Their value and success is now making them a larger factor in other industries. People are beginning to realize that automation of distinct business practices can be a powerful and profitable strategy for businesses of all types.

Loosely defined, process automation refers to completely or partially automating regular business processes with technology. In other words, it's all about isolating the things your company does on a regular basis and applying organization an technological tools to automate as much of the process as you reasonably can.

For example, let's say that part of your business involves providing price quotations for the services you offer. Those quotations are based on a number of different factors.

Currently, you might utilize individual employees to perform this task. They might speak with prospective clients, solicit the information necessary to create a quotation and then "come up with a number" based on your guidelines and their own limited discretion.

That's not a horrible system, but it does pose a few risks. A poorly trained employee could make a meaningful mistake. A simple error in calculation could spell the difference between profit and loss. The process may take up a disproportionate amount of employee time, leaving them unable to handle other responsibilities effectively.

Process automation might resolve the problem by creating a program the employees could use to create quotations. The new software might help them to gather necessary information and could then provide the resulting price quotation. Some individual discretion might be retained, with the program giving the employee an idea of how much "play" existed in the number.

A more aggressive bit of process automation might involve adding a quotation system to the company website. Prospective clients could be directed to the site, where they would supply the necessary information and would then receive a quotation.

Why is process automation becoming more popular? Advances in technology and technological literacy are making it easier to implement, which allows employers to gain some significant advantages. Understanding your business processes and training your employees in your processes will contribute to efficiency, aid in increasing scalability, provide heightened levels of accountability and supply valuable data that can be used to further improve company systems.