Despite the often-found shortcomings relative to outsourcing management and governance, buyers of external business services generally indicated their outsourcing efforts were successful. All BPO categories scored, on a 1–10 satisfaction scale (10 = extremely successful), between 6.6 (customer care) and 7.9 (research/pharmaceutical). The fact that customer care and research/pharmaceutical ranked bottom and top on the success scale and both were more frequently outsourced offshore highlights that different processes are more — or less suitable — to outsourcing under different models and different locations.
In addition, the study results indicate that:
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U.S. firms that outsource business processes such as procurement, human resources or finance and accounting may conduct some of the operations offshore, but most of the work remains domestic. Ninety percent of respondents say that their organizations conduct BPO activities in the U.S.A., though that is increasingly a non-exclusive destination. This highlights that BPO is becoming a truly global endeavor, versus one characterized by just “onshore” or “offshore.” |
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Most respondents say that the outsourced business processes will undergo some form of improvement or transformation, which they implement themselves or with the aid of a third-party service provider. This illustrates a potential mismatch between incentives and investments to perform outsourcing management and governance and the expectations of process improvement that outsourcing will bring. |
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Greater efficiency is by far the number one business priority this year of buyers of BPO services. It was the only choice in the study to be mentioned by more than 50% of respondents (56%). The next closest choice, boosting customer satisfaction, was mentioned by 45%. So while buyers still desire and demand cost savings from outsourcing, it is a baseline expectation, not the end-state goal. |
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Six Sigma isn’t old school. One-third of respondents say it is a high career priority relative to the use of external business services. The next closest response, finance and P&L management, coupled with supply chain, tallied one in four study respondents. The emergence of Six Sigma as a means to assess capabilities will play a role in the service provider selection process. |
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Nearly half the respondents say that their corporations publicly disclose their use of outsourcing services. That study finding is somewhat at odds with the reportorial experience of media covering this burgeoning field. |
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Investments are not decreasing in any business-process areas. Customer-care investment is rising in one out of two companies in the study. Surprisingly, two other mature types of BPO, finance and accounting along with human resources, will lag behind in spending increases compared to newer initiatives such as procurement and medical/legal areas. |
Sourcing
The study, fielded by Global Services magazine in conjunction with EquaTerra, an outsourcing advisory firm, looks at BPO practices and priorities. More than 200 surveys with buyers of BPO services and managers of shared- business services were completed on the Web in March, 2006.
