The significant uptake of business process outsourcing (BPO) amongst Australian businesses is in line with a global trend towards BPO solutions to drive revenue and competitiveness. Trends towards remote working have gathered speed during the COVID-19 pandemic and this, coupled with the shortage of skilled labour in the Australian market, is compelling businesses to explore new ways of working – including utilising outsourced teams.
With growth a key area of focus for Australian businesses, strategic investment in ways to reduce costs, deliver improved customer experiences, leverage data and drive digital transformation opportunities forms a critical part of any business strategy.
How business process outsourcing can help
The use of BPO service providers is becoming increasingly common across multiple industries as businesses look for new and efficient ways to meet their objectives and gain a competitive advantage.
What began as a cost saving strategy for businesses seeking to reduce overheads by moving aspects of their process and administration off-site or offshore has evolved into an immensely compelling business management solution. The growth and evolution in business process outsourcing has been driven by the global adoption of cloud technologies, as well as customer demand for digital products, services and advances in technology to streamline operational capabilities.
Businesses that integrate an outsourced team into their model gain instant access to a pool of highly skilled talent proficient in multiple functions, from complex back-office systems to data science and analytics. With remote working becoming increasingly embedded, the use of outsourced teams is expected to grow significantly in the coming years.
“Current global trends point towards a huge uptake in BPO as businesses see how easy it is to access pools of motivated, highly skilled teams and gain access to emerging technologies.”
Harish Rao, Chair – Advisory Panel, Sundaram Business Services
Why top firms use business process outsourcing
It’s interesting to note that the concerns that once existed around outsourcing – for example, around interconnectedness, safety and efficiency – are becoming a thing of the past as the practice becomes normalised among prestigious businesses. For example, the Australian Financial Review recently reported that many of the businesses in Australia’s Top 100 Accounting Firms use offshore labour to help service client demands. If you’re a subscriber, you can read the full article here.
And what made the difference to a successful relationship? Everything that Sundaram’s clients consistently provide positive feedback on:
- the high quality of our work
- ready access to qualified, talented resources
- ability to scale up as required - quickly and easily.
Further, Sundaram has access to: qualified, skilled, experienced employees who are motivated to take their place on the world stage. Unlike in other parts of the world staff shortages in India are nonexistent, which has created a highly competitive labour market.
While cost saving certainly remains a key benefit, the next-generation solutions across multiple functions – including administration, customer service functions, back-office processing, payroll, finance and procurement – make specialist outsourced teams an important strategic consideration. With an outsourced team in place, organisations can free up capacity for strategic projects that focus on core competencies, staff retention and growth. Here are some of the key benefits of business process outsourcing.
Six benefits of outsourcing
- Reducing costs – outsourcing some of your business processes can be much more cost-effective than hiring a permanent employee. With lower overheads, businesses have the opportunity to strategically re-direct revenue to growth.
- Avoid staff shortages – by hiring a full-time, highly skilled team offshore, labour shortages and talent gaps can be mitigated quickly. Additionally, internal staff have more capacity for other projects and career growth within the business.
- Support transformational change – businesses can access emerging technologies, such as changes in the collection and analysis of data, by immediately outsourcing to experts to quickly get initiatives up and running (rather than upskilling existing staff or investing in in-house technologies).
- Scale up to meet demand – a flexible outsourced team makes it easy to meet project deliverables, support new product launches or respond to market changes.
- Increase competitiveness – an agile and motivated pool of outsourced talent can respond quickly to changing market conditions and deliver better customer experiences leveraging different time zones.
- Support business growth – with the back office taken care of, businesses can focus on strategic growth objectives.
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated change across the globe with disruptions across almost every industry. The outsourcing industry is no exception, with powerful advances in product offering and functionality making outsourced teams a sophisticated and evolving business tool. For Australian businesses currently grappling with talent shortages, BPO is an effective way to not only bridge the gap but also find a partner that can support business growth and deliver a competitive edge in a changing market.
Transform your business growth by outsourcing securely, transparently and efficiently with the Sundaram Business Services team.
Sundaram Business Services is a business process outsourcing company with offices in Australia, India and the UK. With over 20 years’ experience in the Australian market in providing outsourced teams to Australian businesses across Accountancy, Portfolio Management, Self-Managed Super Funds, and Mortgage Broker support, our business becomes an extension of yours.
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