OUTSOURCING FOR GROWTH
As a small business owner, the company has grown to an extent where you need an accountant, a lawyer, a content strategist and a tax advisor. But you cannot afford to put them on the payroll, and frankly, you don’t have the expertise to manage these roles. So, you’ve gone off the many freelancing platforms available. You post that you need freelancers to take up these tasks so you can focus on where the money is: convincing clients that your software company is nimble enough to deliver timely results. You get the freelancers but there is a catch: you will need to onboard each freelancer, make them understand your business ethos, teach them the peculiarities of your industry. Bottom line, you spend the next 6 weeks onboarding freelancers who will only work with you for 3 months. Then the cycle starts again. Mismanagement of critical business processes is one of the most common reasons why organizations fail to scale. Where a company wishes to allocate resources to processes that fundamental to the businesses, scholars and executives agree that outsourcing is the best route to growth. Outsourcing simply means that processes will become more efficiently done. When efficiency is established, business leaders can focus on core operations which will, in turn, lead to better outputs and increased business. Because Africa is gaining significant momentum as the next outsourcing continent with the radical industry growth experienced in the last 10 years, a company around the world who outsource to Africa will have access to some of the brightest and best minds in their fields without having to bear extraordinary costs. Outsourcing firms must by definition be up to date on the latest trends and technology in their industry. This knowledge is passed on to clients who may not have time for deep dive researches in areas that are not core to their business. So, companies can leverage specialized industry knowledge when they outsource.
5 SMART TIPS FOR CHOOSING A VIABLE OUTSOURCING PARTNER
Messrs ST Yakinson is an equipment manufacturer operating from Japan. Their clients are mainly in Europe. Over the years, as operations expanded due to increased business, activities such as payroll, inventory tracking, personnel management and material sourcing began to take its toll on the company. There was a high turnover of factory staff, entry and mid-level staff. The company recruited more staff to handle payroll and personnel management and a significant number of client care representatives to handle client complaints which increased by over 45% within two years. So, Messrs ST Yakinson outsourced. They outsourced about 80% of all back-office activities including material sourcing, client services, equipment purchase and maintenance, and personnel management. All was well in the first outsourcing year. By the second year, it became obvious that Messrs ST Yakinson was the only client of the outsourcing firm, as other clients had cancelled not renewed with them. Because of this decline, the outsourcing firm let go about 65% of their staff, keeping on barely enough hands to fulfil their contractual obligations to Messrs ST Yakinson. That affects the quality of service being provided as previously specialized services were now merged to reduce cost. By year three, Messrs ST Yakinson were back to the beginning — more client complaints, high staff turnover with an additional data breach of confidential proprietary information. Where did Messrs ST Yakinson go wrong? Let’s take a quick look at the process they should have taken when selecting an outsourcing partner. 1. Record of satisfied clients: would you trust your money to a financial institution that says yours is the first account they will be handling? How do you ensure that your funds are safe? History of satisfied clients with a critical look at the management team and financial assets gives one a sense of ease that such institution is OK to do business with. The same principle applies to outsourcing. While back-office operations can be a distraction for organizations whose expertise lie elsewhere, if not properly managed those operations can be the death of such an organisation. So, in choosing a viable outsourcing partner, ask for references from past clients to ascertain how long they have operated and how well they have served others. 2. Identify an area of specialization: Outsourcing firms have specializations. There are facility management companies, there are call centres and business process outsourcing companies like Outsource Global in Nigeria; there are also technical outsourcing partners. Understand aspects of the business which are non-core and shop around for an outsourcing partner in a renowned outsourcing destination like Africa. 3. Use of technology: how technologically ready is your proposed outsourcing partner? The hardware and software components of the outsourcing firm should be the latest available, with the capacity to integrate with resident systems of the contracting business. A clear communication line must be established; uninterrupted connectivity and power availability must be assessed. In essence, the operations of the outsourcing company must not interfere with their ability to provide the services your business requires. 4. Workforce Strength: If you are considering outsourcing because your business has to manage much non-core staff, you definitely should be looking out for an outsourcing firm that will is not cutting corners by piling workloads on limited hands. A viable outsourcing company is one that fully understands a clients process has made available the necessary manpower to carry out said processes. A way to know this is to review your partner’s hiring policies and processes to understand the technical and soft skills that they look out for when hiring. 5. Understand the costs: a rule of thumb is that businesses must never outsource their core processes. Any mishap with an outsourcing vendor will practically ruin the client’s business so businesses must be able to identify their core and non-core tasks. Also look at the cost of outsourcing: which region has the best rates with commensurate quality service? Africa is the new frontier in outsourcing and Nigeria is leading the charge to the best outsourcing destination in the region.
DBN Maiden Lecture
OUTSOURCED BUSINESS PROCESSES
The paradigm shift that the internet has brought about in communication has opened up a plethora of opportunities for outsourcing business processes across the continent. From offering single IT services, BPO has come a long way and now covers an array of operations that can be performed and managed away from clients’ location. Business process outsourcing is, therefore, a trend that is becoming common in organizations for services that have usually been regarded as intrinsic to managing a business. BPO is divided into 2 categories: Back Office outsourcing which includes internal business functions such as billing or purchasing, direct and indirect procurement, transport administration, logistics and dispatch, warehouse management etc. and Front Office outsourcing which includes customer-related services, marketing services, technology support, market research, hiring and recruitment, data analytics, web-related services, auditing, health care administration etc. Despite being unattractive, the Back Office contributes significantly to the success of any business, as it has the ability to impact the customer’s experience. Customers’ expectations are met and surpassed when Back Office work is done efficiently. Errors, leading to an increase in the volume of work that is done by the Front Office, on the other hand, can lead to disgruntled customers. The greatest challenge in providing a seamless customer experience is, therefore, balancing and outsourcing the different nature of the work done in an organization’s Front and Back Office. Outsourcing and especially BPO can be tedious and time consuming as there are numerous big and small steps (e.g. organizational culture, what business processes can be optimized, the outsourcing partners to look out for, and how to communicate the organization’s needs and desires regarding outsourced business process, to name a few) in between deciding to outsource and knowing exactly what business processes to outsource. A reliable outsourcing agency like Outsource Global will meet and exceed every Back and Front office outsourced requirements to help your business in order to overcome productivity blocks in order to survive the accelerated and intensive market competition.
Outsource Global Wins Service Exporting Award
Outsource Global wins the Service Exporting Company of the Year Award. The company has been recognized as Nigeria’s premier business process outsourcing company. Speaking during the awards ceremony, the Founder and CEO of Outsource Global, Amal Hassan said “our goal is to make Nigeria the leading outsourcing destination in the world. This article was originally published by TheGuardian
Outsource Global Extends Services to Silicon Valley, to Work with Business Reactors
Coming on the heels of its recent expansion to the UK and Japan, Africa’s leading business process outsourcing company domiciled in Nigeria has announced its strategic working relationship with US-based information as a service firm, Business Reactor. “We have traditionally served mainstream clients in financial services, legal, social advocacy, consultancy and healthcare within the US and UK markets. But technological advancements across the world shows that the tech industry is underserved,” said Amal Hassan, the Founder and CEO of Outsource Global. “Where else do we show the viability of this cost-effective business model to tech founders, accelerators and venture capitalists than the home of tech innovation — Silicon Valley. We now have a working agreement with Business Reactors to introduce Outsource Global and its services to key players in Silicon Valley.” Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is considered not only a simple cost-cutting mechanism but also a strategic initiative used to improve the quality of business processes while managing the bottom lines of a company. Such services are particularly important for tech innovators and global software companies that require acceleration partners to manage different operational processes to help deliver more efficient and lean growth while maximising operational expenses. “I am confident, with the company’s sharp focus and strong leadership skills, Outsource Global is poised for global domination,” Valeiry Galistky, CEO Business Reactors said. Speaking on the capacity of the organisation to handle the expected increase in client requests, Peter Oriabure, the Head of Infrastructure and Technology at Outsource Global said: “Keeping in view our strategic growth plan, and anticipating an increase in the number of clients that Outsource Global will serve over the next five years, we have established critical technological and infrastructural protocols to handle large client requests. We currently have about 800 remote teams working in three locations across Nigeria. We are able to increase that number to over 2,000 with 99.9 percent uptime.” Outsource Global is one of the biggest and leading Africa business and knowledge process outsourcing firms based in Nigeria, providing services such as data training, software development, back office outsourcing, remote sales development as well as market research services to businesses, NGOs and public sector clients across the world.
Much Ado About Business Process Outsourcing
The term ‘Outsourcing’ is not a new concept. The rationale behind it stems from the fact that if an external service provider can perform a business function faster and at a reduced cost than your organisation, then the strategic thing to do will be to outsource those functions unless they are core to the business. So sourcing out business processes already existed before now but, it was without the interconnected business networks that cut across two or more countries. The business processes that were outsourced in the past were limited to an organisation’s supply chain, which often involves the production and distribution of goods and services. In today’s contemporary business world, business and technology have become intertwined, such that companies are beginning to transfer non-core, yet critical business processes to a specialised and efficient third-party company in a different country. In some cases, organisations are outsourcing their entire back-office operations like human resources, technical support, customer service, finance etc. to control cost, compete effectively and extend their reach into new markets. Technological developments and networking in industries have therefore facilitated the outsourcing of products and services beyond national boundaries. In the context of this new normal, the BPO industry is said to have undergone a revolution. It has become an important new force in the global economy. Organisations are increasingly relying on offshore BPO providers for myriad of operations. In fact, having an off-shore team who apply their advanced degrees and technical skills in specialised areas is now the norm. Companies that outsource these core business functions to these agencies, thereby have access to new technology, intellectual and other material resources that would strategically position them for global competitiveness. The BPO revolution is upon us! The industry has grown and will continue to grow exponentially. Presently, two-thirds of companies worldwide already outsource at least one business process to third-party firms. This growing number of contracts focusing on BPO service delivery clearly demonstrates a belief in its value and the impact on the companies that outsource as well as the individuals who welcome the prospect to work with foreign businesses in their country. Outsource Global is an example of a truly global business outsourcing company, serving markets in the US, UK, Japan and Nigeria. Its 2000+ staff capacity facility in Nigeria is fully equipped with the latest technology to ensure that partner clients enjoy optimal service delivery.
Amal Named among Emerging Leaders of U.S. Global Women’s Mentoring Partnership
Amal Hassan has been named among emerging leaders named in the 2018 Fortune-US Department of State Global Women’s Mentoring Partnership. She is a Nigerian technopreneur and Chief Executive Officer of Outsource Global. Amal had multiple sessions at Y&R a global leading branding and communications powerhouse. Amal focused on developing critical leadership, professional and business skills during her mentorship with Shelly Diamond. Originally published by TheGuardian