โOne of the questions you will find yourself asking when you are looking at scaling or expanding your business and considering strategy, is โwhat are the significant benefits of business process outsourcing (BPO)?โ
BPO is a fast-growing B2B service that focuses on delivering core functions within your business by external providers. In this article, we are going to explore the industry and service, as well as outline the main benefits you are likely to experience given the right partner.
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What is business process outsourcing (BPO) in simple words?
Business process outsourcing can be easily described as contracting core business functions to third-party service providers instead of hiring in-house staff. You could choose to outsource anything in your business that you feel is an essential function or activity, from HR to shipping and logistics.
Here at mselect, we are recognised BPO providers for HR and manpower for some of the largest brands in the world.
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How does business process outsourcing work?
Unlike hiring freelancers and contractors to deliver one specific task within a business function, say a recruitment agent to find candidates for selection processes, BPO outsourcing effectively provides the whole function from selection to onboarding and even payroll and HR.
BPO services are usually provided by experts in a field, who can deliver bespoke services that immediately help you to gain efficiencies, by making use of better technology and providing staff on budget.
Once you agree on terms with a BPO company their integration into your business is fast, meaning that you can roll out new departments with a skilled workforce in a fraction of the time. This is great if you are expanding to new territories, growing into a new sector, or even scaling your existing business.
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What is an example of business process outsourcing?
Let's use our recent office opening in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia as a hypothetical example of BPO.
As you can imagine, as a new territory for us there was a lot to do in setting up our new office. Part of that setup was the consideration of staffing, HR and payroll solutions. Tax in this part of the world differs greatly from country to country, as does pay and employee benefits. We could have chosen to outsource the handling of this at our Saudi office to a BPO company. Fortunately, this is exactly what we do as a BPO business, but you get the idea.
Likewise, if we were a product business looking to expand into the US, one of our considerations might be to find a BPO provider who handles sales, distribution and logistics (also known as a distributor).
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Is business process outsourcing a trend or a fad?
BPO is not a trend or fad that will disappear anytime soon. The business process outsourcing industry stood at a net worth of USD92.5 billion (15543.2 billion Iraqi Dinar) in 2019, according to Statistica. A figure at which industry experts expect to grow over time, as more businesses make use of BPO to benefit their brand growth.
Outsourcing staff is just one area where BPO has had a profound effect on organisations.
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