Business Process Outsourcing

Successful organisations often talk about having good and healthy business relations with their clients. Such relations, often built with a great amount of work over a number of years, are the backbone of new business, hence the common statistic that 80% of new sales come from 20% of existing accounts. These figures have long been recognised in the business world as an effective guide to sales and marketing initiatives.

In order for an organisation to abide by this rule, a clean database should be constantly maintained.

What is data cleansing?

A lack of up-to-date and correct data may lead to significant disadvantages to an organisation, mainly jeopardising those precious customer relations. On-going data cleansing will ensure compliance and consistency, especially when sets of data are combined from different databases.

Through data cleansing, clients’ information is updated and verified, making sure staff will reach the right person on the right number. Adding more information or removing unnecessary details is also essential.

Nowadays, client information changes at an even faster pace. Whether people retire, move or leave a company, those changes should be timely reflected in the database. Identifying duplicate accounts and ensuring opt-outs are not contacted is also part of database management. For mailer campaigns for example, data cleansing will ensure that bounce-backs are at a minimum. Regularly updated information is truly a key business asset that increases the efficiency of staff and the success rate of sales and marketing efforts.

For companies that have branches in more than one location, where people work with the same clients, data cleansing is indispensable as inaccurate records can be damaging to the business. Once updated, the data should be visible in all locations thus ensuring a transparent and effective workflow.

Outsourcing

As organisations grow their business, they need more resources in developing core products or services, rather than focusing on non-essential but necessary functions that can be outsourced to specialised providers. Data cleansing is one of those functions. Outsourcing to a reliable provider can help you maintain your business-critical information at a high quality. Also, by entrusting this process to an Outsourcing provider, companies are able to better utilise resources.

Outsourcing data cleansing can help you:

• Grow your team
• Focus on development and innovation
• Achieve a clean database at a lower cost
• Minimise managerial responsibilities

With strategic outsourcing of non-core functions, companies are able to focus their long-term efforts on developing the business and expanding offerings.

To find out more about Outsourced Data Cleansing with ProcessFlows, please visit our Business Process Outsourcing website, email sales@processflows.co.uk or call us on 01962 835053.

Outsourcing is not only a financially wise business strategy, but it is also a great way to grow your business, with lower costs and less risk than internal expansion.

Outsourcing service providers offering flexible contract terms are preferred among those who wish to adjust to changing business trends and stay competitive.

In this upcoming webinar, ProcessFlows’ outsourcing experts will discuss the increasing global trend of outsourcing and its long-term consequences to businesses. They will also cover industry-specific approaches and answer your questions in detail.

To learn more about outsourcing insights, please click here to sign up for our webinar.

Order processing is a critical function in any sales cycle. Completing customer orders in a timely manner is one of the things that strengthens client relationships and helps build new ones. No matter whether it is B2B or B2C, the speedy fulfilment of sales orders gives a competitive advantage to any size business.

The Importance of Order Processing

Whether you are selling a product or providing a service, it is necessary to process your customers’ requests quickly. This can be a challenge when the volume of orders is difficult to process using the resources you have. Consequently, this could lead to heavier managerial burden over your staff, stressful situations for the whole team and may result in dissatisfied end users, due to delays.

In online business in particular, customers are exposed to a huge range of suppliers offering similar products and deals. In this competitive environment, those who offer better customer service, faster order processing and timely delivery will eventually increase and maintain their customer base.

In addition, one of the main advantages of online businesses is that it works while you sleep. The global reach of online sales means there could always be a customer wanting to order from you whatever the time of day or night. Providing overnight staff to handle orders can be costly but is necessary if you want to stay competitive. This is where opting for outsourcing can be a very cost-effective solution.

Outsourcing Order Processing

Outsourcing any manual process brings great advantages to a business. Having an outsourced expert deal with such a process, gives organisations the chance to reorganise and reallocate resources to more efficient routes for growth. This approach is especially effective for start-ups that would like to expand their teams but have limited budgets. Additional advantages that businesses have by outsourcing order processing include:

• Extended hours of operation at a lower cost, by outsourcing an overnight team of staff to process clients enquiries and orders
• Expansion of the team and less day-to-day managerial responsibilities
• Organisations won’t have to deal with any HR processes – the outsourcing provider handles these
• Businesses won’t have to invest in additional infrastructure or technology

Having a long-term vision for any business is key for success. Incorporating outsourcing into such a vision will undoubtedly bring tremendous benefits with long-term consequences. In the case of order processing specifically, organisations can strengthen relationships with existing clients and easily build new ones by providing a constant and efficient service that deals with the timely processing orders.

To find out more about Outsourced Order Processing with ProcessFlows, please visit our Business Process Outsourcing website, email sales@processflows.co.uk or call us on 01962 835053.

Providing the necessary administrative support to your organisation may be a challenging task. Finding the right professionals with extensive administrative capabilities comes at a significant cost, which is a problem when businesses are trying to cut back on expenses. Business owners can often overlook office and administrative functions, seeing them as non-core to the business, costly and time-consuming.

For that reason, Outsourced Administration Support is gaining popularity amongst organisations that recognise the need to reallocate resources, from back-office functions to business development and growth.

Outsourced Administration Support is both cost-effective and low-risk; The outsourcing vendor takes care of all the HR processes and procedures and the subsequent overhead costs. As administrative tasks differ between organisations, outsourcing vendors provide bespoke solutions and precise execution.

Advancements in technology can further increase the productivity of administration support and organisations won’t have to invest in additional infrastructure or devices, but will still gain all the advantages of having a dedicated admin team. Such a risk-free business expansion is suitable for any size organisation.

As focus on strategic tasks is a priority for businesses today, outsourced administrative support is a highly sought-after service. With the help of administration assistants, organisations can recognise the benefits of transferring their back-office tasks to outsourced qualified professionals.

To find out more about Outsourced Administration Support with ProcessFlows, please visit our Business Process Outsourcing website, email sales@processflows.co.uk or call us on 01962 835053.

Outsourcing has proven to be a great business model for reducing operating costs and boosting profit margins, whilst maintaining a high quality of customer service. The model is usually scalable and can allow companies in any market to adjust resource allocation as business conditions change. In an effort to maximise profits and minimise expenses, many companies opt for out-of-country outsourcing divided into two categories: nearshoring and offshoring.

Which one of these two models is a better option?

Both terms imply export of production or functions, nonetheless they are fundamentally different. In both cases, however, a business may choose to use the services of an outsourcing provider or undertake the process itself. Which type of outsourcing works best, depends on the organisation’s goals, business process, and risk management strategy.

Nearshoring

Nearshoring means that an organisation has transferred work to another organisation within its own region. For UK organisations, Europe is a nearshoring region and companies prefer to outsource within its boundaries mainly because of its data protection laws. When choosing this model, businesses move operations or functions to a ‘close’ but more cost-effective location, with small time- zone differences and fewer cultural discrepancies.  Proximity allows for less expensive travel, a greater degree of control and timely decision-making in critical situations. Nearshoring countries are often bound by similar financial and legal constraints that provide social and economic stability within a region.

Offshoring

Offshoring, on the other hand, is the relocation by a company of a business process  to a more distant location. Generally speaking, wages in such locations are lower and the overall production cost may be significantly decreased. China, India and the Philippines are the quintessential examples of off-shoring destinations for ‘Western’ companies. If, however, the outsourcing service is not a manual production process, but a customer-related service, the disadvantages of offshoring should be considered. Different time zones, distance, cultural differences, and language barriers, can all impact the work process significantly.

The benefits for organisations who wish to outsource are great; the ability to focus on core competencies, the reallocation of resources to innovation and growth, reduced operation and managerial risk, no additional infrastructure investments and improved overall competitiveness. So, when choosing between nearshoring and offshoring, one should be focused on the benefits, but also be aware that offshoring may pose more risks than nearshoring, and those should be carefully considered.

To find out more about Nearshoring with ProcessFlows, please visit our Business Process Outsourcing website, email sales@processflows.co.uk or call us on 01962 835053.

The term ‘outsourcing’ has, until recently, been primarily associated with cost savings, especially in human capital. China and India are often mentioned as preferred outsourcing destinations for multi-national organisations and are cited as the most cost-effective; with big enterprises, mainly in manufacturing, moving whole operations as a way to increase profitability.

However, outsourcing an operation to offices on the other side of the world is not a viable choice for SMEs, or for organisations wishing to outsource just one or two business functions. A far better option for these cases is ‘nearshoring’, which still offers lower overheads than locally-based staffing, but has none of the distance or language pitfalls associated with offshoring.

Why outsource to begin with?

Outsourcing can be a crucial strategic direction for start-up companies to take. It is a common misconception that an organisation needs to be of a certain size to outsource … but consider the following benefits:

• The capital of start-up organisations is limited. By outsourcing some of their functions, they can reallocate much-needed funds to business development and innovation. Cost savings are realised not only in lower salaries, but also in assets and overheads.
• Embracing non-core, but necessary, business functions as a service, gives a competitive advantage to any business, which is vital for start-ups.
• By having an outsourcing provider, start-ups can minimise risk significantly. They pay for the service, the provider takes care of the rest and there are no future maintenance costs for infrastructure.

The above benefits are, of course, relevant to any size of organisation. Companies that have already tried outsourcing are now increasingly opting for a more bundled approach, i.e. outsourcing a number of different functions to the same provider. This approach yields substantial savings and well-informed sourcing decisions are easier to make. With the current economic pressures, multi-process outsourcing allows organisations not only to save, but also to add value. Whether it is by increased service offerings or improved client flexibility, such intelligent business transformation may be imperative for outperforming the competition.

So, outsourcing is a low-risk, scalable, multi-service expansion of business that is cost-effective, transparent, and helps you reach your strategic goals … but there are many people who are still reluctant to welcome such an approach. Changing the nature of how a business runs is not easy and can be risky. Outsourcing, however, mitigates the fear of failure, providing a proven model for business expansion, transforming businesses globally.

More Information

To find out more about nearshoring your business functions, click here to visit our Business Process Outsourcing site, email sales@processflows.co.uk, or call us on 01962 835053.

Franca Cognata, ProcessFlows’ Channel Manager

Resellers are increasingly looking to outsource their business services

Outsourcing services, such as IT support, to third party specialists like ourselves, allows resellers to more closely control/reduce their operational costs and maintain/improve the level of customer service expected of them.  They can also earn a margin on every service package sold into their customer base.

Outsourcing for Resellers

A lot of our channel partners already rely on us to provide 24/7 helpdesk and services for their customers.

All of the benefits with no investment

Our Services team have years of experience integrating and fully understanding the technology and solutions sold either directly, or through the Channel.

Opting to outsource saves our partners the cost and bother of having to train their own in-house support team and staff the operation out of office hours.

You get all the experience at a fraction of the cost, with no hassle. No worries about staff sickness, or finding cover for holidays, maternity leave, or jury service. You always have continuity and peace of mind that ‘everything is covered’.

Extending your workforce this way does not have to stop with technical helpdesk services – we provide a range of administrative services as well; marketing, telemarketing, virtual email response and customer enquiry helpdesk.

A highly skilled workforce

ProcessFlows’ outsourcing business is based in Bulgaria. Our operators are highly qualified; many of them to degree level and possess excellent language skills.

Not only do you get a cost effective solution to solving the resource problem, you gain a valuable, ‘virtual’ member of staff as well; someone who will be able to actively contribute to your team and add real value to your business credentials.

Nearshoring delivers the further benefit that time lines are more in line with the UK, which is more convenient to manage than an offshoring operation which can be at least 5 hours ahead of UK time.

Not having to recruit, train and fund an additional member of staff, gives partners more control and flexibility of their expenses and time to focus on core competencies and business development. All good strategies in uncertain times.

If you want to find out more about our outsourcing services for the Channel, please call Franca Cognata on 01962 835051/07795963687 or email us at fcognata@processflows.co.uk.

ProcessFlows are offering a discount to all reseller partners on all services until the end of 2011.

Outsourcing for Resellers’ Customers

The same benefits can be applied to your customers. Everyone is looking to reduce costs and buoy their business operations during the downturn.  Oursourcing allows them to do this. There is no capital outlay and services can be paid for on a month-by-month basis.

Gartner recently stated that the worldwide BPO market will expand by 6.3% in 2011 and 5% in 2012, so reselling outsourced services represents a good business opportunity for the foreseeable future.

Earn a margin

ProcessFlows will pay a commission for every ProcessFlows outsourced service package sold by Channel Partners to their customers.

Find out more

Click one of the buttons on the right or email fcognata@processflows.co.uk.

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) gives small businesses access to the same tools, skills and experience as large corporates, for a fraction of the cost.

ProcessFlow’s Steve Jarrett has been instrumental in setting up our BPO operation in Bulgaria.

Steve explains the positives of outsourcing for smaller companies.

For a number of years, large organisations were able to maintain a competitive advantage over SMEs, start-ups and individual entrepreneurs.  They had large budgets for infrastructure investment and the resource to operate multiple departments – accounts, HR, marketing, IT etc.

SMEs found it hard to compete with the ‘big boys’

They didn’t have the large budgets or resource to create and expose their brand, business and products to buyers to the same level and sell it to the world.  It would take years of investment to get to that stage.

So they missed out on market share

The ‘big boys’, were of course quite happy about this and were able to “Make hay while the sun shone.”

Then the internet arrived

The internet made it much easier for small companies to expose their brand – globally if they wanted.  With a small budget and limited marketing skills, they could compete with their larger competitors on a more level playing field.

All of a sudden, huge budgets and years of marketing experience meant nothing.

The sun stopped shining so brightly on big businesses and it started to drizzle!

But the ‘big boys’ still had an advantage over SMEs – they had the budget to support key activities, processes and skills.

Small businesses might be more passionate and knowledgeable about their core products and services and their key people probably work harder and longer hours than their corporate equivalents.  They can deliver a more personalised service to their customers and often provide greater value for money, but as anyone running a small business knows, being ‘hands on’ all the time won’t help you grow the business and it will stagnate.

In order to expand to the next level, you will need at some stage to put a sound back-end infrastructure and processes in place and employ some dependable, qualified staff to support HR, credit control, Customer Relationship Management, IT, Accounting and sales activities.  This frees up the key people to work on business development and sell the company into the future.

However, this is a huge investment for a small company.  It’s risky and they may never see a return on that investment.

SMEs can gain access to the same key activities, processes and skills by outsourcing some, or all, of their back office processes and services.

An outsourced business model gives small companies and start ups access to the same skills, resources, 24hr operations and business processes and services as the larger companies, at a fraction of the cost of setting it up in-house.

Pay-as-you-go

As you pay on a monthly basis, you can start small and get bigger – BPO services are totally scalable, with no capital outlay or investment.

You and your customers as will have direct access to your outsourced team via phone, email etc.  When dealing with your clients and users, the BPO team will communicate as if they are part of ‘your company’.

BPO allows you to start looking, acting and sounding like a large business

The drizzle is now turning to rain and “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine (Anymore)”

Further information about our outsourced business processes and services can be found in the BPO section of our website.

Outsourcing (the process of hiring another company to handle business activities for you) is a business model often adopted by large public sector organisations in times of austerity to reduce their costs so they can maintain business as usual.

As a result, Outsourcing undeservedly gets bad press because it is viewed by many as taking jobs away from the UK.

But there is a very positive other side to Business Process Outsourcing (BPO).

BPO is a scalable, pay-as-you-go solution – suited just as well to SMEs wanting to expand their core business without having to invest capital in the back end infrastructure to support growth

This frees up budgets to be spent on individuals who can focus on business development and selling the company’s unique skills, products and knowledge base to new clients, rather than on the hardware, software and supporting staff needed to process all that paper.

The BPO business model is also increasingly being utilised by entrepreneurs starting up new companies

Outsourcing allows them to eliminate the expense of staffing the back-end process at the outset (which would effectively make a lot of start-ups impossible because of the cost).

These start-ups will expand and grow

It is these Private Sector Companies which the Government predicts will create new jobs and opportunities, ultimately reducing the unemployment figures swelled by Public Sector redundancies.

Success story

ProcessFlows customer Thintech is an example of a start-up that was able to grow its customer base very quickly because it outsourced its IT support function – leaving the founders free to focus on business development.

Further information on ProcessFlows BPO can be found at http://www.processflows.co.uk/client-services/business-process-outsourcing/nearshoring