Many businesses – small and large corporations alike – experienced the effects of the global financial crisis. Companies were forced to cut down on operational costs, cut their losses, and worse, close shop due to the rising costs of keeping the business running and just the lack of customers buying their services and products. To avoid potentially closing down, many businesses resorted to outsource tech support services and many back-office operations to offshore business process outsourcing providers and contact centers. Businesses were able to avert big financial losses and keep their core operations running smoothly by doing so. Costs of outsource tech support services are significantly lower compared to costs of having an in-house technical support team. Several businesses admit that outsourcing several technical functions is favorable for them as handling IT functions internally is very costly. Also, having the capability of tapping into outsource tech support professionals’ expertise is always a big help to the business.
These companies, as well as the offshore providers, have greatly benefitted from outsource tech support services. The outsourcing trend provided thousands of Filipinos jobs and gave the Philippine economy a big boost in the last couple of years. On the other hand, outsource tech support services, along with other back-end office and customer support services, gave foreign businesses to reduce technical support costs on their end. These businesses also saw reduced management overhead costs, improved productivity and the availability of IT, business processes and workforce assets. Outsource tech support and offshore outsourcing in general have lowered the overall cost of ownership for enterprises.
However beneficial and successful offshore outsource tech support and business process services have become, many businesses should not assume that their overall operations will run smoothly just by leaving some of their functions in the hands of the BPO providers. Day-to-day governance and a pleasant relationship between businesses and providers are the keys to having a successful outsourcing partnership. Many business executives believe that abdicating the management of outsource tech support and other outsourced services should not be done to ensure that the providers give exactly the quality of service the businesses require.
To ensure that BPO providers and client companies have a successful relationship, there should be a good understanding and a strong working rapport between both parties’ managements. Firms offering outsource tech support services and handling back-office operations for foreign companies should consider building peer friendships and devising good working methods with their clients because research shows that these are important factors in long-term relationships. Another thing that outsource tech support providers and client firms should consider is having and maintaining just one point of contact in the other firm to avoid confusion and miscommunication between the two parties.
Many outsource tech support and business process providers should consider creating special executive committees or boards that will come up with the best strategies to effectively handle a smooth outsourcing relationship between the BPO firms and the client companies. This special committee should bear the responsibility of identifying, resolving and escalating important issues. Issues in outsource tech support service quality and other matters will be discussed by this team that will hold strategic meetings to resolve conflicts. When doing business, companies and BPO providers alike should establish and agree on quantifiable criteria from which the quality of outsource tech support services and back-office services will be based. Having pre-established objectives will allow companies to see if the performance of the providers benefits the companies, and the providers will know how they stand in meeting the clients’ outsourcing needs. The performance criteria must have quantifiable objectives, quality, customer satisfaction, service quantities and are measurable against other outsource tech support and BPO providers.
Working with these factors in mind will allow client companies and outsource tech support providers to improve and maintain their good relationship that will ensure high quality service from the provider’s end and profit for the client’s side.