This article is by a guest author.
The rapid development of technology has a great impact on all of the industry branches out there, and the BPO industry is no exception. Informational technology is quickly becoming an integral part of the service, so lowering costs while becoming more effective has become priority for many businesses.
This is why BPO is starting to use process automation, social media platforms and business analytic software technologies to help companies achieve that.
Before we come to a final conclusion on whether new technological achievements are hurting or helping the BPO industry let’s quickly go through the current facts.
Is Rapid Growth of Technology Hurting the BPO Industry
Currently, BPO is the fastest growing branch of the outsourcing industry, which comes as a consequence of many businesses realizing the potentials of this type of strategy. It can shorten the product development cycle, enrich the enterprise with new, valuable knowledge, reduce risks and increase efficiency.
Global Industry Analyst, Inc., states that the global market for business process outsourcing is projected to reach 220 billion US dollars by 2020. At the moment, USA remains the largest market in the world. Asia-Pacific is the fastest growing market with a compound annual growth rate of 10%, while the Philippines and India remain strong competitors.
Many innovations in business models and new technologies are the pillars that make outsourcing so important these days. Traditional model of outsourcing is being abandoned because the labor cost reduction that it was built around is no longer functioning. It is being replaced by a new model, whose main goal is to provide value-added services.
Many business will not be willing to invest into buying all that new hardware and new tech solutions, let alone to hire experts who are capable of using new technologies. The BPO will face new contract terms because businesses will want to purchase all client’s assets – intellectual property, hardware, software etc.
Also, with the rise of software robots, companies that provide robotic process automation (RPA) software will be available for hire to any BPO. You can already see many BPO’s incorporating RPA in their solution. This is a great way for industries to cut on their expenses by replacing workers that were handling simple operations.
It is bad news to BPO industry when it comes to mobile apps. There are already apps on the market that help businesses with banking, insurance and financial operations. Also, there is a software solution for project portfolio management that allows complete real-time feedback on project status and status of specific assets and resources.
The bright side is that with all this data being stored in the cloud, BPO should expect business that want to outsource information security. The BPO experienced in managing unstructured information in a secure way (secure private cloud infrastructure) will be in high demand.
The Verdict
As you can see technology achievements are in many ways helping the BPO industry to strike many deals. But on the other hand, new technologies are putting extra pressure on BPO. The BPO industry has to be able to quickly adapt to these new terms in order to stay up-to-date and competitive.
About the Author:
Catherine is content developer who works in BackOfficePro. A talented writer by day and a good reader by night. She expresses her feeling and thoughts with the writing. She is loathe to discuss herself in the third person, But can be persuaded to do so from time to time