In today’s fast-paced business scenario, there are many organizations that are facing issues with their operations and not able to come up with effective solutions. This is because they lack the right expertise and experience. Back office outsourcing is one of the solutions that can help address business process-related issues in an effective manner. It allows enterprises to maximize their resources and focus on their core competencies.
Importance of Back Office Outsourcing
It is the back office which provides support to the front office. It processes the orders and helps customers reach their goals, handles all of the financial transactions, including obtaining credit and checking accounts, processing payrolls and invoices, recording inventory and tracking sales tax credits.
Despite the fact that these functions are unrelated to your core business model, they are critical to overall business operations. Having an in-house back office can be a burden. Therefore, outsourcing back office operations could be the practical solution for businesses to propel growth.
Outsourcing can free up a lot of your time and also increase productivity. However, it is important to understand which tasks should be outsourced and which tasks shouldn’t be. All of your business operations cannot be outsourced. Outsourced solutions isn’t appropriate for all functions.
There’s a big difference between a business’ operationsand its management controls. When you outsource management controls for a function, you are effectively surrendering theresponsibility for its execution and day-to-day management. This can affect the success of your business. So, having a clear understanding of business tasks that can be outsourced and those that cannot be is critical.
Tasks That Can Be Outsourced
- Digital marketing: The efficacy of digital marketing is generally measured in terms of how well it supports comprehensive marketing goals and how much the online channel contributes. A skilled marketing employee from an outsourced company can frequently provide a new perspective that an internal marketing team cannot. Competent freelance content creators can help you create better content for your marketing strategy. Other online marketing activities, including social media marketing, product listing, email campaigns, blogging, and SEO, can benefit greatly from outsourcing.
- Administrative duties: Companies nowadays don’t absolutely require an office with a large number of workers to conduct their business, thanks to ongoing technological innovation, better speed and connectivity, and increased cloud services. Lead follow-up, data entry, payment processing, and other administrative activities are a few processes thata virtual assistant or office administrative support can manage. This helps tosave a lot of money by lowering your overhead expenses.
- Accounting and financial responsibilities: Financial tasks including bookkeeping, invoicing, accounts payable and receivable, financial reporting, analysis, and planning, can now be outsourced to reliable third party vendors. It has made document and data sharing easier, more secure, and dependable. Outsourcing firms can handle your company’s total cash flow, as well as financial reporting, research, and planning, thereby saving you countless hours, headaches, and avoidable expenditures.
- Customer Service: Sales calls are usually a numbers game, which means that the more calls you make the more sales and leads you’ll get. Calls and enquiries should not be left unanswered if you want to keep your existing customers or gain new ones. Instead of making cold calls, outsourcing to a team can help you close transactions and manage customers better. Cold calls will be handled by the outsourced team so that your sales professionals can easily connect with them. Outsourcing your customer service can help your company become more productive and efficient, especially if your business is product-based.
- Human resources: Employee acquisition and Human Resources have become increasingly difficult over time, with the Human Resource department’s various duties growing more broad and complicated to handle internally. Outsourcing firms have more qualified and competent workers that have expertise in advertising, screening prospective candidates, and checking references. Other activities, such as employee benefit administration, can be handled by an outsourcing firm because they are always up to date on the newest employment laws and regulations.
- Graphic design: It can take a long time to create a flyer or poster for your business, especially if you are not a graphic design specialist. It’s less expensive to outsource graphic design for promotions or projects, and you won’t have to worry about falling behind schedule. You can also be assuredthat the design is of high quality because you know it was made by a professional.
Business Tasks That Cannot Be Outsourced
- Core competencies: Outsourcing anything linked to your company’s core competencies would be a huge mistake. For example, if training for your resources is essential to the growth of your firm and differentiating it from competitors, having your resources educated by an external company may conflict with your organization’s mission and vision.
- Professional Development and Company Culture: This can be imposed only by your in-house employees. They have the motivation and resolve to create the “feel” of the office. These two elements must be in sync with your people and your company.
- Employee development: Outsourcing firms can assist in employee development, but you are the only one who knows your staff better than anyone else. Their future is in your hands, and it’s important that you invest in their professional development.
- Termination management: Isn’t it disconcerting to see people being fired by complete strangers? Some businesses provide this service; nevertheless, please do not do so with your staff. It is legitimate, however, to seek outside assistance and counsel for assessments and outplacement.
- Never delegate the ultimate decision on a hire to a third party: Although there are several advantages to outsourcing recruiting services, the final decision should be kept in-house. You’ll be the greatest judge of whether the person you’re recruiting will add value to your organization and succeed in their new position.
- Your vision: You should take care that you always keep decisions about the big picture and the company’s vision on your table. This is why your top leaders have more reasons to create an impact on your company than just the basic earnings. People perform the best when they have a “why,” responsibility and a small share of their success for the company.
- Signing expenses: It is vital for a business owner to keep track of each and every transaction that his or her firm makes in order to stay profitable. Allowing someone else to sign off on spending might lead to theft, fraud, or significant negligence. Reviewing and keeping track of spending takes time, but it’s time well spent in order to have a better understanding of your company’s operations.
Back office outsourcing might help you save money and time and boost productivity, but you should only entrust certain departments or processes to outside agencies. Your essential business tasks should never be outsourced, but you can hire outside help to address many gaps in your firm. It’s just as vital to figure out what to keep in-house as it is to figure out what to outsource.
Furthermore, the more significant a function is to your organization, the more important is to keep the management controls connected with it in-house. Select the correct things to outsource and the right things to keep in-house, to maximize the success of your outsourcing initiatives.
