In today’s podcast, Julie Clements, one of our Chief Solutions Officers, discusses what the COVID-19 situation tells us about the outsourcing industry.
Read Transcript
Hello, my name is Julie Clements. I am the chief solutions officer here at Managed Outsource Solutions. I wanted to talk a little bit about what the COVID-19 situation tells us about the outsourcing industry.
Challenging situations can present themselves in many different industries. Like many of these, business process outsourcing companies were also affected by Covid-19. It is, however, a testament to the strength of the industry that, despite all the challenges faced, the BPO market is expected to grow at an exceeding 7%, or US dollar, if you look at it 76.90 billion for the period from 2020 to 2024. This is according to Technavio’s “Business Process Outsourcing by Enduser”. That was a report created by Business Wire.
00:46 The pandemic hasn’t slowed down the industry
So the status shows that, while Covid-19 affected the industry, businesses have actually been drawn closer to the outsourcing arrangement as a result of the significant time and money savings it offers. So with BPO taking care of various business processes such as data storage, document conversion, customer care, logistics, legal processes, and so on, there is a lot of time and effort businesses can put into their core tasks. BPO providers also employ cutting-edge technologies that help bring down operational costs.
01:19 The BPO Industry Had to Adapt
Companies in the BPO field have had to adapt significantly. The challenges have mainly been felt in the data security and compliance areas. So industry leaders have managed to adapt, though others have had continued to struggled.
One of the adaptations has been moving to the cloud. So the dependence on the cloud has also made data access easier and has improved business performance. It also helped to reduce various kinds of data storage and management issues. Advanced cloud platforms come with advanced security measures as well, and as a result of which critical and confidential data has moved to the cloud.
The dependence on the cloud has enabled outsourcing providers to survive with a reduced workforce as well as a remote workforce. They’ve had to work with 30% to about 50% of their full capacity.
So like the cloud, outsourcing providers also employed other technological advancements to cope with the challenges of the pandemic, and as a result, new trends have emerged in the industry that could extend well beyond the pandemic era.
02:23 New Trends Developed
Some of the new trends developed and here’s a detailed look into these:
02:27 New compliance measuring techniques
There have been new principles developed to measure the level of compliance of businesses. Employees are now working from remote locations and there are greater risks for data breach now than there would have been if they were all working from a single location.
So, with multiple access points, there need to be new methods to monitor your employees. Live cameras at remote locations that particularly involve critical data would be helpful. And even monitoring these cameras requires manpower, but this can be done remotely as well. And this helps to ensure that employees working remotely are also following protocol.
03:03 Innovative Virtual Meetings
Advanced video conferencing platforms are already being used for virtual meetings. The online meeting could well be the new norm even beyond 2021. Employee training will become more important for outsourcing providers to help them work flawlessly in remote workplaces. That will improve the compliance level and technology and more of it will be the mantra.
03:25 Software for Scrutiny and Analysis
Part of this technology would be real-time scrutiny and analysis software. A software package would run periodic tests to detect and report data breaches or any other wrongful activities by your remote working employees. What the scrutiny software does is detect employees and others getting access to unauthorized files. All the reporting happens in real time to ensure that organizations can attend to the data theft faster and block access before more damage is done.
Looking towards 2021 and beyond, technology, innovation and adaptation would be the factors determining the success of BPO outsourcing solutions.
If you have any more questions or want to learn more about this, you can visit our website @ https://www.managedoutsource.com/
Thank you!
