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What’s the difference between BPO and outsourcing? And how can these two improve your back-office function? Our list of benefits and facts about back office support should clarify it.

How Companies Can Benefit from Back-Office Outsourcing

BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) is one of the formats of outsourcing. With BPO, you outsource the whole service without thinking of how to assemble your team. And unlike outsourcing, the BPO contract doesn’t have fixed budgets or set timeframes. 

Business process outsourcing falls into two main types: front-office and back office BPO. While front office teams are directly involved in revenue generation (like marketing or sales), back-office reps fulfill daily administrative tasks. So, accounting, IT, (inhouse development vs outsourcing are two options that IT companies can choose), compliance, HR, operations, and other departments refer to back office processes.

And, if organizations outsource supporting services, they get certain benefits. (Spoiler: the main is cost-effectiveness, but we’ll leave more room for it in the next section). But here are several more advantages that back-office BPO brings:

  • You get professional coverage of routine tasks. There’s no need to look for, hire, and maintain an in-house team. With the BPO option, you get top specialists and advanced technologies onboard. 
  • You can focus on core tasks. While professionals embrace one or several supporting functions, managers can better concentrate on revenue-generating tasks and be more productive. 
  • You control business risks related to employee turnover. Since BPO involves a contract, you cover inconsistency and uncertainty with a workforce that an in-house department can sometimes bring. 
  • You get flexibility in scaling your back-office team. With BPO, you can grow your business and, consequently, monthly demand for support services. And this is possible without spending your time and funds on recruiting. 

Now let’s come back to the most outstanding benefit of outsourcing administrative tasks.  

Back Office Business Process Outsourcing Is Cost-Effective

Here are the costs can you reduce when outsourcing back-office tasks for your company: 

  • You pay smaller labor costs. Nearly each back office outsourcing firm operates in a country with a lower cost of living and, consequently, services remuneration. And for you, this means that the cost of outsourced services will be significantly lower compared to employing the same in-house team.   
  • You don’t spend money on recruiting. Crafting role descriptions, placing them on job portals, interviewing candidates, and onboarding new team members require a professional HR team involvement. You’ll have to wait before the team is assembled and, above all, you’ll need to pay.
  • You save on rentals. By choosing the PBO, you don’t need to pay for office premises in your region. And offshoring locations leverage the comparatively low costs for working space. For example, helpdesk BPO may cost up to 15% less than if you hire an in-house team of technical support. 

10 Facts About Back-Office BPO and Outsourcing that Can Help Your Company Grow 

Whether you consider employing an internal department or contracting a back office service provider outsourcing partner, there are ten more things you need to know about BPO. 

  1. Experienced BPO providers offer high-quality services. Your dedicated team of IT engineers, accountants, or customer support agents will manage your company tasks excellently. Because that’s their expertise and professional interest, and don’t doubt that they are ready to accept professional challenges.
  1. BPO works best for SMBs. Though every business owner can leverage outsourcing back-office functions, this option is especially beneficial for small and medium companies. That’s because these firms have limited budgets but still need to cover essential operations. 
  1. Many companies already use BPO. Maybe it feels that you belong to those who make the first steps towards outsourcing admin tasks. But in reality, many businesses have succeeded due to their decision to delegate routine workflow to professionals. And the back-office BPO industry has become only more popular. 
  1. BPO helps startups compete with seasoned companies. Big market players can afford to hire numerous departments with top professionals. But once startups consider cost optimization with BPO, they can compete with more prominent companies in the same industry. That’s because they pay less for specialists of the same level. 

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  1. Professional outsourcing companies ensure data protection. If you think that a third-party vendor can compromise your confidential data or the private information of your customers, you only need to find the right BPO provider. Compliance with European GDPR (General Data Privacy Regulation), US CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act), and other regulations is compulsory for many companies. 
  1. You can delegate not only current tasks to BPO providers. The first idea coming to your mind concerning BPO is outsourcing core back-office services that need to be delivered day by day. But if you have some pending tasks like annotating files or digitizing documents, try BPO too. Even if this looks like a one-time project rather than long-time cooperation.
  1. You can leverage other services available for outsourcing. You only need to start the BPO experience to see how supporting it can be for your business. Maybe the idea to outsource another back-office function sounds primitive; sometimes, business owners miss this opportunity. Often, they delegate the most complex tasks, but why not change the approach?
  1. Outsourcing firms often ensure 24/7 availability. Around-the-clock availability of your back-end specialists can be super effective for teams from different time zones. Once your US-based CEO needs a financial report, it’s ready. Or, if your marketing manager from Austria has issues with access to corporate files through cloud service, the IT support rep is here to help. 
  1. You’ll still have a clear understanding of all processes. If you think that, for example, delegating your financial or IT service to a third-party company is risky, try taking it the other way. Because having a dedicated team of professionals and top-notch software to process your payments and monitor potential vulnerabilities will make the workflow only more transparent.
  1. You’ll access a greater talent pool. Most probably, experienced professionals in your city already work for someone else. And hardly you can hunt them with greater salaries so far. But this doesn’t mean you can’t leverage the expertise because, with BPO, highly qualified workers will be happy to deliver their services to your business. 

Final Words 

Back-end Business Process Outsourcing boasts many advantages, including reducing labor cost, leveraging advanced tech stack, benefitting high expertise, lowering risks of employee turnover, and more. So, this option is especially worth trying for startups and small to medium-sized businesses, as it will help them compete with more prominent players and grow.