News Outsourcing

Much has been written about the offshore outsourcing of various business activities to countries such as India as organizations strive to improve their global competitiveness. What first began as the outsourcing of call centers, outsourced activities have expanded to include both core and non-core business processes, including the development and distribution of technical publications. From outsourcing's early simple tasks - data entry, digitization of documents, and call handling - businesses are now demanding more added value and additional knowledge of its offshore vendors. Particularly for U.S. and European businesses, partnering with these vendors has proven to be an extremely cost effective, high quality solution.

BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) now goes further than just the outsourcing of technology infrastructure or even its applications. Today's offshore outsourcer takes primary responsibility for ensuring that the process works, interfacing effectively with other company functions and delivering the outcomes intended. As a result, the BPO universe is expanding. Today's executives use BPO to achieve objectives such as driving cost savings, improving management's focus on core activities, catalyzing organizational change, converting capital to expense, improving the ability to handle capacity fluctuations, and improving speed-to-market.

Activities which are being outsourced typically fall into the following two areas:

·Business Process Outsourcing:

Data Digitization - for books, database archiving, electronic catalogues, manuals, price lists, drawings and plans, and general information services

Data Processing - encompassing areas such as document preparation, data entry, image keying, custom reporting, image capturing, data conversion to HTML/SGML/XML, database maintenance, transcription, medical coding and billing, human resource processing, insurance claims processing, bookkeeping services, and insurance and legal claims processing

·Call Centers:

Inbound Activities - including account management, help desk, technical support, response handling, order processing, complaint handling, toll-free response, product information, and credit card payments

Outbound Activities - effective in lead generation, appointment setting, telemarketing, marketing surveys, customer satisfaction surveys, debt collection, welcome calls, win-back calls, and loyalty programs

(SideBar)
Executive Solutions provides professional, in-depth knowledge and independent expertise to help companies evaluate, plan, select, and implement their offshore outsourcing activities. We work with you in developing your outsourcing strategy, producing cost/benefit analyses, selecting the correct offshore partners, and providing full project management support from evaluation through implementation. Our team of associates has outsourcing experience in a number of projects within the legal and financial services industries, the defense industry, and the office equipment industry.