Business Process Outsourcing

Business process outsourcing is a subset of the outsourcing process that involves hiring a third-party service vendor to handle specific tasks and activities of a business process. Business process outsourcing is divided into two categories: back office subcontracting, which includes numerous business processes within a company such as payroll, finance, and human resources, and front office subcontracting, which includes various client-related activities such as contact center services. Moreover, process outsourcing may involve the contracting of the services outside the organization’s country which is referred to as offshore outsourcing (Whitaker, Mithas and Krishnan, 2010). On another hand, the outsourcing may involve a third party in an organizations neighboring country through a process known as nearshore outsourcing.

There are certain advantages of Business process outsourcing. First, the process aids in improving and increasing the flexibility of a company in diverse ways. Besides, a majority of the services that are availed by Business process outsourcing are provided on a free for service manner through the use of business models like comparable software development and subcontracting models. As a result, this can aid an organization in boosting flexibility by converting fixed costs into variable expenses. Citing Dumas (2013), a variable cost scheme enables an organization to respond to changes and does not necessitate investment in assets thereby increasing the flexibility of a company. Secondly, through outsourcing services from third party providers, the company can pay attention to its central competencies without being loaded by the requirements of bureaucratic constraints. Key staffs are released from performing certain processes that are not core and as a result, can shift their energies, focus and time in carrying out core the core activities of the organization which will result in a considerable growth of the company. Thirdly, Business process outsourcing improves the flexibility of an organization through increasing the speed of conducting various business processes.

Decisively, through the use of Intelligent automation, the process of outsourcing can be enhanced further and help an organization achieve efficiency and save on costs.

Intelligent automation can be defined as software that executes certain tasks in an efficient and repeatable manner (Willcocks, 2010). It mimics the actions of the humans and performs duties in agreement with the pre-set rules incorporating both the simple procedures as well as the complex schedules. This type of automation is referred to as intelligent because it is continually learning and seeks to improve the tasks ensuring that every interaction is enhanced than the previous one. Moreover, intelligent automation employs the energy of robotic process computerization, machine learning, and innovative analytics ensuring that performance is improved and streamlined after every cycle.

Intelligent automation yields numerous benefits that help in the realization of the organizational goals and objectives. Notably, the automation is quick, accurate and significantly saves on cost. Also, it is always available 24 hours a day and does not take a break or get sick, and neither does it go for holidays. As such, this ensures continuity of the various business processes and operations. Further, the intelligent automation provides full traceability and minimizes threat by limiting the access of humans to sensitive information either from the clients or the company at large. Besides, unlike humans, software bots cannot jeopardize the details on credit cards or social security data. Intelligent automation performs repeatable, reliable and efficient procedures and achieves higher productivity and decreased costs than offshore staff (Dumas, 2013). It ensures compliance with the regulations and facilitates improved business results.

Secondly, the use of intelligent automation in outsourcing gives companies a competitive edge. The automation achieves improved quality, faster marketing time and better operational swiftness. Besides, the systems save on cost and utilize less system resource (Willcocks, 2010). As a result, the client experience is improved, and an achievement of quality services to the customers at a lower cost is ensured.

Thirdly, intelligent automation avails substantial benefits for expertise staff throughout companies. In most organizations, the staff interacts with many diverse systems due to the absence of intelligent automation. Besides, the many systems are exhibited across several windows, and in most cases, many monitors and the knowledge employee has to understand the whole processes and the systems. As a result, the workers are challenged with very many manual procedures which result in workers performing tasks that are frequently repetitive, routine and little value. As a consequence, the employees cannot possibly improve their performance because they are constrained by the restrictions of the system (Whitaker, Mithas and Krishnan, 2010) However, through the use of intelligent automation, all the systems are brought together in one combined solution. As a result, the processes are simplified and streamlined with software bots performing all the heavy lifting. Also, through the application of intelligent automation, the knowledge employees are relieved from learning many systems on diverse platforms and improve their speed as well as their effectiveness in the conduct of the various tasks in a company. As a result, the workers can be redeployed to tasks that have more value and which have the capability to generate more profits.

Moreover, business process outsourcing that employs intelligent automation aids an organization in improving business critical procedures. As a result, the company can digitize labor or intensive manual procedures and avoid a structure that relies more on people in the conduct of the various business processes in an organization (Mohapatra, 2009). Organizations can then enhance the time taken in process cycles as well as scale to realize growth and meet the demand. Also, the companies can boost security by reducing the interaction of the humans with sensitive data since the information will be handled by the software in a date center that is more secure and reliable.

Through the use of the intelligent automation system that handles high volume and complex tasks, organizations can achieve considerable cost savings which become a better alternative to offshoring. According to Dumas (2013), the use of intelligent automation benefits the various stakeholders significantly within a company. For example, intelligent automation helps the process owners to streamline, simplify and automate procedures. Also, the owners can acquire improved visibility, optimize materials to realize growth and meet the demand. Further, through the use of intelligent automation, participants in finance can conduct their affairs and mandate more efficiently and adapt to the changes in the market with procedures that are less costly and more productive. Thirdly, the stakeholders in Information Technology, as well as compliance, can enhance security, boost data governance and streamline complexity.

Decisively, intelligent automation improves operations within an organization and helps a company achieves efficiency in the conduct of various business procedures. However, intelligent automation solutions are created differently with four probable choices. First, an organization may acquire an off shelf intelligent automation and organize it themselves. This will promote learning within the enterprise. However, the use of do it yourself automation ties up the budget and disrupts business within an organization. Secondly, according to Ter (2010), a business may consider hiring a systems integrator who will deploy the intelligent automation for the company and then leaves the team to manage and run it. Thirdly, there is an option of utilizing a smart automation formula that has been bought and customized by the outsourcing service supplier. As a result, the employees can concentrate on the core activities of an organization because the experts continually improve the system. Ter (2010) states that the development phases may take more time and not fully tailored to the needs of the company because of the use of software that is off the shelf. Further, the business can make use of an intelligent computerization solution that the business process outsourcing supplier has advanced from scratch. Besides, this is the best of the approaches that unlock the expertise and knowledge of the business process subcontracting service supplier in a manner that is very beneficial and advantageous to the firm. Also, this system is designed according to the needs of the entity and has been improved through numerous existing implementations

In conclusion, business process outsourcing is a process that involves contracting the services of a third party provider for particular responsibilities and operations to enable the employees to focus on central competencies of the organization. As a result, the firm becomes more flexible and achieves a competitive edge in the market. Notably, the goals and objectives of a firm as well as flexibility can be enhanced further through the use of intelligent automation. Intelligent automation involves the use of software in the conduct of certain tasks within an entity in a repeatable and most efficient manner. The system is continually learning seeking to enhance and make the next task better than the previous one which makes an organization more efficient in the long run. As such, through the use of intelligent automation, the business can save on cost and boost its operation.

References

Dumas, M. (2013). Fundamentals of business process management. Berlin: Springer.

Seethamraju, R., & Sundar, D. K. (2013). Influence of ERP systems on business process agility. IIMB Management Review, 25(3), 137-149.

Ter, H. A. (2010). Modern business process automation: YAWL and its support environment. Heidelberg: New York.

Whitaker, J., Mithas, S., & Krishnan, M. S. (2010). Organizational learning and capabilities for onshore and offshore business process outsourcing. Journal of Management Information Systems, 27(3), 11-42.

Willcocks, L. (2010). The next step for the CEO: moving IT-enabled services outsourcing to the strategic agenda. Strategic Outsourcing: An International Journal, 3(1), 62-66.