Intelligent Process Automation Leads the Way
There’s nothing new under the sun, as the saying goes, and the aphorism holds true when it comes to business process outsourcing and automation. As long as their have been businesses, business leaders have sought out strategies to lower their costs and improve productivity, with the goal of outmaneuvering competitors while bring better services and products to meet customer demands. The song remains the same, as they say, but the melody and the instruments have changed.
For business process outsourcing firms, this is fundamentally true. The business aims remain the same. Competition is always fierce. But the struggle to deliver more value while lowering the costs of service has taken on a new urgency. And new intelligent automation tools, techniques and technologies are emerging to help BPOs rise to the occasion, as just the right time.
Today, BPO organizations promise new, innovative solution they can offer/extend to clients in a way that trims up their bottom line while offering business insights to make better decisions that boost the top line. As a result, business is booming for BPO providers, with an increasing number of prospects becoming clients for call center solutions, customer services needs, accounting services, technical support and a wide range of other forms of service support and business expertise.
One new tool in a BPO’s tool belt is intelligent process automation (IPA). And while the technology is available to companies of all sizes and all industries, many are turning to BPOs expecting to leverage their expertise, experience and insights about best practices to put those tools to best use to solve their process pains and problems.
The stakes are getting higher—the opportunities are getting bigger
Recent market studies by analyst firms like MarketsandMarkets forecast rapid growth for BPOs through 2020. M&M foresees an estimated compound annual growth for BPOs of 23.7% over the next five years. Forecasts suggest that companies will spend nearly $5 billion in total on BPO services in 2020, compared to $1.62 billion on 2015.
How BPO will reshape businesses in 2020 and beyond
1. Transformative customer service and support experiences will become table stakes
A recent analyst report from A.T. Kearney predicts that this year, 64% IT budgets will be spend on BPO-related services, with a focus on customer service and call center outsourcing, with the goal of boosting customer satisfaction by embracing a more customer-centric service model. Note that the business goal has nothing to do with technology. That’s because BPO clients are more focused on the “What” and the “Why” than the how. Companies are turning to BPOs to provide the “how.” Regardless, companies of all sizes, industries and regional markets are acutely feeling the Amazon Effect, and are subject to the laws of rising customer expectations. For BPOs, this is both a blessing and a challenge. The best BPOs, those that embrace intelligent process technology and who obsess about customer experiences will thrive. The rest will be left behind.
2. Internal IT will focus more on strategy; IT outsourced IT to BPOs focus on agility and cost savings
There’s nothing new about outsourced IT help desks. But the trends may soon reach a tipping point where a majority of IT teams working outside of a corporation as an outsourced process. This will continue to drive process automation as it relates to common IT tasks.
3. Organizations will focus on their core business and outsource the rest (or more of it)
For a majority of companies in the U.S., customer service and call centers are outsourced, and companies have become comfortable with this trend. In fact, analyst predictions suggest that BPO providers will take on a broader range of tasks, including more mission-critical tasks. This suggests that companies will become increasingly ruthless about how they priorities what they focus their efforts on, and which partner(s) they rely on to do the rest. BPO partners that embrace intelligent technology as a strategic asset will win much of the new business that companies are becoming increasingly interested in off-loading.
4. Data will continue to drive business; IPA can help
Businesses today collect far more information than they have the tools, technology or expertise to analyze. In fact, much of that data remains locked in unstructured data sources like business documents, emails and various multimedia content sources. This year, BPO will capitalize on being more than a lower cost source to becoming a strategic resource for data-driven business insights
This is a sea change from half a decade ago, when companies sought out BPOs to lower costs for them by increasing efficiency. The new decade promises new challenges and new opportunities for BPOs that will allow them to leverage their knowledge and the ability to embrace new technologies and solutions to help companies get to the next level.
Take your BPO to the Next Level with Intelligent Process Automation Solutions from Artsyl
To learn how you can automate your AP or AR processes in an little as 90 days, with ROI in 180 days, visit the Artsyl resource page and contact your Artsyl representative for a personalized demo.