Outsourcing Trends That Will Impact Businesses in 2019

Friday, June 14, 2019

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With fast-paced innovations in tech, the outsourcing industry is poised to evolve, too. Nowadays, the extent of what you can outsource is constantly increasing as it’s no longer limited to IT functions or customer service. From accounting to healthcare and retail businesses, more and more companies are utilizing outsourcing services now.

This makes it important for companies to recognize which trends can help them meet the business goals of their organization and their clients, with focus on technology, value, and methodologies. Here’s our top 4 list of outsourcing trends that may impact your business in 2019:

 

#1:  More than Just Cost-savings

The relationships between a client and a software development provider will be more process driven and people driven and less price-oriented. No doubt, cost reduction is and will remain the main advantage of outsourcing engineering work.  However, it won’t be a decisive factor when choosing a service provider.

Increasingly, clients will be focusing more on the value delivered than in cutting costs. IT outsourcing companies will become systems integrators and partners to their customers. They will share greater risk and focus on delivering value-added services.

 

#2. Improving the Customer Experience

Customers are the lifeblood of any business.  Working to make their experience with your company the best it can be will usually guarantee customer retention.  This will stabilize sales, and through word of mouth with their contacts, inevitably increase sales opportunities. A recent survey was created where leading marketing experts were solicited for their advice in creating an exemplary customer experience.  The survey, entitled, “A Look Ahead: Business Process Outsourcing by the Numbers,” included a detailed questionnaire to help answer key questions that define where the customer originates, what they want, and how companies can best serve them.  Using this survey, the next steps should include sharing insights with your BPO partner in order to provide predictable, standard processes, backed by innovative technology.  This will help to continually improve the customer experience.

 

#3.  Strategic Alignments

Traditionally, lowering costs is the main reason to outsource.  Corporate leaders focus on bottom-line performance.  Outsourcing is a cost-effective way to reach financial performance goals.

However, based on the current climate moving into 2019, for the first time in a long time, it may not be totally about dollars.  In fact, an attempt to save money may actually have a negative impact moving forward.  Instead, a clear vision of tomorrow, backed by appropriate investments today, is the path to achieve growth targets.  That’s why it’s no surprise that companies are looking at more than cost details when it comes to attracting outsourcing partnerships.   Instead, it has to do more with corporate strategy alignment.

Another important factor that organisations need to make sure when choosing an outsourcing partner is that the necessary tech skills, knowledge and qualification are in place in order to carry out the services needed. Further, companies need to keep in mind that an outsourcing partner should have a strategic eye and experience in the leading digital transformation and should be seen as a solution provider that aligns with overall strategic business objectives.

 

#4:  It’s All About Artificial Intelligence

In July 2018, Forbes stated the following about AI technology customization:

“The burgeoning advancement of artificial intelligence in the tech world will continue to have a large impact on the way that we write code, build new technology and even advance frontiers like blockchain in the next few years. AI’s potential to customize tech to individual consumers is enormous, and we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg in terms of its capabilities thus far.

In the outsourcing world, I predict 2019 will include many aspects of Artificial Intelligence. Customers continuously ask about AI capabilities, how AI can improve their products or services, and how we can help them achieve their AI goals. AI technology is growing rapidly, and many outsourcing firms are hiring AI experts to meet these client demands.

It is not that corporations have big data; it is how they use that data will separate those that are successful through the year from those that aren’t."