Go BackWhat does BPO mean to a traditional contact centre outsourcer?
Contact Centre Outsourcing
The rapid growth in contact centres within the UK market over the past ten years has been driven principally by deregulation in a number of industries and by the changing needs of customers looking to gain access to products and services at any time and in a manner that best suits their individual needs.
Growth in the industry has driven a need to increase capacity within contact centres. Initially, this was to support large acquisition opportunities that derived from choice and competition. This was followed with a need to create highly effective customer service operations designed to maximise the customer experience through service, while also helping to secure lifetime value.
To help satisfy these requirements for contact centre capacity and different business requirements - or processes - the UK market was one of the first to leverage outsourcing as a means of both tactical and strategic supply, where the clear focus was on flexibility whilst minimising investment in fixed assets and promoting greater variable costs into a clients business model.
The Role of the Traditional Contact Centre Outsourcer
Typically, traditional contact centre outsourcers have been responsible for contact handling services via telephone and email. The outsourcer supplies the people, utilises its own contact centre facilities, provides select technology components and adopts the clients' processes. Depending on requirements, the relationship may be tactical or strategic and is usually based on operational and performance KPI's. As a result, contact centres need to be highly responsive, with a considerable degree of flexibility in their culture, and have the ability to deliver this through varied commercial models. An important feature of this relationship is that clients view the outsourcer as an extension of their operation, and expect the supplier to be able to demonstrate value added capability in a variable cost model. These criteria are the building blocks towards a future BPO relationship.
Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)
BPO is the transfer of a company's business process or function to an external provider. BPO encompasses the overall responsibility and day to day administration, operation and management of one or more business processes.
BPO services include; IT/Systems and enabling technologies that support the delivery of business processes, knowledgeable professionals to operate those processes and best practice methods to help define and implement them.
There are a variety of reasons why an organisation would outsource their business processes including; cost reduction, improvement of service quality, competitive edge, access to outside expertise, satisfaction of changing customer demand, access to advanced technologies, achievement of revenue enhancements and achievement of world-class standards and benchmarks.
So, what does this mean to the traditional contact centre outsourcer?
A BPO provider assumes absolute responsibility for a process or more usually a series of related processes. This means that on top of the dynamics associated with the traditional contact centre outsourcing, a provider has to ensure that all aspects of people, processes and technology which support the client's business operations are highly effective and robust.
Whilst a client is always accountable for the products and services that a process supports, issues such as information security, business continuity, quality management systems, customer insight etc are the principle responsibly of the provider.
For these reasons the basis for the relationship is fundamentally different. The relationship is much broader and strategic than the traditional outsource contact centre relationship encompassing IT service management, software systems, processes management (compliance, improvement) and value creation.
In short, a BPO relationship is about the provider being perceived as a key part of the clients business rather than an extension of it.
BPO at RHL
RHL is a respected Contact Centre and Business Process Outsource company that provides quality solutions, leveraging technology, delivered by committed and highly effective people.
Providing both contact centre and BPO solutions to a number of leading public and commercial sector clients, our philosophy is to take each client requirement and implement this in a manner that is immediately effective and can evolve with the needs of the client as their business develops.
Our ability to delivery BPO is based upon the combination of highly effective, multi site, contact centre services, unique customer and business process management software capability and in-house resources in the areas of project management, business and technology analysis, quality, performance, insight, business risk, compliance, fulfilment and operational finance. This comprehensive range of capabilities, combined with over fifteen years of effective service delivery and account management, is critical to building robust solutions that our clients can count on, and are the basis for lasting strategic relationships.
A case in point
RHL recently started working with one of the UK's longest established and most successful brands. They required a partner with the ability to provide an integrated solution that encompassed sales and service contact centres, payment processing and fulfilment services in support of one of their financial services products. The required solution had to include software that supported all of the above components via the contact centre and web, with the ability to both 'white label' the product and create opportunities for cross and up selling of other products in the future.
RHL implemented a unique solution built around its in-house developed Relatis software product and advanced contact centres.
The collaborative approach to implementing the solution was to define and improve the principle processes required to support the product. This involved RHL's business and technical analysts working closely with the client to ensure that the detailed design fulfilled current and anticipated future needs.
From a co-ordination perspective, Prince II accredited project mangers ensured a highly effective implementation. As processes were defined they were implemented within Relatis and the operation progressed to review, test and sign off. Following sign off, the individual components were released in stages prior to a full migration of legacy data into Relatis. The project also included the creation of bespoke operational processes and procedures.
The result is a total solution that was designed, implemented and live within four months, which supports a holistic customer experience across all customer contact channels.
Since going live the solution has helped the client exceed its targets for the product, and is now helping to evolve the service through further innovation by leveraging a relationship that combines key resources from both organisations. This is a true example of highly effective BPO and of a partnership that is delivering now and enabling for the future.
Nat Gillespie is Senior Business Analyst at RHL, a leading contact centre and business process outsourcing provider.
T: 0800 027 0011
E: info@rhl-uk.com
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