How to Outsource Business Processes

It’s been well-established that any skills that lie outside of your “core competencies” are best outsourced to experts. What’s new is that cloud computing has blown the lid off the possibilities, making business process outsourcing (BPO) more accessible and widely used than ever.

An article by Comcast on Inc.com says that the question is no longer whether it’s possible to outsource a given process, but rather which processes will save you the most time and will improve your operations if an outside company does them.

Here are some of the areas that the article says are good candidates for BPO:

1. Finance and accounting:

1. source-to-pay processes (accounts payable),
2. order-to-cash (accounts receivable) and
3. record-to-report (general ledger and related processes).

2. Human capital management (HCM):

1. recruitment,
2. retirement,
3. payroll,
4. tax services,
5. insurance and benefits,
6. time and labor,
7. workers’ compensation,
8. COBRA and ACA compliance and more.

3. Phone-based lead qualification and customer support

BPO shouldn’t be seen as a way to simply cut financial corners. Don’t outsource the creative aspects of your company’s product or service to a part of the country or world that simply offers cheaper labor. The key to benefiting from BPO is to strategically outsource business processes that can be done better by someone else for less than it costs you to do it yourself.

For example, if you are a designer, you should outsource just about everything except your design work. Let’s say your hourly rate is $100. If you can delegate any tasks other than design to administrative professionals who charge you $20 an hour, you are not only saving money, you’re also potentially introducing new innovative processes. Experts in that subject area can streamline operations and help your business grow.

To read the original article in its entirety, please visit Inc.com.