A Comprehensive Guide to Back Office Outsourcing

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Guide to Back Office Outsourcing

When a movie is released, we usually appreciate the hard work of front line workers – actors and actresses but pay very little attention to the people who work behind the scenes. From scriptwriters to production teams, we have a lot of people who are left unappreciated.

Similarly, front-office employees are the face of any business organization that interacts with customers to generate sales. However, we often forget to realize the efficient back-office involved in maintaining logistics and administration, building products, or services that make it possible for a seamless integration, which ensures a business’ success.

What is back-office support?

The phrase “back office” was introduced when organizations outlined their office functions. The front section includes the representatives who communicate with customers, and the back office includes representatives who did not engage with customers such as accounting clerks. The non-client-facing back office is a section of an organization formed of administration and support personnel.

The back office support includes a variety of functions such as data entry, data mining, document verification, catalog management, transaction processing, record maintenance, and IT services.

As a business, your focus is the expansion of your vision. Having strong back-office support will give you the critical time you need to expand your business and focus on your core competencies. It will help you to identify where your resources are spent and will provide ways to optimize them. This will also further design strategies for improving the business process. It allows your business to save time and money, two extremely important resources to businesses out there. As a business operation, back-office support may not be as fascinating as product development or marketing but it is one of the major things that shape the platform right from day one.

Make the Right Choice for Back Office Outsourcing Solutions!

What is back-office outsourcing?

The back office is the engine room of a company. Just like a vehicle does not start without its engine working properly, an organization will also function if the back-office functions are fumbled. The whole system can collapse and create complete disorder in the front office. No business wants its operations to be jeopardized. This is where outsourcing can help your business.

Back office outsourcing refers to a process where back-office services are outsourced to a third-party provider. The main reason behind this is to save money from purchasing offices and hiring employees. The back office is deemed crucial for the smooth functioning of the business. So, it is a better idea to hand over your back office support to a specialized team so that you can operate carefree for your core functions.

Commonly outsourced back office services

Data mining services

Businesses have to work with raw data in large volume that needs to be refined to extract valuable information. This is a time-consuming process and you have to invest money and resources. So, outsourcing it to an expert team is a logical idea. Outsourcing makes data mining services reliable and glitch-free.

Transaction Processing

Processing a huge amount of transactions for operational efficiency and accuracy is, indeed, a hectic job. In transaction processing, a real-time database connects to a database system that can assist in real-time processing, and transaction requests can be processed instantly. For example, when you go to the ATM and ask for a transaction request, the system will respond to you and grant or deny your request for the transaction right away according to the availability.

Document verification services

It is necessary for businesses to detect forged documents of customers ID proof or any crucial business report such as in KYC compliance requirements. Document verification services support the customer onboarding and authentication of applicants. From BFSI to EdTech, document verification services are important for businesses to assure authenticity.

Catalog management services

As the competition in the market is rising, catalogs are playing a vital role in reaching out to potential customers. It applies whether it is distributors or manufacturers, that need to pace up to showcase their product information to the customers. Catalog management services can include updating, maintenance, conversion, and data indexing. It can be both offline or online, inventory, or database management. The process takes a lot of time and attentiveness.

Data entry

Data entry is the most popular outsourced back-office service. The reason businesses choose to outsource it is because it consumes a lot of time and resources. By outsourcing it to the expert team, you can significantly reduce the workload for business. You will be in a win-win situation and simultaneously, you will achieve accuracy and cost-effectiveness.

According to a report, the global data-entry outsourcing services market size will grow by USD 351.84m during 2019-2023. (Source)

Advantages of back-office outsourcing

Back-office outsourcing comes with numerous benefits to improve your business growth as a whole.

Cost-cutting

The obvious advantage of back-office outsourcing is simply enhancing your bottom line. As discussed above, developing and maintaining the infrastructure to handle your back-office operation is time-consuming and costly. When you factor in labor charges, worker turnover, and investment in the latest technology and training, it can dominate many of your other business costs. Back office outsourcing is a much more affordable solution. With outsourcing, you get a ready-made infrastructure and cheap labor offshore.

Allows more flexibility

Today, businesses are growing with unprecedented speed. In order to keep this growth upwards, they need to be fully prepared to adjust according to the ever-changing market. With solid back-office outsourcing in place, businesses will find more flexibility when they need to scale up. From management to training, businesses find it a little easier with their outsourcing provider in place.

Reinvest in your business

The true value of outsourcing lies in the potential of the budget. With no longer having to spend on an in-house team, you open up countless avenues for reinvestment. If you were thinking of expanding your business, back-office outsourcing can offer an important role and provide you the much-needed flexibility. Outsourcing can save you time and money; therefore you can set your business goals through amplified investment and achieve them fast. Also, this can be used as a quick-fix buffer and you can hire more talented people in your in-house departments and strengthen your core business activities. With outsourcing, the ball will always be in your court.

Access to the latest technologies

Another major advantage of outsourcing back-office services is that businesses get immediate access to the latest technology and infrastructure. The outsourcing companies mostly provide around-the-clock services. You can save your time, money, and resources to purchase the technology, software, equipment, etc. by just outsourcing it to a third-party professional vendor.

Focus more on your core business activities

Back office support is important but investing too much time and effort often takes the focus away from the core business activities. It can be frustrating at times to spend too much energy on administrative works and not on business visions. Once you hand over these processes to experts, you will be able to pay more attention to the other important aspects of your business. Let the outsourcing partner take care of the back-office services so you can focus on serving better to your customers.

Advantages of back office

Disadvantages of back-office outsourcing

Although you may outsource your back office services to a partner that can supplement your needs well, outsourcing may come with its own challenges and downsides, too. It is important to understand how it works, the pros and cons before you make any decision.

Data security may be at risk

Back office support usually involves delicate data that requires confidentiality. With outsourcing, you are placing all the sensitive data in the hands of a service provider. You do not know their security policies and practices. One single careless moment for the outsourcing company can lead to data leakage which can harm your business.

The solutions are obvious. Outsource it to a company you can trust. Know how they control security and dispose of delicate information. Back it with good research about the company and how they are handling clients over the years. Deep check their industries experience, awards, policies, certificates and always take references for them.

Insufficient attention

This is the main disadvantage of outsourcing your back office services. You do not get the service fitted to your own needs. Also, you cannot possess much control over the work. This may cause irregularities in schedule and high turnaround time. Hence, be mindful while choosing an outsourcing partner.

Language and cultural barriers

Outsourcing usually involves working with an offshore company. With benefits like affordable labor, it may come with difficulties such as language and cultural barriers. There are businesses that choose to outsource domestically in such cases.

Businesses looking to outsource their back-office support and worried about linguistic and cultural barriers can wisely choose a partner having a vast experience of working globally.

Why outsource back-office services to India?

Outsourcing back-office services to India has several benefits. 80% of firms in Europe and the US choose India over any other country for their outsourcing requirement. (Source)

The question here is “Why choose India as your outsourcing partner?” Let’s discuss this in detail.

Cost efficiency

Back office outsourcing to India is a cost-effective proposal for businesses seeking outsourcing services. This is because back-office outsourcing companies in India are not manually intensive. Therefore, quick processing saves money. Indian outsourcing providers offer multi-sourcing solutions that ensure maximum pricing of any back-office outsourcing task. With professional experts on the job guarantees that results can be customized for various clients. Offering exclusive services without working in a pre-defined regulated format every time reduces costs as compared to international outsourcing.

Topline service

Today, India has made enormous growth in infrastructure development. There has been a growing demand for many outsourcing companies offering the latest technology, hardware, and software. Thus, India is considered one of the best options in the world in back-office outsourcing.

Different time zone advantage

The difference in time zones with other countries is one of the main benefits of back-office outsourcing to India. This assures that any work for back-office outsourcing companies in India is completed and ready beyond office-hours for those countries. With around the clock support, India as an outsourcing destination allows a seamless flow of work which attracts business to outsource to India.

Human resources

India has a wide pool of skilled and experienced graduates everywhere in the world. They are trained with the latest tools and technologies. This gives businesses an edge in performance and efficiency. Also, it is more popular for low salaried labor with great turnaround time.

The combination of skilled human resources, cost-effectiveness, and flagship IT infrastructure has contributed to make India a back-office outsourcing destination over the years.

Ready to experience the benefits of outsourcing to India?

Checklists for outsourcing back-office services

Complete data security

The data of your business is confidential. The biggest concern of businesses while outsourcing their back office is the security of their sensitive information. While partnering with a service provider, they should have a good track record of data security with previous clients. Also, understand their data security policies and get a signed agreement guaranteeing complete data security. Periodically review if they adhere to the data security policies. You can use a VPN to assure added protection.

Cost benefits

Cost-cutting is the major benefit of outsourcing back-office processes. Choose an outsourcing provider that offers you the lowest price with good service quality. Usually, outsourcing businesses can get the work done at a much lower cost than at the expense of managing a process in-house. Do your own research and come to a conclusion about an outsourcing provider offering the best price, excellent service, and great turnaround times.

Language barrier

If you are thinking of outsourcing your backend tasks to outside or even to a domestic service provider, ensure that the team speaks and understands your language. You can also have a common language through which you can communicate. It is more about understanding terminologies rather than a language barrier. If you work in a particular sector, your outsourcing partner should know or understand all the expected business terminologies. This assures the back office and the operations are carried out without a lag.

Work with domain experts

In every industry, there is a clear benchmark that exists. Compromising on quality is not an option even in outsourcing to a service provider. Picking up a back-office outsourcing company that has good expertise and training in that particular industry will always be of an advantage. If you are outsourcing, be mindful that the outsourcing service provider is aware of the industry benchmarks, best practices, and latest trends in your sector.

An efficient Indian outsourcing company will provide around-the-clock service according to customers’ and clients’ needs.

Conclusion

Each business makes mistakes just like any other firm. Understand the previous experiences of your decision-making process. The advantage of outsourcing back-office support is that it can be adopted by any business across industries, irrespective of the size of the business. Outsourcing backend tasks have become critical more than ever. Businesses have the flexibility of outsourcing the whole back-office process for some specific functions.

Also while choosing the right outsourcing partner, you need to define tasks that need to be handed over and ask them to provide a roadmap to achieve the assigned business goals. This ensures seamless communication between the business and the outsourcing provider. If any changes are made meanwhile, always keep every concerned person from both sides in the loop.

Remember, getting support with accuracy allows the time to achieve cost efficiency. Secondly, working in domains unknown with professional & trusted partners with vast experience gives you the confidence to achieve productivity.

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Are you ready to scale your business?

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