A Bright and “Cloudy” Future for BPO: Part One

My colleague James Allen, Director, BPO for Canon Business Process Services, loves technology. But as James tells it, when his wife lobbied to buy an older property, his high-tech home visions went out the window. According to James, “The wireless light switches and the Nest home system would not work with the outdated wiring. Even to install a new stove we had to get a completely new electrical line. We have made some improvements here and there, but electrically we are still far from having the smart home I desired.”

In this and my next blog post, James elaborates on how, much like his home, many organizations are dealing with outdated and legacy systems. They apply business process improvements that seem to best fit what they have at that time, he explains. However they do not necessarily plan for the future.

When it comes to business process outsourcing (BPO), what does the future look like? James believes it will be simultaneously bright and “cloudy” for an increasing number of organizations. By “cloudy,” he means that cloud technologies are allowing companies in virtually all industries to transform their business processes by utilizing cutting-edge SaaS systems, which are feature and function rich for meeting and exceeding business objectives.

In considering the potential benefits of cloud technology for your organization, James suggests that you think of all the challenges you may have today with legacy or even new on- premise solutions:

• technology consolidation
• system upgrades
• licensing costs
• IT Infrastructure refresh
• implementation and ongoing support/ maintenance
• in-house/third-party development
• capital expenditure

Apart from helping you avoid the capital expense of costly on-premise hardware and software, the cloud also enables you to expedite implementation time. This speeds up the initial roll-out and allows future updates, improvements and enhancements to be executed more efficiently. Essentially, cloud technologies and platforms enable organizations to accelerate change, which is critical in today’s extremely competitive business environment. This in turn supports a business model for growth, allowing organizations to become operationally agile while being asset light.

In my next post, James addresses why you might want to consider working with a BPO provider rather than directly engaging a cloud provider. In the meantime, feel free to visit the BPO Services page of our website for additional insight on industry trends including case histories, whitepapers, research reports and more.