Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/138053
Market MSP Report relationship management, collaboration, and executive-influencing skills, which reflect the need to rely on and partner with service providers more. They view industry expertise and analytic skills as more important than operational talent—and that's where they are relying on their providers. On the provider side, high-performing BPO staff are evolving into business advisors, using industry expertise and process acumen alongside analytics know-how to identify opportunities that drive additional business value for their clients. At Accenture, for example, a significant effort has been made in building our people's strategic skills, not only to help our clients become high performance businesses, but also to improve our own workforce retention and engagement. This has involved investments in such areas as industry alignment and training, analytics skills, and professional and leadership development. The results of our own "Grow BPO" program have been extraordinary. Retention rates have improved and the BPO line of the business has a significantly Some enterprises are only just waking up to the reality that outsourcing is much more than a transactional contract. It is an ongoing partnership that requires leadership, insight, and collaboration between an enterprise customer and its outsourcing provider in order to create real business value. higher employee engagement score than the industry average. Leaving Value on the Table The bottom line is that many organizations are leaving value on the table when it comes to their outsourcing relationships. Two- • Strategic outsourcing camp. These enterprises are experienced thirds of outsourcing engagements result in little value beyond with outsourcing and have learned that simply moving work "operational" delivery. This means that the combined enterprise/ offshore only offers a short-term cost reduction benefit. They provider team is not enhancing its capabilities to access and know that if they fail to invest in process improvement once interpret data, improve processes, or work together on a well- these processes have been moved into their own shared service focused, regularly evaluated performance agenda. center or the hands of a third-party provider, performance of The research separates outsourcing customers into three fairly evenly distributed camps based on their attitudes toward outsourcing and their relationship with their outsourcing providers: • "Lights on" outsourcing camp. The main goal of these enterprises is to drive out expense without any costly disasters. They see little strategic value in the outsourcing of processes and so are not prepared to invest in developing the strategic abilities of the people who manage those relationships. These companies typically establish a small "no noise" governance team that cause management few headaches, as they are content to manage to the service level agreements and keep the proverbial lights on. • Efficient outsourcing camp. These enterprises are happy to have saved that initial 30 percent or so from the outsourcing phases, the business function will stagnate. They ask their provider to understand how to help define and improve business outcomes and know that talent needs to be managed strategically. They see the outsourcing people and retained organization as a team of employees who must be developed and regularly evaluated. They regularly set and monitor joint goals, and evaluate performance against the real business objectives of today, not from when they signed the original deal. Moving Forward Although this research seems disheartening, the news is not all bad. Nearly all companies recognize the need to move beyond cost reduction with their outsourcing initiatives. As mentioned but have likely hit a wall. They recognize that they can achieve more business value if they develop a management program to business objectives beyond cost reduction as a top strategic facilitate continuous improvement and efficiency gains, but are business skill. CEOs know that their best chance at a competitive unsure where to start. They may not be investing to improve the advantage lies within their people. Moreover, key goals of skills of those running the outsourcing processes, but they know successful analysis, innovation, and business transformation hinge they need help in certain areas. [14] earlier, 83 percent of all executives surveyed listed defining upon strategic skills. HRO TODAY MAGAZINE | JUNE 2013