Why Most Businesses Fail the Efficiency Test

Why Most Businesses Fail the Efficiency Test

For a great number of business leaders, the pandemic has been a long, hard lesson about losing control. Customers stayed home, carefully refined plans have been thrown out the window, and even with vaccines now undergoing mass production, no one can predict the future with any confidence.

In these circumstances, many businesses have understandably sought to hold on ever tighter to the variables they do control. Following this instinct, companies often decide to keep handling even their support functions in-house, so that they can directly manage their own affairs.

Yet the cost of this strategy is far greater than the benefits it produces. From hiring and training, to office space and oversight, bigger admin teams will inevitably divert time and money away from the company’s core activities. Moreover, these departments are virtually guaranteed to find themselves stuck using old software and inefficient methods, as compared to today’s advanced BPO options.

Perhaps most importantly, each time a member of the support team has an illness (or leaves the organisation), no one else may be on hand to fill in for them. At these moments, the connection between keeping all operations in-house and maintaining control within the business is revealed to be an illusion.

Companies in today’s economy cannot afford to make such mistakes. The current environment requires businesses to work as efficiently as possible, with a redoubled focus on their core functions.

Welcome to Outsourcing 2.0

The concept of outsourcing used to primarily refer to labour arbitrage. Though this aspect still exists in a limited form, the combination of rising wages, new technology, and extreme specialisation has shifted outsourcing into a very different realm.

By engaging the right outsourcing partner, businesses can now benefit from vastly more efficient work processes. Today’s systems leverage cloud access, RPA, and advanced analytics to achieve generational improvements in both speed and accuracy. While companies in other fields spend time debating internally about which new software programme to invest in, outsourcing specialists already operate cutting-edge systems for the benefit of their clients. Their customer-centred services are also highly transparent, with deliverables contractually agreed upon in advance.

Just as importantly, by choosing external solutions, businesses not only let others handle their support functions, but they also outsource the labour management and oversight responsibilities that accompany them. All in all, this outcome ends up adding value, delivering better results, and avoiding the massive opportunity costs that come with trying to do everything yourself.

The lesson here is simple: To reach maximum efficiency, find a reliable outsourcing partner whose business model is to handle your non-core functions.

A new way forward

The decision to let outside experts manage your non-core activities may feel counterintuitive at first, but the enormous advantages of this arrangement soon become clear. They also extend beyond efficiency alone.

Advanced analytics can detect patterns and opportunities that may have otherwise gone missed. These insights can help a business save additional money over time, or even open up new strategic possibilities to consider.

Outsourcing grants immediate access to the best and brightest talent in their respective fields, together with industry-leading technology. The freedom and opportunity outsourcing provides can put your company back in control of its own destiny, removing distractions and clearing the way toward future success.