Summary: The impact of digital transformation makes businesses transform how they operate and pushes conventional boundaries to embrace new technologies. The BPO industry is also experiencing a paradigm shift in which it must adapt to new market realities. RPA successfully sets its foot in the BPO sector, which helps them to innovate and thrive in the digital ecosystem. In this blog, we will learn how automation in BPO can be a game changer for this industry.
As the saying goes, “Time is money.” Indeed, it’s true!! Time is a valuable resource that we all desire that we have more. In today’s fast-paced world, businesses cannot afford to waste their valuable resources.
But with so many rule-based, mundane tasks, it really becomes a big challenge to manage time and resources efficiently.
Thanks to Robotic Process Automation (RPA), businesses can automate their routine tasks and streamline their operations. Most diverse sectors and industries leveraging RPA: BPO is no exception!!
Robotic process automation in BPO can automate the task to optimize operations, enhance accuracy reduce turn around Times, and minimize the overall cost. Whether you are a manager or a business owner or want to understand the latest revolutionary technology, you cannot miss out on reading this block on BPO automation.
Well, Exactly What is Business Process Outsourcing?
It is a process of hiring an external service provider to perform IT-intensive business processes which are not centrally dedicated to the company’s primary business. To put it another way is a process in which some tasks are delegated to experts so that companies can focus on more value-driven tasks. This helps companies focus on their core competencies while delegating the responsibility of routine tasks to third-party vendors or external service providers.
The responsibility and tasks that are provided to a third-party vendor or external service provider are-
Front office outsourcing: these are some of the services that are related to customers, such as call center facilities, customer support, and services that directly involve interaction with customers.
Back office outsourcing: It incorporates the activities done at the back end or inside the company, including accounting, finance and human resources, and other administrative tasks.
5 Different Types of BPO
| S.No | Types | Description | Examples |
| 1. | Back office BPO | These are the services that are not directly related to customer interaction. | Quality assurance, IT support( software maintenance), HR( employee onboarding), accounting( accounts receivable and payable), data entry, tax management, market sentiment analysis, compliance, etc. |
| 2. | Front office BPO | It has direct involvement with the customer, and they provide the relevant services to ensure customer satisfaction. | Sales ( lead generation), customer service ( Call Centre support and solving their queries), marketing (email campaigns) |
| 3. | Domestic BPO | These services can be done within the country depending upon the skill set, service cost, and rates. It is also called onshore BPO and can be done within the same state or country. | A US-based company outsources the other US-based company to complete its tasks. (within the country) |
| 4. | Nearshore BPO | BPO Services outsource the vendor in a nearby country so that they can have smooth communication. Also, they can resonate with the service cost and prices. | A US-based company outsources a vendor in Canada or Mexico. (Nearby) |
| 5. | Offshore BPO | It is also referred to as overseas outsourcing, in which the services are outsourced worldwide to minimize the overhead cost and get the right and cost-effective business solutions. It primarily depends on the magnitude of factors, including lower service costs and tax savings. | A US-based company outsources the services from India or the Philippines to get the best and most affordable solution. |
What is the Meaning of RPA in BPO?
In 2017, the BPO customer care market size was 17.45 billion dollars and is expected to rise to 30.4 billion US dollars by the year 2027. As this industry keeps booming to manage, the workload can become an obstacle for a BPO industry.
But with BPO automation software, a company can automate their routine task by leverage in the potential of AI bots. These bots can affectedly learn and replicate rule-based activities, thereby freeing the human workforce, which can be utilized in more value-focused tasks. This, in turn, gives the business a competitive edge by solving client-related problems and providing fast solutions.
BPO automation can automate rule-based tasks, including human resources, customer service, finance, accounting, data extraction, data entry, supply chain management, etc.
In today’s digital era, more and more companies a leveraging the potential of automation. It becomes a strong foundation for digital companies to grow by leaps and bounds in the upcoming years.
The Key Benefits of RPA in the BPO Industry
When utilizing robotic process automation in BPO, have a plethora of benefits, including.
- High accuracy: Low Errors
Using RPA can ensure the process is error-free and highly accurate. The RPA bots can be programmed to predefined procedures and rules, which can streamline the processes without being prone to errors.
- Cost savings: Automate Workflows
The intuitive advantage of RPA in BPO is that it minimizes the need for manual labor, along with their human workforce can work on a more valuable task which can provide significant and sustainable cost savings in the long run.
- Enhanced scalability: No additional workforce
If a business wants to scale, they have to hire the resources to accomplish those tasks but with RPA; companies can significantly scale their business without worrying about hiring additional resources. The scalability allows businesses to drive more ROI on big projects.
What are the Real Challenges Faced by Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)?
Undoubtedly BPO Industries is one of the fastest growing industries and provides several benefits. But it has some real challenges that are listed below:
Challenge 1: Cultural Barriers
When it comes to hiring a global team, cultural barriers and language issues are very common as the team members speak different native languages and usually have their own customs and social norms, which does not allow an organization to work seamlessly and create issues, conflicts, and misunderstandings among the team.
Challenge 2: Changing Legislation and Politics
The changes in the political situation impact the BPO in certain areas. The Global BPO industry can be impacted when there is any political paradigm shift, mainly in America and Europe. Let’s say a country’s government must pass a bill if any fall in the economy happens, which, in turn, can disturb the outsourcing flow and ultimately affect the BPO sector.
Challenge 3: Budget Constraints
Businesses usually opt for outsourcing to save money. They want superior quality work at a low budget. Therefore, the budget can be a big problem, and BPO is no exception.
Challenge 4: Customer Expectations
The proliferation of digital technologies has significantly raised the bar for customer expectations, posing a major challenge for BPOs to meet these high expectations.
What are the Key Challenges While Implementing RPA for the BPO Sector?
Utilizing Robotic process automation in BPO seems several challenges. Let’s look at them along with their intended solutions.
| S.NO | Challenges | Market apprehension or concerns | Interpretation | Intended solution |
| 1. | Hidden costs | Developing an RPA system requires maintenance, configuration, and customization costs. | Some hidden costs are there, such as upfront costs (consulting & Integration) & recurring costs (customization and configuration) | These additional costs need to be considered when calculating the overall cost of implementing the RPA system. |
| 2. | IT team resistance | Some resistance comes from the IT team, as they believe that RPA will transform the whole structure and can interfere with and disturb the whole process. | There is a viewpoint that an RPA can invade the expertise areas and impact system integrity and data security. | The potential solution can be that the IT team evaluates and safeguards the potential threats. |
| 3. | Not much efficient | RPA can only help make your business a bit more efficient, but if you consider it to leverage the competition, then you will overlook something important. | It can only be considered a tool that can optimize processes with high accuracy, leading to cost-effectiveness. | For long-term profitability, RPA should be included to be part of the technology strategy. |
| 4. | Lack of expertise | It requires specialized skills and knowledge, and experienced professionals are less in this field. | It can be challenging to look for proficient experts, so its implementation is challenging. | The business can provide training to its existing employees or hire an expert who can manage and develop RPA systems. |
| 5. | Visibility issues | As robots carry out numerous tasks simultaneously, tracking which robot is executing a specific task can be challenging. | Robots perform tasks in the background, it can be challenging for process owners to monitor and control the process. | Implementing a control tower can provide a centralized system to manage and monitor the robots, allowing for more efficient task execution and problem resolution. |
Real Use Cases of RPA for the BPO Industry
Here are some of the real use cases of automation in BPO. Let’s plunge into it.
- Invoice processing
It refers to automating repetitive and manual tasks such as invoice processing. By leveraging the BPO automation software, the company can quickly complete tasks with less human intervention. It can automatically extract data from invoices, validate the data, and process them quickly, which can save costs and reduce errors for BPO companies.
- Compliance management
When compliance management is done manually, the chances of risks linked with compliance are likely to increase legal issues and penalties. RPA in BPO can help organizations develop RPA workflows and train their bots to perform compliance-related tasks and processes following the regulatory guidelines and procedures, avoiding hefty penalties and legal issues.
- Data extraction and validation
In this digital transformation, data is everything, and it comes in different formats. Hence it becomes a big challenge for data entry professionals to process those data efficiently. From reading to entering the data to validate, it can consume a lot of time, and the chances of errors are probably high. But with automation in BPO, data entry and validation tasks can be easily automated with proficiency.
- Price comparison
BPO automation software can be a great solution when it comes to price comparison. When businesses buy in bulk quantities to meet their manufacturing needs, the cost becomes crucial. Monitoring this cost is essential as it can impact the business ROI. But to manually compare the price can be a painstaking task. RPA can be a savior that can effectively compare vendors’ quality and price to provide seamless outcomes.
[ Also Read: RPA in Real Estate: Benefits, Use Cases and Applications ]
How RPA Adoption is Transforming the BPO Industry?
No one can deny that the BPO industry continues to flourish by leaps and bounds. When combined with RPA, the results are outstanding. Robotic process automation in BPO can provide benefits from cost savings to highly accurate workflows to enhance accuracy.
Let’s look at some benefits that can make businesses think of utilizing RPA in their workflows.
- It works 24/7 without taking a break. For instance, the RPA bots can keep an eye on customer queries all the time that can be posted on social media platforms and respond to those queries in real time, enhancing customer engagement.
- RPA bots are programmed to validate the data following the predefined rules and protocols, making the system no-to-less error-free.
- It provides extensive scalability as it can process the high value of data, including invoices claimed, and help organizations to scale up to the next level.
- It can enhance compliance management by automating compliance-related activities. For instance, it can effectively monitor network Security locks and quickly send an alert to IT staff in case of security breaches that helps them to take appropriate action in real-time.
Conclusion: The future of RPA in the BPO industry!!
RPA adoption is taking a new height in digital transformation. Even most large organizations have successfully adopted RPA and leveraged its potential.
But almost 50% of RPA opportunities are being missed. It shows that it has an enormous untapped potential. RPA is getting smarter daily and continuously improvising workflows and businesses.
In the BPO industry, RPA proves to be a revolutionary technology as it automates repetitive and rule-based tasks which can lead to cost savings, enhanced compliance management, high accuracy, and improved customer interaction.
Do you want to become the part of RPA revolution? Looking for the best RPA outsourcing solution? That’s incredible!!! Please head over to our RPA consulting services to unleash the full potential of RPA and see your business thrive in the digital transformation.
