美商务流程外包已显中气不足
作者： AMI
责任编辑： 阚智
来源： 《电脑商情报》
时间： 2007-10-19 00:28
Is business-process outsourcing (BPO) losing its steam among medium businesses (MBs, or companies with 100-999 employees) in the United States?
That seems to be the conclusion from the latest study from New York-based Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, Inc.
About three years ago, about 60% of the US’s 97,000 MBs did some level of BPO. Today, in percentage terms, that number seems to have stayed stagnant, with 60% of 99,000 MBs saying they outsource some business processes and don’t plan to change their level of spending this year or next.
The most commonly outsourced business processes among MBs are internal (back-office) business functions, such as payroll and accounting. Front office outsourcing, such as customer support/call centers, are only used by 3% of MBs. Spending on BPO services by U.S. MBs totaled $2.4 billion over the last twelve months. In addition, most of these outsourced services are still performed onshore. Only 5% of MBs outsource their business processes to offshore companies.
“The lack of momentum in BPO usage implies that MBs’ wants and needs-such as improved processes, turnaround time, and cost cutting goals-are not being met,” said Melissa Chong, New York-based Research Analyst at AMI-Partners. “MBs in the US have over the years reported revenue growth of 7% - 8%, slightly higher than actual GDP growth. In addition, the need for cost control and decreasing operating costs is of high concern among US MBs.”
On average, MBs earn US$68 million in revenues and employ 200 people and have the business scale to take advantage of BPO. Cost control and instilling greater efficiency in non-strategic processes are the primary selling points of BPO, yet MBs do not seem to be acknowledging or reacting to this benefit,” Ms. Chong says.
A key factor may be education.
BPO service providers should share their benchmarking processes and methods to measure performance outcomes with their customers. This could improve the trust and professionalism of the vendor from the MB’s perspective. This is significant alongside other improvements that must be made as the BPO market evolves, such as the way outsourcing contracts are drawn up and standardizing BPO delivery models. These issues are critical to making MBs feel more confident and comfortable in their working relationship with the BPO providers.
That seems to be the conclusion from the latest study from New York-based Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, Inc.
About three years ago, about 60% of the US’s 97,000 MBs did some level of BPO. Today, in percentage terms, that number seems to have stayed stagnant, with 60% of 99,000 MBs saying they outsource some business processes and don’t plan to change their level of spending this year or next.
The most commonly outsourced business processes among MBs are internal (back-office) business functions, such as payroll and accounting. Front office outsourcing, such as customer support/call centers, are only used by 3% of MBs. Spending on BPO services by U.S. MBs totaled $2.4 billion over the last twelve months. In addition, most of these outsourced services are still performed onshore. Only 5% of MBs outsource their business processes to offshore companies.
“The lack of momentum in BPO usage implies that MBs’ wants and needs-such as improved processes, turnaround time, and cost cutting goals-are not being met,” said Melissa Chong, New York-based Research Analyst at AMI-Partners. “MBs in the US have over the years reported revenue growth of 7% - 8%, slightly higher than actual GDP growth. In addition, the need for cost control and decreasing operating costs is of high concern among US MBs.”
On average, MBs earn US$68 million in revenues and employ 200 people and have the business scale to take advantage of BPO. Cost control and instilling greater efficiency in non-strategic processes are the primary selling points of BPO, yet MBs do not seem to be acknowledging or reacting to this benefit,” Ms. Chong says.
A key factor may be education.
BPO service providers should share their benchmarking processes and methods to measure performance outcomes with their customers. This could improve the trust and professionalism of the vendor from the MB’s perspective. This is significant alongside other improvements that must be made as the BPO market evolves, such as the way outsourcing contracts are drawn up and standardizing BPO delivery models. These issues are critical to making MBs feel more confident and comfortable in their working relationship with the BPO providers.
