Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Trends for 2016

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Large organizations across the world have relied on business process outsourcingand deploying vendors for completion of non-core tasks to reap the benefits of cost reduction and scalability.Outsourcing trends have evolved over the years and the expectations in 2016 from this industry are seemingly large and critical. New technology trends in IT have had a substantial impact on the BPO industry as well. While cost reduction continues to remain the primary need, 2016 is likely to shift more focus onto customer demand, data security, and movement to ‘cloud’ in the IT outsourcing space.

This said, here are the top trends that the BPO field is likely to witness in 2016.

1. Cloud Service Providers beat Competition: 2016 is likely to be the year of service providers who adopt cloud technology. Migration of delivery infrastructure to cloud helps to improve performance, increases data security and accelerates the pace of communication and delivery. Adoption of cloud technology will gradually turn out to be a critical factor in choosing vendors.
2. Blanket Services from a Single Vendor: Over the years, it has been observed that working with multiple vendors for a single project (division of tasks) does not just add to costs, but also contributes to delays in delivery. Organizations have begun to seek vendors that can offer end-to-end service for a project or process to streamline unnecessary costs and reduce delivery time. This business process outsourcing trend in 2016 will see theintroduction of more efficient vendors.
3. Risk Mitigation and Management: Natural calamities have caused inevitable delays and breaks in business continuity. Although, quite a few companies prepare and plan to ensure continuity of business, clients are likely to put a test on specific locations to check efficiency of the vendor to shift work to other locations in the event of a disaster so that there is seamless delivery.
4. Diversity of Offerings: Many outsourcing deals are strengthened by long term partnerships, built through years of consistent performance and flawless delivery process and schedules.This has contributed to diversified offerings. Vendors gain a good understanding of clients’ core business and culture and therefore offer management consulting improvement services to clients.
5. Growth of Knowledge Process Outsourcing Segment:Research firms and analysts forecast the growth of the KPO market at a combined annual growth rate of 23 percent by 2019. What was once considered a non-outsourceable area will create new in-roads and open more opportunities in the industry.
6. Crowdsourcing will Gain Strength:Business process outsourcingcontinues to create new opportunities in the market. A new offspring of BPOservices is crowdsourcing that is expected to further strengthen its roots in 2016. BPOs are today tapping the collective wisdom of the cloud to get their work done. There are several online communities today that facilitate the creation of better solutions within a shorter span of time.

Organizations should therefore work towards aligning their outsourcing initiatives with a clear vision for 2016 and beyond.