Outsourcing your Accounting, Payroll, and Reporting is a collaborative partnership. This means you’re not handing off tasks and processes to an outside party to be completed without your involvement. Your Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) provider is a partnership built over time through communication and aligned vision and goals. It is an important investment into the future of your company. In order for your partnership to be successful, there are a few key items that need to be in place. Let’s take a look at the 4 keys to a successful outsourcing partnership.

Communication

Communication is key for any relationship, and it is no different for your outsourcing partnership. As your company goals and objectives change, it is important to regularly meet with your BPO provider to keep your objectives in alignment. Communication begins during the sales and implementation phase and continues once your services are live. The frequency of progress meetings and status updates should be clearly outlined, keeping each other in a proactive position, so there are no surprises down the road. Work with your BPO provider to come up with a communication plan that will work for all parties and stick to scheduled communication via e-mail, video chat, phone, or face-to-face.

Create Clear Expectations

When you begin outsourcing business processes, a contract is drawn up and signed between both parties. It’s important to make sure clear expectations are outlined, should there be any confusion or disputes in the future. At InfoSync, we provide all clients with a responsibility matrix – a document clearly outlining the services and responsibilities for each party. This working document gives clients a clear direction, describing which items InfoSync will be responsible for, and which items lie with the client. Should there be any confusion or questions, InfoSync or the client can pull up the document and refer to the expectations agreed upon and outlined in the signed contract at any time. The language of your contract should be clear and concise, eliminating any misinterpretation of the agreement.

It’s also important to manage realistic expectations of your BPO provider. Understanding the capabilities and limitations of work is important in order to manage your relationship effectively. Your outsourcing partner will be expected to deliver certain outcomes which should be measured based on the items outlined in your contractual agreement. Placing unrealistic expectations on your BPO provider can result in failure to meet targets and can foster a negative relationship between your team and your outsourcing partner.

Transparency

A quality provider should have the ability to communicate mistakes or oversights with you and fix any errors immediately upon discovery. At the same time, keeping secrets from your BPO provider hinders your company’s ability to be successful. This type of transparency creates trust and reliability, strengthening the value of the partnership. If transparency is lacking, it can create frustration for your in-house team and your outsourcing team, as employees on both sides are not being given the information to perform their jobs effectively. If something isn’t working or an expectation isn’t being met, it is important that you and your BPO provider work together to address any concerns.

Consistency

Your outsourcing provider is able to achieve the agreed-upon commitments because they are able to streamline and automate processes to efficiently deliver desired outcomes. In order for this to work, consistency is imperative. Companies need to adhere to the scope of work outlined in the contractual agreement in order to help their outsourcing partner meet targets. Regularly changing processes and requirements or requesting special one-off items will not only hinder your outsourcing partner from effectively doing their part, but it will also hinder your business as the streamlined processes begin to break down and fail due to the workarounds needed to meet your special requests. Stay consistent with your expectations and responsibilities and notify your outsourcing provider if you believe changes need to be made to the existing contract in order to meet your company’s needs.

At InfoSync, our team has strong relationships with our clients, and we are dedicated to providing the products and services to fit their needs. We have had circumstances where the client has made a special request, such as specific custom reports, that we have accommodated by building or creating a solution. Our goal is to ensure our clients can be as successful as possible with the tools and services we provide. While consistency is key to delivering desired outcomes, we work closely with our clients to provide innovative solutions tailored to fit their business needs.

Bottom Line

Outsourcing to the right BPO provider has many benefits. Your BPO provider should be viewed as a true extension of your team, with ongoing collaboration, equal buy-in, training, upgraded technology, and support as an every-day part of your relationship. BPO is an investment and requires equal trust, communication, and time commitments from you and your BPO provider. Successful outsourcing partnerships are those that work together to solve problems, improve processes, and create long-term solutions that lead to the success of both parties.