When outsourcing work that you are currently doing in-house a decision has to be made. Do you want to only hire out the people doing the task, or, are you looking to outsource the complete process as managed services?
When you are simply looking to hire out the people you are looking for a contract staffing type of a vendor. This vendor will recruit the people as per your job requirements and possibly provide the facility and workstations for the contracted staff to do the work for you. Basic supervision to ensure that contracted staff is working on your tasks during the required hours of service is provided by the vendor. The expectation under this scenario is that you are still planning for needed staff adjustments when volume of work changes, or, when someone is out sick, or, on vacation. You are monitoring performance and ensuring that individual performance is as per your expectations, etc., etc.
What Should You Want Your Managed Services Outsourcing Vendor to Do?
For companies looking to outsource the managed service model has become more appealing. There is recognition that cost drivers in a process are both the cost to perform the transactions (generally people performing the transactions) and also the cost to manage the process (the cost for resource planning, capacity planning, performance management, target goal management, cost management etc. etc.). A fully managed solution also becomes more desirable alternative because spending valuable resources to manage non-core processes is sub-optimal.
Recruit a Qualified Team for You
Success on an assignment starts with selecting the right team.
Develop a Deep Understanding of Your Current Process
You have developed a good process and have worked out the kinks. This needs to be the starting point.
Create Work Process Documentation
You may already have detailed documentation but in creating the workflows and instructions the vendor adds their knowledge and experience to improve on the process and use this documentation as a tool for ongoing training of the team.
Train Your Team
Not just a one-shot training at start of the assignment but an ongoing emphasis on training.
Manage Changes and Escalations
Your work parameters change. The work volumes are unpredictable. There is a constant need to adjust. New issues come up. What is the escalation process? Will there be enough knowledge at your partner to handle all escalations or will you need to be pulled in to manage escalations?
Plan and Schedule Resources
More work volume comes in today. One of the team members is out sick. Another is absent. You need something in a rush. You had an upstream delay in sending the workload but still require delivery in the next hour.
Businesses are quickly identifying the benefits of outsourcing fully managed services. When calculating the time and cost of managing processes, it becomes clear that outsourcing eliminates the headache while providing scalability for growth.
Manage Team to Deliver as per Your Expectations
You want the complete process to be managed and results to be delivered. ARDEM will ensure the team is managed so SLA’s are always met.
Create Metrics
- How will we deliver 100% on time?
- How will processing cycle times be reduced?
- How will processing accuracy be increased?
Reporting to You
Is a weekly project meeting with you of value? Or, would you prefer a quick daily email status update?
Respond to Your Needs
Responsiveness to your changing priorities. It is the last day of the month and you want extra resources assigned to complete all the order processing.
Measure Performance of the Team and Make Adjustments as Needed
To deliver 100% on-time, reduce cycle time, and increase processing accuracy, ARDEM applies Six Sigma and other quality measurement methodologies.
Make Continuous Process Improvements
You face continuous business pressures – lower costs, faster deliveries, higher quality. ARDEM understands that outsourcing partnerships require managing the process so that it continues to deliver success through continuous process improvement, continuous process automation, and constant innovation.
About the Author
Allen Malhotra is an Entrepreneur, Director of Business Development at ARDEM Incorporated, New Jersey. He holds a degree in Business Management/Marketing and Information Technology from Monmouth University. He has worked in Client Relations and Business Development for over 11 years building lasting relationships and providing the best solutions with all of our clients since 2007. He likes to write thought articles on business process outsourcing and business process automation.