Back office services deal with the internal affairs of an organization. Mostly, these tasks are not related with the actual product and focus on accounts, data, inventory, shipping etc. Therefore, it is seen that CEOs and CFOs pay less attention to back office as most of them believe these tasks are not very important and anybody can do them.
The Real Challenges of In-House Back Office Services
Although data entry and other accounts related tasks do seem simple when compared with actual product-related tasks (R&D, coding, development, design etc.), the fact that they come in huge volumes make them a burden to handle. Deployment of workforce in-house may seem like a logical solution to accomplish back office support tasks, but it is definitely not the ideal way to handle the issue. Below are some reasons why:
- Payroll management and efficiency in scaling – The volume of back office tasks like data entry and order processing is directly proportional to the growth of an organization. So, when a company grows, it needs to hire more employees and when it goes through a lean period it needs to offload workers. Such actions put persistent burden on your HR department as they are always busy fine-tuning the staff in accordance with the ever-changing business requirements. This has a major impact on your main project related hiring procedure. Also, you have to stretch your resources on training and provide additional benefits to your back office support teams (on par with your core team). Definitely not an ideal way to handle back office services, when your competitors are making the most of outsourcing.
- Procurement of software – Such is the complexity of operations these days that top management hardly gets any time to think about anything else apart from their core product or process. So, when there is a board meeting and the head of back office operations put forwards his requirement for the latest software solutions, it is not taken very seriously. This happens because the decision makers are not actually sensitive about back office operations. Not because they don’t care but due to their lack of familiarity with such tasks. Getting them to fund a tool for data entry when a major process needs a makeover can be next to impossible. Therefore, most in-house operations are never truly able to harness the power of modern back-office software. Hence, the efficiency, efficacy and accuracy of critical operations go down. This is simply not acceptable when you have a better option in back office outsourcing.
Back Office Outsourcing: A Fortune Changer for Businesses
Those who have never explored outsourcing can be the biggest benefactors of a new outsourcing venture. It is a proven formula and instantly uplifts your ROI without any real effort. All you need is the right partner for your back office tasks and you are in for a nice surprise. Have a look at some of the ways in which back office outsourcing can help your business:
- ROI improvement – Find the right vendor in a company that is located in a country with an inferior currency value (than yours) and you can cut down the cost of your back office operations by half.
- Unlimited scalability and burden off the payroll – Many established back office outsourcing vendors have all the staff you would ever need for your back office venture. Get in the right contract with them and you will be able to scale dynamically; and at the same time relieve pressure on your HR department.
- Access to cutting-edge software – When you partner with an accomplished back office services provider, you mostly get access to the best software for your domain. Also, the workforce that you get is already proficient in those software solutions, which means your tasks get done swiftly and accurately.