Integreon

Aberdeen Group recently published Partnering for Performance: Knowledge Process Outsourcing. This report explains how companies have improved operations and profits by migrating high-end, knowledge intensive work to the right outsourcing provider. In this post, we summarize key Aberdeen findings and then share our perspective as an integrated KPO provider.

Integreon is making available a free copy of this report; click here if you would like to request a copy. To receive the report, you must complete the registration form with the required contact information, including an e-mail address with a business/corporate domain name, and agree to subscribe to the Integreon blog.

Report Summary

Aberdeen found that companies are outsourcing more complex and high-value processes. More specifically, the following areas are likely to see more outsourcing: market and industry analysis, competitive intelligence, consumer behavior analysis, and regulatory analysis.

The report cites IRI, a consumer data provider and analysis company, to illustrate how a “Best in Class” company can benefit by outsourcing. By outsourcing all processes that did not require routine interaction with its customers, IRI achieved the following benefits:

• Reduced cost by offshoring 35% of workforce
• Improved speed of capturing POS data by 33%
• Accuracy up to 99.6% (three point gain)
• Errors down 80%

More generally, Aberdeen found that “Best in Class” outsourcing consumers improve customer satisfaction by 18%, decrease time to market by 5%, and increase the number of projects meeting QC targets by 24%. Achieving these gains, however, is by no means automatic. Best in Class companies beat the average and lagging companies by a wide margin, as this table illustrates:

The report provides useful guidance on steps Best in Class companies take to achieve the biggest benefits from outsourcing. Companies must choose the right provider, define the work outsourced and monitor it regularly, and govern the relationship effectively. Also, they must work with a provider that can:

• Map processes effectively, pilot test them, then roll them out
• Communicate effectively with the company and address, in advance, how problems will be solved
• Measure and meet the SLAs customers set
• Offer a global delivery platform with on-demand service

Integreon’s Views

Integreon’s experience delivering high-end knowledge services for the last decade supports Aberdeen’s findings. We have always viewed outsourcing as more than just cost savings and have invested significantly in building domain expertise, creating a global delivery platform, fostering a culture of continuous improvement, re-engineering processes, and deploying technology aggressively (even to the extent that it cannibalizes some of our existing business and means additional investment in innovation to keep the business growing).

For each vertical market we serve, our Account, Implementation, and Program Management team, which is a group of domain experts who serve as consultants and relationship managers, work closely with companies to deliver more than just cost savings.  They map processes, establish communication plans, and ensure companies choose, capture, and then use  metrics.  We have also long understood the value of global delivery and now offer on-demand service from the US, UK, India, and the Philippines.

We have many examples of helping our customers define and improve service levels, expand coverage and the range of services for their users, and improve time to market with quick ramp ups.  Our belief is that to keep winning business, we have to be significantly better experts than our customers rather than just being a low cost provider.