High performance in the retail industry through outsourcing

It is obviously the dramatic cost savings and the enhanced focus on core competencies facilitated by the BPO companies that attract the consumer goods and retail companies towards it. However any serious concerns related to outsourcing should address common concerns like the common belief that outsourcing entails a loss of in-house expertise. The argument goes that since the process is outsourced to an external service provider, there will be a reduction in process expertise and capability as a result.

 However companies with many years of experience in outsourcing have strongly voted against the belief by proving that gains rather than loses in functional expertise leading to higher business performance has been seen. Most of the retail companies operate in a competitive market where fluctuations are sudden, systems are complex, thin margins and handiness is mandatory. In such a scenario only a rare enterprise can stand against the tide and afford any loss even if it is only for a brief period. Hence companies prefer outsourcing to promote process excellence as it reduces costs.

Many companies who have partnered with the BPO companies have admitted that they have noticed significant levels of expertise equal to or often greater than those enjoyed prior to outsourcing. The impact of outsourcing on innovation, key skills, and access to cutting edge technology and tools for managing a process has been prominent and profitable. Many surveys conducted on this subject matter have produced results favorable to the BPO service providers. The bottom line is that most of the companies achieve high performance through effective outsourcing partnerships.

How to know the data confidentiality at outsourcing centers?

In the financial service industry many companies are skeptical about the security of their data while outsourcing. The uncertainty cannot be belittled since data confidentiality and security is of prime importance particularly for regulated entities in the financial service sector. Hence it becomes mandatory for the buyers of outsourcing services to closely examine the physical and information technology security, as well as data confidentiality processes maintained by the BPO companies.

The basic thing that comply the security and safety is infrastructure. Companies should look for secure and controlled data center environment with fire suppression, emergency power supply, cooling and building security. Also they need to know what all procedures need to be undergone by the personnel to enter the data centers. The place needs to have video surveillance that will be properly monitored. Moreover there should be no rights to privacy policy in place for processing sites and data centers.

Coming to the data security within the process, the companies should make sure that only authorized users have access to the data. Moreover the BPO Company should necessarily be certified and independently audited. The authenticity of the data confidentiality implied by the outsourcing service provider can be checked by knowing the measures used to secure data transfers between all related parties and also the presence of a secure processing environment.