Today, outsourcing business processes is a common practice among companies of all sizes. Gone are those days when only customer service was contracted out to call centers to get access to external teams of multilingual and experienced customer care executives, which work in rotational shifts to make sure no customer goes unattended. Businesses, these days, outsource other business operations as well, like marketing, payroll, administrative tasks, legal services, and IT to ensure timely high-quality outputs and cost-effectiveness. Hence, now, it is more important to increase data security and enhance flexibility and ease of access. This need has vouched for the development of cloud computing. Now, the question that arises is; what is cloud computing exactly? To be precise, ‘the cloud’ is any virtual location, from which data can be accessed without a physical network connection, and cloud computing is services like servers storage, software services, database, server development platforms, etc., provided remotely over the internet in a decentralized manner. Cloud providers are the companies that offer these cloud computing services to their customers and charge as per the usage and storage. Cloud is considered a cost-effective model, as it enables businesses to save up on developing infrastructure, and hiring and maintaining skilled in-house teams.
Outsourcing earlier used to be all manual processes, but after the cloud computing model got included in business processes, tasks got performed automatically over the virtual platform, known as the cloud. Though cloud computing services, these days, are preferred by businesses of all sizes, small organizations with limited resources benefit the most from these. Because of this innovation, small businesses can now get access to larger computing resources and high-performance infrastructure, which they couldn’t afford before. Besides, the rapid growth of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) start-ups, which use software to offer services, is greatly increasing the popularity of cloud-based services. These companies develop, host, and update products. SaaS companies have immediate access to an unrestricted global market and are capable of scaling without raising product delivery costs. Hence, multiple software vendors are now adopting the SaaS model.
7 Primary reasons to adopt cloud strategy:
- In the case of cloud services, computing services are delivered over the internet. Technically, the cloud makes software, database, storage, etc. over a server, which is handled through an internet connection. Besides, it allows the storage of massive data over the internet and keeps confidential business data safe. Hence, companies outsourcing their operations to a third-party firm that uses cloud technology get efficient services and enhanced flexibility.
- A cloud model makes sure the outsourcing company doesn’t need to invest huge amounts in developing infrastructure for business support. This feature delivers accurate and timely solutions while saving money. Also, a cloud model helps to save on huge data storage costs that data centers charge.
- Today, customers look for quick and accurate responses. Hence BPOs adopt this model to offer customers prompt responses. Also, the real-time updates of the business service can be monitored over the internet, with the help of the cloud model.
- With the cloud model, functions can be flawlessly managed through automation. As a result, the business functions get more agile and outputs are delivered much faster.
- When development operations are performed in-house, BPO companies need to regularly maintain the equipment and other resources, which incurs a substantial cost. But, in the case of cloud computing, all the business operations are performed over a cloud-based platform that is accessed through the internet. As the cloud-based model works on a pay-as-per-usage/storage system, the maintenance costs get considerably reduced.
- After building a cloud-based infrastructure, BPO companies can get free access to unused resources. As cloud services allow the free sharing of untouched resources, BPO companies do not face the trouble of installing new programs and configuring lengthy settings to ensure efficient services.
- Cloud computing offers businesses a virtual platform, on which employees can share files and documents. This ensures transparency and clear communication between the partners. Besides, the cloud server makes sure that the partners get access to all the updated versions of the uploaded documents.
Summary
Today, cloud computing integrated with BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) is gaining immense popularity as it ensures organizational growth and success by enhancing value chain engagement and increasing business process speed and efficiency.