A company’s decision makers and stakeholders have a duty to keep abreast of innovations and potential new resources to boost the bottom line. Although business process outsourcing has been around for many years, its latest iterations speak more to the pain points facing today’s companies – tremendous overhead due to rising real estate prices and the constant need for recruiting and training a workforce that seems to be always in flux.
Over the years, BPO has become a staple in the business landscape, enabling companies to offload secondary administrative responsibilities so they can focus on their core offerings, as well as lower the costs of overhead. While many companies have used outsourcing for simple tech support or call center assistance, the world of BPO services has significantly expanded since it first began. Today’s BPO extends across several specialized industries, providing increasingly advanced and complex operational support.
Companies are using BPO for both general back-office support and highly niche operational assistance. As a result, BPO has become a vital player in a variety of key industries, making it a critical tool for modern businesses looking to compete in their fields. From well-established sectors like finance, healthcare and insurance to emerging tech fields, industries across the board are embracing BPO support to revolutionize their operations.
How BPO Supports Key Industries
There are certain back-office tasks that are critical to any business, such as customer service, accounting, HR and data entry. Many companies can enjoy the benefits of outsourcing.
However, these tasks can look a bit different from industry to industry. For example, retail companies will need vastly different customer service support than insurance providers. Additionally, there are several industry-specific, back-office outsourcing tasks that can benefit from BPO assistance. BPO providers are responding to these unique needs by flexing their resources, systems, and expertise to support key industries in different ways.
Financial, Insurance & Healthcare
Finance, insurance, and healthcare companies are all known for having complex regulatory, bureaucratic and administrative systems. BPO providers manage these processes and provide end-to-end, streamlined support, all while ensuring ultimate data protection and privacy for sensitive financial and health information, plus compliance to ever-changing government regulations. Some industries benefitting from this are:
- Financial Services: Banking and financial institutions can contract BPO providers to handle secure data processing and ensure that all databases are private, up to date, and available for analysis. They can also offer key compliance support, front-facing customer service assistance, and data analysis to support financial innovation.
- Insurance: BPO providers that work in the insurance industry have an in-depth understanding of the claims process. They have advanced systems for servicing policies, offering underwriting assistance, and processing claims and payouts.
- Healthcare: BPO providers offer critical support within the complex ecosystem of healthcare and health insurance. Healthcare BPO can provide specialized support for medical coding, medical billing, and claims assistance, while also handling patient outreach, appointment scheduling, and telehealth platform management.
Retail, Telecommunications & Entertainment
BPO has also taken on a significant role in the industries that support our day-to-day lives, such as entertainment, retail, and telecommunications. By offering logistical support and customer assistance, BPO providers ensure that companies in these sectors can quickly resolve issues and keep customers satisfaction at a high level across industries such as:
- Retail: Call center customer service support is one of the main ways that BPO teams serve retail clients. However, they also offer behind-the-scenes logistical support for order management, inventory tracking, and even facilities management to support individual storefronts and retail locations.
- Telecom: The telecommunications industry relies heavily on helpdesks and tech support, so many companies use BPO to ensure that their clients can have access to on-demand, 24/7 troubleshooting and account support. BPO providers can also help with other tasks like customer onboarding and billing.
- Entertainment: Digital entertainment has become central to society, so production studios, social sites, and streaming companies have turned to outsourcing to ensure a consistent experience for their consumers. BPO companies can offer services like content moderation, streaming support, and content localization to help their clients scale effectively.
Real Estate, Technology & Logistics
BPO services can help streamline logistical and administrative tasks in a variety of additional fields. Companies that process a large amount of data rely on BPO support to ensure that their operations run smoothly. Here are a few examples of how BPO can apply in real estate, tech, and logistics:
- Real Estate: Working in real estate involves constant lead nurturing, follow-up, and document management. BPO companies provide virtual assistant services, lead generation and sales help, and document processing to keep contracts, mortgages, and other key information in order.
- Technology: Companies in the tech field need a high level of helpdesk support to ensure that customers have a positive experience with their products. Tech companies can also contract BPO support for things like app testing, high-level support for SaaS clients, and overall performance measurement.
- Logistics: The logistics field is all about keeping track of information and ensuring that products and information all follow the correct workflows. BPOs can assist by handling freight billing, shipment tracking, warehouse coordination, and other logistical services.
Niche and Emerging BPO Applications
The BPO field works in response to business needs, so providers are constantly evolving alongside their clients. In addition to some of the more traditional BPO services in more established sectors, outsourcing companies are also exploring new avenues where they can apply their services. Here are just a few examples of niche applications that are starting to rely more on outsourced support.
Automotive, Energy & Utilities
The automotive and energy fields rely heavily on hands-on production and repair, so they may not seem like an immediate fit for outsourcing. However, BPO providers are building out systems to boost operational efficiency in these fields, including both back office and field work.
- Automotive: Automotive BPO services can assist with high-level tasks like customer relationship management, along with more basic administrative duties such as processing warranty information. They can also conduct helpful data analysis to help manufacturers and retailers enhance their market strategies.
- Energy & Utilities: The energy and utilities sector can use outsourcing services to get hands-on support during high-demand periods. BPO teams can offer standard meter reading services and customer care, along with outage management assistance during storms, when utility companies experience a sudden surge of customer inquiries.
Travel & Hospitality
While travel and hospitality aren’t new industries, they are an emerging niche in the world of outsourcing. As hotels and booking companies expand, they have begun looking for more large-scale assistance for their administrative systems. BPO call centers can provide scalable assistance for handling reservations, loyalty program infrastructure and payment processing services.
Additionally, nearshore outsourcing offers cultural and language advantages, enabling companies to secure multilingual customer service for an international audience, ensuring that customers from different geographical areas can still get travel and booking support in their native languages.
Start Streamlining Your Business Operations with BPO Services Today
Business process outsourcing services have evolved significantly over the past several decades, expanding into new industries and taking on more advanced, niche services. Alongside basic customer service outsourcing and call center support, BPO providers are honing in on specific administrative functions in insurance, finance, tech, and beyond. With so many businesses across domains now utilizing outsourcing to streamline their operations, BPO has become an essential tool for remaining competitive and powering growth. By adopting BPO in your field, you can fully streamline your operations, from general back-office support to more complex, industry-specific functions, enabling you to scale rapidly without impacting your bottom line.
No one understands the impact of outsourcing more than the ConfieBPO team. By offering high-level business outsourcing services to a wide range of specialized industries, ConfieBPO is making it easier than ever to optimize your operations. Learn how you can leverage outsourcing in your industry today by calling 800-684-2276 or simply filling out our online form.
FAQs
Want to learn more about the impact of BPO across industries and how BPO services work? Explore the answers to these frequently asked questions.
What Types of Services Can be Outsourced Through BPO?
Business process outsourcing encompasses a vast range of business process management tasks and services, from customer service and data entry to claims management to accounting. Companies can use BPO for one specific business function or outsource a majority of their back-office operations to their BPO partner.
As more businesses look for ways to streamline their operations, BPO organizations are also offering more specialized, industry-specific services alongside general administrative support. Companies in finance, healthcare, real estate, entertainment, hospitality, logistics, retail, and more are now using BPO to support their key business functions.
Which Industry Uses BPO the Most?
The information technology and telecommunications sector uses BPO the most out of all industries, as it makes up the largest portion of the business process outsourcing market. The banking and financial services field follows close behind as the second-most popular industry for BPO. Manufacturing, retail, and healthcare also take up major shares of the BPO market, showcasing the broad applications of BPO in the modern business world.
Is BPO Secure for Industries with Sensitive Data like Healthcare and Finance?
The right BPO providers have highly secure systems designed to keep data safe, making outsourcing a viable option for companies that handle sensitive information, including financial services providers and healthcare institutions. Trusted, established providers like ConfieBPO invest in cybersecurity tools, thorough compliance training, and secure data privacy protocols to ensure that they can protect client details. However, not all outsourcing companies are equipped with these tools, so it’s important to carefully vet potential BPO companies to confirm they have the right data security systems to protect your company’s data.
How Does BPO Reduce Operational Costs?
Business process outsourcing reduces operational costs by transferring tedious manual tasks to third-party companies that specialize in those services. These providers have streamlined systems in place designed to complete key back-office and administrative tasks at scale, allowing them to provide a high level of service at competitive rates.
