The main board at almost half of Europe's top 10,000 firms are seriously thinking of outsourcing whole business processes, according to new research from HandySoft. This is a first step on the road to becoming what management consultants are calling ?virtual? organisations ? namely, companies that outsource all but their core business processes.
Some 15% of larger European organisations have actually implemented Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), but with 48% actively considering such strategic initiatives at board level, there is a clear implication that BPO will see sustained growth over the next few years. Sectors most interested in BPO are Utilities & Telecoms (19%) and Financial Services (18%), probably because competitive pressure is exerting the double challenge of reducing costs while maintaining ? or even improving ? customer service standards. BPO might typically cover processes such as:- customer service enquiry management; foreign exchange deal processing; software development; hardware and software upgrade installation; prospect database hosting and management; payroll and employee benefits management.
Contrary to received wisdom that continental European countries are less keen on outsourcing than the UK, France is found to lead the field in senior consideration, enthusiasm and implementation of BPO (20%), with the UK close behind (17%).