Author: Joe Iafigliola

Outsourcing has received a negative reputation over the past few decades as it has become associated with sending jobs overseas, especially during the U.S. recession.  However, the practice doesn’t always mean less jobs for people in a company’s home country – using an outside accounting firm or attorney that is not an actual employee of your company are also examples of outsourcing.

In the article titled ‘Why Outsourcing is Best for Workplace Productivity‘, Thrive Global looks at how outsourcing is used to increase productivity of internal staff.

Outsourcing can help to increase productivity both directly and indirectly by allowing your employees to focus on what they do best.  When employees are able to focus on their strengths, it leads to higher efficiency for the company and higher job satisfaction overall.  Outsourcing tasks that are tedious and time consuming allows employees to focus on strategic initiatives that require tacit knowledge over implicit knowledge.

The perks of outsourcing also include the ability for a company to reduce risk and liabilities that lie within non-core tasks.  Outsourcing companies generally have a ‘been there, done that’ approach as they are experts in the field.

Overall, outsourcing enables organizations to achieve business objectives, add value and mitigate risks by delegating tasks and freeing up time for internal employees.  Understanding what functions are best kept in-house and which can be handled by an outsourcing firm are essential to success.  The benefits associated with wise outsourcing can be plentiful when embraced properly.

At Process-Smart, we can help to tailor your experience so that we best fit the needs of your company.  We will discuss current strengths and weaknesses and provide a package that will allow you to maximize your staff and daily tasks.  Contact us today regarding a pilot program to capitalize on office productivity.

Outsourcing is the right decision for many businesses, especially if you are considering it as an alternative for tasks that are either very specific or too difficult for your existing staff.

In a blog post titled 5 Benefits of Outsourcing Staff, Solvere One Blog breaks down why outsourcing could greatly help your business. 

Are you considering outsourcing your staff?  Consider the below advantages:

• Cut Cost of Operations – outsourcing can allow you to save money while gaining productivity
• Attain Flexibility with your Staff – outsourcing offers the benefit of staff that is available as much or as little as you need them, at all hours
• Keep Internal Staff Happy – outsourcing staff allows you the ability to give employees a clearer focus on their tasks, resulting in higher productivity
• Focus on your Business Growth – outsourcing staff is able to handle complex tasks that employees may not have the skills to handle, leaving employees available to focus on tasks that develop growth.
• Access a Higher Level of Skill – outsourcing staff enables access to a higher level of skill while saving money, as they are often experts in their field.

Your employees are your most important asset, so it’s essential to ensure they are focused on the functions that make your business flourish.  By outsourcing certain aspects of your business, you can create an environment primed for growth and success.  At Process-Smart, we can help you achieve the perfect balance.  Contact us today to discuss a pilot program tailored exactly to your business needs.

America’s worker shortage is far from over – with over 11 million jobs to fill and not enough workers to do so, companies must continue to find creative ways to operate while understaffed.

Despite the high level of available positions, job openings have fallen in several industries.  Professional and business services count the most available job openings, along with education, transportation, and warehousing. 

Meanwhile, the number of hires and quits remains relatively unchanged – numbers support that when workers quit, they aren’t leaving the work force, but are taking other jobs.  As inflation continues to persist, better pay has been a big motivator for Americans choosing to switch jobs.

Please read No End to the Worker Shortage, published by CNN Business for more facts regarding the labor shortage.

At Process-Smart, we can help to combat the effects of the labor shortage by outsourcing semi-repetitive, daily tasks to our team, allowing your employees to focus on higher value activities.  We are excited to offer a free pilot program to help you experience the advantages of outsourcing with us.  Please contact us at the below email and phone number to discuss a solution tailored to your business.

Outsourcing is the business practice of contracting with an outside party to take care of certain tasks instead of hiring new employees or assigning those tasks to existing staff.  It allows for businesses to handle the most important functions of their day-to-day processes while streamlining operations and lowering costs.  

Outsourcing can help your business to accomplish the following: 

• Focus on core tasks
• Lower costs
• Promote growth
• Maintain operational control
• Offer staffing flexibility
• Provide continuity and risk management
• Develop internal staff

To dive deeper into the advantages of each of the above topics, check out the full article Top Outsourcing Advantages published by The Balance Small Business.

At Process-Smart, we believe that businesses of every size can use outsourcing to grow and expand while controlling operational costs and driving efficiency.  We are excited to offer a free pilot program to help you experience the advantages of outsourcing with us.  Please contact us at the below email and phone number to discuss a solution tailored to your business.

Each day, companies of every size, in every industry and across almost every state are facing unprecedented challenges hiring workers to fill open jobs.  As of June 2022, data shows there are 11.4 million job openings across the country, but only 6 million unemployed workers.  

How did this happen?  At the height of the pandemic, 120,000 businesses temporarily closed, causing unemployment numbers to skyrocket to more than 30 million.  However, in 2021 employers added an unprecedented 3.8 million jobs – but Americans have continued to leave the labor force since the start of the pandemic.

Right now, the labor force participation is at 62.3%, down from 63.3% in 2020.  When the U.S. Chamber surveyed unemployed workers who lost their job during the pandemic, factors that kept them from returning to the work force including caring for children or other family members, no opportunities within his or her given industry, and lingering concern about COVID-19.

Other factors contributing to the labor shortage are as follows:

• Increase in Savings – enhanced employment benefits, stimulus checks and not being able to go out and spend money during the pandemic allowed many Americans to build up savings accounts since early 2020.
• Early Retirement – as of October 2021, the pandemic drove more than 3 million Americans into early retirement.
• Lack of Access to Childcare – access to high quality, affordable child care was an issue even before the pandemic.  The child care industry lost 370,600 jobs in 2020, and employment still remains at 10% below pre-pandemic levels, adding to the problem.
• New Business Starts – many employees chose not to return to their previous jobs in order to start their own businesses.  Nearly 10 million new business applications have been filed in the past two years.

(Read the full article published by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce titled Understanding American’s Labor Shortage here.)

At Process-Smart, our employee-based offshore teams strive to deliver excellent results.  Allow us to provide the solutions to fill gaps in your daily operations by providing services such as accounts payable, payroll, text customer support, quality assurance and auditing, digital marketing, and general back office services and support.  Please reach out to us by phone or email to discuss a free pilot to help you recognize the benefits of partnering with us.

More and more, businesses are choosing offshoring as a way to reduce costs and increase growth.  While there are both pros and cons to offshoring, many are finding that the benefits outweigh the disadvantages.

Offshoring can allow your business to focus on core initiatives.  For example, when Whatsapp launched in 2009, the company choose to offshore it’s software development department to Eastern Europe.  In turn their American-based teams were able to focus on customer-oriented tasks, allowing for a greater degree of in-house specialization.

In the article titled Benefits of Offshoring & Guide to Offshoring Strategy published by wise.com, outlined are many of the advantages (and disadvantages) that companies must take into account when determining if offshoring is the right move.

At Process-Smart we can help you build an offshoring strategy that works for your company.  Please reach out to us by phone or email to discuss a free pilot to help you recognize the benefits of partnering with us.

Many large U.S. corporations wouldn’t be where they are today without the help of outsourcing companies in many countries throughout the world.  Now, more than ever, companies are realizing the advantages of delegating parts of their operations to competent and dedicated offshore partners.

Companies that have chosen to utilize Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) are benefiting not only from outsourcing as a cost-effective solution but also to utilize top talent across the globe.  Gone are the days of limited practices such as call centers, customer service and manufacturing roles; many BPO firms handle skilled roles such as engineering, information technology, telehealthcare, and human resources.

According to Outsource Accelerator, here are some of the largest U.S. companies that rely on outsourcing to run their daily business: 

• Google – outsources various roles ranging from IT service providers, app and software development teams, to analytical consultants.
• Facebook – outsources customer support providers, IT technicians, and content moderators.
• UnitedHealth Group – outsources their full global solutions team that includes consulting, customer service, project management, health care operations, engineering, and analytics.
• Wells Fargo – outsources departments such as fraud detection, customer service, payroll analytics, process engineering, and more.
• Nike – outsources the manufacturing of footwear, apparel and equipment
• Hewlett-Packard – outsourcing all customer support and IT services for both Hewlett-Packard and HP brands.
• IBM – utilizing outsourcing for their main office, which includes staff for IT functions including network management for both internal and staff infrastructures.
• American Express – outsources many back-office operations such as customer support, IT support an collections services.
• The Coca-Cola Company – outsourcing manufacturing, sales, and distribution centers.
• Linked-In – outsources back-office support such as customer service.

The most common services outsourced to BPO firms are customer support, marketing, IT and human resources.  By utilizing offshore firms to handle these processes, employees are free from repetitive tasks that take time away from higher valued activities.

At Process-Smart we can help you achieve operational efficiency by providing a cost-effective business solution.  We would love to offer a free pilot to help you recognize the benefits of partnering with Process-Smart; please give us a call or send an email to further discuss.

As your business grows, finding the ideal synchrony between in-house employees and outsourced resources can be of great benefit to your long-term success.

An article titled Six Reasons Outsourcing Could Benefit Your Business written by Sam Darwish of the Forbes Technology Council explains why outsourcing can help your business maintain steady growth and production to match.

Why do companies choose to outsource?  Here are some of the main reasons to look outside of your company to address some staffing needs:

• Outsourcing allows you to grow more rapidly without the expense of hiring and supporting additional full-time employees.  Outsourcing is an affordable way to keep up with company growth while keeping your in-house staff focused on internal tasks.
• Experienced outsourcing teams will allow you to scale your needs based on seasonal business, etc.  This flexibility allows companies to forego the financial commitment of hiring in-house staff.
• Outsourcing agencies can offer availability to top talent that may otherwise be unavailable.
• Outsourcing allows your internal employees to focus on important, company-oriented tasks helping your business to run efficiently.
• Offering consistency in the form of a professional support staff available to your customers will help increase brand loyalty.
• Fulfill compliance requirements by hiring an outsourcing firm that already meets all strict guidelines and regulations within your industry.

At Process-Smart we believe that by outsourcing semi-repetitive tasks, your employees are able to focus on important aspects of your business, allowing for operational efficiency throughout your company.  We would love to offer a free pilot to help you recognize the benefits of partnering with Process-Smart; please give us a call or send an email to further discuss.

Robotic Process Automation, or RPA, has quickly become a necessity for companies looking to eliminate repetitive tasks from their staff by way of artificial intelligence and task optimization.  What was once considered ‘paperwork’ can now be organized digitally, providing uniform visibility to various teams throughout an office.

An article published by Venture Beat titled Robotic Process Automation in 2022 outlines how the RPA marketplace will shift and adapt in 2022.

Here are 10 main points to consider:

• Better Integration, with a focus on strengthening the connections between current systems within a company
• Lower code, with tools that come close to programming themselves through ‘process discovery’
• Higher Code, meaning that while simpler tasks are automated, programmers will be able to use the RPA framework as a base for more complex integrations
• More AI is available to tackle tasks like optical character recognition, machine learning and machine vision
• Divergence in recognition of companies that rely on AI and those that do not
• Smarter level of intelligence within the algorithms as they continue to learn
• Blockchain integration to bring assurance and order to workflows
• Sustainability in the form of good automation that saves time and energy
• Governance will become increasingly important as companies determine who is authorized to see and control each step of an automated process
• Merging of AI tools as they become more adept at process discovery and continue to add new intelligent options.

RPA is a driving force in the optimization of everyday tasks within a business.  At Process-Smart we strive to ensure that our employee-based offshore teams build RPA tools that fit seamlessly into your operations.  Please email me or give me a call, we’d be happy to discuss a risk-free pilot.

As the business process outsourcing industry continues to grow and evolve in 2022, more businesses than ever are choosing to outsource tasks and services.  In order to optimize resources, productivity and efficiency, it is essential that business owners are knowledgeable about the latest outsourcing trends.

An article published for Time Doctor titled 13 Interesting Outsourcing Trends from 2021 to Watch in 2022 details developments within the industry to make note of throughout the upcoming year. 

Below are some of the main points of focus where BPO can provide benefits:

• Emphasis on high-quality services to customers, especially in areas of software development, bookkeeping, recruitment, payroll management, and more
• Ensuring business continuity by developing a strategic partnership with one company instead of multiple
• Flexibility and adaptability within the wake of COVID-related or other changes
• Hiring talent that is difficult to find in the U.S., especially in relation to new technology
• Keeping abreast of the use of modern technology, specifically RPA, cloud computing, and AI
• Outsourcing allows small businesses and startups to access high-level talent and tools at economical prices
• Cost reduction continues to be a driving factor in choosing an outsourcing
• Growing demand for outsourcing companies to meet transparent communication and workflow demands 

BPO is one of the top most outsourced tasks in 2021, and this trend has continued into 2022.  At Process-Smart we strive to ensure that our employee based offshore teams deliver excellent results.  Please email me or give me a call, we’d love to demonstrate our value with a risk-free pilot.