What’s Lookin’ Good? The Future of the BPO Industry

Today, the Business Process Outsourcing landscape is thriving with plenty of opportunities from the healthcare, IT, finance, and e-commerce industries. Services of BPOs are currently in demand from these industries for well-known reasons such as; increased productivity, efficiency, improvements in customer experience, and regaining more focus on core business functions while reducing costs. As long as non-core business processes exist, there will be an opportunity for BPOs to develop and tailor their services to impending consumer demands. Outsourcing services for insurance and legal matters are also becoming in demand.

However, complacency can be a business’ cunning enemy that can hinder innovation and from being one step ahead of the game. While business is smooth sailing, it’s better to keep an open mind especially about growth. What other opportunities lie ahead? What can be improved and incorporated into existing strategies? Where else can we expand our horizon and offer our services? How will you be different from the rest 1-3 years from now? These are just a few motivating questions that can keep the ball rolling in order to successfully adapt in this ever evolving, disruptive industry. 

Due to unforeseen circumstances, predicting the climate of the BPO industry can be tricky and challenging. But based on current trends and observations here are a few things you can expect that may give your BPO business a boost and an edge. 

What to look out for?

1. New Markets and Geographies

BPO businesses are looking at Southeast Asia and Latin America to hire new talents. Many advantages make these regions attractive such as the time-zone advantages, language skills, cost-effective labor and operations set-up, government support, and local domestic growth. Finally, the nearshore and offshore outsourcing industries are expanding significantly in these areas, enabling businesses to reach new markets and broaden their global footprint.

2. Start-ups and Small Businesses

Aside from privacy, meeting rooms also help emanate a more professional atmosphere among team members or clients visiting. Meeting rooms are important in coworking environments because they offer a private setting for members to interact, exchange ideas, hold presentations, do workshops, and other events.

3. Social and Purpose Driven Outsourcing

Social and purpose-driven outsourcing integrates the advantages of outsourcing with the values of sustainability and social responsibility. The aim of social and purpose-driven outsourcing is to deliver high-quality business process outsourcing services while also achieving positive social and environmental results. For instance, a company may decide to outsource to a region with a high unemployment rate or invest in environmentally sustainable practices in their outsourcing operations.

4. Increased Digitalization

Technology is indeed the future and we’re starting to live in it. Cloud-computing, automation, and AI technology are continuously being explored and tinkered by tech experts so they can be offered to use by BPOs for further scalability, flexibility, accuracy, and efficiency. Whether it’s for your own operations or it’s up to be sold as a service, deciding the tech that will be acquired is highly dependent on the goals you want to achieve which can range from targeting a higher competency to an optimized workforce. 

5. A Growth Rate of 9.1% from 2022 to 2030

The BPO market is anticipated to continue expanding over the next ten years, reaching $525.2 billion by 2030. Nearshore and offshore services, specialization, serialization, and use of emerging technologies accounts for this steady growth. Other factors influencing this growth include reduced operating costs, focus on core competencies, and the need for agility and improved efficiency. The market’s expansion could be hampered by worries about security and intellectual property rights.

Looking ahead, the future of the BPO industry seems to be promising. However, there are also challenges that the industry will need to address, including rising labor costs, and competition from emerging outsourcing destinations. To go beyond traditional outsourcing, the industry will need to focus on innovation and automation to stay competitive and offer value-added services. If you’re looking for a BPO that will hear out the most important things for your business, you can start right here.