Looking For Outsourcing Providers? These Are The Best BPO Resources And Analysts To Guide Your Decision

Whether you are looking for a new doctor or a reliable plumber, references for an excellent provider who offers exceptional service means everything. It is no different when searching the field of business process outsourcing (BPO) services. 

There are many ways to find a provider, including directories or paid advertisements, but most of us want a reference from a user and/or an independent organization. There are dozens of associations, analysts and publications that can help a company come up with a list of providers to review or help narrow down for potential selection.

Analysts

First, you may want to look to those independent organizations that review outsourcing services on an ongoing basis. Some of the analyst firms that focus on BPO and offer great insight on what to look for in a provider, include:

• Frost & Sullivan
  Frost & Sullivan is a growth partnership company focused on helping our clients achieve transformational growth as they work through an economic environment dominated by accelerating change, increasing risk and the powerful disruptive impact of the conversion of new business models, disruptive technologies and mega trends on their industry.   
• Gartner
  Gartner, Inc. is the world's leading information technology research and advisory company. We deliver the technology-related insight necessary for our clients to make the right decisions, every day. From CIOs and senior IT leaders in corporations and government agencies, to business leaders in high-tech and telecom enterprises and professional services firms, to technology investors, we are the valuable partner to clients in approximately 10,000 distinct enterprises worldwide.
• IDC
  International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications and consumer technology markets. IDC helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community make fact-based decisions on technology purchases and business strategy.

Industry Associations

If you want to know what other people are saying in your field, you don’t need to necessarily be a member to get general access to association information. There are hundreds of business associations with varying coverage – everything from general business to sector-focused industry information as well as geographically local to global knowledge. Depending on your interest or business, these could get you started: 

Outsourcing

• IAOP
  IAOP is the association that brings together customers, providers, and advisors in a collaborative, knowledge-based environment that promotes professional and organizational development, recognition, certification and excellence to improve business service models and outcomes.
• PACE
  PACE is the Professional Association for Customer Engagement. PACE is the only non-profit trade organization dedicated exclusively to the advancement of companies that use a multi-channel approach to engaging their customers, both business to business and business to consumer. Our membership is made up of Fortune 500 companies, contact centers, BPO’S, economic development organizations and technology suppliers that enable companies to contact or enhance contact with their customers.

Industry focus

• If your company happens to focus on a certain industry, you may want to look for more targeted information from an industry organization such as HIMSS for healthcare. HIMSS leads efforts to optimize health engagements and care outcomes using information technology.

Publications

If you would like to read all about outsourcing or BPO before you decide to invest, there are many reputable publications in the market to help you with your research:  

• Nearshore Americas
  Nearshore Americas develops articles and reports geared toward ‘buy-side’ decision makers. It considers deeply the human element that underlays the ‘transactional’ nature of global commerce. It is often said that outsourcing is a ‘people business’ and our editorial team strives to get into the tangible context of third-party sourcing while aggressively avoiding the dry, impersonal ‘analysis’ which distances the business reader from the down and dirty realities of trying to successfully get what you’re actually paying for.
• InformationWeek
  InformationWeek is the world's most trusted online community for business technology professionals. This is where senior-level IT buyers and decision-makers come to learn about and share their experiences with products, technologies and technology trends
• SSON
  The Shared Services & Outsourcing Network (SSON) is the largest and most established community of shared services and outsourcing professionals in the world, with over 100,000 members. Established in 1999, SSON recognized the revolution in support services as it was happening, and realized that a forum was needed through which practitioners could connect with each other on a regional and global basis.

My experience has shown that a successful outsourcing partnership is one in which the provider serves as a trusted consultant.  Indeed, as a trusted partner, customer relationship management (CRM) plays a vital role in managing and analyzing customer interactions and data throughout the customer lifecycle. Just last month, CGS was noted as a “Major Provider” in business process outsourcing (BPO) in the Gartner CRM Vendor Guide, 2016, which aims to assist those tasked with selecting CRM technology identify vendors in multiple categories of CRM, including BPO. And, CGS was also named as a leading Midsize Provider in the Gartner report, “Competitive Landscape: Building Differentiated Customer Management BPO Services.”

Also, recently CGS was acknowledged for outsourcing services by the IAOP, receiving the 2016 Global Outsourcing 100® (GO100) award. The GO100 features the world’s best outsourcing service providers and is recognized as “the definitive guide to help companies research and compare service providers with whom they are considering relationships.”

Knowing that IAOP chose us as a “Top100” and Gartner identified CGS as a “Major Provider” in CRM, was rewarding, but at the end of the day our customers’ feedback and ongoing relationship are what makes us successful.

Get started

Customer service is not a one-time project or end goal. It is an ongoing commitment to your valued customers – whether that customer is a person or a business. Companies that are researching or meeting with prospective providers should remember that this is not like winning a prize, you are looking to build a long-term relationship. Researching and choosing wisely will be its own reward.