Merry Christmas from Global Hotline

On behalf of the Global Hotline crew, we'd like to thank all our clients and friends in the industry for making the year busy, challenging, purposeful and worthwhile!

We are happy to serve you and we are looking forward to an exciting 2009 and beyond!

May the holiday season bring you more love, peace, challenges and success!

Cheers!

When the going gets tough, is the solution outsourcing?

Most outsourced service providers are in a quandary since the second quarter of this year, with the global economic downturn threatening the market for off- and on-shore outsourcing demand. The major players across many industries have either cut thousands of jobs or asked for government support.

Though at first look, a slowdown or recession in the US, which accounts for 75% of the Philippine BPO exports, may seem very negative for the health of the industry, the cloud is not without its silver lining. While the winding down of economic activity will negatively impact service providers who depend too much on US corporate expansionary, marketing or support activities; the cost pressures may also encourage new US companies to look at outsourcing for the first time.

The tough state of the economy has put even the biggest companies in dire straits. Small and medium size companies who struggle to stay afloat in this financial and economic melt-down may look to find outsourcing as the next alternative.

Outsourcing: Relationships

The onslaught of new client and enterprise relationship management tools is actually one way of looking at how the outsourcing industry sees itself.

It's A Marriage

Outsourcing is a relationship. The challenges and the effort are more similar to a joint venture than a simple fulfillment transaction. Outsourcing is not an 'external' service that a provider renders one-sided.
Oftentimes, providers overlook the changes that clients undergo. The bottomline is, it is not just managing the SLA (Service Level Agreement) but committing to working through the various business environment changes that the provider and the client go through at every phase of the outsourcing relationship.

I recall the TEC White Paper on Why and How Outsourcing Management and Governance is Critical to Outsourcing Success back in February of 2007. It made a simple illustration of the outsourcing relationship continuum:
How Deep is Your Love?

Cheesy. Well, when you come to think of it, for outsourcing to be successful and to be at the peak level, there has to be depth in the relationship. If you look at the continuum (see above), 'co-developed' and 'jointly-owned' are two operative words that top the description of the outsourcing partnership.
Based on experience, I can say that it's being able to see beyond the commercials and seeing the mutual value that each partner brings to the table, being able to discuss not just the wins but also the losses that go with ever-changing market environment and then finding ways to make it work.

As in any venture and relationship, the marketing aesthetics (process, price, place, promotion) count if you want to attract new business and eventually reel contracts in. However, what is equally (if not more) important is sustaining and growing the relationship to a level where rendering service is considered equal to loyalty and trust and mutual success is the bottomline.