Legal Process Outsourcing is the Future of KPO

Legal Process Outsourcing is the next wave of KPO given the Philippines' vast English speaking talent pool of legal professionals. Two of the main areas of concern for outsourcing 'virgins' are confidentiality and data security.

Confidentiality and data security are apparently the key issues which concern the legal process outsourcing (LPO) market. The market will need staunch measures to ensure data security but prior to that their biggest challenge is winning clients' confidence.

Tom Berenguer, Business Development Manager at Global Hotline Philippines states that, "the BPO industry has been trying their best to ensure that they do not face any data security and confidentiality issues by complying with international security standards like ISO and BS7799. Our infrastructure is designed for very tight security at all costs." Being a lawyer by profession, Berenguer adds, "the LPO market is predicted to grow in the years to come, a definite agenda is to enact a laws that deal with such data security and confidentiality matters. Legal software and technology cannot be the only answer, giving way for focus on people and process development as well."

"The Philippines is considered a ripe market for small and medium size law firms and legal departments of big companies willing to outsource coding, research and other legal back office jobs offshore. The Philippines' legal system is patterned after the US legal system which makes the process easier to plan, implement, measure and manage overall. Global Hotline is launching its very own software for litigation support during the first quarter. We consider this a major achievement for the company and we're looking forward to its full roll out by the second quarter of 2009. This goes hand in hand with our ISO certification process."

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.

Welcome to Global Hotline's Official Blogsite

We look forward to reading your views about outsourcing.

This is where we hope to bring out some of the hottest topics in the industry and the current market trends. There are a lot of challenges facing the industry right now and I hope this channel will become for us a means to look at the future of outsourcing--some perspectives on the role it plays in, and the impact it has on the global economy.

For starters, here is a very informative report from Deloitte Consulting.

Happy blogging!