Call Recording Featured Article

Business process outsourcing (BPO) is the kind of outsourcing where business operations and functions are sent out to a third-party service provider. It is divided between back office outsourcing, such as accounting, and front office outsourcing, which includes contact centers.

BPO was traditionally associated with private businesses, but now it is being used, too, with the public sector. So it could include such public sector entities as the military, police forces, schools, transportation, revenue collection, or social service programs. It may be used in such functions as taxes, pensions, asset registration, purchasing, e-governance and social service payments.

BPO is supposed to improve flexibility and efficiency for organizations. Also, large enterprises and government organizations will both benefit from BPO solutions, such as call recording and speech analytics, especially with contact centers.

When BPO is combined with IT outsourcing, TechNavio has predicted the worldwide public sector outsourcing market will increase at a compound annual grow rate of 6.90 percent between 2013 and 2018. So it is clearly important. “ITO and BPO services are required in the Government sector to manage IT systems and improve business-related processes and methodologies,” according to a statement explaining the report from TechNavio, "Global Public Sector Outsourcing Market 2014-2018."

The report identifies several key vendors in the market, such as: CSC, HP, IBM, TCS and Wipro. Other vendors highlighted in the report are: Accenture, CGI Group, Capgemini, Dell, Fujitsu (News - Alert), Harris, Northrop Grumman, Serco Group, Unisys and Xerox.

Looking ahead, such outsourcing also requires risk management to reduce the potential for communications and privacy disruptions, according to web reports. Among the locations where third-party BPO may see the most growth are: China, India, The Philippines, South Africa and Eastern Europe.

One of the key players in BPO, IBM (News - Alert), reports that, “Government agencies are under pressure to provide the level of services their citizens expect while dealing with budget cuts and fewer resources. At the same time, governments have been rethinking the ways they serve their citizens with models that make better use of technology, data and civic collaboration. Shared services and business process outsourcing models are ways to manage costs and serve citizens through efficient and flexible channels.”