The Necessary Evolution of BPS/BPO

Business process services (aka business process outsourcing) is at a crossroads.  In one direction, the focus is on doing traditional BPS/BPO better –– delivering higher quality and better efficiency.

In another direction, the processes and services of BPS are being redefined –– shifting away from what are increasingly seen as commodity-type services (call centers, print and imaging, document processing) toward finely tuned, direct and personalized digital interactions focused on solving problems, meeting real needs, and delivering real value.

Providers who recognize this are shaping an evolution in BPS across a spectrum of industries in the U.S. and around the world. Conduent cemented its position as a Leader in BPO in a recent 2018 report from the Everest Group.

Traditional BPO services will maintain importance, especially with an aging population where customer service centers and paper-based transactions are more familiar. But a turn toward all-digital, easily accessible, immediately delivered services and information is well under way.

Visionary BPS providers will lead the way of the future. Those who excel at innovating digital engagement pathways and adeptly tailoring services for different populations will be at the forefront in years to come.

It’s about value.

On the new road ahead in BPS, the evolutionary road, processes and services to support a digitally-prone population will move farther and farther away from call centers and paper, and more and more to personalized digital interactions driven by real customer needs.

Today’s leading BPS providers are turning traditional models on their heads, prioritizing customer needs and value as the starting point to best serve their clients.  They’re taking a forward-thinking approach creating innovative personalized digital and automated interactive technologies that can address and helping solve real problems and achieve positive outcomes that have real value in the world.

Getting real.

With commodity-type/FTE approaches being replaced with value and outcome-based approaches, BPS/BPO providers will play a more integral role in helping their clients positively impact real-world issues.

For example in healthcare, the opioid abuse epidemic has engulfed the industry and the country. Providers at the leading edge of healthcare BPS haven’t been viewing this epidemic as a separate or disconnected issue from what they offer (as they might if they were just focused how many FTEs would be needed to staff a call center or process related claims forms).  They’re asking “How can we help solve this problem and what’s the best way to help our clients manage it and ultimately bring engagement and resolution?”

At Conduent, we’re applying analytics in combination with designing intervention programs and tailored communications to help our healthcare clients heighten awareness for providers, patients and the public. This has impacted addiction rates, lowered claims costs and had positive socio-economic benefits.

For the insurance industry, we’re anticipating how the electric self-driven car will be a big disrupter.  Insurers have traditionally insured people, not cars  –– so what happens when people no longer drive their cars, but their cars drive them?  Conduent is helping its insurance company clients position, navigate and plan for real circumstances like this in the future.

Customer-driven.

Conduent’s mission as the world’s largest business process services company is to modernize the constituent experience by making every interaction digital, personalized and secure.

The future of BPS/BPO must address not only client savings achievable through provider-delivered economies of scale, best practices and resources for handling administrative tasks, but more so, the underlying issues that drive customer needs, the digital ecosystem we increasingly live in, and the universally felt or systemic issues that impact customers’ day-to-day experience.