The business process outsourcing industry has evolved to establish itself as a more strategic partner to businesses. This growth has shifted organizations to focus towards providing simpler, yet high-end, service delivery models through virtual platforms that maintain, monitor and optimize performance. The need to transform business partnerships into more meaningful collaborations has triggered the shift from conventional BPO to cloud-based business solutions.
From platform as a service (PaaS), infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and software as a service (SaaS), the developments in cloud computing has proliferated resulting in complete outsourcing of business processes to form BPaaS (Business Process-as-a- Service).
BPaaS is an integrated approach taken towards delivering business processes through remote cloud-based models that are highly automated. The practice of offering 'as-a-service' has been through many stages of transformation and through each stage, the service deliveries have been refined to reduce the time and capital invested in deploying new business processes or streamline existing ones.
BPaaS has provided businesses the opportunity to leverage best-in-class technology with enhanced service delivery solutions.
BPaaS is taking over the outsourcing market by diversifying its service offerings and is swiftly adapting to the changing innovations in technology. Over the years, the thin line between BPO and BPaaS has slowly started diminishing as process outsourcing partners are stepping up their game to provide enhanced cloud-based solutions.
The shift from BPO to BPaaS:
Until a few years ago, the BPO industry was synonymous with call centers and outsourcing unit for administrative work. Globalization and the outburst of technology had its fair share in converting business operations to partially or fully automated processes; saving valuable time and reducing investment costs. Innovations in artificial intelligence, cognitive computing and prescriptive analytics provoked the need to provide a service-oriented platform that can track progress, improve productivity and strategize tasks to run businesses efficiently.
BPO vendors considered this an opportunity to gain insight into the life-cycle of a business process and enhance their service offerings. They proposed contemporary methods to approach business process outsourcing and proposed holistic outsourcing models and platforms. The emergence of cloud computing provided BPaaS vendors with the flexibility to customize applications, and deliver based on process needs and business functions. Software and other services were made available on demand; making them accessible to be bought through monthly or yearly subscriptions with no additional investments to maintain, update or support the business operation.
Why BPaaS is the smarter choice?
• BPaaS can be tailored to maintain consistent and distinct process workflow; combining the benefits of different cloud-based service platforms like IaaS, PaaS, SaaS and ITaaS.
• It can function as a centralized system across various business operations and can perform dynamically.
• It is scalable and is designed with the ability to resize in accordance with the changes in business functions.
• Business processes can be mapped and delivered without external support. It can maintain transparency in projecting and getting better visibility into the process function.
• Highly secure and comes with varied levels of security patches. Automated process approaches reduce the risk of human error.
• Systemized workflow needs less human interference, thus reducing the need for employing valuable human hours to perform tedious tasks.
• Real-time access to applications and data through cloud-based services.
Now is the right time to embrace this change:
The saturation of cloud computing is not happening anytime soon. This is one technology where new inventions and innovations are booming at an unprecedented rate. Many businesses have already started delivering business processes as a service, like HR (HR-as-a-service) and IT (IT-as-a-service). More such operations are expected to exploit this trend within the next couple of years. A report by Markets and Markets estimates that the market value for BPaaS is expected to grow from USD 1.62 Billion in 2015 to USD 4.71 Billion by 2020, at a CAGR of 23.7% from 2015 to 2020. There is no better time than now to explore and exploit the surge in cloud computing.
